JamieG Analysis

If you have not noticed, my blog mainly covers technological issues to do with the adoption or digital media. As such, I talk to a lot of people regarding their business models for expanding digital media. One strange, trend that has appeared is that many companies developing digital media strategies are, by admition, ignoring a large part of the market.

“The post X-generation” or those who did not grow up with mobiles or computers in every day life.

This large demographic are huge content consumers. They are usually 35 and older.Add the fact that not all young people are hip with tech.

This demographic is largely ignored by most digital media businesses I have studied. They are ignored in that none of the user interface design and usability has been developed with them in mind. (The new AppleTV version 2 is getting close)

This does make some sense as digital media is already being consumed by the X-generation at an astounding rate. The X-generation is only getting bigger as time goes by.

However, considering all this, the X-generation is also expecting content for free as that is what they pay for it now by using torrents and other P2P networks.

If digital media is to really take off, we need to open the door to the older generation/non-tech savy. We need to develop cheap and simple products. These products need to be based on open standards so every TV/video-screen producer can bundle a form of Set Top Box which is more than just a tuner, but an Internet RSS feed tuner.

The implementation does not have to be a do it all solution. It just has to be simply enough and wide spread enough to plant the seed in the minds of those that are use to the old ways. Until they see something better, they are not going to switch. And if they are happy with what they have, how can you get something new into their living rooms.

An open standards based STB that all TV producers can embed into their new Plasma or LDC screens needs to be addressed. It needs to be open standards based as to keep the price down. It needs to be open standards based to stop any individual company becoming to dominant and powerful. (Microsoft has not innovated in years.)

This is an easy conclusion to see and understand for any older TV engineer . It is exactly how it has been done in the past. SMPTE has been the driving force for television, introducing standards to television manufacturers can follow as such making it easy for consumers to tune in local TV.

Strangely enough this is not the case for Internet TV. I have spend many hours considering this point and can only really come up with the following reason why.

In the past, SMPTE formulated standards by getting major participants in TV technology and distribution to sit around a table and come up with solutions. It was a WIN-WIN situation all around. Those who tried to manipulate the standards into their favour usually had to compromise to get the others in the committee to agree. In the end, we had some well thought out standards.

Internet TV, however, is a completely different story. None of the incumbent players who are use to being on these committees have any invested interest in Internet TV developing standards. In real terms, we have very big and powerful companies that use to be part of these committees trying their best to make sure no open standards are adopted. They have their restricted offerings, and plan to dominate the world with them. Standards will only derail these plans.

Microsoft has the biggest example of this, taking part in SMPTE more and more over the years pushing such ideas as the VC1 (Windows Media Codec) into a SMPTE standard etc.

As movies are considered a type of content we are more likely to want to watch once and as such DRM and renting of content seems a much better fit. I am not a fan of DRM but then again, I am not a fan of NOT PAYING producers for the work they put into making the content. This is a difficult line to walk. However, some have made a good point out of the fact that OPEN SOURCE DRM systems are not secure by nature. My question is, how secure is secure enough?

There has been very little work on open source DRM systems. Some do exist, but studying them myself, sometimes I feel they have been made excessively complex to force you to pay for implementation, or otherwise they are too immature. But in my opinion, a DRM is a DRM even if open source. It is still going to stop general duplication. Those pirates who are keen to copy the content are going to break the DRM even if it is the best in the world. Just takes them a little longer.

So really, how far are we from a potential cheap to implement STB that TV manufactures can adopt as the new standard that replaces the “TV Tuner” found if every TV of today.

Unfortunately, a long way by the looks of it.

My previous post about Adobe could be a way forward, but that too has some worrying proprietary strings attached.

Google is known to be working on a STB OS. It could be developed similar to Android,( a free OS for phones) but for Internet TV tuners.

It is these issues that hold the Internet TV revolution from ignition point. Keep it in mind.

Also see; www.rss-tv.org a site pushing open standards forIntertnet TV. A good start.

Also see; Brightcove open letter to industry on Internet TV Standards.