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Viodi View Newsletter – November 15th, 2006
Click here to learn about Viodi’s Local Content Workshops
By Ken Pyle, ken.pyle at viodi.com, Managing Editor, Viodi View
- TelcoTV – IPTV Central
- IPTV Versus IP Video over Broadband
- The Soviet Ministries of Media
- 500,000 IPTV Subscribers?
- Digital Hollywood – European Mobile Video & It’s Implications for Independent Telcos
- Radio Over Fiber Architecture – A More Reliable, Lower Cost Way Wireless Transport?
- ISPCON – WiMAX Alternatives & More
- This Is Either Brilliant Marketing or Dumb Luck
- Disclose Video News Releases or Else….
- The Korner – No Sleeping With the Fish
The telco world was abuzz last week with the goings on at TelcoTV. Content providers, technology vendors and telcos converged in Texas to discuss the state of IPTV. The Viodi View made its debut at the second TelcoTV show way back in 2002 when all of the exhibitors could fit into a corner of the hotel. Since then, TelcoTV has become the premier place for all things IPTV; at least the way telcos are implementing IPTV. There were many good write ups of last week’s events, but this one from CED is particularly interesting.
IPTV Versus IP Video over Broadband
1,700 miles west of Dallas, in Silicon Valley, the Dow Jones Ventures conference had a different spin on using IP to deliver video. Most of the presentations at this conference focused on IP video as an application for the broadband network. These two approaches to television delivery are often confused as being the same, when they are really quite different. The telco approach is a carrier controlled, while the alternative centers on applications from third-party providers to enhance the value of a broadband pipe.
The Dow Jones Venture conference is unlike telco-centric conferences in that it is primarily focused on start-ups or early stage companies. Companies with names like Motionbox, Blip.TV, and Mixpo showed some pretty impressive demonstrations of technology that will continue to change the web and affect the business model for players trying to find success with a controlled IPTV approach.
One of the more interesting companies at this show, Softkinetic, has a technology with the potential to eliminate the need for a television remote control as well as providing an entirely new way to exercise. More about these cutting edge players and how they could affect independent telcos’ IPTV plans in the next issue.
The Soviet Ministries of Media
The Dow Jones Ventures conference had an impressive list of speakers from established web heavyweights like Google, Yahoo, Sony, Starz and Microsoft. One of the key note speakers was the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg. He called wireless companies, telcos and cable companies the equivalent of Soviet Ministries for the tight control they wield on their broadband pipes. In a question afterwards he suggested that the broadband pipe providers could differentiate themselves by opening up their networks.
Mossberg suggested there have been two models in the PC, game console and audio player markets; component [e.g. P.C.] and end-to-end systems [e.g. iPod]. He said that, “Microsoft has raised the white flag on the component model with their Zune product.” Their X-Box [Zune comes from that group] was also an end-to-end solution. Similarly, the IPTV vendor community may be moving in a similar direction with some of the recent acquisitions of server, middleware and set-top makers.
Robby Bach, President of Microsoft Entertainment and Devices explained in another session that their efforts to deliver video to the X-Box will be complementary to their partners’, such as AT&T’s, IPTV efforts. The challenges they face in going direct to the consumer are the same as those of consumer goods makers had when they began opening retail outlets, which competed with their traditional retail partners. As Bach said, “it is a multichannel world.”
Marco Boerries, Senior Vice President of Connected Life for Yahoo! and inventor of Star Office, was a major proponent of the network computer when he was with Sun. When asked whether he thought the timing was right for a network computer, he expressed, that despite his wishes, it probably will not happen soon at least in the U.S. due to the entrenched base of the Microsoft ecosystem.
Boerries suggested that the network computer would happen first outside the U.S., where there is a much smaller base of users. I found this comment fascinating, as I still believe that a variation of the network computer may appear in the U.S., but from one of Yahoo!’s rivals and for reasons that are not obvious [Club Viodi readers, to see this article, please click here].
