Thursday, October 06, 2005
[network] Television: 3 billion channels, coming to a PC near you
At the meeting I reported on earlier another common thread through the discussion was the nature of the telco and media business. In each broadcasting geographical area, the number of channels is running in the hundreds. In addition, there are uncounted numbers of websites with visual, streaming, content. My own daughters watch the Songcontests on one of our home PCs. New TV stations are launched in a frantic race to preserve market share. Very soon, there will be as many TV stations as we now have websites.
What does this mean to the TV viewer? According to Ivo Lochtman (digital TV division of UPC - a cable company), TV behaviour will change “from zapping to searching.” Similar remarks were made by other speakers. Michiel Buitelaar of KPN fixed line retail states: “customers do not want unlimited possibilities, they want simple things that work.” That is why KPN has started the development of EPG’s (electronic program guides), and will even make community specific program guides (i.e. Christian, Alternative, etc).
These EPGs will be a kind of trusted advisories on the programs (or stations) you would care to watch. Now, where have we seen these before? This is exactly what magazine and newspaper editors do, selecting and filtering the content that is proper to their specific audience, and developing a community in this way.
So, does this mean that telcos will become publishers, and why should they do a better job than Google?
What does this mean to the TV viewer? According to Ivo Lochtman (digital TV division of UPC - a cable company), TV behaviour will change “from zapping to searching.” Similar remarks were made by other speakers. Michiel Buitelaar of KPN fixed line retail states: “customers do not want unlimited possibilities, they want simple things that work.” That is why KPN has started the development of EPG’s (electronic program guides), and will even make community specific program guides (i.e. Christian, Alternative, etc).
These EPGs will be a kind of trusted advisories on the programs (or stations) you would care to watch. Now, where have we seen these before? This is exactly what magazine and newspaper editors do, selecting and filtering the content that is proper to their specific audience, and developing a community in this way.
So, does this mean that telcos will become publishers, and why should they do a better job than Google?
