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February 11, 2007
VDC is Taking on the Cable TV Industry:
Chicago Tribune: Web TV firm fights to add to lineup
"VDC, which started offering live streaming video over the Internet last spring, has struck out repeatedly trying to buy the broad range of TV programming it wants, mostly due to resistance from the cable television industry and its suppliers...has taken its case to the Federal Communications Commission...
...VDC views its business model as a video version of what Vonage, the Internet phone service, did a few years ago. Just as Vonage offered phone service over the Internet without owning network facilities, VDC wants to do that with video.
That's an admirable goal, said Jeff Pulver, who founded Vonage and has since left that company to start his own Internet-based video service, Network2.
"I agree with where VDC wants to go," said Pulver, "but I think their tactics are flawed."
Pulver said that in founding Vonage, he never appealed for regulatory aid from the government because regulation was the last thing Internet-based services need.
"You don't want to invite application of legacy regulations to new technology," Pulver said. "If there's any regulation at all, it should be tailored to the new technology itself and be very light."
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While I do applaud the pioneering efforts of VDC, going to the FCC and asking them to apply legacy rules on new enabling internet technologies may not be the best way to approach the situation.
Tags: VDC, Jon Van, Public Policy, Network2, FCC, Jeff Pulver
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Posted by jeff on February 11, 2007 10:23 AM | Permalink
Additional resources: Watch PrimeTime TV Shows | Watch the Jeff Pulver Show | Jeff's Qik Videos
Comments
I think you're missing the point...
VDC is not asking for or inviting new regulations. They are only asking for enforcement of current laws that already exist; which are inevitable to the internet anyways.
No offense to you Jeff and to the Chicago Tribune of which you were quoted, however the article below provides a much clearer picture of the regulatory concepts that I believe you're both failing to grasp:
Posted by: Laura at February 14, 2007 12:37 AM
Good post. As I wrote in a response on my blog , IPUrbia, I tend to agree with not appealing for regulatory help simply because dumping traditional television program would kill the fledging online content industry (such as Pulver's Network2). I think the best long-term solution would be for online content to mature and be able to compete very viably head to head against the best of traditional programming, destroying the very closed distribution models of traditional television and creating a very open and competitive marketplace in video content.
Posted by: Clint Ricker at February 12, 2007 07:01 PM