The Legal Guts of RSDVR

RSDVR is going through a renaissance. The business and technical success relies on legal interpretation of copyright. In case you missed it, a few months back CopyHype carried an in depth legal opinion on RSDVR by Terry Hart. The opinion explored some of the issues around Cablevision and Aereo. Particularly it explored the legal definition of public performance which is an important part of the overall legal argument. For those looking to place bets in the RSDVR space, it is worth a read.

Previewing Technology for Cable Lab Summer Conference: Application Lifecycle Management

John Carlucci previews  technology Alticast will be showing at Cable Labs Summer Conference in Keystone this week.

Korea Telecom Launches Web Based IPTV Service

Korean IPTV operator KT has announced the launch of “Olleh TV Smart”, an HTML5 based next-generation IPTV service accessible from both set-top boxes and user devices such as PC’s, smartphones, and tablets.

KT Media Hub CEO, Ju-Sung Kim, said during a press conference held in Seoul, “Implementing HTML5 in Olleh TV, allows us to emerge from the dependency on a specific platform and establish a foothold in an open ecosystem for all subscribers, content providers and broadcasters. KT will continue to adopt diverse services with expandability and interactivity, enabling the convergence of traditional broadcast and Internet service.”

The use of HTML5 provides an open User Experience (UX) that can be deployed across multiple devices. HTML5 also provides a much easier way to update and improve the User Experience. As part of KT’s new UX they have introduced an exciting application that converges live stream baseball games with statistics about the players. While subscribers watch the game, they can check the players’ profiles, previous scores, and the status of other games in real time. They can also instantly re-play key moments of the game. KT is planning to expand this mash-up service to golf, soccer and other sports, as well as travel and cooking.

KT will launch additional features including HTML5-based interactive education, cloud games, ‘Cloud DVD’ and private broadcasting services in coming months. Users will be able to view purchased content on TV, smartphones and other devices and upload pictures taken on their smartphones. Finally, users can make their own favorite channels according to their interests and play premium games.

Alticast has been partnering with KT since 2008 with continual development and enhancement of Olleh TV. Alticast has been a key partner providing technological resources and experience to successfully manage and deliver a high performing, multi-functional project. Alticast will continue to play a key role in delivering KT’s industry-leading technology and applications.

Interactive Television

Do we want to interact with our TVs? What does this mean? The TVOT conference had many incarnations of what might be considered interactive TV, some were not on the TV at all, but interactive 'sister' applications that run on a tablet or cell phone. Some are showing up right on the TV, which is starting to accelerate for two reasons, first, the increased sales of Smart TVs that have built-in functionality to support browsers, OTT offerings, applications and more; second, HTML5 is becoming the platform for next generation set-top boxes, which means the TV screen will have much of the functionality of a browser. How will this start to show up in your home?

Many people see sports and reality TV applications as primary opportunities; election coverage had examples last year that allowed viewers to react to debates and social applications, like twitter, are starting to 'pop-up.' Most people don't have the capability to interact with some of these features, but predictions suggest next year will provide the tipping-point for applications on TVs.  Imagine a transparent 'browser application' on-top of your viewing content. A point-of-sale coupon could pop-up and you could 'capture' it to your phone. Voting for reality TV shows could be real-time. The concepts are endless. The question is, how will it be received. We have struggled with the idea that the TV is often a one to many environment, and that interaction is more suited to a computer. This will add some complications, for example, what happens when the voting comes up and the people on the couch don't agree.

The second angle will be whether content creators and operators will invest in these interactive applications. There will be trail blazers, but many will need to have a financial incentive. The TV environment could see a lot of change in the next few years and the public will 'vote' with their behaviors, which will help determine which concepts are successful.

And what else is up? Finally all the talk of the TV controlling your household is coming to fruition, this will also succeed or fail by the actions of users. It is an interesting time for operators and content owners.

Cable and Phone Plans, So Many Possibilities

"Cord-cutting", the popular term for turning off cable TV and home phone services, looks like it may be boomeranging in European markets. This article is exposing how the pipe into the home is pretty important and companies in Europe are approaching customers with creative package bundles to ensure customers keep cable and home phone services and instead cut costs by reducing their mobile bills. An interesting idea is at the bottom of the article where Orange is making remote controls that look and act a lot more like mobile phones.

In the US we can only dream of the billing amounts in this article, where our mobile phone and cable bills are much higher, but the article shows how complicated the marketing efforts are to entice the users to keep the household budget with one provider. I believe recent quarterly reports from some operators show that while they have lost some subscribers in the US to cord-cutting, they remain profitable with creative packaging. 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-16/tv-remote-steals-iphone-spot-with-european-carriers.html