The buzz about Belgian IDTV

Here in Belgium we have a complicated IDTV landscape. We have 2 providers : Belgacom and Telenet. Belgacom is Belgium biggest telecom provider and also has an adsl and cellular network, Telenet owns the cable infrastructure and provides telephony, cable tv and cable internet. They both have their own distibuting system, telenet trough cable and belgacom trough telephone lines. Well you will say, what's wrong with that? Well nothing, BUT they decided they will both use a different IDTV platform. So this means that an application you made for telenet digital tv will not work if you are a belgacom subscriber. Great news for the designers and developers hu? ... NOT ! This really bothers me, didn't they learned anything from the internet story over the last 10 years? After the whole XHTML and CSS story and Internet Explorer not respecting the W3C standards ... really f*ck it ! I don't want anything more to do with the current format of IDTV. And what's that sh*t about being interactive? I can't image anything more than maybe some video-on-demand or voting applications. But ok, two different platforms, we developers are used of that, but it gets worst!? Why did they both adapted a new technology, if we already have a great network and technology for interactivity, the internet! The IDTV providers act like they invented something new and it is a step forward in technology. Well it's not! Everything that they are trying to make, is another world wide spread network but then specifically for television. And the stupid thing is we already have a world wide network, yes ... the internet. So why are both the Belgian providers (who both provide internet access) so stupid to ignore this? Why are they investing money in creating a new network if there already exists one for more then 10 years and is widely adapted? Well my guess is, just for the money. They just want to find a new way to get more money from the people. If the providers want to bring interactivity to the television screen, why not make use of the internet. Not in it's current form, but in a television friendly way(f.e. windows media center). And if they're so desperate to earn money, they'll still be able let the users pay for the content they get. Stream the television programs over the internet, make them as interactive as you want with an existing technology like for example Macromedia *kuch* Adobe Flash. Let users, chat, email, like it's nothing. Because your tv is connected to the internet. One of the advantages is that I'll be able to access the same TV programs on my laptop. I'm not in need of a television to watch the IDTV programs. Because internet access is enough. On a mobile phone it's just the same, you just need an internet connection to have access to the same information you can get on your tv of pc. Content stays the same, layout just depends on the functionalities of your device. I can't understand why they decided to use a whole new technology for this medium, as developers we are struggling to get everything on the same standard (example: different css styles for a different devices). They just completely ignored that. Well maybe I'm overreacting but I just can't see what they are trying to achieve with this. IPTV by microsoft What are your taughts ? comment...

Dec 16, 2005

frits said...

Jesse, I don't really get why you get so excited about this. Indeed, no-one is really waiting for this new technology and services, and yes, providers will try to push it through our throtes and will create a demand for it anyway. But are that reasons to be contra IDTV? Surely there will be new and good services like video on demand, theme chanels, in depth information via enhanced television, governemenal news and public services,.. For many people who are not computer savvy and technology minded I believe that the tv and remote control will be a more easy step towards interactive. Take for instance my grandma. She's a nice lady of 70 that tries to stay away from computers, cause they have keyboards with more then 100 buttons.. she feels like she has no control over the device. With the tv it's different, she's used to operating the tv, teletext and the DVD player and feel comfortable with it. The step towards interaction with a television screen via the familiar remote isn't that big. She could benefit from new services. It would be easy for her to push the red button and order samples, use the electronic program guide, play along with gameshows like Blokken, read an email from me and so on..

You said a new network is created for IDTV.. I don't think this is the case. Yes, much new technology has been created to distribute the video and services and to run and create the MHP applications, but many IDTV applications use excisting web services and databases content. The interactive television set is just another medium to access the same information.

Do we need it? No. Will it be used? Yes! With the battle between Telenet and Belgacom for their telco clients huge amounts of money is being spent on advertising and services to pull the people in. Football freaks, porn lovers and movie buffs will be the first ones to go for it, many more will follow soon..

Jesse said...

I'm not contra more interactivity on a television screen, I just can't understand why they didn't used the standard internet as transport...

Dec 23, 2005

Tom De Bruyne said...

@Jesse, we had Jacques Bughin from McKinsey at our i-merge Web2.0 seminar two days ago and he gave a very thought-provoking lecture on the future of the net. All the indications are there that IDTV will eventually become obsolete because of the many advantages of IPTV. The simple reason for that is that we'll have multiple screens through which we will want our content to be displayed. If we want to lean back, the wireless bridge will transport the content from our PC to our TV. If we want personalised content on our mobile device, it will get synchronised with the mobile device. Our mobile devices will have an IP, which in its turn leads to the opportunity to send personalised content to it.

The implications of this - and this is exactly your point as well - is that IPTV will be one of the applications amongst several other IP-related services. IPTV is one service in a rich ecosystem of possible services in an IP-ised world. IDTV is just a closed garden that won't add that much value. IPTV can benefit from its embeddedness in the context of other webservices. The Alcatel AmigoTV platform illustrates this perfectly: social networking, tagging, social filtering of content on an IPTV platform + the ability to create your own content channel. Developed in Belgium and I've seen a demo. It kicks ass.

@Frits: i really doubt the fact that grandmothers will interact with IDTV. Most seniors I know, just want to sit and vegetate for a while in front of their TV. ;-)

Thanks for your reaction Tom, I'm totally with you ... the multiple screen thing is very interesting. We're working around this in our module experimental media. I hope we can create some kind of prototype that can be useful for other projects.
Frits will actually be going a step further, he's one of the lucky ones entering the medialab program in Helsinki. So he'll definatelly will have something to tell about it when he's back.

Anyway I keep you updated trough this blog.

Mar 12, 2006

Born On the Web » The radical change of TV said...

[...] If we take a look at the current iDTV model in Belgium, it can be interesting for the 35+ segment, but for the new younger generations it will fail. It has almost no extra value for people who are familiar with the internet. Maybe some good movies or series, but I’m sure that in the future they will be available for download from the moment they are released. I don’t think young people want to wait untill lost season 2 for example gets aired on a Belgian tv channel. They are in touch with the whole world trough the internet. They want to be able to access the same information at the same time as the people who live in the USA. My brother is a fanatic runescape player. He talks with his friends from all over the world, he get’s information from all over the world, he wants to be able to view the same cool tv shows as his friends abroad. Often it’s impossible to access that information the legal way so often those kids get it from bittorrent, P2P, ... I think it’s pretty logical, they want to be able to talk about the same tv programs their friends talk about. I’m just trying to explain how important it is, not to underestimate the changes this will bring to tv in the future: [...]

Born on the Web

Jesse Wynants

The buzz about Belgian IDTV

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