Phillip Swann is president and publisher of TVPredictions.com. He has been quoted in dozens of publications and broadcast outlets, including CNN, Fox News, Inside Edition, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Financial Times, The Associated Press and The Hollywood Reporter. He can be reached at swann@tvpredictions.com or at 703-505-3064.
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5. Consumers Will
Continue to Ignore 3D TV
The studios and TV makers will make another attempt to cram 3D TV down our throats, but Americans ignored it in 2011 and they will again next year. The Hollywood and tech elite don't seem to understand that watching 3D at home is an intrusive, uncomfortable experience. It doesn't add to your enjoyment; it interrupts it. Television is supposed to help you relax, but 3D TV actually raises your energy level -- and not in a good way.
6. Charlie Sheen's Anger Management: Losing!
In the summer of 2012, Sheen will return to sitcom life with Anger Management on FX. But the show will be dead by 2013. Why? It's the stupid, stupid! People have grown weary of Sheen's stupidity tour; it's just not funny anymore and everyone knows it except for certain network executives who will find out the hard way.
7. Netflix Fires CEO Reed Hastings
Hastings masterfully built Netflix from an idea in 1998 to an industry powerhouse in 2011. But last summer, Hastings suddenly morphed into a rank amateur, raising prices and insulting his audience with a myriad of confusing policy twists and turns. The damage has been severe with Netflix hemorrhaging subscribers. In 2012, Hastings will have to take the fall for his erratic actions.
8. No One Will Buy DIRECTV or Dish Network - No One!
Every year, pundits and analysts, sometimes myself included, predict that some major corporation will buy one of the nation's two satellite TV services. Not gonna' happen; at least not in 2012. Too many financial and logistical obstacles. And when you factor in Dish's maverick CEO Charlie Ergen, who's tougher to negotiate with than an Mel Gibson ex, the chances of a deal get even smaller. PLUS, even if an AT&T makes a bid for Dish or DIRECTV, the feds will swat it down faster than Shaquille O'Neal in his prime, claiming anti-competitive issues.
9. No One Will Buy TiVo
Likewise, every year brings a prediction that some company, such as Apple or Yahoo, will swallow up TiVo. Sorry, that ship has sailed. Thanks to plunging sub numbers -- and the heavy distribution of cable and satellite-branded DVRs -- TiVo's value has dropped like a rock. The company's patent portfolio is basically all it has left to sell, but it wouldn't bring a sufficient return to make it worthwhile for TiVo to pull the trigger.
10. CNN Will Fire Piers Morgan
It's bad enough that his ratings are falling short of his predecessor, Larry King, but a new report seems to surface every month that the ex News of the World editor may have had some involvement in the phone hacking scandal in the UK. It's time for CNN to throw Piers off a pier. (Hey, maybe Howard Stern can replace him after he leaves America's Got Talent! He replaced him on that show!)
Click here to see our Predictions 11-20!
The studios and TV makers will make another attempt to cram 3D TV down our throats, but Americans ignored it in 2011 and they will again next year. The Hollywood and tech elite don't seem to understand that watching 3D at home is an intrusive, uncomfortable experience. It doesn't add to your enjoyment; it interrupts it. Television is supposed to help you relax, but 3D TV actually raises your energy level -- and not in a good way.
6. Charlie Sheen's Anger Management: Losing!
In the summer of 2012, Sheen will return to sitcom life with Anger Management on FX. But the show will be dead by 2013. Why? It's the stupid, stupid! People have grown weary of Sheen's stupidity tour; it's just not funny anymore and everyone knows it except for certain network executives who will find out the hard way.
7. Netflix Fires CEO Reed Hastings
Hastings masterfully built Netflix from an idea in 1998 to an industry powerhouse in 2011. But last summer, Hastings suddenly morphed into a rank amateur, raising prices and insulting his audience with a myriad of confusing policy twists and turns. The damage has been severe with Netflix hemorrhaging subscribers. In 2012, Hastings will have to take the fall for his erratic actions.
8. No One Will Buy DIRECTV or Dish Network - No One!
Every year, pundits and analysts, sometimes myself included, predict that some major corporation will buy one of the nation's two satellite TV services. Not gonna' happen; at least not in 2012. Too many financial and logistical obstacles. And when you factor in Dish's maverick CEO Charlie Ergen, who's tougher to negotiate with than an Mel Gibson ex, the chances of a deal get even smaller. PLUS, even if an AT&T makes a bid for Dish or DIRECTV, the feds will swat it down faster than Shaquille O'Neal in his prime, claiming anti-competitive issues.
9. No One Will Buy TiVo
Likewise, every year brings a prediction that some company, such as Apple or Yahoo, will swallow up TiVo. Sorry, that ship has sailed. Thanks to plunging sub numbers -- and the heavy distribution of cable and satellite-branded DVRs -- TiVo's value has dropped like a rock. The company's patent portfolio is basically all it has left to sell, but it wouldn't bring a sufficient return to make it worthwhile for TiVo to pull the trigger.
10. CNN Will Fire Piers Morgan
It's bad enough that his ratings are falling short of his predecessor, Larry King, but a new report seems to surface every month that the ex News of the World editor may have had some involvement in the phone hacking scandal in the UK. It's time for CNN to throw Piers off a pier. (Hey, maybe Howard Stern can replace him after he leaves America's Got Talent! He replaced him on that show!)
Click here to see our Predictions 11-20!