IPTV Sudden Juggernaut = Inherently Interactive TV

You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2005, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Best viewed in Firefox.

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From my perspective as a student of the diffusion of new communication technologies, I must say I'd be hard pressed to find a technology that has exploded onto the scene as IPTV (Internet Protocol Television). Here is a public schematic courtesy of Agilent | N2X at http://advanced.comms.agilent.com/

One of the many nice things about being an outsider to these related industries is that I am less likely to fall into echo chamber (i.e., the "common wisdom" about things including "iTV is pie in the sky" or "WebTV will be a huge success for Microsoft"). Here is my sense of where IPTV is going and why it is going there so far:

• More and more people are cutting their telephone landlines in favor of cell phones and IP-based telephone (think Vonage).
  
• The telcos may have been too slow to respond, but they have heard the wake-up call loud and clear and they know what I've known for years: the future of the Internet (the web) is video.
  
• It was only a question of how long it would take before the major players (TV and Hollywood) would realize they need to be in the video-to-the-home business. The telcos know it now.
  
• At the last U.S. Telephone Association representingg smaller telephone companies) heard the IPTV message and that it was going to be highlighted at 2 major conferences this year.