Blog: Why TV should ignore new media analysts

Paul Hague, BiBC

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Broadcasters need to start working closer with ISPs if they want online content portals such as 4oD and BBC iPlayer to be a success.

I read an interesting piece the other week based on the premise that industry experts and the general consumer are out of sync when it comes to wanting a solution for IPTV - a case of the tortoise turning on the hare.

Because IPTV is such a close collaboration of technology and media, experts in the video distribution industry are few and far between. However, it is my view that it is the customer in the armchair that we should be serving and listening to, not the industry analysts, who - to be fair - have got it monumentally wrong in the past.

There are a number of factors that affect the take up of IPTV services, some of which I have been talking about for a number of years. Not least of these are the issues around prioritising traffic on open networks that don't belong to the content owner – e.g. what happens if hundreds or thousands of consumers use huge bandwidth (and require high quality) to access the video site of a content owner, yet they don't own the network. 

Take the BBC iPlayer. It is a great idea to create the viewing experience, but why should an ISP carry it when they are not getting any recognition for the investment they have made (although recent media reports suggest an ISP backlash is imminent).

Industry research suggests that armchair users are ready and willing to consume IPTV. However, the experts advising the likes of BBC (the same experts who advise brand owners and content owners) have missed a giant piece in the jigsaw if they thought that ISPs would just accept this without recognition.

Without the ISPs on board the viewing experience will be poor because there will not be a suitable bandwidth – after all why should the ISPs give huge bandwidth without recognition.

This will lead to the user backing away because of the poor experience. Therefore the companies (brand owners / content owners etc) now need to negotiate with ISPs or find a way round it in order to deliver IPTV.

Personally I believe the problems lie in the fact that as we all consume entertainment, so every individual assumes that the population thinks in the same way as they do – industry experts included.

The reality is that they don't and sometimes it is difficult to see how others would use such services if they don't themselves. For example, one expert might use one IPTV service, whilst another will use something else and they are struggling to gauge how the consumer mass will use it in different ways.

This is the mentality that stalls progress and puts the shakes into organisations that would normally have been looking at rolling out live services long before now.

We all need to accept the world has changed and it will continue to do so quicker than analysts and advisors can keep up.

It is pointless constantly trying to put up barriers, broadband speeds ARE getting quicker, content IS now becoming available, technology CAN control rights and the living room IS ready, the IPTV genie is out of the bottle now and you can't push him back in!

Paul Hague has spent the past 18 years (at IBM, CapGemini and now BiBC) gaining valuable knowledge of all aspects of the technology industry. Sheffield born, bred and proud, Paul is an industry commentator on all new media issues, prompting and cajoling companies to join the download revolution – as long as they do it right.