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Jeff Pulver Is Betting on Internet Video
Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Jeff Pulver, the self-described futurist and entrepreneur who started the company that was Vonage's predecessor, is shifting his sights to Internet video, according to the Wall Street Journal: 'Mr. Pulver is creating his own Internet TV show, which he is modeling on Rocketboom, a popular Internet video-blog that broadcasts a three-minute news show daily. He is considering launching a broader Internet TV subsidiary and is weighing whether to invest in several emerging Internet video companies, though he won't name them. Someday he wants to start an Internet reality TV show.' Pulver says, 'The same DNA that disrupted the telecom industry is well on its way to totally revolutionizing the way the TV, film, and broadcast industry is going to be,' adding that he's now looking for 'the Vonage of Internet video.' And by the way, he regrets leaving the Vonage of Internet calling before it got hot: 'I blew it. I had the juice. I could have done something.'"
Considering the performance of the recent IPO, I would think that would be a bad thing...
I think it's a great thing to see the Internet taking over all types of media. We are beginning to see less need for standard brick and mortar establishments, and the ease of finding informaiton has never been so great. However, I don't know what type of acceptance he will find with this new technology. I've seen several programs that air online, but only a select few seem to keep up with the programming...not to mention the bandwidth requirements for the hundreds of millions of people that could possibly try to connect at the same time...that's kinda scary.
Sure there's a market for internet-distributed video content. But the major players (major media conglomerates) will make sure that broadcast (whether via cable or air) remains in the lead for video content delivery. Why? Because it's more efficient when you're 'reaching out' to a hundred million or more households, and that's where the big ad money is.
Never mind the fact that tiered internet is going to slaughter any kind of competitive content delivery marketplace.
So, Mr. Pulver, go ahead and start your Videonage. Good luck getting mass media and the governments in their pockets to let go of their stranglehold. Good luck paying for all your high-speed bandwidth and priority handling, and good luck finding a revenue source.
/Sorry, had a big cynicism sandwich for lunch -- but I really don't think an 'internet' version of another utility-type product is going to work out until the entire structure of the entertainment industry changes (which means, not in our lifetimes).
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Have you never heard of Pulver Communications? Free World Dialup (free VOIP service)? VON (Voice on the Net) conferences? VON Magazine? You haven't been paying much attention to VoIP have you?
Look beyond Skype, look at SIP and Asterisk. You'll start seeing his name everywhere.
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Multicast isn't implemented currently in the IPv4 internet (it's in the spec but not implemented for the most part), so he's going to have to wait for IPv6 before any streaming TV show becomes possible. Currently, all we can guarantee is unicast, and the numbers are dismal for that.
As an example, from this page, if you have a 2 frame per second video at 320x240, you're probably going to use 35kbps. From the master bandwidth chart, a T1 line has 1.544Mbps. Divide through, and you'll see your T1 can service about 44 customers. A T3 can service 1278.
Now look up the prices on how much a T3 will cost you. And realize that with that you're serving about 1300 customers. Scale it and you'll see why video isn't a winning game yet, money-wise.
IPv6 multicast is going to happen first before streaming video becomes financially feasable.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
sort of off topic, but what schooling is required to being a futurist? is that a four-year program?
Music lovers are not criminals.
Multicasting can be done in IPv4. The BBC are running a test streaming their TV stations via the internet using multicast. http://www.bbc.co.uk/multicast/
Democracy Now!, one of the finest news programs in the world (radical and non-corporate), has been broadcasting daily audio and audio/video for download/stream - in many formats and bitrates, including FLAC and uncompressed MPEG - for years (as well as radio and even TV if you're lucky).
Property is theft.
The same DNA that disrupted the telecom industry is well on its way to totally revolutionizing the way the TV, film, and broadcast industry is going to be,' adding that he's now looking for 'the Vonage of Internet video.'
The buzzword density of this statement is off the charts. Any '90's dotcom CEO would be pround. Mark Cuban once had the Vonage of internet Video in broadcast.com. It became the Dallas Mavericks and his private jets.
an ill wind that blows no good
"Jeff Pulver, the self-described futurist and entrepreneur... says, 'The same DNA that disrupted the telecom industry is well on its way to totally revolutionizing the way the TV, film, and broadcast industry is going to be,' adding that he's now looking for 'the Vonage of Internet video.' And by the way, he regrets leaving the Vonage of Internet calling before it got hot: 'I blew it. I had the juice. I could have done something.'"
"Self-described" futurist and entrepreneur who uses "DNA" unscientifically and totally out of context (maybe self referential?) and the phrase, "I had the juice." Please, people, editorial discretion! Shame on both WSJ and Slashdot for picking up this claptrap.
Call me a troll, but it wastes our (as in readers) time to run stories about people's groundless opinions or plans and this sort of thing just rewards the self-aggrandizers who spread false information, often by opinion stated as fact, seek attention for themselves, and cause many social ills.
Yeah, I know it's part of the spec but IIRC most of the routers on the net aren't configured to pass on multicast packets. That's why the BBC says that you have to be in the UK, and have a net connection from their list of approved partner ISPs. If you're on a different ISP, the packets will be dropped.
Still it's cool that someone out there is trying to do this - multicast rocks. I can't wait for it to become more widespread.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
To get around the current issues without waiting for everyone to shift to IP6, what would be needed is system for video steaming that made use of a p2p network.
Multicast isn't implemented currently in the IPv4 internet
Well if even you weren't going to use the IPv6 technology you'd either have to have either:
A.) Hope that everyone will get FiOS installed in their homes soon. (or equivalant 15-30mbps down)
or
B.) Dedicated hardware for video compression and decompression. Like something a way better than H.264 (Mpeg-4)
Sadly, neither of these two things are going to happen any time soon, but when 25% of the people start getting fiber to the curb and video hardware companies find better ways to compress video from the studio to the home without it being too lossy.
Personally, if I had a few million to kick around with a VC I'd do a startup with either some type of mp3 downloads or IPTV hardware development.
Basically an IPTV would be something like vonage in which you plug it into your existing TV and hook to your broad band. You could program the box through a web interface and have the standard pay channels you'd get in your cable companies (and HBO etc) just like your other system.
It would be easier to verify than cable because you have accounts like xbox live etc (know anyone who steals free xbox live access?)
Buuut... The key feature of this is that you could stream any IP from anywhere in the world. Want Korean streams... Just save the Korean news channel IP address... Want to watch some blogger in Canada? Just plug in his compatiable h.898 protocol streaming server.
How would this make money? Well I think mostly like how original cable was going to be subscription only... My hope is that this box would be open anyone will to subscribe could go to best buy and pull one off the shelf and could subcribe to any of these independant server like one pays a "premimum website" for content or perhaps just views ads.
How would the startup company make money... Well hopefully from the boxes themselves rather than the content, but there would be a "out of the box" service subscription cheaper than say... oh.. comcast... but the infrastructure isn't here so anyone with VC money feel free to steal this idea.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)