On the heels of the TelcoTV trade show in Orlando the shift in interest from IPTV to OTT video appears to be gaining momentum. TelcoTV was started in 2002 in pre-Katrina New Orleans and focused initially on emerging technologies enabling the delivery of linear TV over telco broadband assets, what quickly became known as IPTV. For the past several years, however, the show has seen a dramatic increase in internet video or, more colloquially, over-the-top (OTT) video. At this most recent event the shift in interest has taken on even more portentous meaning. While initial interest in OTT video was limited either to providers that had not yet invested in IPTV or providers viewing OTT video as an adjunct to IPTV, for the first time I heard providers talk about replacing IPTV systems with OTT video.
These are still very early and anecdotal indicators, but they are important nonetheless. While IPTV represents a highly advanced and mature set of technologies it is still linear video. And I have long maintained that linear video is to internet video what AOL (the portal, not the dial up services) was to the World Wide Web in the mid to late 1990s: cute, interesting but ultimately unfulfilling. For providers to even think about replacing IPTV systems, in some cases not even fully depreciated, is an indication that the comparison to AOL is even more accurate. I can’t wait for TelcoTV 2010.
