IPTV is coming ready or not

Jonathan Bowers, January 29th 2007, 11:08AM

On one hand, we have Bill Gates, talking with abandon about TV on the Internet and how we'll look back in five years and laugh at what we once had. On the other, a new report provides a wary view of TV's future and unsurprisingly comes from a traditional broadcasting perspective.

Video online has a huge advantage having seen the mistakes and successes of the music industry and many broadcasters and online video providers have already presented a working model. If broadcasters hold back from experimenting now they are likely to be the ones who fall foul of the pirate market first.

Is it wise for traditional broadcasters to show their hesitation to move online? Those who grab the challenge and run with it have the best chance of being there in five years time when scheduled programming is the marginalised format and user preference is driving the industry.

Tags: iptv
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The Internet's big three for 2007

Jonathan Bowers, December 20th 2006, 10:39AM

As this is one of my last posts for 2006, I think it's worth projecting forward to next year, considering what the biggest areas of Internet advancement will be and what businesses need to think about in order to maximise.

I'd like to pinpoint three things that we should be looking at.

The first is RSS. 2007 will mark a split between people who browse for content and those who choose content to be delivered to them. Every business needs to offer an RSS feed. Newsletters, press releases, special offers, industry news, company news, free giveaways should all be available for people who desire to receive them. Providing feeds not only makes the visitor feel in control but it reduces your workload on building mailing lists. Businesses need to take them as seriously as News sites do.

The second big thing is video on the Net. We're beginning to see mobile tv and IPTV. Video on demand is a priority for telecoms and media companies. Channel 4 has made less money on advertising this year in the UK than Google. We all know where the consumer's eyes are going. So what are the best ways to keep our products in front of our audiences? And does the video wave offer us new ways to present our offerings on our own websites and other people's?

I think Second Life will be the YouTube of 2007. There's already a huge amount of money and enthusiasm being pumped into the virtual world and businesses, from retailers to radio stations have stamped their brand on this environ. One Chinese entrepreneur has already made a million dollars by buying, developing and selling virtual land. How can you build your profile and convert virtual cash into real revenue next year?

One thing is for sure. The Internet has to be placed closer to the heart of every UK business if they want to grow in 2007.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on what the major Internet trends will be in the coming year. Maybe you disagree about the impact of RSS or the importance of Second Life for businesses? Let me know.

Tags: iptv, rss, second life
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Television on the Internet

Jonathan Bowers, June 28th 2006, 5:43PM

I read an interesting research paper on The Register entitled IPTV/VoD: The fall of content's kingdom this week and have been thinking about it a fair bit.

IPTV will almost certainly be the way to watch TV programmes on your computer - or TV through a hard drive box before too long. But there's a conflict thus far between the programme makers and the ISPs/telcos because one can't do it well without the other and this kind of bandwidth doesn't come cheap.

The paper talks about the need to offer better alternatives to piracy and the difficulties facing the big companies in trying to achieve this. One possible solution put by the writer Alexander Cameron is Google Ad Words and the personalisation of advertising.

However, it takes for granted that we do not mind Google discovering all about us in order to present us with the most relevant adverts. What with Google talking about listening to our TVs through our computers, how many consumers actually want this kind of intrusion?

One company that looks to be finding alternatives is Murdoch's News Corporation the parent company of the UK's BSkyB. In the last year he has made a series of interesting moves. As a content provider he needs to have a foothold in the Internet infrastructure, which explains the purchase of EasyNet an ISP. The other interesting purchase is MySpace which gives him influence over one of the largest online communities on the planet. So he is reaching the audience and finding ways to provide the content.

But is this a direction that other content providers can afford?

Tags: iptv, news_corporation
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