Interesting Web-to-TV Video Streaming Study

In-Stat, a global market research and intelligence business has an interesting new report out titled Web-to-TV Video Streaming Services Will Drive Nearly $3 Billion in Revenue by 2013.

Maybe you've heard the term Web-to-TV and maybe you have not - it's a generic term that involves watching web content on a television. Online video continues to grow from popular sites like YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo , Hulu, Blip.tv, Joost and the old-media standbys like NBC and CNN. Naturally people are not just going to want to watch on their computer screens and television manufacturers have quickly realized this. Companies like Samsung and Sony are building sets that connect directly to the web, allowing viewers to watch Internet video without attaching a PC to their TV.

In addition, Microsoft XBox 360 owners can now purchase Internet videos from Netflix and AppleTV owners can do the same thing using iTunes.

In a press release about the In-Stat report, analyst Keith Nissen is quoted:

Once Web-to-TV video becomes simple and convenient, mass consumer adoption will follow quite rapidly. Our primary research shows that users want a variety of their consumer devices to enable a web-to-TV video experience.

Here's some interesting findings from in the report and listed in the press release:

• Over 40% of young adult US households view Internet video on the TV at least once per month.
• Revenue from Web-to-TV streaming services will grow to $2.9 billion in 2013.
• Within five years, the number of US broadband households viewing Web-to-TV content will grow to 24 million.
• Already, 29% of US 25 to 34 year olds with game consoles use the devices to watch streaming video off the Internet.
• In five years, there will be 7.4 million US broadband households that use media center PCs for streaming Web-to-TV content.
• TV networks and pay TV operators currently view online TV as additive to pay TV services, but Web-to-TV will ultimately force a complete restructuring of today’s video services.
• Video content will be optimized for broadcast or Web-to-TV based on content type.

Easy access, potentially infinite availability and any place, any time or any where - it's not just broadcast video, on-demand and pay-per-view on you television set anymore.

AT&T Project Lightspeed Update

Probably because of where I live and work I seem to spend most of my time writing about the things Verizon is doing with their FIOS Fiber to the Home (FTTH) project and Comcast is doing with their DOCSIS 3.0 testing. I've mentioned AT&T and their Project Lightspeed product in the past and think it is time to take a little closer look.

Project Lightspeed was announced as a 6 billion dollar project by AT&T in June 2004 and involves running optical fiber out to a remote terminal, or node and providing the last portion of the connection over copper wire. The project was ambitious from the start with initial plans to reach close to 19 million homes by the end of 2008. AT&T has given the product the name U-verse and at the TelcoTV conference last Wednesday, VP of converged services at AT&T Labs Research Peter Hill gave the keynote address featuring the product. Here's a few quotes from an October 26 CED Magazine post:

AT&T’s roll out of its IPTV video services has been slower than it originally anticipated, but with more than 126,000 current subscribers, the company feels as though it’s on the right track. AT&T started the year with 3,000 video subscribers, then grew that base to 16,000 and 60,000, respectively, in the first and second quarters.

“We’re past the point of last year where the question was, ‘Will IPTV scale?’,” said Peter Hill, VP of converged services at AT&T Labs Research, during the first keynote address Wednesday morning at TelcoTV. “You can’t get to that number (126,000 subscribers) without significant flow through and automation. We do have a competitive service and we can do it to scale.”

Bandwidth has been a major concern, with Hill commenting on the H.264 compression standard:

“The encoding rates for H.264 have come down faster than we projected,” Hill said. “We’ll be able to do more channels in the same amount of bandwidth.”

Hill says the company will be adding home DVRs that allow satellite set-top boxes to show video downloaded to the DVR box. Hill also said the company will be adding to the current 30 high-definition channels next year along with photo-sharing and a Voice over IP (VoIP) service. Here's more interesting quotes from the CED Magazine piece:

While cable executives have said there is no compelling reason to move to an IP infrastructure to deliver video services, Hill contends that IPTV is “very different from cable and satellite” because the nature of IP allows for easier integration among services while also allowing it to take advantage of Internet partners such as Amazon.......

One of those features is “Cinema Center” that allows movies to be purchased from Amazon with one click. The movie portal content would be dynamic and would allow subscribers to view trailers prior to making their purchases.

“We don’t have to create this stuff in IP because it reaches out to Web devices and incorporates them into IPTV,” Hill said.