The Streaming Media West conference was more than just streaming to the PCs, it has evolved into downloads to the television as well. Evan Young of TiVo gave one of the keynotes at this multi-day event last week and previewed TiVo’s expanded abilities to search and download web content. There are a number of other features he didn’t discuss, like one that is planned that will allow people to set up their own channels for distributing home videos to their friends and family.
He provided some interesting statistics regarding their TiVo subscriber base. TiVo has approximately 4.5 million subscribers, 2 million of which are broadband enabled. Approximately 500k subscribers have their TiVos connected to broadband, meaning their DVRs are capable of pulling content from the Internet. Young pointed out that 80% of the broadband customers use some sort of interactive feature (e.g. Yahoo! Photos on TiVo, local weather, content downloads, etc.).
Young suggested that in the universe of broadband connected TiVo’s, CNET and Rocketboom, both Internet-delivered television shows, would be the equivalent of top 10 and top 50 shows. Granted, these shows may appeal to the early adopter nature of the current broadband TiVo user base, but it also points to a television environment where programming becomes more and more about satisfying narrow desires.
Lots more good notes from the Streaming Media in the next issue.
Digital Hollywood – European Mobile Video & It’s Implications for Independent Telcos
Last month’s Digital Hollywood covered a broad range of topics such as content, advertising and mobility, made. See my extended notes from last month’s Digital Hollywood event by clicking here [Club Viodi Members only].
Radio Over Fiber Architecture – A More Reliable, Lower Cost Way Wireless Transport?
The first part of this article dealt with different applications and approaches surrounding the deployment of wireless technologies. This article describes a Radio over Fiber Ring architecture that is being built and now in field trials. It combines the best of broadband wireless access networks with a high-speed fiber optic ring and backbone network. Both fixed and mobile wireless access might be offered in the future. Click here to read more.
ISPCON – WiMAX Alternatives & More
Last week Alan Weissberger attended several excellent panel sessions at ISPCON at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The sessions included: Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) best practices and rules, Business Models for Municipal Wireless Networks, Alternatives to WiMAX that can be deployed now, Internet 2 issues and attributes. Please email him at alan at viodi.com indicating which of these topics you are interested in for a forthcoming article in Viodi View.
This Is Either Brilliant Marketing or Dumb Luck
I ran across this blog the other day, www.uverseusers.com. It has the bit of feel of a personal web site. There is no background information as to who is behind the site (the administrative and technical contact can be found by doing a Whois on the domain name). There is no privacy policy or terms and conditions. It is mostly positive material on AT&T’s IPTV service, but it is open to critical posts so it seems to have some credibility. Still, the number of prizes donated by AT&T and the tone of the blog make it seem like it could be an AT&T marketing site. Is this site for real or is it using the openness of the web to provide a subtle marketing message?
Disclose Video News Releases or Else….
FCC Commissioner Adelstein has some pretty harsh words for broadcasters that run video news releases without disclosing who is behind the video. He says it is not a free speech issue, but one of identifying who the speaker is. He calls it corporate propaganda and says the FCC needs to begin enforcing its own disclosure rules. With the new political climate in Washington, these words from this Democrat FCC Commissioner could turn into action.
The Korner – No Sleeping With the Fish
Viodi travel is adventure travel. As chronicled in a Viodi View issue from last year, Viodi travel might mean staying overnight in a car. At last year’s TelcoTV conference, I found myself once again trying to combine a family vacation with a business trip. In my normal parsimonious way, I found a hotel that provided maximum value.
Wireless Internet was included in the cost of the room, donuts were complimentary and the bedspreads were white (the hotel owner explained that most hotels do not use white bedspreads, as they show the dirt – he was quite proud of how clean his hotel was). My wife, however, wasn’t as thrilled as she complained the rooms were old, small and a bit dingy. I was blinded by the low price, however, and could not quite see her point. The only downside I could see was I could not bring fish into the room with me.
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The Video Business Case for Independent Telcos – The Report
Viodi’s report, Video Business Case provides results to a survey of independent telcos and their business case for video. Most of the telcos that responded to the survey have figured out a way to deploy video services. This survey provides insight from the independent telcos as well as several of their Engineering firms.
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