Viodi View - September 26th, 2007 Issue

In this on-line publication, we share our analysis, opinions and direction on the interactive television news and views that we believe will be of interest and use to our friends associated directly or indirectly with independent telephone companies. For more information as to the various ways Viodi works with independent telephone companies, please go to http://www.viodi.com/alliance/

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The Viodi View [Viodi, LLC] and its associates used their best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, the Viodi View [Viodi, LLC] does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.

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Viodi View Newsletter - September 26th, 2007

Click here to learn how Viodi can help your organization with Local Content

By Ken Pyle, ken.pyle at viodi.com, Managing Editor, Viodi View

“Beg for forgiveness and ask for permission later” is an oft-repeated phrase and is the type of attitude necessary to get things done. Unfortunately, when it comes to certain sort of endeavors, such as music licensing, begging for forgiveness may not be good enough. Even the anti-establishment punk rock world requires permission to use their work, as evidenced by the recent lawsuit by Richie Ramone against Ramone Productions and the estate of the former Johnny Ramone.

Don’t Beg for Forgiveness When It Comes to Music….

Music rights are an especially sensitive topic right now, as we spent quite a bit of time attempting to procure some fairly well known songs for a promotional campaign we co-produced for RICA and RTG. RICA, the Rural Independent Competitive Alliance (independent telecoms that are also CLECs) and the Rural Telecommunications Group (rural independent wireless carriers) are producing a joint conference from November 14-16 in Jacksonville, Florida. In the end, we ended up with Royalty-Free music, which works just as well, thanks to the script from Tara Young of RICA and the animation talent of Roger Bindl.

Recent Club Viodi Postings:

Club Viodi members will soon get the full story on our licensing saga in another post. Meanwhile, here are some Other recent Club Viodi postings:

A New Definition of SIP – Listen In

In tomorrow’s webinar hosted by Occam Networks, I will present a new definition for SIP – just what the world needs another duplicate acronym. This will be an encore presentation given at the Occam Networks Users’ Group. Please mark your calendars for September 27, 2007 at 10:00 am PST and register today at: www.occamnetworks.com/events_and_training/webinar

The Intersection of Broadband and DTV – For Homework

This video and article, which is a bit of reprise from an earlier post, will be good viewing and reading in preparation for tomorrow’s webinar. This interview with Jeff Vinson of NXP semiconductor at the NAB show a few months ago indicated to me that the chipmakers think there is a U.S. business-case for a hybrid IPTV solution.

Broadband TV Today – Brief Overview of iHollywood Forum’s IPTV World

There were many thought-provoking sessions at yesterday’s iHollywood Forum IPTV World’s conference in Foster City, CA. The speakers reinforced the idea that the definition of IPTV has become much broader than the definition of a “traditional”, managed, contained and franchised model traditionally associated with telcos. I have pages and pages of notes from this event, but here are a couple of tidbits:

One speaker suggested that the D-Link DSM520 is the missing link from the Internet to the TV. D-Link just announced today the availability of over 200 Internet channels, including YouTube, Akimbo, ESPN, etc. to this $149 H.D capable set-top.
Mobile Video may be successful, given the estimated 28 million people who have so-called “down-time” in their jobs (e.g. security guards, retail clerks, etc.). Mobile Video snacking is a great way to kill time, according to Adam Guy Managing Director of Media and Telecommunications, Compete
“Everyone can become a digital tastemaker,” said Kourosh Taj Co-President and Head of Programming for No Good TV. Thanks to socialization tools, we will have a lot more tastemakers than we used to have.
Broadband Television is starting to supplant satellite for niche linear and on-demand network, as evidenced by content providers such as ABS- CBN and SkyAngel’s implementation of NeuLion’s platform.

Majority of TV Watching is on PC in China by Alan J. Weissberger

At Cinacon 2007, Priscilla Lu, CEO of Videonline (with offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Redwood City, CA) gave a most interesting presentation on the state of New Media in China. One of the most surprising facts was that more than 70% of TV and movies in China are watched on users PCs, rather than their TVs. This is because there is a strict limit on the number of foreign films and programs that can be shown on TV in China.

For TV watchers, conventional Set-Top Boxes (STBS) serves up digital video to approximately 17 M subscribers. Three or four licensed companies (dominated by Shanghai Media Group) offer VOD via IPTV (over 2 M bit/sec DSL). There are less than 1M IPTV subscribers, all of whom have IP STBs. User generated content is starting to progress very rapidly in China and offers a huge market opportunity when combined with advertising.

Please contact the author directly at alan at viodi.com if you are interested in retaining him to research the new media in China.

