As 2011 comes to a close, a look back on some of the podcast interviews done throughout the year seems appropriate.
The past year saw a variety of audience, technology and policy issues that shaped and will continue to shape the direction of OTT delivery of television, movies and other video entertainment. A few of those issues include whether “cord cutters” exist in such numbers as to have a significant impact on the distribution side of the business; whether technology can help ensure a quality of service that is acceptable to OTT viewers; and even whether television broadcasters might play a role with their OTA transmissions in relieving what the FCC foresees as a future wireless Internet spectrum crunch.
In this podcast, we revisit pieces of interviews with Pat McDonough, senior VP, Insights and Analysis, for The Nielsen Company, and Glen Friedman, president and founder of Ideas & Solutions!, a Los Angeles-based consultancy specializing in media and technology companies. McDonough and Friedman hold opposing views on the overall importance of cord-cutters. We also listen in on a portion of an interview with Danny Wilson, president of Pixelmetrix, about OTT quality of service and the growing tension between OTT subscription services and ISPs.
We wrap up this podcast with a conversation with Greg Herman, an LPTV broadcaster who worked hard this year pitching Congress and the FCC to allow broadcasters to get into the wireless Internet game. Although he didn’t achieve everything he wanted, spectrum legislation in the House now leaves open the door for broadcasters to offer new services with some of their spectrum.
Enjoy this collection of podcast snippets, and remember that these interviews in their entirety, as well as many others, are available in the Broadcast Engineering Sound Off archive.
Happy New Year!