無料で見たいコンテンツ? 無料でしか見たくないコンテンツ? 無料でも見たくないコンテンツ?


          1. Free as a business model
            By Rich Karpinski

            It's not news, of course, that the Internet has undercut many an industry's business model. If you're watching the new season of HBO's The Wire, you can see the pain the Web has caused the newspaper industry. Soon, in a new plan announced by HBO this week, you'll be able to watch many of its shows for free on its Web site. The TV networks, already hurt by HBO and cable once before, are already on the Web, both on their dotcom sites as well as aggregated plays like Hulu.com. And it's a foregone conclusion that the music industry has been devastated by free (and often illegal) downloads, well before the launch this week by Last.FM of a huge, free (ad-supported) streaming music site.

            So how do you compete with free? As the telecom industry knows, it ain't easy. Sometimes it doesn't even matter if you "win" -- such as the incumbents' battle with VoIP upstarts like Vonage -- if in the process the game changes so fundamentally that your old ways of winning just don't work as well any longer.

            For service providers today, including companies eying new markets like IPTV and all its attendant services, the challenge is that "free" is only one part of the changing equation. Consider video services. It is especially frustrating and difficult to be entering one game -- basic cable plus on-demand/HD plus triple-play style packages -- just as it is being set upon itself by a variety of game-changing plays, not only Internet-delivered shows and movies, but downloading rentals via AppleTV boxes, IPTV via the Microsoft Xbox and much, much more.

            What's the answer? It's a complicated question, of course, but a telco that plays from its strengths -- mining its customer base, building on a top-notch QOS legacy, successfully bundling and cross-selling services -- while simultaneously driving in new directions via intelligent partnerships and carefully crafted new revenue streams, especially free-business-model-enabling-advertising plays, will be well ahead of the game.

            If you're under pressure to compete -- and win ----especially in the video realm, then Telephony has got you covered.

            Please join us at the upcoming Spring VON Show, March 21 in San Jose, where Telephony is presenting the Telephony IP Video Workshop. We'll explore all forms of IP video, including IPTV, mobile, P2P, over-the-top Internet and more, with speakers from a variety of service providers, equipment vendors, Internet video providers and more. Check out our workshop schedule, which will continue to grow, and if you're in town for VON or based out of the area, please plan to join us to figure out the future of IP video.

            E-mail me at rkarpinski@telephonyonline.com.
            +++++

            これは米国の VON Show の宣伝に近い Telephony の記事ですが、脚本家協会などのストでアカデミー賞授賞式が危ぶまれている米国は、良くも悪くも使えるものは使って、支払いに関してはシビアな交渉ごとの国だな〜という気がしますね。

            昨日の日経産業新聞にも Tivoでアメリカの夫婦円満、みたいな記事も掲載されていて、やっぱりアメリカ人はテレビ好きなのよね、とも思います。

            それに引き換え
            録音録画補償金問題、来期に持ち越しへ
            という日本。慎重というか、痛いところに触りたくないというか・・・

            今朝の日経産業新聞に
            +++++
            ■ 百度やネイバー、中・韓検索大手、日本で攻勢
            　中国や韓国のネット検索サービス大手が日本市場で攻勢を強めている。中国の検索最大手、百度（バイドゥ・ドット・コム）は２３日、日本語検索サービスの正式版の運用を開始。韓国の検索最大手「ネイバー」も日本法人を設立し、近くサービスを始める。日本はヤフーとグーグルの二強による寡占市場で攻略は容易でないが、各社は特色のあるサービスで「２番手の座」確保に照準を定める。
            +++++
            という記事が出ていました。どちらも最近日本進出したわけではなく、不振だったのです。

            それが
            百度日本語版、正式に開始──著作権啓蒙ページやフィルタリングも
            という動き。本当に日本の文化・法律に合わせたことになっているのでしょうかね〜

            百度
            のページを表示すると、著作権をクリアしていないような画像が見えるのは気にせい?

            そういえば、知り合いのブログを今朝、読んでいたら、旅行記の中で「アダルト・ページ」指定になり、閲覧できないページが出ていましたね。そのページを見るためには、そのブログの会員になり、生年月日を入れて、認証を受けなければならない、という注意書き。いや、そこまでする気持ちはないから・・・