Regional Economic Development & More at the NECA EXPO 2007

November 1st – that is the date promised by Joint-Board for it will have its recommendations for USF (Universal Service Fund) Reform, according to Oregon State PUC Chair, Ray Baum. He suggested that there would be consensus on the broad stroke of reform, but not necessarily the details. He stressed the importance of expediting the process; as otherwise, the election cycle could halt progress. Intercarrier Compensation and phantom traffic were other hot topics. One attendee called phantom traffic stealing and wondered why the government does not treat it as such.

Regional is the operative word in rural economic development, according to Mark Drabenstott, Director of the RUPRI Center for Regional Competitiveness. Drabenstott gave the keynote opening speech at NECA’s Annual Conference in San Francisco. He suggested that organizing by region is imperative in today’s global economy. He suggested that we are in, “a global economics Olympics,” and that to increase income and job growth, then rural economies cannot be solely commodities based. Click here to read the rest of this important article.

Diversifying Revenues and Bridging the Digital Divide

Ron Laqua of Halstad Telephone talks of the importance to an independent telco of diversifying their revenue stream. In this brief video, he speaks of the impact Halstad’s fiber backbone has had in driving new revenues, as well as bringing high speed communications to communities who otherwise would be on the slow side of the so-called digital divide.

NCAA Highlights - A Perfect IPTV Application

Broadband video gets the first crack at being able to provide NCAA mash-ups, for lack of a better description. Click here to view a brief video and learn more about what one innovative broadband video company is doing to bring interactivity to College football..

Farewell to the Last of the Original Independent U.S. CATV Suppliers

It was sad news to hear of the C-COR/Arris merger. Yes, I have a bias on this particular announcement as I did some consulting for C-COR a few years ago, helped out with their Global IP Summits and was an employee for a brief time in the early 1990s. As Kshitij Kumar formerly of C-COR and now CEO of Tellytopia pointed out to me, “I think the two teams are strong….if they get creative with the synergies that these groups bring....things could get really interesting.”

Still, it is a bit bittersweet, as it is an end of an era of independent U.S. companies that grew up from and with the cable industry from the 1950s. I first had a chance to work with C-COR in the early 1980s and was always impressed with their homegrown engineering talent. Cable was in their DNA, as evidenced by their address: 60 Decibel Way. The $730 Million price is about 36 times their value at the trough of the cable depression in the early 1990s – I should have held my stock. Good luck to all my friends at this relatively rural, Pensylvania-based company.

On-Demand News….

Congratulations to Avail Media for picking up ViewNow from Kasenna. ViewNow is a very good strategic fit for Avail, as it will give Avail a customer base that includes telcos that have already deployed video services. It seems like this could provide Avail with potential upsell opportunities for their linear programming.

Packet8 Up – Vonage, So-So

Congratulations to my friends at the # 2 independent provider of VoIP services, Packet8, as it looks like they have first dibs on another VoIP company that is going to be shutting down (something similar occurred when SunRocket folded). Meanwhile, Vonage is winning some (Verizon suit remanded) and losing some (loss of Sprint patent suit). One takeaway from these two stories is that a good patent portfolio is very helpful when competing with behemoths.

People on the Move

If you have not had a chance already, check out Bernie Arnason’s new newsletter, the Telecompetitor. He is doing a good job of providing finding stories and providing analysis on topics of interest to both telecom providers and their suppliers.

Roger Bindl has been kicking around a theory for awhile now that motivated masses (or popularity) beat the best in class (kind of like VHS vs. Beta). He suggests that any off the wall character has a chance to make it big when given a bit of exposure and getting some reaction (good or bad). Viodi View readers can help test that theory by voting for an Art Paul Schlosser video Roger produced, shot and edited for MTV 2. If nothing else, Roger and Art should win a prize for their age category.

The Korner - Begging for Permission to Climb Mount Umunhum ….

It may not be the highest peak in Santa Clara County, but it is definitely one of the most majestic. Recognizable by the 4-story former Air Force building, Mount Umunuhum rises sharply from the southern floor of Silicon Valley. The revolving radar dish atop this mountain made a big impression on me when I was a wee lad. Similarly, my 7-year old son was impressed with the building on top of the peak and shared my desire to scale this somewhat formidable peak, which has been a life long dream of mine. Click here to read what this has to do with music and content licensing.

[Another call for help – has anyone with Comcast.net accounts been experiencing problems getting onto Viodi.com or Viodi.TV? Please let me know if you have.]

Please feel free to forward the Viodi View to anyone who may be interested in our unique view of the intersection of the independent telecom, entertainment and technology industries.

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