Washington Post: Internet TV is a mirage, seeming so close yet turning out to be far away or downright unreal when you try to watch it. At least that’s my take on the many past plans for zapping motion pictures over the Internet. Now that is harsh, given that so much of the venture money is being sunk into these “connected home” companies. The Post does a nice round-up of Internet TV start-ups with funky names to match their funky business plans:Akimbo, DaveTV, RipeTV and TimeshifTV. Early days for these companies, and difficult days, since content is still the preserve of luddites in Hollywood. [Via Yahoo]
3 comments so far
2:17 PM PT
Internet TV will be huge, but when? Home broadband connections need to get faster and networked multimedia players need to get cheaper and better. Both of those things will eventually happen. A lot depends on how all these RBOC FTTH/FTTC rollouts go. Anyone who has used VOD can see the potential of Internet TV.
2:42 PM PT
Not going to happen as a general end to end over the internet solution anytime soon - the public internet just doesn’t have the bandwidth for many people to adopt this technology.
On a private network, as a near-edge to consumer product, it might work. But considering how hard it has been for Tivo to get mass adoption with a much stronger consumer value proposition, it seems unlikely that these early entrants will survive.
4:06 PM PT
Om, the morphing of Internet and TV is inevitable but the business case is currently the stumbling block (as it is in most cases). IP Set Top Box prices are one of the keys, as these finally ebb below $100 per unit, the business case will begin to come into line. I am not sure the Akimbo type model will work in the face of MSO competition, a full service MSO offering will always be more compelling than a specialty “overlay” type solution such as Akimbo’s.
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