The TV Loses Its Top Spot in Hotel-Room Entertainment
旅館客房娛樂電視讓位
By Jane L. Levere

Len Markidan, a 26-year-old marketing consultant based in San Francisco, is the type of business traveler who forced LodgeNet, the hotel guest-room entertainment provider, to file recently for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
提供旅館客房娛樂的LodgeNet公司最近聲請破產保護，而迫使此事發生的，正是像26歲的舊金山行銷顧問馬基頓這樣的商務旅客。

Mr. Markidan, who spends 40 percent of his time traveling and is an elite participant in the Hilton and Hyatt loyalty programs, takes his MacBook Pro and iPad with him and watches all television programs by streaming them on his laptop, using a portable router to extend the Wi-Fi signal in his hotel room.
馬基頓四成時間在外出差，是享有希爾頓和凱悅飯店常客優惠的貴賓，出差時總帶著蘋果筆電MacBook Pro和iPad，用攜帶型路由器將無線上網絡訊號延伸到他下榻的客房內，把電視節目傳到筆電裡觀賞。

“For a lot of people my age and a lot of people in general, the way we consume entertainment at home is changing,” he said. “I no longer have a cable subscription – the way I watch entertainment at home is the same way I watch it on the road. I have a Hulu subscription, Amazon Prime and Netflix.”
他說：「對許多像我這樣年紀的人和一般人來說，家庭娛樂方式正在改變。我不再訂有線電視，出差時看影音娛樂節目的方式和在家一樣。我訂了線上影音網站Hulu、亞馬遜無線影音串流服務Prime，以及線上租片服務Netflix。」

Guest-room entertainment “is not an amenity that will drive my decision to stay at a hotel,” Mr. Markidan said, adding, “I’m a lot more concerned with loyalty program perks.”
他還說，旅館客房娛樂「不是讓我決定入住哪家旅館的重要設施」，「我更在乎的是常客優惠的各種好康」。

James Lingle of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, a consultant to hotel companies and guest-room entertainment service providers like LodgeNet’s competitor iBahn, observed: “If you look back, typically the first thing a guest would do when they walked into the door of a hotel room would be to turn on the TV. Now people bring their entertainment with them.”
科羅拉多州高原牧場市的林格爾，擔任旅館業者的顧問，也是LodgeNet的對手、iBahn這樣的旅館客房娛樂服務業者的顧問，他說：「過去，旅客進房後第一件事通常就是打開電視。現在大家都自備娛樂設備。」

LodgeNet’s decline directly reflects these changes. According to its bankruptcy filing, the number of hotel rooms it served globally dropped to 1.5 million in 2011 from 2 million in 2009. It provided guest-room entertainment services to most major hotel chains, usually by installing and maintaining free televisions and offering video-on-demand entertainment, for which it and the hotels received fees.
LodgeNet的沒落直接反映了這些變化。破產聲請文件指出該公司在全球提供服務的客房數，已從2009年的200萬間減為2011年的150萬間。該公司為多數大型連鎖旅館提供服務，通常是裝設及維修免費電視、提供由旅館和該公司分帳的付費點播影片。

LodgeNet faces competition from Swisscom Hospitality Services, based in Geneva; iBahn, based in Salt Lake City, Utah; and Guest-Tek, of Calgary, Alberta. All are developing systems that let travelers consume entertainment via the Internet, frequently through subscriptions they already have and use at home.
LodgeNet面臨以下競爭者：總部在日內瓦的瑞士電信「好客服務」、美國猶他州鹽湖城的iBahn，以及加拿大亞伯達省卡加利市的「房客科技」。這些競爭者都在研發系統，讓旅客透過網路收看影音娛樂產品，多半是透過旅客在家時已訂購的服務。

Different types of hotels have different policies regarding Internet access. Many less expensive hotels offer it free, while more expensive ones often charge for it. What’s expected to happen next, speaking broadly, is that using the Internet for e-mail will be free, while many hotels will charge for uses requiring a lot of bandwidth, like downloading or streaming videos, with the cost tied to the amount of bandwidth required.
不同類型旅館對於上網有不同的政策。許多房價不那麼貴的旅館提供免費上網，較貴的旅館則多半收費。大致說來，預料未來上網收發電郵將免費，而對於需要大量頻寬者，如下載或串流傳送影片，許多旅館將依頻寬收費。

C. Scott Hansen, director of guest technology for Marriott International, said his company’s objective over the next several years was to connect every guest-room TV to the Internet.
萬豪國際酒店旅客科技部門主管韓森說，該公司未來幾年的目標，是讓每間客房的電視都連上網路。

Josh Weiss, vice president of brand and guest technology for Hilton Worldwide, said his company offered a broad range of short, low-price TV programs in many hotels, provided by LodgeNet and others. This content costs $2 to $5.
世界希爾頓公司品牌及旅客科技副總裁魏斯說，該公司旗下許多旅館客房備有多種簡短而廉價的電視節目，內容由LodgeNet等業者提供，價格為2美元到5美元。

CitizenM, a Dutch chain of what it calls “affordable luxury” hotels – now all in Europe, with two slated to open in New York this year and next – provides a Samsung tablet in each guest room, with technology from Swisscom that provides a music library and free video-on-demand TV.
荷蘭連鎖旅館CitizenM號稱「平價奢華」旅館，在每間客房提供一台三星平板電腦，且由瑞士電信提供一個音樂圖書館及可免費點播影片的電視。CitizenM目前旗下旅館全在歐洲，但今明兩年預定在紐約市開兩家。

The 85-year-old Peninsula Hong Kong is installing a guest-room entertainment system that Ingvar Herland, Peninsula Hotels’ general manager of research and technology, said costs $10,000 to $25,000 a room. This proprietary system features fully customizable bedside and desk tablets preset in a choice of five languages. The tablet allows the guest to order room, concierge and housekeeping services. It also provides – via a flat-screen, Blu-ray, LED television – terrestrial programming, 90 international television channels, 450 Internet radio stations, free HD and 3-D movies.
有85年歷史的香港半島酒店正在裝設客房娛樂系統，酒店的研究及科技總經理赫爾蘭說，每間客房的成本是1萬到2.5萬美元。這套專利系統的特色是，完全客製化的床邊及桌上平板電腦，有五種語言供選擇。這套平板電腦可讓房客點餐、聯絡櫃台和門房及傳喚房務整理。它也透過平板螢幕、藍光、LED電視，提供非衛星傳訊的節目、90個國際電視頻道、450個網路廣播電台、免費高清及3D立體電影。

Mr. Herland said the new system would also be offered at the Peninsula Paris, opening next year.
赫爾蘭說，明年開幕的巴黎半島酒店也提供這套新系統。

One vanishing option is sex-related entertainment. Omni banned such programs in 1999, citing its support of “pro-family issues,” while Marriott International stopped offering it last year. Mr. Hansen of Marriott said: “If you want it, you can access it online on your own.”
房客的諸多選擇中，有一項正在消失－色情娛樂。歐尼酒店在1999年禁了這類節目，理由是該公司支持「友善家庭」議題，而萬豪國際酒店去年也停止供應這類節目。萬豪的韓森說：「如果想看，可以自己上網。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/business/hotel-guests-turn-away-from-tv-and-toward-streaming-media.html

2013-06-04聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS馮克芸譯 原文參見紐時週報七版上