Hill demonstrated how an iPhone could be used to remotely program a home TV and how multiple cameras at live events could be selected by the viewer. He also demonstrated a feature that used an i-Phone to remotely configure channel favorites on a home TV. The application would give four different i-Phone users the ability to program their favorite shows on their household TVs. Also discussed was a Web cam feature that would let viewers in different locations view a live performance of a sporting event or dance concert based on IP technology that uses switched digital video.

Also, according to CED Magazine:

During the question-and-answer segment, Hill said AT&T would continue to rely on the Motorola set-top box with the Sigma Designs processor as its main workhorse, although it’s also working with Scientific Atlanta on a box with the same signature.

Hill expected new set-top boxes with second-generation chipsets from Sigma and Broadcom to be available in 2009.

The U-verse product website lists:

Subscribers: 126,000 U-verse TV and Internet subscribers in service (as of end of 3Q07)

Homes Passed: Approximately 5.5 million living units (as of end of 3Q07)

Deployment: Plans to pass approximately 8 million living units by the end of 2007Another interesting roll out to watch in 2008.

Schedule: AT&T expects to reach nearly 18 million households as part of its initial deployment by the end of 2008.

This will be another exciting product to watch in 2008.

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Verizon Commits to All IP Network in Three Years

Light Reading has an interesting post titled At Age 2, Verizon FiOS Evolves. In the piece Terry Denson, Verizon Vice President of FiOS TV Content Strategy and Acquisition, says the carrier's mission isn't to have exclusive content, but a better network. The piece goes on to describe how the FIOS network will be converted to all IP over the next three years.

Today technically there is not much difference in the way the Cable companies and Verizon's FiOS deliver broadcast video to their customers but that will change as the provider networks (both Telco and Cable) migrate to all IP networks. Here's a quote from the Light Reading piece:

Cable companies and services like Verizon's FiOS send broadcast video to customers, but IPTV, in contrast, runs on a request-and-send architecture. The provider does not have to send 50 Mbit/s of bandwidth to a customer's home if his computer and TVs are off. The old cable architecture, however, is constantly feeding the home whether the consumer is there to use it or not.

IPTV works differently - it runs on a request-and-send delivery system. The consumer requests a channel and the provider delivers it. Denson is quoted in the piece as follows:

"IPTV identifies what is that one piece of content that would compel someone to switch or stay."

"If both cable and us (Verizon) have the World Cup, well then that's not going to be it. It could be Indian cricket or education. The scarcity of some content is an opportunity for us. Take the Food Network for example. Everyone knows it, but not many people watch it. But for some, it’s a key selling point."

What's driving this change? Technology and bandwidth economy of course but sometimes us technical people forget about marketing and advertising. Delivering channels using IP allows an almost infinite number of content possibilities.

Let's use an example to expand the marketing concept. I enjoy saltwater fly fishing, especially for striped bass on Cape Cod and also for snook in Florida. I'm also not a big golfer - nothing personal - I've tried and am just not very good at it! So what right? Here's another quote from Light Reading:

IPTV allows providers to know what its customers are watching. That's scary, to be sure. But it does mean that there will be no excuse for not having the most compelling content on offer -- since, after all, they "know" you.

So, based on what I watch, the provider could eventually assume that I'm not a golfer (because I don't watch golf) but I do like saltwater (not freshwater) fly fishing (not spin casting) for striped bass (not bluefish) on Cape Cod (not Long Island) and snook (not redfish) in the Clearwater, Florida (not Miami) area!

IPTV will allow providers to learn and react to what I watch by providing the kind of content I like and also react by - you got it - sending me targeted ads.

Home Networking - A Killer Connection?

iSuppli has just released a Q1 2007 consumer demand report titled “Home Networking: In Search of a Killer Connection" with some very interesting survey results. The report says Home Networking will grow at a projected rate of 33% per year through 2011 as illustrated in the graph below (report source abstract linked here ).

Here's more from the report:

- The current global penetration rate of Home Networking is 3%

- WiFi will be the most common technology for home networking.

- Home networking is rapidly moving beyond just computer and printer connectivity. The big move over the next few years will be in entertainment devices like DVD recorders, set-top boxes, digital televisions, Digital Video Recorders, and video game consoles.

- 61% of the people surveyed want to connect their TV's to the Internet.

And here's a quote from the report:

The migration toward a ubiquitous consumer-friendly home network is still in its infancy. Today, home networking is essentially limited to the sharing of multiple PCs with the home broadband gateway. iSuppli believes this is just the tip of the iceberg. Many consumer appliances are now being designed with interconnectivity foremost in mind, andmore are expected over the next couple of years.

We've all been predicting this and anxiously waiting - it's happening - are you, your academic programs and your students ready?