Akimbo deal points to IPTV's future
I have never believed in the IPTV strategy pushed by the telcos and cabler operators. Don't get me wrong, I do blieve in content and interactive programming becing delivered to your TV via TCP/IP. I just don't think that telcos and cable companies are going about it the right way.
What is the point of building this seperate closed network on all these great open standards? We already have a network - it's called the Internet. So the cable companies are spending billions trying to build out these fancy IPTV services when in the end it will be the Internet that delivers content and interactivity to your TV.
It has gotten so much easier over the last few years to connect your TV to a computer. Heck, most of the time you don't even realize it is connected to a computer (e.g. TiVO, DVRs). Sometimes, like Microsoft's Media Center it is obvious your TV is connected to a computer. In any event, the creativity and selection of content on the Internet will blow away anything a single cable company will dream up. I expect some of the services they offer to resonate, but I do believe tens of millions of people will consume content via their TVs via a computer (doesn't have to be a PC form factor) controlled connection to the Internet.
The biggest reason to build out switched digital networks is to insure a quality of service that customers currently expect from existing TV services. The reason to do it NOW is because telcos historical core business is eroding faster than high quality video will get sorted via net distribution. You cannot deliver TV quality video over the internet today in any meaningful numbers. You can deliver a
"different" video experience but not TV. The QOS isn't there. And, with more and more people buying HD the problem is even more acute. It takes 24Mbs to get HD down an IP pipe with today's encoding methods. Candidly, its actually very, very hard to deliver TV over a switched IP infrastructure at all. That's why Microsoft still hasn't deployed IPTV in serious numbers. It's very hard on a lot of levels. Doing it over the net is even harder. The current net will not support the experience. Where would you put a server farm big enough to support a live HD broadcast (web-based) broadcast of the final American Idol episode? None exists! So, looking at grid-based and other peer or edge based solutions may be the answer for the next chapter of video evolution on the net. But today, TV and web video are distinctly different experiences.
By the way, have you ever tried to use the Windows Media player to decode a video that was encoded in HD? Sure you have. Now try it on an average American's PC :) The CPU in the typical American home isn't able to grok large bit rate WM files.
Posted by: Kelly Smith | April 19, 2006 at 02:04 PM
The IPTV business model is not proving itself for the very reasons mentioned by Kelly Smith above. QoS doesn't exist and cannot without substantial rebuilding (video optimization) of the network. This is not to say that IPTV will never prove out. It will. But, it is going to take more efficient compression technology combined with more efficient in-home distribution. Sprinkle on some DVR removed to the CO and home gateway to avoid in-home service and you may have the beginnings of a pretty tasty cake.
Posted by: James Nearen | April 21, 2006 at 11:49 AM
New site to watch free online tv
http://tv.stafex.net
Posted by: http://tv.stafex.net | May 19, 2007 at 05:44 AM
Hello, anyone considering using SMS as a payments mechanism for IPTV?
Posted by: Stephen Jones | July 18, 2007 at 08:09 AM