Pipeline Publishing, Volume 4, Issue 10

	This Month's Issue:
	Managing the Content Revolution

Ready or Not, Here Comes the Content

By Tim Young

What's that old counterculture catchphrase? “The Revolution will not be televised?” Well, perhaps not. It seems, however, that there is a revolution already in motion on how things are televised.

Well, maybe not televised per se, (though with HD approaching, and a now-vacant 700mhz bandwidth being auctioned off to the highest bidder, that's definitely a topic worth chatting about. See our story on the auction in last month's issue), but the ways in which content is delivered is certainly changing. The types of content we're receiving are also growing and shifting.

Tuning In

What types of new content are we expecting? An ever-expanding collection of streaming video applications, for one. High definition video, at that. Crisp. Clean. Add to that a wide variety of new games and software applications. The slow death of discs and tapes other physical delivery devices.

There's the impact of web-only programming that dozens of traditional television networks have adopted. There's also, of course, the impact of user-generated content on both sides of the pipe. Strictly online broadcasting of current regular television programs, as well, adds to the issue. I, for one, have been in places before without access to my TiVo (if you ever need to buy me a gift, it seems a Slingbox would be in order...) and have been very happy that another maddeningly confusing episode of Lost is just a click away. In fact, while online viewership is still considerably less pervasive than traditional television, the potential for future use is great.

Just ask the Writers Guild of America. It was residuals for “new media” (on-demand, IPTV, direct-to-net content, etc) that led the writer's union to strike, much to the chagrin of media companies and viewers alike.

So what is the state of online content? This “new media.” A study by comscore released in February shows a definite surge in online viewership, possibly spurred, interestingly enough, by the very writers strike that was caused, in part, by web content. In December of 2007, the report states, U.S. Internet users viewed over 10 billion videos. Google sites (including YouTube) were responsible for nearly 3.4 billion of those videos.

Anecdotally, I have a comedian friend who makes videos for his own site, but also places the content on YouTube. One recent video, which couldn't have cost more than a couple hundred dollars to produce, has been viewed nearly 4.5 million times (as of our publication date). Therein lies the attraction of the “new media.” Low barriers to entry. Direct avenues for creativity.

So what are the pain points for providers and consumers alike? How are OSS vendors adjusting to meet these needs?

Still, the comscore study goes on to state that though nearly 141 million Americans watched online videos in December of 2007, online viewers consumed an average of 3.4 hours of online content per month. Compared to traditional television, that's certainly not much. Many viewers watch that much TV in a single day.

Still, the implications are striking. New media is a fount of potential. That figure of 3.4 hours of content per month was up 34 percent from the beginning of 2007. Such increases are certainly worth noting.

Managing the shift

So what are the pain points for providers and consumers alike? How are OSS vendors adjusting to meet these needs?

First of all, new and different content raises the question of managing products in a telecom environment. The difficult starting place in such a puzzle is defining what, exactly, a product is. This issue was tackled at length by some top minds at a Tribold-sponsored round table in Dallas, which led to a Pipeline article in our January issue. I point to it now because the definitions of products and services is no less muddled now than it was a few months ago. Add to that a spate of new products and services that must be delivered to the consumer in order to remain competitive, and you have a truly boggling task at hand.

Then there's the issue of making sure that new technologies can be delivered in a way that transcends novelty and rises to the level of true quality. For advanced content, quality of service is always a concern. Packet loss for a data connection is one thing. Excessive lag can be annoying, but most delay is barely felt. For voice connections, packet loss is certainly more of an issue. Jitter and delay are still major issues, and one reason that digital voice

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