Grid Meter » Getting the Internet Ready for TV ...

April 13, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Getting the Internet Ready for TV ...

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Earlier this week, Richard Waters from the Financial Times broke the story that the public Internet's performance may not be enough to sustain the sort of traffic demands that might be created when the large networks start pushing ad-supported shows over the Internet. This was in response to the Disney / ABC announcement that it plans to offer some select shows on the Internet in a streaming, non-downloadable format. According to Waters:

"[S]treaming video, which relies on delivering "bits" of data to viewers in real time, has exposed weaknesses in the fundamental design of the internet, which is based on being able to send data through a series of "hops" across the network between two distant computers."

Last year, Joe Touch, director of the Postel Center, told me that with the public Internet, "everybody gets an Acura ... you can tune things so they don't break, but you don't build a Maserati on the Internet." In other words, the public Internet was architected for the greatest common good, and NOT necessarily for the streaming data demands of the major television networks.

So is it possible that the networks will start laying dedicated pipes to ensure the performance of content delivery? It doesn't seem like that big of a stretch of the imagination. However, it's also possible that the television networks will look to Grid pros like the Belfast e-Science Centre in the UK, whose Gridcast project is already helping the BBC manage its enormous media file transfer issues and would certainly present some interesting scenarios in helping US networks push content out to viewers over IP.

The streaming implementation that ABC has chosen was selected in part so that viewers are prevented from fast forwarding through sections (read: commercials) as one would be able to do with media that was available in a conventional download. But if there were some hybrid system where media could be downloadable but secured in a way to prevent rebroadcast, multiple uses, or even fast forwarding through sections, bandwidth concerns of streaming methods would be mitigated. Not that Grid is a plug and play solution for this, but these topics are certainly familiar to those in the Grid space.

One thing's for sure ... over the last 20 years, consumers don't seem to mind how they get their TV content, as long as there's some sort of pipe that comes in from somewhere outside (a satellite, the local cable company, etc.) that they can plug into and become one with their couches.

Posted by Greg Nawrocki on April 13, 2006 07:56 AM

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