They'll all trying to be Sky
IPTV is just another set top box connected to yet another server shoveling the same limited content down a different cable. They're all trying to be the next Sky, owning the delivery route from content maker to consumer. Not going to happen in the UK since Freeview & Sky exists. Not going to happen in most places since cable exists. There's no hole in the market there to fill.
Then there's the MS Media Player route, locked media files sent down to PCs, most of these PCs aren't in the home entertainment stack the way the TV, stereo, DVD player, Tivo and Wii are. Not going to happen, since the content cannot make the hop from the PC to the home entertainment stack. Well not unless you plan on spending a thousand quid on a noisy clutsy Media PC to put in your stack! But then if you were going to do that, why not an IPTV set top box instead?!
Then there's the pirate/fair use route, where content is in MPEG4, Xvid or DivX encoding, can be written to DVD R+- and played on every 30 quid DVD/DIVX player. Now they even sell hard disk media player boxes for 120-150 quid that plug into the home network and can play everything, your home videos, files pulled off the net. That market is a runaway success. Again typically Divx Xvid MPeg1/2/4 MP3 JPEG etc. but not VC1 with MS DRM! Nobody supports VC1+MS DRM or even VC1. Not a DVD player maker, not one of these hard disk boxes. The only company that supports MS DRM/VC1 is Microsoft.
They won't be the next sky, because nobody is stupid enough to lock themselves into Microsoft's controlled small channel. Well except the BBC.... odd that.
Typical hard disk media player:
http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/551341/art/freecom/network-mediaplayer-350-w.html
Biting the hand that feeds IT
