-----Original Message----- From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu] On Behalf Of Gian Constantine Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2007 7:18 PM To: nanog@merit.edu Subject: Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously?
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In entertainment, content is king. More specifically, new release content is king. While internet distribution may help breathe life into the long tail market, it is hard to imagine any major shift from existing distribution methods. People simply like the latest TV shows and the latest movies.
What's new to you is very different from what's new to me? I am very happy watching 1 year old episodes of Top Gear whereas if you are located in the UK, you may consider this as old news. The story here is about the cost of storing the video content (which is asymptotically zero) and the cost of distributing it (which is also asymptotically approaching zero, despite the ire of the SPs).
So, this leaves us with little more than what is already offered by the MSOs: linear TV and VoD. This is where things become complex.
The studios will never (not any time soon) allow for a subscription based VoD on new content. They would instantly be sued by Time Warner (HBO).
This is a very US-centric view of the world. I am sure there are hundreds of TV stations from India, Turkey, Greece, etc that would love to put their content online and make money off the long tail.
I guess where I am going with all this is simply it is very hard to make this work from a business and marketing side. The network constraints are, likely, a minor issue for some time to come. Interest is low in the public at large for primary (or even major secondary) video service on the PC.
Again, your views are very US centric, and are mono-cultural. If you open your horizons, I think there is a world of content out there that the content owners would be happy to license and sell at < 10 cents a pop. To them it is dead content, but it turns out that they are worth something to someone out there. This is what iTunes, and Rhapsody are doing with music. And the day of the video is coming. Bora -- Off to raise some venture funds now. (Just kidding ;)