[opendtv] Re: Serivces and Applications
- From: Tom Barry <trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 19:10:04 -0400
John -
If we are not allowed to discuss bit rates or return channels then I'm
not sure it is possible to determine which types of content are most
economically "broadcast" vs which types are best ordered on demand
through interactive channels like ordinary cell phones and the Internet.
And without the economics numbers of the data communications it may
not be possible to evaluate the possible business models. It would
seem the business models would have to compare the cost/availability
of content and the cost of the comm channel used to the possible
ongoing revenues (and inconveniences) any customers might pay for all
this.
That is maybe over simplistic but content itself has limited value
with no proper way to deliver it. Just as in physical goods, commerce
often involves transport. (wagons, shipping lanes, railroads,
information superhighways)
- Tom
John Willkie wrote:
> In recent posts on this list on several topics, Kon and I have "converged"
> on services and applications.
>
> Services are of course transmitted collections of packet streams.
> Applications travel over and use these streams to provide (hopefully) useful
> services to consumers.
>
> What tend to be opposed to these concepts is talking about bits. That makes
> as much sense as talking about the last 50 years of television but confining
> the discussion to ionized atoms. Sure, ionized atoms are essential to
> transmission, but people tune in to programs, channels and networks.
>
> There is much technology out there. Some of it has no "useful purpose."
> Mostly, it fails.
>
> One of the keys is figuring out how to get from here to a a "rich media
> services" model. We can rail about broadcasters defending "the NTSC
> franchise" and their "business model." The truth is that the broadcast
> business model, in the U.S. and elsewhere, evolved as people tried to figure
> out how to run a transmitter as a business or non-profit service.
>
> Dissing broadcasters won't help: they will have much free bandwidth to
> offer new services, and will have the incentive to try to make new services
> profitable and useable.
>
> Talking about the "lack" of a return channel is not helpful. There are
> multiple return channels, for mobile and fixed users, provided one has some
> type of an Internet connection. The truth is that these are not likely to
> be used much in the next ten or twenty years: most people still use
> broadcasting to be entertained or informed, not to interact.
>
> And, there are plenty of complimentary ways to interact, using devices more
> suitable to interaction than a button-laden remote control. Like, for
> example, a telephone.
>
> John Willkie
>
>
>
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