PAY TV’S WEB REVOLUTION
The Federal Government wants to require cable and satellite TV service providers to ‘unlock’ their set-top boxes. Under an ‘open-source’ standard, if you want to drop one provider’s service, you can use the box you already have for a new provider’s service. You don’t have to buy or lease a new box.
Some pay TV system operators are saying that the box will soon be obsolete, anyway. They say that changing the technical standards for set-top boxes will be futile. It is an unnecessary expense, they say, and may even be counterproductive, since almost all TV content will soon be streamed over the internet.
Last year, Dish Network demonstrated the market power of a dedicated multichannel web streaming platform with Sling TV. The new service has been popular, and now has more than 600, 000 subscribers. Sling TV carried just seventeen channels at its launch, but now carries more than sixty, including premium movie channels. Its basic twenty-three channel package sells for just $20.00 per month.
Other pay TV providers, observing Sling TV’s success, have entered the internet video streaming market. Verizon Wireless has pursued the mobile market aggressively with its Go90 platform. Comcast has tested its XFinity Stream IP TV service in selected markets, for the purpose of bringing broadband users who aren’t pay TV customers into its TV System. Time Warner Cable has tested TWC TV, an internet-only TV bundle, in New York City. For now, only TWC’s broadband customers can get TWC TV, but the company wants to offer it to others soon. Sony’s PlayStation, once strictly a gaming console, now handles streaming video with the Vue upgrade.
More vendors will follow. Within two or three years, the set-top box is likely to become a relic of the past, as almost all multichannel video service providers will be streaming their content over the internet.
(For streaming video, you need the right internet connection. Talk to us. We can help.)