Posts Tagged ‘online video’

At the recent CES conference, there was much discussion of 3-D TV, mobile devices and tablet PCs. But there was also a great deal of talk about the future of television and about alternatives means of delivering entertainment and information to consumers.

Free Press’s description of TV Everywhere is a reminder of the admonition that people are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own set of facts.  The call for an “investigation” of TV Everywhere has no factual or legal basis, no matter how many times Free Press and its allies repeat the words “collusion,” “cartel” and “illegal.”  In the name of protecting competition, they would actually reduce the amount of online content available to consumers.

Time Warner and Comcast held a press briefing this morning to provide some details about the much anticipated “TV Everywhere” project that Time Warner Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes has been discussing for a few months including during a panel at The Cable Show back in early April.  Joining Bewkes for today’s briefing was Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts.

Earlier this week, I examined the recent coverage of the “cord-cutting” phenomenon. What I wanted to do was look at two questions: Can you really replace your cable service with just online video?

Online viewing of video is on the rise. This is a fact. But if you take the news coverage and blog posts about the “cord-cutting” phenomenon at face value, you would have the impression that this is a widespread phenomenon involving millions of consumers canceling their multichannel video subscriptions in favor of online distribution.

I hope you are following the very vibrant debate that’s been taking place over the last week, involving  Boxee CEO Avner Ronen, Chairman of HDNet Mark Cuban and a host of other people about the relationship between free online video and the programming available from multichannel video distributers, such as cable, satellite and phone companies.

Stories about “cord cutting” seem to be all the rage right now, but many of them are overlooking some pretty basic – and readily available facts – which suggest that consumers may enjoy online video but they certainly aren’t ditching their set-top boxes by the truckload (just the opposite).

Stories come and go in both the general media landscape and the blogosphere, but often the same issues remain on the radar, but driven by different players and events.

For some time, I’ve been noting on my Twitter account the rising tide of people who have decided to cut the cord that ties them to servicing their television needs through cable, satellite or other wired means, instead turning to the Internet to be informed and entertained.  The topic is blowing up now, with Washington Post tech columnist Mike Musgrove now examining the issue in his column this past weekend (“TV Breaks Out of the Box”).

It probably comes as no news to you that the availability and consumption of broadband video has risen dramatically this year. I enjoy using Net-viewing to timeshift or catch up on old episodes of particular shows, as well as watching video that’s exclusive to the Web (I love ill Doctrine, a hip-hop video blog hosted by Jay Smooth).