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August 07, 2006

IPTV and "TV on the Net" - They are NOT the Same

Just to clarify two terms that are found in some of the more recent postings in this blog:

When I refer to "IPTV", I am speaking about the technology platform(s) that incumbent wireline telephone companies use on their high speed (fiber/DSL) networks to deliver programming that is directly competitive with cable company video offerings. IPTV networks are, by their very nature, "walled gardens" and are generally "closed." These are not platforms where consumers will generally be able to add, modify or change the content or the overall user experience. The Quality of Service experienced with IPTV is expected to be high. IPTV, however, has nothing to do with the "disintermediation" of the content owner and the underlying transmission facilities.

"TV on the Net", on the other hand, is all about the "disintermediation" of TV distribution outlets. "TV on the Net" is meant to represent TV as an "application", much as how, in a broadband IP-enabled world, "voice" is an application - an application which has launched a new kind of "Telephony Company" (e.g., Skype, Vonage, etc.) that by its nature requires its customers to pay for their own connectivity.

From my perspective, "TV on the Net" is the new frontier. As "Voice on the Net" has disintermediated the voice application from the transmission facility, so too shall "TV on the Net" disintermediate the video application from the transmission facility.

At the moment, "TV on the Net" is generally free of regulation in the United States. It might just be a matter of time before the incumbent broadcasters band together and lobby government to apply legacy rules against this nascent technology platform. While it is true that the Internet is now a viable replacement/substitute for broadcast TV spectrum, there should be enough people who object with this statement to keep the regulators at bay ... for at least the foreseeable future.

But as regulators have done to VoIP in recent years (now that it has crossed the early adopter chasm and has become a threat to traditional service provider revenue streams and government taxing schemes), so too might the heavy hand of regulation attempt to claim "TV on the Net" within its grasp. Unlike Voice on the Net, however, we will be confronted with an additional policy battle as some seek to legislate, regulate, or otherwise impose their preferred moral code on Internet-delivered video. For now, TV on the Net serves as a regulation free zone, where the user controls their own experience without having to answer to either government or an intermediating service provider.

While consumers need to bring their own broadband, consumers of the broadband Internet should be able to easily view the content available in my guide to TV on the Net, depending upon their geography. Quality of Service on the public internet varies at times, Figure 80% of the time it will be "good enough" but there will be peeks and valleys in the observed service quality. Consumers are generally free to add whatever additional applications they wish to run over their own broadband connections.

From a pulvermedia perspective, content related to "TV on the Net" will be discussed in great detail at Video on the Net, while the IPTV ecosystem will be explored at the Fall 2006 VON Conference during the week of September 11th in Boston.

And while these are relatively distinct communities, I do believe the VON community is a great springboard to enable cross-pollination with the existing and emerging thought-leaders in the media/entertainment space building the Video on the Net industry. We all have a lot to learn from one another. The Video on the Net players will have much to learn from the seminal policy work of the VoIP industry, policies that will undoubtedly encroach upon the policy structure for the emerging Video on the Net industry and policies which at time will challenge the status quo in the broadcasting and cable space. The Video on the Net players will also have a lot to learn from the evolution of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) communications that the Voice on the Net folks have been perfecting in recent years. And the Voice on the Net players will have a lot to learn from the most creative types in the media world, who have been transforming Internet-delivered content into high art and quality entertainment.

Finally, I do hope that the emerging "Video on the Net" industry does not have to reinvent the wheel on the policy front, particularly as it will have to go head-to-head against the most entrenched, adept, and well-heeled lobbying machines the world has ever known. There is a very steep learning curve awaiting those companies not versed in the vagaries of regulation and lobbying. There is much that these players should learn from the seminal efforts of the "Voice on the Net" industry. In fact, I would hope and suggest that these companies consider joining the VON Coalition as it fights to establish a policy framework that will allow innovators, entrepreneurs and users to maximize the Internet communications experience.

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(c) 2006 Jeff Pulver. All Rights Reserved.
(This blog posting is copyright protected by Jeff Pulver. Portions of this blog posting may be quoted or abstracted if attributed.)

Posted by jeff on August 7, 2006 08:42 AM | Permalink

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Posted by: durin at February 27, 2007 11:02 AM

As the "TV on the net" grows, how will the average viewer (especially the newbies) find, in a reasonable time and manner, video that is desirable with out searching thru mega data?

Posted by: bamabrad at August 8, 2006 02:23 PM

Why do so few of the TV channels on the net broadcast at a high enough bitrate to give decent quality video? My cable internet gives me 6Mbps download speed - I am not expecting an HD stream at 4-5 Mbps, but why not provide a stream at around 0.5-1 Mbps? Will I not be able to sustain this link for any reasonable amount of time?

Given the move to larger TVs and people using HTPCs, which will likely become more prevalent with Vista, people will be demanding decent quality video and many of the current online channels don't provide that.

Posted by: Wayne at August 8, 2006 11:23 AM

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