Roger McNamee on the near future in entertainment & tech

In terms of entertainment and technology Roger McNamee sits on both sides of the fence: on one hand he's the founder of Elevation Partners, for whom he specialises in tech investment (investments include Electronic Arts); on the other he's a gigging musician who estimates he's played over 800 shows with his bands The Flying Other Brothers and Moonalice. As such, he is, in theory, rather brilliantly placed to opine on the tech issues facing the entertainment and cultural sector - indeed, he refers to his bands as something of a test bed for his notions around technology (something which, I like to think, we kind of do ourselves).

The video below, made for Fora.tv, features McNamee talking at the The Paley Center For Media on 28 June. In it he discusses, among other things, the demise of Microsoft, the rise of HTML5, the dangers of mobile to Google, Apple's domination of tablets, why social isn't something to invest in and how TV is the "last protected medium".

It's a contentious presentation and, as you'll see from some of the comments ("The guy is a flat out liar"), some things he says might not stand up to too much scrutiny, but as a survey of comms tech in the near future, it's fascinating. It is half an hour long, followed by half an hour of questions, but it's well worth the viewing. Stimulating stuff.