Here comes a war: IPTV vs TVoIP

The cloud based alternatives to broadcast, cable, and IPTV are growing rapidly. The writers strike that halted big media production of content in the US has only accelerated the growth in prominence of smaller independent production. With a large wasteland in the tradition media channels, broad band users have been discovering online alternative en mass. Even the big media has gotten into the act, offering popular programming on demand online. An article on Make Use Of gives a good overview of many current online alternatives:

Ditching your cable company has never been more viable than it is today. The rise of online, streaming TV shows allows you to save on one of the most expensive household bills if you are willing to sacrifice a bit of the convenience of having either a cable box or DVR. The main question you will need to ask yourself is what shows you actually enjoy watching. Several name brand shows are now available online in free, ad supported formats; if your particular shows are not available then you may be stuck with your cable company, at least for now. More and more shows are always coming online, so keep checking back to see if your favorite show is available.

A few pieces of the puzzle are missing. The magic interface between the cloud and the big screen in the living room is still not a cheap consumer item. I look for that to change soon. HD programming still consumes a great deal of space, but inproved compression and bandwidth will make it more common. As it becomes easier to enjoy HD programming in the living room without requiring much geekery, more content producers will distribute a growing variety of directly to viewers, completely bypassing the broadcast and pay TV channels.

This also presents a clash between many broadband providers and their customers. With providers like AT&T making infrastructure upgrades almost entirely for the purpose of delivery IPTV (pay TV), and the bread and butter business of cable operators is still pay TV. This puts TVoIP (free or subscription TV in the cloud) squarely at odds with the business models of the providers of access to most of the US population. It also puts content producers into direct competition with their traditional distribution channels. It will also motivate access providers to filter traffic and constrain available bandwidth.

The best way to resolve the problem before it becomes one is to open up competition by giving equal access to right of way and local loops for new fixed line carriers, and to require the return of spectrum that has been licensed but not used fro wireless access. Unfortunately, it will probably be easier to pass a law requiring access providers to spin off their pay TV businesses. Doing either will be just about as easy as getting somewhere between 500-600 technically incompetent egotistical twits to give up their pay offs from a duopoly and act in the public interest. Fat chance of that happening.