Comments on: ICTV: Interactive Television on the Box you Already Own http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/ Startup and Technology News Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:02:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Mephisto http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1515804 Mephisto Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:39:10 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1515804 Actually, the Dutch in 1988 weren't the first. Try 1977 - Columbus, Ohio - Warner Communications (now Time Warner Cable) - it was Qube: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QUBE Actually, the Dutch in 1988 weren’t the first. Try 1977 - Columbus, Ohio - Warner Communications (now Time Warner Cable) - it was Qube: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QUBE

]]> By: malcolm http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1514183 malcolm Tue, 24 Jul 2007 00:55:38 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1514183 The success of ICTV depends upon having sufficient capacity in the network to provide for unicast streaming of content to the home. On Demand proved the unicast model, but did not provide the necessary capacity: On Demand Networks are typically built to ~10% simultaneous usage, where some content in the ICTV model would require > 50%. Cable Networks are now looking at a thing called 'Switched Digital Broadcast', which changes cable by turning it into a fully switched video network with a granularity of a fibre node. This is different than today in that cable right now is essentially just a passthrough pipe for dedicated broadcast circuits: cheap, but very inefficient from a bandwidth perspective. SDB fixes this by only sending to any node the services that people in that node are actually watching. Revolutionary! In this model ICTV content is just another stream, where before it would have required dedicated bandwidth that was simply not available. The good news for ICTV: the cable industry and their suppliers are very focussed on SDB. The bad news: focussed means you'll see it in the network sometime in the next 5-10 years (as opposed to maybe never). Cable is not fast. Gary and the principles at ICTV know this: they have waited out what could be the longest sales cycle in history. I doubt they are in much of a hurry at this point. The money has proven very very patient indeed. The success of ICTV depends upon having sufficient capacity in the network to provide for unicast streaming of content to the home. On Demand proved the unicast model, but did not provide the necessary capacity: On Demand Networks are typically built to ~10% simultaneous usage, where some content in the ICTV model would require > 50%. Cable Networks are now looking at a thing called ‘Switched Digital Broadcast’, which changes cable by turning it into a fully switched video network with a granularity of a fibre node. This is different than today in that cable right now is essentially just a passthrough pipe for dedicated broadcast circuits: cheap, but very inefficient from a bandwidth perspective. SDB fixes this by only sending to any node the services that people in that node are actually watching. Revolutionary! In this model ICTV content is just another stream, where before it would have required dedicated bandwidth that was simply not available. The good news for ICTV: the cable industry and their suppliers are very focussed on SDB. The bad news: focussed means you’ll see it in the network sometime in the next 5-10 years (as opposed to maybe never). Cable is not fast. Gary and the principles at ICTV know this: they have waited out what could be the longest sales cycle in history. I doubt they are in much of a hurry at this point. The money has proven very very patient indeed.

]]> By: Rb http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1513311 Rb Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:55:38 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1513311 I hate current dvd menus; to be honest .... - I want something like the wii remote on my TV ... point and shoot ... I hate current dvd menus; to be honest ….

- I want something like the wii remote on my TV … point and shoot …

]]> By: Dvrman http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1513255 Dvrman Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:09:21 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1513255 previous post should have said Peach Networks. previous post should have said Peach Networks.

]]> By: Dvrman http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1513251 Dvrman Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:08:40 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1513251 A similar company called Pach Networks was bought by Microsoft over 10 years ago and shut down. The technology works but is too expensive to deploy. It relies on streaming video of the screens the consumer accesses and is similar to a VOD system that streams lower bit rate content to each user. I agree with one of the earlier comments the only news here is that this company is still in business and is able to raise money. A similar company called Pach Networks was bought by Microsoft over 10 years ago and shut down. The technology works but is too expensive to deploy. It relies on streaming video of the screens the consumer accesses and is similar to a VOD system that streams lower bit rate content to each user.
I agree with one of the earlier comments the only news here is that this company is still in business and is able to raise money.

]]> By: Fabian http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1512751 Fabian Mon, 23 Jul 2007 04:07:21 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1512751 TV has been going away for years. At Disney we did the two screen model that worked well at the time (not sure where that project is now) in my opinion which ushered in the new media entertainment. But consider the fact that you can connect a computer to a projector and project high quality onto a wall. Anybody can have a "theater" experience. YouTube, CinemaNow, and others will soon make network television irrelevant. Give it a few more years where EVERYBODY has broadband - or Google gets the 700MHz bad - and TV is bye bye. Besides, there is no content on TV that is worth watching. TV has been going away for years. At Disney we did the two screen model that worked well at the time (not sure where that project is now) in my opinion which ushered in the new media entertainment. But consider the fact that you can connect a computer to a projector and project high quality onto a wall. Anybody can have a “theater” experience. YouTube, CinemaNow, and others will soon make network television irrelevant. Give it a few more years where EVERYBODY has broadband - or Google gets the 700MHz bad - and TV is bye bye. Besides, there is no content on TV that is worth watching.

