Reply to post: Re: All that effort...

TV transport tech, part 1: From server to sofa at the touch of a button

P. Lee

Re: All that effort...

Google have millions of android devices which could double as STB's, they've got chromecast and you can bet there are plenty of phone+TV android devices in China.

IP provides a more reliable transport than RF, and allows for caching, so that makes sense. RF is far better than IP for mass distribution so that makes sense too. Until someone gets multicast working well through ISP's not much is going to change there. With Google starting ISP activity in the US, things may begin to move. If anyone has the ability to gather and sell your TV-viewing habits to marketers, its Google. Google can also do "web-scale" authentication which might be handy too.

Google is also not beholden to the content providers and they don't have existing profit margins or business model to protect in this sector which makes them a dangerous competitor. I'd be nervous too if my business depended on the goodwill of my suppliers not to go with a distributor who could provide much better feedback data and who is much larger than me.

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