IBM Sees the End of TV As We Know It

You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2007, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Find any typos? Please let me know!

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IBM has graciously, openly published a report called The End of TV As We Know It at http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/imc/pdf/ge510-6248-end-of-tv-full.pdf.

Although published in March 2006 (1.5 years is a long time in the current video anytime, anywhere world in which we live), the report is very insightful and benefits from interviews with major players.

IBM commissioned primary research by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The EIU surveyed 108 industry executives from three constituencies: 1) cable, broadcast and Pay TV networks, 2) multiple system operators (MSO) and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers, and 3) new entrant video telecommunications companies. Respondents were evenly split among three geographical regions: Europe, Asia and North America. (Accessed 9 September 2007.)

This is required reading for my senior Interactivity and the Future of Television course at the University of Georgia. This succinct but deep report lays out future scenarios and challenges for media and telecommunications executives today.

wiseGEEK.com

You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2007, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Find any typos? Please let me know!

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I'm adding a new link to the blog (where are my students? You should be posting to this blog, too? Nudge, nudge.). http://www.wisegeek.com/ is a source for definitions for unfamiliar terms like, ARPU. What the @%&!?

ARPU is a term bandied about quite a bit in these days of the telecommunications boom. ARPU stands for Average Revenue Per User. It is a powerful and extremely useful indicator of just how well a telecom company is accessing its customers’ revenue potential. Source: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-arpu.htm, accessed 9 September 2007

I teach in a department of "telecommunications" at the University of Georgia. Many of our peers, like us, were once "Radio/TV/Film." Many, especially seasoned faculty members or those who have worked in television broadcasting, for example, do no like the term "telecommunications" as a name for the department in which we work. Well, as ARPU shows, it's time to drop that worry and learn the vocabulary of the "telephone" industry because they are now getting into the content delivery business.

Source: http://www.imediaconnection.com/images/content/emarketer_060915_b.gif accessed 9 September 2007.

Personally, I began attending "telecom engineering" conferences since the mid-1980s. I skipped the hard core engineering sessions for the ones intended for those who worked in the marketing departments of the telcos. I still remember the plastic prototype of a flip-phone (thin, opened up like a wallet) being passed around a session on the future of wireless (PCS) telephony. In addition, I did attend some engineering sessions where the presentations showed how the Northern Telecoms of the world were finding ways of compressing video into a single telephone line.

So, climb on board the train, don't get run over by it. And be happy that our students have options other than working 38 hours a week with no benefits in entry-level broadcast jobs. It's a wide, wild telecom world out there.