Beyond broadcasting: IPTV can be local, too
June 12th, 2006We have a fresh example of why local TV doesn’t always have to mean broadcasting, courtesy of public TV’s Robert X. Cringely. In the new world of IPTV, he maintains, local connections—between humans, as well as between wires—can make a world of difference:
The Internet television story, even as written here in columns going back as far as the late 1990s, pushed the idea of enabling the aggregation of widely-dispersed viewing audiences, allowing programming to thrive that might not be successful on any local station, much less on the national network. A good example is NerdTV, which wouldn’t attract enough viewers on most PBS stations to even generate a rating, yet when offered as an Internet download, drawing from a global population, makes some pretty good numbers. But there is no concept called “local” in this aggregation model, so stations tend to feel threatened by it; if the network can reach local viewers directly, what need is there for a local station?
But it doesn’t have to be that way, because the supposed strengths of centralization aren’t really strengths at all when viewed in terms of the much more imposing issue of bandwidth costs, where all the advantages are local.
PBS station managers could slash their bandwidth costs, Cringely suggests, by installing video servers right at their local broadband providers’ data centers. That’s because cable and phone companies can handle traffic more cheaply while it remains on their own network.
He also has schemes for revenue sharing, content trading, and—brace yourself—a nonprofit video-streaming service bureau to be administered by PBS. His theory raises more than a few questions (once you put “local” content on the world wide web, the whole world has a way of finding it), but it will take more than a little wild-eyed creativity to secure a future for local television. You can see why Cringely files these columns under the word Pulpit.
Earlier:
• TV localism retains its defenders, if not its logic
• Would TV networks use VOD…and bypass affiliates?
• Will TV’s new rules serve big players or public?
• Link: I, Cringely