[opendtv] Re: EE Times: Cloud Service Shrinks Set-Tops
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 6 May 2015 09:24:31 -0400
On May 5, 2015, at 7:53 PM, Manfredi, Albert E <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
No matter what names they use for this, to me it's simply the cable TV
networks morphing into their own Internet TV portals. Functionally, you take
today's TVE and go all the way with it, eliminating the MPEG-2 TS streams and
the need for proprietary STBs.
Yup. There is no question that we are moving to generic IP delivery of TV
content; the only question is how long the transition will take. But the NFV
concept discussed in the article seems to be more of a consortium of suppliers
working to push their flavor of kook-aid. Note the paragraphs about the lack of
support from the ARM community.
I doubt that a single solution needs to be agreed upon, btw. Netflix and Hulu
seem to have been more than capable of inventing their own, successful
designs. As long as they use standard IP for delivery, the rest should be up
to each web site designer.
Correct. There will be many solutions
Another question is, will those using, say, Comcast as their broadband
provider be limited to using only Comcast's "virtual STB"? Or will this be
where the different MVPDs compete against one another regardless of the
physical network?
Craig will now have to inform them that "there isn't enough bandwidth" for
this to work.
As I keep telling you Bert, the bandwidth is being created as the demand
increases.
I found the article to be somewhat flawed, however, in that it assumes that
proprietary STBs are a burden for the MVPDs. Clearly this is NOT the case, as
it has been a significant profit center for decades, and the FCC has been
unable to unbundle the STBs as mandated by Congress in 1995.
Thin cable clients - I.e. simple dongles - have been available for several
years, as have cable cards. The disturbing fact is that the manufacturers of
cable and DBS boxes are now adding all of the IP support available from
potential competitors like Roku, TiVo, a Google, Amazon and Apple. So we see
Cablevision and others starting to sell OVD subscription to Hulu and Netflix.
I think, however, that the landscape is shifting because of IP distribution.
The next big battle will be about the user interface to your TV and second
screen devices. Here, new competitors like Apple and Amazon may have the upper
hand, as they understand the new devices, are creating vast ecosystems, and are
investing billions in the infrastructure to deliver TV content from their
server farms.
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:
