The latest in television technology is not flat screens or high-definition. Internet Protocol Television, or IPTV, just might be the next Big Thing. Many analysts and experts are convinced it is the future of television.
If Internet Protocol Television sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because it has a cousin: Voice over Internet Protocol, the placing of telephone calls over the Internet.
The promise is television over high-speed Internet connections, which allows viewers to watch what they want when they want because the video data can be stored. And unlike digital or analog television, there is virtually no restriction on space. The number of channels that can be found through IPTV is almost without limit.
Unfortunately, how this technology advances may be determined more by regulation than innovation. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) holds the future of IPTV in its hand, and has said it will make a decision later this year on how it regulates Internet television: as a data service, or as a cable television service.
Guess who’s pulling for regulation as cable.
If IPTV is treated as cable television, competition, and consequently consumer benefits, will suffer. There are stifling franchise requirements that funnel cable systems through local governments that essentially grant government-protected monopolies – only after drawn-out contract negotiations are worked out. There are also rules that force cable providers to guarantee they will be able to serve everyone in a given area before they can serve anyone.
So rather than “One for all” it’s more like “All for none.”
If potential IPTV providers have to go through such mazes of regulation and endure the local political shakedown, they won’t be as willing to make the sizeable investments that are needed to get new systems on line.
So far, it appears that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is sympathetic with the traditional telephone companies that want to provide IPTV over their broadband connections.
Let’s hope Congress can see clearly enough to eliminate the franchising issue through legislation — no easy task given the cable industry’s legion of lobbyists.
Who knows, if we’re lucky, maybe then we can find something worth watching!