AT&T, Microsoft X-Box, Joost, TiVo, Apple, France Telecom, Democracy TV, Limewire and Bit Torrent, Joost, mobile TV - who is not getting into the TV business these days? From the billion dollar investments that Telcos are undertaking to compete with the cable companies encroaching on their home voice turf to the Internet startups like Democracy and Joost, it seems like anyone and everyone wants to deliver TV or video services. Is TV as we know it dead? Not really, it is just going through a rebirth, is evolving and going to be better than ever!

Why is TV going to be better than ever? The confluence of content, technology and market demographics and experiences has finally matured and aligned to the extent to provide to the end-user a richer, more interactive, personalized and ubiquitous TV entertainment experience. A key component to this triumvirate for TV’s evolution is content - it’s everywhere and developed by anyone. No longer are the "big Hollywood" studios or global content powerhouses the only content game in town - the Internet as a content delivery platform has started to slowly level the content creation and delivery playing field. The multitude of content delivery providers identified above signals a prime opportunity for content creators (as well as amateur content developers) to get their digital entertainment seen and heard - today there are enough delivery platforms and bandwidth to meet even the discerning content appetite of the longtail. One new TV delivery platform to watch is the Telco TV play. The recent market entry and technology power of the Telcos may make them the most promising players to capitalize on TV and digital entertainment 2.0!

Telcos as TV providers

Telcos have three primary advantages in terms of being able to capitalize on the convergence of content and next-generation TV evolution:

1. Telcos, new to the TV/video content market are not hampered by historical path dependencies and business models. Telcos will be able to adopt emerging trends in delivery and market demands more quickly in terms of content consumption, especially those being ushered in with web based TV content and the Web 2.0 phenomena.

2. Span of networks: The three-screen (TV, mobile, web) delivery ability of Telco’s allows for the true exploitation of content. The emerging video "shifting" trend today is "place shifting" - watching TV wherever you are, when ever you want on any kind of networked device and Telco‘s have the capabilities to deliver this like no other video services provider.
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