IPTV Revolution Put on Hold

prostoalex writes "Business Week says the IPTV revolution might be postponed. As telecoms are launching the new service, they are facing the problem of lack of content: "But improvements like these can happen only if content providers - media companies and movie studios like Disney - play along. So far, it seems, they're not. Disney didn't return calls from BusinessWeek Online seeking comment, and it hasn't signed with any outside distributor to provide its movies for video-on-demand. Most studios have agreed to only limited video-on-demand distribution, fearing it could cut into revenues from rentals and DVD sales - now generating bigger income streams than the box office itself." The solution just might be buying out content companies, like Mark Cuban does. In the retrospect the Comcast bid for Disney and AOL buying Time Warner start making sense."

Comments

ever heard of multicast???

[cheekyboy]

http://www.savetz.com/mbone/ch9.html
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/674/4.html

broadcast IP

Re:religeous content is HUGE!!!

[Desert Raven]

But christian tv etc... are BIG money, or at lest BIG audiences.

Right away you have 1.1 billion customers

1.1 Billion might be christian, but I doubt even 10% would pay for premium content christian tv.

Lets face it, the odds-on favorite for the first major user will be the same one that has always pioneered new media. Porn.

Re:IPTV not available?

[Bushcat]

KDDI Hikari & SoftbankBB. I kinda collect internet connections.

But is it...

[ImaLamer]

So do I, except it's legal.

Seriously, I tried this service a while back and it works really well. So far I belive it only works on Windows, although Real has released a DRM-enabled client for Linux for quite some time ago. I know you hear DRM and groan - the service is worth the cost however. I believe it's $13/month with unlimited viewing of as many movies as you can download. The movies "expire" but that is expected - but they offer a live feed of the Starz channel along with it.

Almost as good as Netflix or Blockbuster online. Don't even have to send anything back. When it expires, you just can't play it. I think HBO should offer the same type of service, but they are owned by Time Warner (my local cable provider). Shame too, they have the most content and offer the most channels.