[opendtv] Re: FW: Intel Will Lead Us to à la Carte Pay TV

  • From: "Tom McMahon" <tlm@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "OpenDTV" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2013 02:18:08 +0000

There was a bunch of stuff happening in France, at the BBC and elsewhere.

----

Tom McMahon
Del Rey
+1-310-717-7208 Mobile
TLM@xxxxxxxxxx
WWW.LinkedIn.Com/in/McMahonTV


-----Original Message-----
From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sender: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2013 00:01:16 
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] Re: FW: Intel Will Lead Us to à la Carte Pay TV

Mike Tsinberg wrote:

> So who was significant first in this Internet TV distribution
> world?

Good question. It probably depends on who you ask. My answer, i.e. from my 
experience, would be the congloms. I think the congloms were streaming catch-up 
shows by the early to mid 2000s. Netflix initially used the Internet just to 
allow convenient DVD rentals. Much later, they started streaming a subset of 
their movies online too. Amazon started offering online streaming too. But as I 
recall, the congloms beat all of them.

In the early days, each conglom seemed to stream using its own solution. Some 
used Flash, some used WMP. Image quality was not that great, and IIRC, abc.com 
initially did not use a streaming protocol that could go completely full 
screen. But soon enough, all of the congloms converged on Flash, and everything 
became a lot easier. And quality improved gradually for all of these.

Basically not so unlike OTA TV. When the service becomes used by many people, 
the industry is wise to impose standard solutions. Otherwise, they simply turn 
off potential viewers.

By the way, you might want to read this about CBS online streaming of the Super 
Bowl (the significant content excerpted below):

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2027006/super-bowl-streaming-online-about-dollars-and-sense-for-cbs.html

"Viewers complained vociferously about NBC's spotty online coverage of the 
London 2012 Summer Olympics. Not only that, only cable subscribers could stream 
events live.

"Not so with Super Bowl XLVII. You can watch the game via CBSSports.com, no 
strings attached. Either that, or if you're a Verizon customer you can shell 
out the monthly $5 in-app subscription to watch the game on your smartphone via 
the NFL Mobile app."

So this is what happens when the customer bitches loudly. The congloms revise 
their thinking. Fox these days is imposing an 8-day delay for the online 
stream. This began in 2011. The other networks threatened something similar, 
but so far they offer the content technically on the next day, but in fact that 
same night, after midnight. And the above article points out that more and more 
people are watching TV this way (although not necessarily on their TV big 
screens just yet, I would add).

Not exactly waiting for Intel or Apple to reinvent TV.

Bert

 
 
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