[opendtv] Re: News: The death of Cable TV

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2010 07:04:06 -0400

At 3:47 PM -0500 11/1/10, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
Convince me that these ISPs will not see that they can extract greater revenues if they differentiate their service offerings.
This will depend on the cooperation of the media congloms, and perhaps to a greater extent on the cooperation of the people who create the content that they control.
For example, the congloms now spend billions for the rights to college and professional sports. We are already seeing many of the professional leagues bypassing the congloms and going direct to the consumer via the Internet. In some cases this still involves a middleman, as is the case with some sports packages being offered by the telcos.
And it is equally obvious that this will depend on support from consumers. Microsoft is making a big deal about a feature of Windows Mobile 7 that will allow smart phones powered by its software to receive video content from AT&T U-verse; only problem is you must first be a U-verse subscriber, AND pay $9.99/mo for the mobile service.
Something tells me that this kind of "walled garden" is not going to get much traction.
I disagree here, but this is tangential. Most of the Internet TV traffic will probably be on demand. For that, the MVPD/ISP will have to deploy many new servers throughout their network, to support a wholesale migration from their current in-system broadcast scheme (I'm talking transfer protocol, Craig). The analog bandwidth is great, but by itself it doesn't translate to providing all this new on-demand service for wide bandwidth content. In case you haven't noticed, whenever there's any event that creates massive Internet demand, Internet service goes down the toilet.
You are assuming that the MVPDs are going to build the server infrastructure; to a limited extent they may if it simplifies their network infrastructure, but it is more likely that they will simply move to a switched digital infrastructure and pull streams from the WAN. It is more likely that the congloms, and perhaps new intermediaries will build the server farms. A good example is what Apple is doing in North Carolina.
Yes there are times that servers get hit hard and service is degraded. but this is primarily because they are unwilling to move the traffic to an infrastructure that can handle the load. There is no reason that multicasting cannot work for live events; for the rest - i.e. on demand - the net will scale to handle the traffic.
But ultimately, who cares what the new investment has to be? The fact remains, the ISPs become the umbillical just as much as the MVPDs have been.
Perhaps. Much will depend on whether we see new competitors emerge in the broadband arena - otherwise, we will be at the mercy of a duopoly of cable and telcos.
My point was exactly as I phrased it. Which is, OTA broadcasting remains a unique distribution model, unwalled, multiple providers coexisting. The Internet schemes, wired or wireless, will instead be the walled gardens, when the ISPs start to maximize their revenues.
I did not miss your point. OTA is what it is, and to say it is unwalled is a gross misrepresentation. The multiple providers are just another face of the media oligopoly, with a bunch of local affiliates who are being marginalized out of existence. It remains to be seen whether the Internet will be dominated by walled gardens, or if instead there are a number of marketplaces that are open to anyone.
You may not like Apple's integrated approach and the fact that they control the store, but the reality is that anyone can participate by following a few simple rules. I saw a commentary this morning noting that the App store has leveled the playing field for game developers - "a little start-up can now compete effectively with EA..."
As to distributing live "broadcast" content to mobile devices, in principle, wireless ISPs can do that too. It is less efficient to do this than to use true broadcast, and it will be another walled garden thanks to the ISP involvement, but the functions of mobility and live streams can be met. 

Agreed.
All I am saying is that the future of broadcasting will be delivering content to mobile devices, as is the (primary) case today for radio... 

Regards
Craig


----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org 
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word 
unsubscribe in the subject line.

Other related posts:

  1. Home
  2. opendtv
  3. Archive
  4. 11-2010