MediaPost has an interesting write up on the coming turf battle between telcos and traditional broadcasters where broadcast media and IPTV intersect. My personal bias here is that the conversation, to be meaningful, really needs to have some context wrapped around it.
By that, I mean there is the transport question of proprietary versus TCP/IP networks, which is kind of a yawner at this point, as the trend lines are clear -- IP is swallowing up proprietary.
The real question is whether TV is being re-invented to be more interactive and more deeply integrated with web functionality, thereby becoming a "lean forward" experience, or will remain "lean back" oriented.
Will the experience continue to be one device at a time focused or increasingly optimized for concurrent use with multiple devices (i.e., watch TV on a big screen while IM'ing on a handheld and playing on a PlayStation)?
Will TV show producers control the creation of such services by being thought leaders and better integrating new functionality with their content, or will it evolve as "out of band" and separate from the producer?
What applications are most compelling and what types of TV programs are best suited for re-invention?
Finally, how does the virtual water cooler effect play into this model, whereby producers and networks desperately want viewers talking about their programs, all the while knee jerking to walling off their content from being re-purposed by consumers?
Some time back, I wrote a blog on this topic called Middleband: Television content-aligned services for O'Reilly, which attempts to answer some of these questions. If interested in such things, check it out.
