Comments on: The Futurist: Can The Mobile TV Industry Survive The Slingbox?

By: Bruce Renny

Bruce Renny — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 10:58:10 +0000

Hold on everyone! Lets split ‘mobile TV’ into 2 distinct categories…
You have broadcast (simulcast) full-length TV on mobiles – as provided by Sling or via DVB-H, MediaFlo etc and you have uni-cast on-demand mobile TV.
Research already shows that full-length broadcast TV on mobiles is a ‘nice to have’ application whilst on-demand unicat mobile TV is something people will be far more likely to pay a premium for, going-forward.
Why? Because people are willing to pay to watch what they want to watch when they want to watch it – not when it’s broadcast.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 05:00:09 +0000

T I V O

By: Seth Porges

Seth Porges — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:32:20 +0000

Re: “anonymous”.
In case there was any ambiguity about it, I didn’t mean to portray Sling in a negative sense. I agree that they are a very, very smart and nimble company, and, as I say at the end, their survival is important for making sure other such companies have a chance down the line in a pool increasingly dominated by a few big fishes.

By: vansumner

vansumner — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:04:03 +0000

dbb hit the nail on the head–that anything to “…motivate subscribers to purchase unlimited data plans is welcomed by all carriers.” The only way carriers are making money these days is thru DATA. So any application that drives data usage is good for them. The carriers need stop pouting and get over their self-induced paranoia about being a dumb pipe (”We’re not an ISP…We are a content company!!”). I’m personally a fan of Orb, but the bottom line is that consumers will indeed revolt when they finally get fed up with paying “content fees” to the carriers. Just give me a good phone and data plan and leave me alone!

By: dbb

dbb — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:29:50 +0000

Everyone forgets that US carriers paid billions in spectrum licensing fees and then billions more to build out THEIR networks, they have every right and responsibility to protect those networks and monetize them as they see best. While 3 UK has indeed embraced services like Sling (and Skype) it comes with a data plan that has the associated data access fees already built in – anything Sling can do to motivate subscribers to purchase unlimited data plans is welcomed by all carriers. On content however, phones are not small television sets but rather more like small PCs and the ultimate user experience needs to reflect that. Watching 44 minute prime time dramas will not be what most consumers want most the time.

dbb

By: anonymous

anonymous — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 07:04:42 +0000

From everything I’ve seen to date from Sling, they are a smart company and are looking to partner with the operators who “get it” and this is very differernt from the negative viewpoint you’ve portrayed. It’s also important to not that it doesn’t have to be an absolute “either or” with respect to MediaFlo / DVBH vs. the Sling/Orb type models. Some customers will prefer one approach and others will prefer the another and there is plenty of room in the market for a couple of different players and options. Look how many folks make big screens – it will be the same for mobile TV I think.

Mobile TV is going to be a big market (the pundits will eat there words over time) and there’s plenty of room for a company like Sling to thrive along with the other players like MediaFlo. The fact that Sling is working with carriers already and that some carriers actually are embracing this model is something the pundits should take note of.

Remember too that folks like MediaFlo and Modeo have huge infrastructure outlay costs to deal with. Building a new network nationwide is very expensive and time consuming. Sling’s model on the other hand seems a bit less risky to me if your looking at the reality of how you get to profitability.

By: Blake

Blake — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 05:47:19 +0000

would love to know what we are going to be getting sued for. any tips would be appreciated ;-)

i guess one more possibility would be for the mobile operators to embrace the technology like Hutchison/3 did.

on a more serious note, the threat to Net Neutrality is a serious one and something all of us should at least be cognizent of at this point. I am optimistic the Net will remail “neutral”, but good to have everyone educated in the case things start to get crazy.

interesting perspectives Seth. thanks.

keep on slingin’ in a free world,

blake