JamieG Analysis

Today I would like to look into the fallacy of IPTV = Streaming video.

It is quite a bewildering site to see all the larger media companies pushing huge amounts of money into, what they see, as the next media revolution. Streaming IPTV.

These companies have the voice of the media, well they are the media, and according to them we all will be going streaming pay tv type services in the near future.

And to tell the truth, due to the marketing might of these companies, most will likely follow this path. People like been told what to do.

But really, is this the way forward. Let’s look at the motivations of content producers and of traditional media companies.

To start at the beginning, we have a person with an Idea. This idea grows into a Production. A production ends up as a final product usually stored on a “Master” (Which these days can be anything from a Tape to a Hard Drive to Film). As a Producer, I now want to sell or give away the content, depending on the business model. This part of the equation has not changed, however, the next step, and the most important step, if your trying to maximize returns on viewing the content, has change into a maze of confusion.

We have two extremes. Traditional media companies like TV stations and cable/pay tv stations, to YouTube and Podcasting or Itunes and many other DRMed based online companies.

Different business models will suite different distribution mediums, however, looking at a utopia of content distribution, the best model for the consumer is to have as few middle men as possible. No middle man means better prices, no filtering and more variety.

In the traditional media distribution models, the TV/payTV stations where the gate keepers. You had to pass through there gates to get to the consumer. As such they could pretty much dictate to you exactly what they wanted. The Producer often enough ends up with bread crumbs.

However, the new business models appearing on the internet take them out of the equation all together. A Producer can go directly to consumers, marketing themselves and distributing themselves. All over the internet. This is the main thrust behind myspace, youtube.

But as a Media company.. No No No, we cannot have this. How can a media company take advantage of producers if they have options! So really, the media companies have to keep the gatekeeper business model alive to justify themselves.

As such, according to the big media companies, the future is IPTV but still via them as the gate keepers. This, however, is not likely to turn out the way they want no matter what they do. Not to say that there will not be a user base for streaming IPTV, its just not going to be the windfall they hope.