Home A/V at CES 2006
IPTV: Who needs cable?
The ITVN box is simplicity itself. Like the Akimbo device, it's an Internet appliance that plugs into your broadband connection on one end and your TV or A/V system on the other. From the Net, the device streams video, which is then displayed on your TV. While the technology concept is simple, getting the content onto the service is the challenge, and it's what spells either success or failure for this technology. ITVN is having success right now with adult content--for US$29.95 per month in the US you can get 200 channels of various subgenres of grown-up entertainment. For US$59.95 per month you can view the exact movie you want, from ITVN's library of 30,000 flicks. (ITVN founder David Koenig reminded me that since the Internet is not technically a broadcast medium, he is free of most of the censorship laws that affect standard TV.) The company's first sports offering is a lacrosse channel, and it also will stream all the old movies that are in the public domain. A deal with a major movie distributor, so that his box can show the same type of content you can get on HBO or at a video store, will be announced soon, Koenig says. Ultimately, the cable and satellite companies will have to react to this emerging threat. They have the content deals and the audience, which gives them leverage. Still, companies such as ITVN might be tasty acquisition candidates. Credit: Rafe Needleman, CNET.com | |||||||||||||
Television)
- Talkback
-
There are currently no comments for this story.
To post comments, you need to become a member. It's FREE.