]]> By: Nick Gonzalez http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1510964 Nick Gonzalez Sat, 21 Jul 2007 21:56:29 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1510964 OldValleyGuy - I thought it was interesting because it got me thinking about the TV again, for once. OldValleyGuy - I thought it was interesting because it got me thinking about the TV again, for once.

]]> By: David Mackey http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1510760 David Mackey Sat, 21 Jul 2007 17:51:40 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1510760 I think TV is going away...Well, in the sense of a stand-alone box. It just makes more sense to have a computer handle television. The TV will be a dumb display model, controlled wirelessly by the household computer. I think TV is going away…Well, in the sense of a stand-alone box. It just makes more sense to have a computer handle television. The TV will be a dumb display model, controlled wirelessly by the household computer.

]]> By: OldValleyGuy http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1510451 OldValleyGuy Sat, 21 Jul 2007 10:57:30 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1510451 You do realize that ICTV was founded in 1989, has spent something like $200 million, is on their 5th or 6th CEO and is just coming to market now (maybe). AlarmClock listed them as the longest running failure in Silicon Valley. http://www.thealarmclock.com/mt/archives/2006/01/the_longest_run.html I'd hardly consider these guys an up and coming, hot start up. Surely you can find more worthy projects to shine your light on. You do realize that ICTV was founded in 1989, has spent something like $200 million, is on their 5th or 6th CEO and is just coming to market now (maybe).

AlarmClock listed them as the longest running failure in Silicon Valley.

http://www.thealarmclock.com/m.....t_run.html

I’d hardly consider these guys an up and coming, hot start up. Surely you can find more worthy projects to shine your light on.

]]> By: sjn http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1510328 sjn Sat, 21 Jul 2007 08:29:27 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1510328 hi Nick, As an investment professional I follow the interactive TV industry (albeit not closely), but reading your article you say that the first generation interactive TV was in the mid 90'ties. Actually the worlds first (to my knowledge - please prove me wrong) real interactive TV provider was the Danish company ITE. It started already in 1988 and had up until the mid 90'ties developed a interactive TV show with a little small troll (!) called Hugo. The viewer could, on live tv, play a game using a normal fixed line phones touch pads to run around a maze (first person view) and .. collect pints. All part of a larger live TV show. Then all other viewers would be able to follow the troll trough the maze. The company had patents on the technology that basically managed the timing/sync between phone touch latency and motions on the screen. I know it is no where near the new generations of interactive TV.. but still interactive TV :-) I found some info on it here: http://www.thealarmclock.com/euro/archives/2006/10/nds_buy_hugo_tv_trol.html sincerely Soren hi Nick,

As an investment professional I follow the interactive TV industry (albeit not closely), but reading your article you say that the first generation interactive TV was in the mid 90′ties. Actually the worlds first (to my knowledge - please prove me wrong) real interactive TV provider was the Danish company ITE. It started already in 1988 and had up until the mid 90′ties developed a interactive TV show with a little small troll (!) called Hugo.
The viewer could, on live tv, play a game using a normal fixed line phones touch pads to run around a maze (first person view) and .. collect pints. All part of a larger live TV show. Then all other viewers would be able to follow the troll trough the maze. The company had patents on the technology that basically managed the timing/sync between phone touch latency and motions on the screen. I know it is no where near the new generations of interactive TV.. but still interactive TV :-)

I found some info on it here:
http://www.thealarmclock.com/e....._trol.html

sincerely
Soren

]]> By: Ed http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1510326 Ed Sat, 21 Jul 2007 08:25:53 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/21/ictv-interactive-television-on-the-box-you-already-own/#comment-1510326 I agree that TV isn't going away, in fact, more companies should get into this. After all, just like in the picture in the post, many families get together to watch sports games or movies on their main tv, not around the computer monitor. If you're geek enough to set up your own media center and hook it up to the tv, that's good, but there are people less knowledgeable. I agree that TV isn’t going away, in fact, more companies should get into this. After all, just like in the picture in the post, many families get together to watch sports games or movies on their main tv, not around the computer monitor. If you’re geek enough to set up your own media center and hook it up to the tv, that’s good, but there are people less knowledgeable.

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