Viodi View Newsletter - November 27th, 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

• ViodiTV @ RICA/RTG – The DVD
• 100 Jurisdictions – Without a Statewide Franchise Law
• A Perspective on Hyper-Local Content
• Up, Up and Away – An Uplifting Take on 700 MHz
• Speculation Mounts as FCC's 700MHz Auction Application Deadline Nears
• And Verizon Opens Its Network
• Demand Broadband
• An Independent Operator Embraces MPEG4
• Writer's Strike - Take 2
• Hulu – Here It Is
• OPASTCO’s Technical Symposium – Trick or Treat?
• 2008 Viodi View and ViodiTV Editorial Calendar - so far
• Club Viodi Posts
• The Korner - The Raven Exposed

The objective of the Viodi View and ViodiTV is to be the bridge between the Heartland and Hollywood. It is about connecting the creative communities, whether they are in Hollywood or Wood County. To some extent, ViodiTV and the Viodi View serve as prototype for what independent telcos can do. Hopefully, the independent telcos can learn from our efforts. Read on to the Korner to see some of our lessons from one of our recent productions.

ViodiTV @ RICA/RTG – The DVD

100 Jurisdictions – Without a Statewide Franchise Law

Our interview with Paul Freude, of Paul Bunyan Telephone, is an example of ViodiTV coverage at RICA/RTG. The RICA/RTG conference featured cutting-edge rural independent operartors talking about their experience as competitive providers. In the case of Paul Bunyan, Freude discusses how this 100+ year old telco has grown by more than 250% this decade. With systems in over 100 jurisdictions, they probably have more networks implementing the little-used FCC rules for Open Video Systems than any other operator.

A Perspective on Hyper-Local Content The small cable operators that comprise the American Cable Association and the independent telcos of RICA have much in common. In this interview with Robert Shema, Chief Operating Officer of the American Cable Association discusses the importance of local content and how independent operators are probably creating more “hyper-local” content than are the local broadcasters. Click here to see and hear Shema’s perspective on local content.

Up, Up and Away – An Uplifting Take on 700 MHz

A few years ago, the Viodi View reported on a company with plans to use airships to provide wireless coverage to wide swaths of rural areas. While it appears that this operation has yet to lift off, we caught up with another company that currently uses weather balloons technology for low-latency, machine to machine communications in rural areas. We caught up with Jim Wiesenberg of Space Data Incorporated who discusses their unique approach to helping operators with the rural build out requirements associated with the FCC’s 700 MHz auction rules.

Speculation Mounts as FCC's 700MHz Auction Application Deadline Nears

On the topic 700 MHz, Alan J. Weissberger has a very thorough round up of the latest news regarding the upcoming auctions. This article is a good primer for anyone wanting to catch up on this topic. Click here to read his insights and analysis on this ongoing story that is important to all independent operators.

And Verizon Opens Its Network

Verizon’s announcement that they are opening up their wireless network is big news. Dave Burstein, of DSL Prime, a sharp analyst and reporter, was almost giddy in an email he sent out today. He is excited by both technological (imagine wireless phone/data services built into a gaming device or set-tops with a wireless back-channel) and service improvements (e.g. new and lower cost offerings).

Time will tell what this means, as in early 2008 Verizon will publish its technical specifications. Verizon is backing up their talk with the creation of a $20 million laboratory to test devices to ensure network compatibility. If nothing else, this will build Verizon’s political capital.

Demand Broadband

A new study released by the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies suggests that demand matters more than supply when it comes to broadband adoption. They have studied the variations in broadband uptake in the United States and found that,

“91% of the variation is explained bydemographic and economic conditions, such as household income, education and, most significantly, income inequality,”

are more significant in the adoption of broadband. They conclude that demand side incentives are more productive than supply side incentives.

Build the network and they will not necessarily come, but give them a reason to be there and people will sign up in droves. This is consistent with Viodi's surveys of independent telcos that have suggested that adding a video component to a broadband offering drives adoption.

An Independent Operator Embraces MPEG4

Meanwhile, Peter Lowten reports on an operator that has just added video to their broadband network. BTC Broadband is one of the first independent telcos in the United States to deploy a complete MPEG-4 IPTV network  and Peter interviewed BTC Broadband’s Lynn Pike to get the details on their approach. Click here to read the article.

Writers Strike Take 2 – An Audio Interview with David Prager of Revision3

In this audio/phone interview with David Prager, COO and co-founder of Internet Video site Revision 3, we explore the hot topic of the Writer’s Strike.  Revision 3 is an upstart network of long-form content and stands to benefit from the current impasse between the mainstream studios and the WGA. 

Click here to listen to my interview with Prager.

For another interesting take on this topic, I encourage you to attend the Interactive Television Alliance Tech Walk.  The ITA has invited the WGA, PGA and IFTA to their Tech Walk to discuss the strike and other issues and opportunities surrounding the disruptive forces of the Internet and interactive television. 

Hulu – Here It Is:

Hulu, the NBC-Universal/Fox venture, is slowly lifting the shroud from its service offering and we have some example videos posted at ViodiTV. The timing of the debut of the beta version of Hulu is interesting, as it coincides with the writer’s strike. Hulu has great content (I spent way too much time watching videos to find the following clips) and the ability to perform Web 2.0-type things like embed on a web site and send clips to a friend.

OPASTCO’s Technical Symposium – Trick or Treat?

Roger Bindl provides an overview of the OPASTCO 2007 Technical and Marketing Symposium in this brief video. Various service providers and supplier at the symposium gave attendees a new look at home networking, how telco’s are differentiating themselves, home town experiences, finding information, using information, and the technologies that surround these important topics.

2008 Viodi View and ViodiTV Editorial Calendar - so far

Check out the current editorial calendar for 2008 at www.viodi.com/vv

Bookmark http://www.viodi.com/calendar.htm for the events that Viodi will either be participating in or covering.

Club Viodi Posts

Here are some of the recent Club Viodi posts :

• Excellent Local Content Presentations
• Local Content Web Tips.....

Note, to view this article, you must be a club.viodi member. Club.viodi membership is only open to independent telcos and is made available at the sole discretion of Viodi, LLC.

The Korner - The Raven Exposed

That old adage about any publicity, positive or negative being good probably also applies to content creation. That is, any feedback, good or bad, is important to a content producer. This thought occurred to the ViodiTV crew after hearing both positive and negative comments from a video we included in the programming line-up for ViodiTV at the RICA/RTG Fall Forum.

In this video interview with ourselves, Roger and I discuss why we aired this particular video. There are practical lessons an independent telco can learn from our experience and apply to their local content efforts. If nothing else, this video will help you understand the arteestic mind of my sometimes artsy business partner, rogeris (with a small r).

[Correction – in an earlier ViodiTV post with Curtis Howe of Mariner Partners, we rendered the video incorrectly. The corrected video is here. Mariner Partners reports that they do indeed have commercial deployments of their IPTV monitoring product.]

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The Video Business Case for Independent Telcos – The Report

Viodi’s report, Video Business Case provides results to a survey of independent telcos and their business case for video. Most of the telcos that responded to the survey have figured out a way to deploy video services. This survey provides insight from the independent telcos as well as several of their Engineering firms.

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