PVRs VS. NETWORK CONTENT DELIVERY DEBATED
Showtime Networks executive Mark Greenberg extols virtues of TiVo device that allows his children to pause live TV, but Greg DePrez of Starz Encore Group believes operators can offer much fresher material out of head-end. They were among 7 panelists discussing next generation of video-on-demand (VOD) at VoD Summit in N.Y.C. Tues. They agreed, however, that hybrid of network and personal video recorder (PVR) devices based in home would be embraced by cable industry for immediate future. For example, Greenberg, exec. vp-corporate strategy & communications at Showtime, likes ability to skip commercials on home PVR. However, DePrez, vp-subscription VoD at Starz, says PVRs are “nice, but they don’t predict what you're going to watch.”
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Problem with storing content in boxes is that there’s always new technology, so companies would have to replace boxes constantly, Video Networks Simon Hochhauser said. Self-described “firm believer” in network storage, he said it was cheaper to offer content from network than from edge. He said much of what people watched was decided “on the spur of the moment,” which would favor menus and vast libraries supported by networks.
Major question, all agreed, is whether MSOs can gain legal rights to keep and maintain content on networks. Meanwhile, TiVo, which offers set-top with storage device that downloads content to hard drive for monthly fee, doesn’t raise similar objections from content producers because boxes serve individual users, so-called “fair use,” rather than large MSOs, which are reusing and redistributing original content as part of service. “I believe it’s just a matter of time, 12 to 18 months, before they (MSOs) get network PVR rights,” predicted Terri Richardson, vp-business development & alliances, nCUBE Corp. Others, including CacheVision CEO Richard Johnson, thought that prediction was overly optimistic. CacheVision provides hard drives and surrounding equipment inside boxes.
Scientific-Atlanta Vp-Mktg. Perry Tanner said he hoped both network and home PVRs were used since his company was supplying equipment and technology for both methods. Right now, he said, “there’s a race.” SkyStream Networks Pres. James Olson said he believed MSOs should embrace local storage on set-tops to avoid another Napster situation where users were happy but content producers lost their security and rights. Ultimately, Olson said, “the content is going to get stored where the consumer wants it.”