HD 1080 Delivery - Perfect Targeting

Steve Jobs & "iTV" The evolution begins.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/12/live-from-the-steve-jobs-keynote-its-showtime/ Not that i would herald Apple Computer for much, but Steve has the platform to set an example that does get followed, for example, the Apple][ that healped lead to MSDOS and finally the PC platform, creating the consumer endpoint ubiquity that caused the internet to actually connect to people. Apple does well in entertainment. Did the iPOD well, so it is natural to persue more.

The iTV or whatever they call it is basically a real small digital TV box with a hard drive that you can connect to your HDTV and home theater stereo or surround sound system, and have some wireless features you want anyhow, and the box with its infrastucture is likely to launch next year. It connects thru your broadband ISP and does some On-Demand stuff of a dedicated supply-side like iTunes.


The REAL DEAL $$
Since digital TV's , flat panel widescreens, are nearing a critical mass of minimum consumer volume to make a valid business model-- the prospect of content delivery to them is now most definitely the cash flow of the marketspace. The prospect of subscribing to a service that lets me night time download conveniently whatever my use profile states i want, is a success story i want in on. If a service existed that would allow me to capture what i have interest in, i would love it, especially in 1080., and i would actually be TELLING them my customer preference profile, which they now spend huge amounts of money trying to figure out, and usually mess up. Literally they will get what they want to know, right from the source, and in doing this also make a happy consumer of service and product. Perfect Target Marketing.

Here is a real example. I work for Damon Dash and Daniel Lazar of Tiret. Damon dash was profiled on CNN and i missed it ( sept 11 ), in fact,Tiret didnt even know when Damon's profile would get into the schedule, so they couldnt warn me to record it. CNN makes this available http://edition.cnn.com/CNNI/Programs/revealed/ so at least i can catch it later. This is good, and now his video pressbook can have a clip or two referring to this coverage. looky here http://dsmjmedia.com/tiret work in progress stuff.

the FAT PIPE DREAM
Lets say now that iTV enters the picture and i tell my iTV to hunt down any clips it can find that mention keywords Damon Dash & Tiret at anypoint from now till the end of time. BOOM! Whn they happen, it grabs them, i see them, keeps me in the know the way i want it in yet another format that is more detailed better and cooler and on my biggest screen... so maybe they drop in 15 secs of some Car ad in the front that i can tolerate, and a sponsor gets a known set of eyeballs. win -win - win. IPTV down a fat pipe my way.

VOD equation
Currently VOD is defined as a sourcepoint delivery at the time of request. Thats ok but it requires massive immediate bandwidth. I want to watch what i want when i want for sure, but like the netflix paradigm, i can specify what i want, and have it arrive where i am. For me, that is time planning that works. What the providers dont realize is that scan the VOD menu, see that what i want is there, and plan to click the buy button and see it at a later date. This means it could download with less bandwidth sensitivy during off peak hours, and i still get what i want, and see it when i intend to. VOD is less of an impulse buy than they think it is, and in truth, availability and quality is more important.


AT SOME FUTURE POINT I want the same connection to HD video that iTunes has for Music, except for this model they dont have to store it all, just grab bits as the broadcast happens and send my iTV the streams. Like an HD Video Inbox. Subscribe and get. Gimme. Sign me up. Adelphia has On-Demand, but the big problem there is that what i would demand is not there, its untargeted, useless to me.

EXISTING STUFF...
Why not have Windows Media Center do this? Or TiVO HD? Sorry but i'm already familiar with the progress of thier very crappy interfaces to the point that i am convinced they have to start over to make me want it, not likely to happen, since by thier own marketing methods i am sure that only my lowest expectations will be met, and the usual case is interface through some dumbass handheld remote that will never be what i want it to be.

Apple on the other hand, seems to be nimble enough to do things of this type reasonably well, and in my view of this, the best use is to do an end-run around the cable/broadcast provider and use the internet. Its a pipe dream of course, but maybe i will read my own post on this sometime in 2007 and realize then, that i was right on the money...

just maybe.