How great would it be to watch all TV content plus a lot more through internet connection?
The reality of video content being delivered trough internet may not be as impossible and far fetched as it seems. This year’s International Consumer’s Electronics Show featured both, technological advances that will enhance video content delivery over internet and strong intention of biggest technology companies to enter the field and compete with cable and satellite service providers.
Even though most of today’s television service companies own cable or phone line pipes to consumers’ home, it has been proven that “walled garden” of information delivery method is not sustainable. Consumers have simply chosen the freedom of controlling what they see and how they see information over having everything served in closed box portal way. AOL, Compuserve and MSN were pioneer ISPs and tried to preserve closed single channel information flow. We all know how they fared once other players entered the field.
Having Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Intel and oters take part in video content delivery service will speed up internet TV development. These companies already have well designed open standard information delivery that competes through quality of content. Today’s cable and satellite companies still hold monopoly when it comes to ways and means of reaching consumer’s homes. They also relay on it to keep consumers loyalty. This method will be shaken up and is going to face the same destiny telephone providers experienced as soon as internet infrastructure developed to carry voice service.
Internet as video content delivery promises the same kind of quality television delivers, but better and with a lot more verity. We should see internet offer hundreds of thousands of channels instead of up to five hundred current service offers. Search for video content should be just as easy and convenient as searching internet is now. Price should also decrease.
How soon will all this be here?
The main issue is delivery method. The bandwidth. Once internet connection is capable of delivering 10 megabits per second downstream or higher, we will have arrvied. Currently broadband service offers 1.5 – 6MB with cable providers clearly leading the way.
Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) may be closer then we think.
Dautovic 