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January 10, 2007
Kevin Martin at CES: What was said; what was not said; and some speculations on the future of voice and video on the Net
Kevin Martin just finished a Q&A session with CEA Chief Gary Shapiro. They really covered the whole range of issues confronting the FCC … with one glaring exception. Conspicuously absent from the discussion? Four letters: V-O-I-P. (Need I remind you all that the V now stands for “voice” AND/OR “video”?)
My question(s) which was not asked: "What shall be the regulatory treatment of video delivered over the public Internet? Will such applications be regulated like cable? Like information services? Like non-regulated web-based applications? Will the logic of the "Pulver Order" (voice applications that do not touch the public switched telephone network shall not be regulated as telecom services) extend to Internet-delivered Video?"
Kevin Martin gave very encouraging words about balancing and promoting broadband, Internet applications and edge device deployment. I think those words and concepts would resonate well if applied affirmatively by the FCC in an effort to encourage and speed the evolution of Internet video, user-generated content, the disintermediation of video and other applications from the facilities upon which they ride, and the transformation of media, the Internet, communications, and entertainment.
Chairman Martin also spoke of “cable ala carte” as an important goal to allow consumers to better control their viewing experience. To the FCC, I think “ala carte” means the ability to pick and choose from among the couple hundred “channels” that the cable provider is willing to offer each consumer, without compelling the consumer to purchase larger bundles of channels. I don’t think the FCC is even thinking about ala carte as the ability to pick individual programs (the true product that viewers care about. I care about getting “Lost” (the program, not the physical or spiritual condition). I don’t really care about ABC (or whatever channel happens to provide a home for “Lost”) or ABC’s other programming.
To me, “ala carte” could and should mean SO MUCH MORE in an Internet-enabled world than the ability to choose a single or a few channels from among the cable provider’s menu of channels. To me, it is even more than the ability to choose a single or series of programs from the menu of programs offered by a cable provider or TV network.
In an Internet-enabled world, ala carte cable offerings really are inconsequential and should become largely meaningless going forward, or, at least, I should hope they are. It is access to the growing and potentially infinite supply of video (not to mention other Internet-based content and applications) that we should think of when we think of “video ala carte”. The ability to pick a channel or, marginally better, the ability to pick a program? Big deal! Give me access to the open, broadband internet and the ability to pick and choose from the virtually infinite array of channels, programs, videos, mash-ups that the Internet has to offer. … Now that is ala carte.
And, with the right policy to allow Internet-based applications to bloom and flourish, maybe the FCC won’t even have to confront the backward-looking and, ideally, soon-to-be-irrelevant issue of cable ala carte channel offerings. In an Internet-enabled world, the user is in control, and the offerings are ALL ala carte, unless you have opted for another Internet-based application that filters or “curates” content for you (hmm, sounds like a little company I am launching called Network2.tv -- but I really didn’t intend this blog post to be a commercial for Network2, although I did intend it to reveal some of the potential of what Internet-delivered video could be under a preferred policy framework that would foster Internet innovation and entrepreneurship).
Tags: Kevin Martin, CES, FCC, Jeff Pulver, Internet Video, VoIP
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Posted by jeff on January 10, 2007 06:43 PM | Permalink
Additional resources: Watch PrimeTime TV Shows | Watch the Jeff Pulver Show | Jeff's Qik Videos
Comments
Why don't you just hit the couch, collapse and
forget the switch?
Posted by: R.Gerber at November 27, 2007 03:48 PM
The uncomfortable truth a lot of new media professionals are not acknowledging is that there's an awful lot of the population that doesn't want a la carte. We were having this discussion at the New England Podcasters meetup tonight in Natick, MA. A few folks were musing about when podcasting would really take off, and my input was this - when you don't have to work any more at getting content.
Today, get into your car, turn it on, and there you have content. Granted, it's annoying Clear Channel garbage, or possibly Sirius/XM, but it's content that's there for you with no additional effort on your part.
Turn on the television, and there's content ready for you. It may be all reality shows and equally stupid, mind-numbing garbage, but it requires no additional work, and for a lot of people who come home after a 10 hour day packing pretzels into plastic jars, that's good enough because working to get new, better content is... still work.
What will it take to get new, better, Internet content to the people who rightly don't want to have to work to get their content? RSS is a first step, but then something has to be done with the RSS. Network2 is a next step in filtering out some of the flat out awful garbage, but you still have to work to get content, and compared to content that's worse but requires no work, it's still work.
A la carte will appeal to those who want to put in the work.
Where are the offerings for people who just want to hit an on-switch and collapse on the couch?
More relevant to me as a content producer - how can I get my content to THEM?
Posted by: Christopher Penn, Financial Aid Podcast at January 10, 2007 11:51 PM