TV Everywhere: a business model in search of an audience
Wednesday, September 19th, 2012Mike Grotticelli – Broadcast Engineering
Like the much-overused (and widely misunderstood) phrase “interactive television” before it, the “TV Everywhere” concept now being offered by virtually every major multichannel operator in the country means different things to different people. To some, it means a subscriber can begin watching a video program in their living room TV, pause it, then watch it on their electronic tablet and pick it up exactly where they left off. To others, it means accessing a networked DVR from anywhere in (or outside) the home. Still others think it means simply watching video on your cell phone (away from home).
The concept is really a business model in search of an audience.
For companies like Emeryville, CA-based MobiTV, which provide the technology that processes content to make all of these scenarios possible, the confusion has held back ubiquitous adoption of the strategy. The company, which started delivering live content over 2G networks in 2003, currently offers specialized software on HP client computers as well as fully managed services that often include third-party technology as well.
MobiTV representatives said they could have an IP-based live and on-demand service up and running in a matter of months, from beginning negotiations to system deployment. All content coming into MobiTV’s data center in Sacramento, CA, is simultaneously encoded into 16 to 24 different formats to accommodate the various display screens in the market today. (Full Article)