I often get asked what IPTV is. For those of you who are web savvy it should be fairly simple to explain. For those who don’t know, it is basically Television over the internet. The short term IP means Internet Protocol. Since broadband has taken off like a rocket to space, we are clearly able to watch TV, films, video clips and commercials in real time, over the internet.
OK, now that’s fairly easy to understand; but there is a much wider discussion going on about the future of IPTV and the business models in order to get this right over the internet.
There are two main factors involved.
1 – Broadcasting Rights
2 – Advertising Models
Everyday, broadcasters and cable companies are losing their audiences to Internet Video Platforms, such as blip.tv, joost.com, hulu.com. They are trying their best to come up with a solution in the fight to keep their viewers. In the UK the BBC has introduced the iplayer. Channel 4 introduced 4oD and ITV launched a catchup service on itv.com. The catchup services which all UK broadcasters provide have proved to be massively popular. The two main questions are, how do they monatize this service to keep it going? and how can they obtain the rights to distribute content over the internet?
The broadcasting rights to show content over the internet were not part of the deal when UK broadcasters purchased content to air on TV. Now the game change is shifting over the internet, the big US content providers are playing hardball and retaining these rights. With this in mind, Hulu.com shouted out last month. They are opening up their platform to the UK.
It’s a massive subject. The US Content Owners don’t want to lose the revenue of IP (intellectual property) for one second!
Signing off!
Realitypod.tv team
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