[opendtv] Re: Twang's Tuesday Tribune (Mark's Monday Memo)
- From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 22:28:16 -0700
Gee, an interesting technological exercise.
How is it any better than my getting just about all the news I need in a
half hour of listening to a commercial all news station?
Does it give news that is more timely than live TV or radio news (no)
Does it give news that is more detailed than the morning paper/morning web
site read (no)
Does it give me more detail than KNX-1070 (no)
Does it give a more "niched" news product? (no)
What does it give me? Pictures. Isn't there a better way to send me
pictures?
Does it give me customized news? Not a chance.
John Willkie
-----Original Message-----
From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Tom Barry
Sent: Friday, April 30, 2004 4:32 PM
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] Re: Twang's Tuesday Tribune (Mark's Monday Memo)
Caching of news and data can have many layers. I would not be
surprised to seem memory technology improve to the point where even
your cell phone could constantly be updating a PVR style video cache
of maybe an hour or so of broadcast CNN Headline news, properly
indexed with menus, annotations, links, and such.
I think that is the sort of semi-business thing that could have a
broad enough demand to be "broadcast". Something like headline news
give a good summary but you sort of have to watch it for the whole 15
or twenty minute loop to find out what's happening. Having it with
instant mobile random access would be nice.
- Tom
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> At 10:18 AM -0700 4/29/04, Kon wrote:
>
>>Good point but one little problem - Geocast was satellite-based. As were
>>others such as Cyberstar, Astro, ...
>
>
> Sorry, but you are incorrect. I know the people who ran the company
> and I can assure you that the business model was to use the
> terrestrial DTV spectrum. They were attempting to develop a receiver
> and to sign up broadcasters to push the bits, but the infrastructure
> was too fragile to make the business model work.
>
>
>> >2. Without a reliable infrastructure there is little incentive to
>>develop the receivers necessary to launch such a service. You don't
>>have to believe me...just ask Dewey.
>>
>>That's true. Reception is the usual killer. And a percentage of the first
>>trial group usually has a problem with reception. But the killer has
always
>>been lack of a business plan.
>
>
> The business model is valid. But you cannot launch a product that
> must be sold at retail and installed by consumers, where there is a
> risk that upwards of 25% of the receivers will be returned.
>
>
>>What do you sell on the datacasting service?
>
>
> We just went through that Kon.
>
> Just think of it as Akamai on steroids.
>
>
>>Website caching? Nope, got that on Cable/DSL.
>
>
> It complements these pipes for this application, allowing you to
> update caches in things that are not connected to wires.
>
>
>>Movies? Nope, got blockbuster down the road, or cable/sat. tv.
>
>
> Ever hear of Dotcast...they are using NTSC to deliver movie bits for
Disney.
>
>
>>Games? Nope, got Gamespot on the Cable/DSL modem.
>
>
> The future of games appears to be on-line gaming. You need a good
> two-way pipe to play in this market.
>
>
>>News? Nope, got the paper at the doorstep for $1 - why do I want a
>>$300 newspaper receiver? If not, I use my Cable/DSL modem.
>
>
> Because it is getting too expensive to distribute those papers to
> your door and the product is growing less competitive with electronic
> media. Ther are a number of broadcasters who are also in the
> newspaper business, like Belo, who are anxious to deliver the paper
> electronically, so they can eliminate those presses.
>
> The number of people who subscribe to papers continues to decline.
> People want news when it happens, not yesterday's news this morning.
>
> Obviously NOBODY uses the Internet or radio to get their news.
>
> :-(
>
> And you are not buying a newspaper receiver. You are buying an
> information appliance that does MANY other things. The newspaper is
> just one of MANY applications.
>
>
>>Distance Education? Nope, colleges are already using Cable/DSL.
>
>
> Yup. And they ship the rich media to you on CD and DVDs because it is
> too expensive to stream it, and you many not be connected to the
> Internet when you want to view a class.
>
>
>>You might say that there are lots of scenarios here that will work in a
>>different variation, but the difference is that I've lived all these
>>scenarios first hand and seen companies fail at attempting to deliver this
>>content, whereas you are just pipe dreaming about it.
>
>
> They did not fail because of the lack of a viable market. They have
> failed due to the lack of a viable infrastructure. And to a lesser
> extent, they have been waiting for the technology to mature so that
> cheap, reliable receivers can be deployed.
>
> I'm sure you remember when the STB guys were moaning about the memory
> footprint required just to decode MPEG-2. Moore's Law is swamping
> those early arguments. One does not push a vision for the next
> quarter. When you are building an infrastructure that is intended to
> work for decades, you must take the long view. I would not have
> gotten far, trying to push "Desktop Video tools for HD production in
> 1992; just getting a computer to play full resolution SD was a real
> challenge then. But it was easy to extrapolate that HD would be
> feasible in a decade.
>
> What we are talking about here is working together to enable markets.
> There are more than enough powerful interests who DO NOT want to see
> this stuff happen, who will tell you that there is no market.
>
>
>>The only type of datacasting that works is non-consumer oriented i.e.
>>professional or government services. Consumers are just too fickle to
please
>>in this day and age.
>
>
> We disagree.
>
> Regards
> Craig
>
>
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