Infoworld has an interesting article on how IPTV will impact TV viewing experience:
..."Integration will change everything for our consumers,"
Possible cross-platform services could include the following, she said:
- a family could view a library of all its digital photos on PCs, TVs and mobile phones;
- a TV viewer could interact with a home DVR (digital video recorder) from a mobile phone while on the road, to set up recordings;
- a parent could change TV parental-control settings in real time from a mobile phone to keep children from watching a show;
- a user could maintain one list of phone numbers and e-mail addresses and use it on both a PC and a mobile phone;
- a subscriber could have a personalized account for delivery of certain types of stock prices, sports scores and weather information, accessible with a single click on a PC, TV and mobile phone.
IPTV could create as big a change as TV itself did when it first appeared in a world dominated by radio, said Robert Clasen, president and chief executive officer of Starz, which delivers TV channels and video-on-demand via cable operators and the Internet. For example, there is no need to fit shows into one-hour and half-hour program blocks if users are downloading them, he said. A show could last a day, and viewers could stop it and pick up later where they left off, or a 30-second cartoon could appear between programs and also be offered on cell phones, he said. An operator could sell a customer just one channel or just news channels, he added.
"It will be critical to understand that you are not just recreating cable or satellite. ... Your goal should be to create an entirely new form of communication," Clasen said.