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PTV Sets Its Sights On Prime Time, But The Concept Isn't Quite Ready
LISA SCHMEISER
5/8/2006
The TV world has never been short of acronyms — VCR, HBO and PVR, to name a few. Now there's one more for couch potatoes to keep track of: IPTV.
IPTV, or Internet protocol television, has been touted by cable companies and telecom firms as the next big thing. But what is it?
That depends on whom you ask.
"(It's) the ability to deliver media across an Internet-based architecture," said Tony Bates, the senior vice president of service provider routing technology for Cisco Systems. (CSCO)
The focus is on the IP part of the acronym, he says, since Internet technology is what lets you bring TV content to many different sorts of devices. Under his definition of IPTV, people will catch their TV shows on televisions, computer screens or mobile devices.
Others disagree.
"Focus on the TV, not the IP," said Greg Douglass, a managing partner at the consulting firm Accenture. (ACN) "Don't focus on the means of distributing the TV content. Focus on the signal."
He says the point of IPTV is having a much greater variety of content to view — when you want, on whatever screen you want.
CBS' recent decision to bring its NCAA tournament basketball broadcasts to the Web is often cited as an example of IPTV. Most viewers watched that content on their personal computers.
In the future, viewers may see a lot more IPTV on traditional televisions. Telecom firms look to bring IPTV content to regular TV sets — either through digital subscriber lines or new fiber-optic wiring.
Technology Challenges
A lot of technical issues need to be worked out.
First, there's the question of whether consumers have enough bandwidth to watch an episode of "My Name Is Earl" via the Internet. The show has to be downloaded ahead of time or streamed while they watch.
In any case, that's going to change the TV experience for viewers, Bates says. "We have a high-quality (TV) service that people have come to know, love and respect," he said. "To think about moving that television experience — where you can switch channels very fast and see content when it's on — created a huge challenge for quality and scale (for IPTV)."
No Channel Surfing Yet
Channel switching may be a big issue. With regular TV, channels are broadcast simultaneously. When users change channels, their television selects and displays the specific frequency associated with the channel. All the stations are being broadcast; the television is just selecting one frequency.
With IPTV, only one channel is being pushed to the television or other viewing device. Switching channels would involve sending a request for another signal, then having it sent to the viewer's device.
Unless users are able to switch smoothly between channels on their TV, computer or mobile device, they may not embrace IPTV. That's especially true if consumers have to pay premium prices for the content. "There's only so long to put up with bad service before you call someone (to complain or cancel the service), and each of us has our own threshold for that," Bates said. "It turns out that in premium content, that threshold is very low."
Bandwidth Issues
Tech companies say today's low bandwidth levels are a stumbling block for IPTV.
"Many DSL offerings are too low bandwidth to enable quality in IPTV," said Trevor Kaufman, chief executive of interactive services firm Schematic.
A lot of telecom firms are heading toward offering premium tiers of bandwidth access, Kaufman notes. That would let content providers pay more for a guarantee their video content would stream quickly.
The notion of tiered service is a flash point for some. Critics argue it goes against net neutrality, a U.S. regulatory measure that requires network operators to open their data-transmission lines to all Internet content — without playing favorites.
Setting up the infrastructure to accommodate IPTV won't come cheap. And a tier system could help pay for upgrades.
Another potential issue for IPTV: regulating content. Users are already able to watch programming content from other nations online. Regulatory issues will get thornier as people take advantage of the Internet's interactivity to download video, comment on it and edit it.
If do-it-yourself TV takes off, it will be much harder for regulators to govern the kind of content that is produced and distributed. "This is an upcoming thing driven by consumers," said Yaron Raps, a partner at tech consultant Business Edge Solutions. "They would like to have a window for expression."
Source: http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=17&artnum=1&issue=20060508
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