A Look at IPTV 155
Q-Tip writes "Ars Technica has posted an introduction to IPTV, which is the TV programming technology AT&T (and formerly BellSouth) will be using to provide TV service over its next-gen optical network. The article covers how IPTV works and how AT&T and other providers will be able to provide more interactive services once their networks are up and running."
Yup (Score:4, Informative)
I get Video on Demand, Radio, Broadcast TV and Internet over the ADSL with 2Mbps Internet while watching TV and 5Mbp while it's off (8Mbps is possible on the best lines right now)
All this and free off-peak and weekend calls and lower line rental from http://www.homechoice.co.uk/ [homechoice.co.uk]
But it's not that popular yet - the monopolistic Murdoch satellite provider we're stuck with wont flog the channels people want to Homechoice so the channels we can get are fairly limited. The only reason I have it is because I'd have to pay £220 for the first year and £80 a year after that for the priviledge of renting a satellite feed as I'm in a condo and cable haven't gone down our road yet.
IPTV is frightening Sky so they're buying into it big time right now.
Re:Interactive services? (Score:3, Informative)
A single operator serves over half of the ITV enabled set tops in the US. Echostar (Dish Network) is the only operator in the position to have significant interactive penetration as the market stands today.
Echostar held their ITV summit Friday. CNN just launched their Enhanced TV service on Echostar. The representative from CNN was very clear that launching on Echostar was the obvious choice because they had the set tops deployed to make it worthwhile.
There is a real chicken-or-the-egg problem with ITV. Because of the infrastructure involved it can't grow organically like the Internet. First the ITV enabled boxes have to be in the field. Then the content has to be there. Then, and only then, the operator has to make the users aware that there is all this additional value in the service they already have. Echostar is really only now entering the third stage. (With the new portal and their "trigger" functionality.) I expect big things in the next couple of years. The other US providers are really all in the first stage. On the other hand, several providers have ITV capable STBs, but no middleware. (My employer, OpenTV, would love to help all comers remedy that situation!)
To sort of bring this back on topic, Echostar has launched its first generation of IPTV enabled set tops. (With MPEG-4 and Ethernet.)
-Peter