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Viodi View Menu<\/strong><\/p>\n Current Issue<\/a> Report from WCAI<\/a> SBC & Microsoft @ Digital Hollywood CES<\/a> A Random Walk Down CES<\/a> <\/p>\n Previous Issue<\/a> <\/p>\n Viodi View Subscribe<\/a> <\/p>\n Viodi Forums<\/strong> Club Viodi<\/a> Local Content<\/a> <\/p>\n Multimedia Search <\/a> <\/p>\n Viodi Workshops<\/strong> Local Content<\/a> Telco Video 101<\/a> <\/p>\n About Viodi<\/a> Contact<\/a> Biographies<\/a> Favorite Links<\/a> <\/p>\n Interested in Sponsoring the Viodi View? Send an email to: sponsor@viodi.com<\/strong><\/p>\n Please forward<\/strong> this free publication to anyone you know who is involved in some way with independent telephone companies. <\/p>\n Mission of the Viodi View:<\/strong><\/p>\n In this on-line publication, we share our analysis, opinions and direction on the interactive television news and views that we believe will be of interest and use to our friends associated directly or indirectly with independent telephone companies. For more information as to the various ways Viodi works with independent telephone companies, please go to http:\/\/www.viodi.com\/alliance\/<\/a><\/p>\n Disclaimer:<\/strong><\/p>\n The Viodi View [Viodi, LLC] and its associates used their best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, the Viodi View [Viodi, LLC] does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.<\/p>\n All displayed trademarks, logos and service marks are the property of their respective owners. \u00a9 2004 Viodi, LLC<\/a>. All Rights Reserved. Viodi View Newsletter – January 19th 2004 Issue<\/strong> <\/p>\n SBC & Microsoft @ Digital Hollywood CES<\/strong><\/p>\n By Ken Pyle, Viodi, LLC<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n CES is a show that telcos should be attending<\/strong>. At CES, the competitors and the opportunities of tomorrow are to be found in booths both big and small. CES is so huge, that it could take a day to plan out a schedule for seeing the show. Instead of making that effort, I figured it would be better to walk from booth to booth and see what caught my eye. My only planned event was to make it to the Telco-Video Entertainment<\/strong><\/em> panel, which was part of the Digital Hollywood track<\/strong>. <\/p>\n Jonathan Hurd, of Adventis<\/strong>, started the panel by pointing out that, unlike ten years ago, telcos<\/strong>\u2019, \u201crevenues are at risk<\/strong>.\u201d He cited one study that suggested a combined telco revenue loss of $14 Billion by 2010. While traditional revenues may be decreasing, he suggested that there is an \u201cexpanded wallet<\/strong>\u201d, in terms of consumers shifting their buying from the real-world to an online experience. <\/p>\n BT<\/strong> (what used to be known as British Telecom) has gone one step further and has actually moved into new ways to make revenue. They are a major supplier of back-haul transport services to entertainment companies, like E!. Getting closer to the entertainment community is exactly what Derek Kuhn<\/strong> of Alcatel <\/strong>and Chairman of the Broadband Services Forum<\/strong> is trying to do. Kuhn explained that the BSF is focused on bridging the Hollywood and vendor communities.<\/p>\n Jonathan Symonds of ICTV<\/strong> explained how interactive television is one of the content services that will help differentiate a provider from the satellite competition. He explained how 82% of subscribers<\/strong> on the Grande system have interacted using the ICTV\u2019s interactive television platform. He suggested that is very important for telcos to be able to break down the silos <\/strong>between their different products to allow better applications (e.g. being able to program the Digital Video Recorder from an online account page). <\/p>\n Microsoft\u2019s Phil Corman said that telco\u2019s real differentiators will be found when they can start with the idea that they are going to make, \u201cbetter television and new television<\/strong>.\u201d He said Microsoft\u2019s efforts are not about browsing the web on television, but are about adding value to the existing television by inserting interactive elements in the right context. For instance, he showed an example of a baseball game that would include stats and, maybe, highlights that could be integrated into some sort of \u201cfantasy baseball\u201d package. Corman showed a very impressive demonstration <\/strong>that featured virtually instant channel changes<\/strong>. If reality is near what the demo showed, then this could be a very interesting product. <\/p>\n One of Microsoft\u2019s first customers for this product is SBC and Jeff Weber of SBC<\/strong> discussed their plans to move into interactive television<\/strong>. He mentioned that reselling Echostar\u2019s DishTV product has been a good way for SBC to learn the business and they are very encouraged by the results thus far. His comments made me wonder if Echostar<\/strong> might be an interesting acquisition target<\/strong> for one of the former RBOCs. At its current market cap, it looks like it would fetch approximately $2,000 per subscriber and would give an RBOC instant presence<\/strong> in the video business. <\/p>\n Weber stated that more bandwidth <\/strong>is the key to meeting customer expectations<\/strong>. He described SBC\u2019s widely reported plans to deploy fiber to the neighborhood to 17 to 18 million homes and fiber to the premise to another, mostly Greenfield, one million homes over the next three years. He suggested that they will have to offer a product that will be competitive with cable. At the same time, he hinted that they would be looking at different content business models. <\/p>\n Next Article<\/a><\/p>\n Back to Top<\/a><\/p>\n Previous Issue<\/a><\/p>\n Viodi View Subscribe<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0 <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
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