For Internet TV use to grow, some landmark event is needed
Nov 27, 2007 1:30 PM
IPTV Update: Time and time again, the availability of software — i.e. programming — not hardware, has driven consumer acceptance of a new technology. Will it take some company like Sony, which actually has the consumer hardware and a vast library of films and television shows, to drive this?
Cynthia Brumfield: It’s funny you mention that, because Sony actually has a vast reach into the content world. It owns a major motion picture studio, and it has a lot of TV content ownership stakes. It has a music company. It is a major player in the entertainment world. Ironically, Sony hasn’t leveraged those assets when it comes to PlayStation. But look at Microsoft, which really doesn’t have that reach into the entertainment business, and it has.
I don’t know when it comes to this that vertical integration among the providers is necessary. Look at what Apple did with the music business. Apple did not have an ownership stake in a music company, but it revolutionized the music business, galvanized the portable music business and forever changed the economics of the music industry by producing a device.
I think it is conceivable that a hardware manufacturer could come along and do a kind of iPod market shift when it comes to video as opposed to having a vertically integrate company do it. It’s a question of who hits the market first and how well they do it.
IPTV Update: Won’t the use of video game machines or other types of devices that could provide a convenient gateway from the home TV to video content delivery via broadband Internet require a change in marketing? After all, many of these devices tend to be sold based on utility — time shifting or place shifting?
Cynthia Brumfield: Yes, these other devices tend to promote other functionality. Look at the TiVo. Most people really don’t have the concept that TiVo has a service called TiVoCast, which is capable of delivering broadband video to the TV set. I don’t think TiVo markets it too heavily, because the primary value of TiVo in consumers’ minds is time shifting and to some degree better guides. But for the most part, TiVo definitely has the capability of service in the player to offer Internet video to the TV set.
The problem is for a lot of devices, it’s not always easy to configure them to do it, and it’s not necessarily something the companies want to promote because it just invites more customer service calls and complaints. For another, there seems to be no sharp market demand for it because they don’t really know it. So it’s still forming and will be defined over the next few years.
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