Reality Check | Ephraim Schwartz » TAG: Media

August 13, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Broadcasters fight move offering Internet access over TV

TAGS: Media

Microsoft, as part of a high-tech coalition that includes Intel, Google, and Dell, will give testimony today before the FCC refuting that commission's claim that the use of "vacant TV airwaves," also called "white space," for Internet access will interfere with the television signal, according to the Washington Post.

Of course the broadcast media industry will refute these claims because it views high technology as a threat to its hegemony -- as well it might, as more and more people turn away from the vacuous airwaves and turn on their PCs for communications, information, and entertainment.

Those in favor of the technology say the use of white space in the broadcast signal is less expensive than fiber optics and phone lines.

More important, if we are sincere about closing the digital divide between the haves and have-nots, what better way than to be able to access the Internet over a TV, of which there are still millions more than computers in the home?

A spokesperson for the National Association of Broacasters, Dennis Wharton, called Microsoft's proposal "self-serving," according to the Post.

What else is new? Of course both sides are self-serving. The question is whose self-serving agenda best serves us peons.

If you've ever accessed the Internet over a television set in a hotel room, you know it is hardly worth the trouble.

The display is big and grainy, and navigating with the wireless keyboard they usually supply is agony.

But with high-speed connections and Wi-Fi now available in every major hotel, why would anyone want to bother or need to?

Speaking for myself, sometimes flopping down on your hotel bed after a miserable day of waiting on line at airports, packed flights, and long taxi lines until you take your $50 ride to the hotel might be nice. I would like to just flip on the TV and view my e-mail rather than having to unpack and set up my notebook.

There are other uses as well. If you could access a quality connection over the TV, you could access your home network and retrieve videos, movies, and music (which means, I guess, the hotel industry will fight this, too).

Despite the FCC's reservations and the NAB opposition, this is going to happen one way or another. It is only a matter of time.

Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on August 13, 2007 10:48 AM

January 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)

IP, iPhone will change broadcast industry

TAGS: Media

The impact of companies that distribute user created content like YouTube and blip.tv, plus products like Apple's iPhone and AppleTV, Sling Media's Slingbox, and Samsung's Advanced VSB [A-VSB], will shake up both the media/broadcast and telecom industries.

If you don't believe me, take a look at the site RocketBoom, which hosts a daily, three-minute video blog; or see what happened to its former star Amanda Congdon, who was getting about 1 million hits per day for her show. She is being signed up by HBO and ABC.

But someday, companies like RocketBoom will have huge revenues from advertising, so that they will be able to counter-offer the pot of gold that ABC or HBO offers Internet stars like Amanda Congdon and then, holy smoke, we will really see major changes in the broadcast industry and the mindless junk it offers us.

The way it works now, according to Mike Hudack, CEO at blip.tv, is a small number of companies have a monopoly of broadcast spectrum.

They can go out and negotiate aggressively with any content provider. They simply have to remind the creative side that you can't get to a mass market without them.

And this is also true for telecom and its content providers.

It is true that due to the limited spectrum they make huge bets on content. So, as Hudack says it is actually inefficient for both the creators and the distributors.

The content provider gets paid on the upside, and often paid quite well. But if the show is a hit the distributor/broadcaster makes it up on the backside while the creator just gets to produce more shows.

The new delivery mechanisms, all IP, changes all that.

IP and the digital devices it uses gives everyone a freedom to be heard and seen that is unprecedented in the history of the world.

The question is will it be allowed to continue unfettered by either government or private enterprise trying to take back their monopolies?

Well, let's enjoy the ride while it lasts.

Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on January 10, 2007 12:57 PM