What’s Wrong with iPTV?

An interesting debate about the future of iPTV - perhaps for me the importsnt pull out is that customers want, not suprisingly network neutrality.

And this goes to the heart of the debate

Lin: We’ve talked about a lot of the technology challenges. But there’s a fundamental reason for the telco business model. Historically, it was tailored to communication services. To be an IP provider, they need to acquire a lot of content. This will force them to become an entertainment and media company. That has tremendous challenges for their back-end infrastructure and their internal flow.

Aalaei: If the people building the new content management infrastructure are looking at the Sony’s and MGMs and Showtimes and HBOs, that’s like looking for love in all the wrong places. That’s going after something your competitor already offers or owns or has a better deal. A different paradigm is an open platform that drives right into your TV and is open to anyone who wants to provide content. It doesn’t have to be HBO or Cinemax. You’re going to watch what you want, and someone is going to take a cut. What made NTT DoCoMo the success it became wasn’t cell phone service. Others were already offering that in Japan. What they came up with was iMode, where the Japanese sat down on their cell phones and played games on the subways. NTT got a cut of 1 yen or 2 yen per game download, and it created billions of dollars of revenue. That’s the paradigm and approach that will create differentiation.

Electronic News: What’s the difference between Internet TV and IP TV?

Lin: Internet TV is viewed as an open distribution platform, where content can be delivered via this open platform directly to subscribers. Unfortunately, that limits the telcos’ role as dumb pipe providers, which doesn’t allow them a lot of room for getting revenue. From a telco point of view, that’s their defense.

Aalaei: They should look at Google. What does Google actually own? All they own is a Web site. What they have that no one has is the business intelligence to take advantage of it and make it more intelligent.

Lin: This is the driver behind the Net neutrality debate, where the telcos say they own the pipe and the benefit goes to someone else. They want to put some restrictions there to give themselves better service.

In a world where every thing is up for grabs - the question is who owns what? Somone said "all property is theft." I think we are somewhere in a world of land grabs. No one is sure any more what they are, what value they can deliver. etc

However, the smart ones or those that create valuable platforms that allow business to flourish, and a new distribution model to grow built by the community vs. corporations that want to lock you down and lock you in.

And there are a growing band of those whereas the old corporations struggle to find a path to survival, and also struggle with their own DNA of owning and controlling everything.

Also How do you make money in a world where all your ideas can be stolen? And The end of the affair

Still - I believe iPTV can work as a hybrid model of content, community, connectivity and commerce

Where the people build the value and are happy to belong to a community they can trust.

Technology is not what this is alll about