Summary

Consumers worldwide have high utilization of telephone and television services over existing telephone, over-the-air, and cable networks. For the most part, the services are of acceptable quality with a reasonable price.

To justify the multibillion-dollar rollout of residential broadband services to the home, new services will be required to stimulate consumers or advertisers to underwrite the costs. Table 1-9 summarizes the market drivers that are fulfilling or may fulfill this role.

Residential broadband is interesting work, which is not the least of the reasons why it is evolving and attracting top-flight talent in entertainment and engineering. The next chapter overviews the engineering challenges and technical foundations of RBB, in various stages of solution. The remainder of this book frames the discussion on service evolution and delivery, exploring what pieces of the RBB network puzzle exist and what pieces are missing so that readers can evaluate who the winners and losers will be.

Table 1-9. Summary of Market Drivers for RBB
Service Characteristics Key Challenges and Disincentives Key Benefits and Incentives
Digital TV Offers highest-quality video using HDTV Uses multichannel SDTV free over the air Involves cost of infrastructure overhaul from analog to digital; costs include cameras, towers, transmitters, and consumer electronics equipment Requires no incremental revenues to broadcasters Offers more channels

Delivers better picture

Liberates prime analog TV spectrum for other uses and provides auction revenue for the federal government
Interactive TV Provides real-time selection of video streams or interaction with video cache Uses point-to-point technology Offers content development

Has a poor track record to date

Requires return path 		Opens a new venue for advertising Opens a new creative outlet
Video on Demand Offers real-time selection of streaming content

Supports trick modes

Uses point-to-point technology 		Involves cost of royalties, networking, and storage

Has high bandwidth requirements

Offers content availability

Provides channel availability from cable and DBS 		Has a potential scale of market that is the same as home video (sales and rentals)

Affords high consumer control

Builds on consumer interest in videocassette rentals
Near Video on Demand Is an enhancement to impulse PPV Uses point-to-multipoint technology Relies on questionable consumer interest, so no tricks modes are available Provides channel availability from cable and DBS Saves resources compared with VoD Builds on consumer interest in PPV
Web Uses point-to-point technology, unless IP multicast is supported by Internet service providers Provides scaling issues for the Internet Competes with broadcast TV for entertainment Builds on consumer interest in the Web Facilitates transactional revenues and online shopping
Convergence of DTV and the Internet Augments Web pages with NTSC- or higher-quality video Uses both point-to-multipoint and point-to-point technology Has not settled standardization of authoring environment

Requires new set top boxes in the home (Who pays?)

Exposes TV monitors and set top boxes to computer bugs and viruses 		Opens a new venue for advertising

Offers a new outlet for the creative process

Would enable standard Web functions such as e-mail or Web surfing on the TV in a standardized manner
Datacasting Is a specific case of converged DTV and Internet Uses point-to-multipoint technology Relies on questionable consumer interest due to embryonic content development and applications Has bandwidth availability that may be preempted by HDTV Offers an alternative to the Web for data distribution Builds on broadcaster interest in software and data distribution
Games Offers real-time competitive interaction with other humans on the Internet Uses multipoint-to-multipoint technology Has no clear revenue model Requires very high performance networks and customer premises equipment Represents a new generation of games coming to market Has a proven consumer market

..................Content has been hidden....................

You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.
Reset
18.225.149.238