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“We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical,” said The Outer Limits ‘Control Voice’ in the opening of the ABC-TV series from 1963-65. Broadcast TV is about to go ‘One Step Beyond’ all that with streams of content and commercials containing a variety of signaling and announcements designed to personalize the television experience for the viewer. Metadata will turn one-to-many broadcasting into one-to-one personalcasting.
A revolution is taking place in the means by which consumers receive and control access to their media. Set top boxes are no longer tied to one delivery channel and some smart players are providing a user interface that does not discriminate on the signal source; antenna or wire.
Cable operators in the US are still failing to match Internet TV players for quality of experience despite having their own multiscreen offerings, according to research commissioned by pay TV subscription, billing and CRM vendor Paywizard. Americans are being drawn to the higher level of customer service from providers like Netflix and Amazon according to the study, characterized by features like quick and easy signup, lack of contracts, free trials, instant account changes, transparent billing, and the ability to leave and return at any time.
Digital media has failed at its original vision and is now turning into the third leg of the television business, said Michael Wolff, a tech entrepreneur and author of the book “Television Is the New Television: The Unexpected Triumph of Old Media In the Digital Age.”
While there’s been a lot of talk about how large multi-channel video distributors—mostly cable and satellite TV—are using highly automated over-the-top (OTT) infrastructures and other forms of streaming methods to reach new customers with on-demand and live audio and video content, many independent TV station groups and individual stations themselves have also begun targeting the variety of mobile devices now in consumers’ hands; but for different reasons.
I was all set to write my next chapter on standards and terminology when the The Broadcast Bridge published an article quoting the Olympic Broadcast Service (OBS) that said, 4K is just a Bus Stop to 8K (along with 22.2 audio channels).
When most of us think of “over-the-top” television, we think of video programming distributed over the internet by services such as Netflix, Amazon, Apple and a host of other online programmers. But the OTT business is rapidly changing — bringing in a diverse new group of niche players who are filling in the programming gaps as the major players shift to more mass market programming.
It has already been a big year for CDN launches with new entrants along with developments from the large existing players such as Akamai and Amazon. At least three somewhat overlapping themes can be identified, optimization for Ultra HD (UHD) content, CDNs specializing in delivery to mobile devices and moves into the field by satellite platform providers.
