Blog: John Myers

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Content is King...err...Super

In my opinion the realm of telecom service providers includes a wide variety of providers. An introductory, but not complete list is:

• Traditional (read landline) providers


• Wireless (read cell phone) providers


• Cable operators


• Satellite TV and Radio operators

With many of these, simply offering connectivity, or the “pipe”, to services was the first step to introducing their offerings. Think back to the wireless phones of five years ago… You probably were not playing video golf on them during boring meetings.

As the market for “pipe” usage matures, there is an increasing pressure to offer content that differentiates a telecom service provider’s offering from others. One distinct was is sports programming. While Mobile ESPN was probably over the top to wireless devices, sports content still drives many consumers and demands high dollars to deliver those downloads, eyeballs, viewers, listeners, etc.

A recent study details how this could be particularly troubling for IPTV. With deals for “Big 4” (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL…strike that… NASCAR) sports content going to existing and relatively widely distributed channels (see the exclusive deal between DirecTV and MLB), proprietary IPTV implementations may not have access to traditional sports content packages to boost their subscriptions to match projections.

Also, it should be noted that sport content is not a cheap item. Recently, Forbes ranked the most valuable sports content properties. Not surprisingly, the NFL's Super Bowl is the most valuable brand/franchise. At an estimated $379 million, the Super Bowl is more than twice as valuable as the next competitor, the Summer Olympic franchise/brand. Again, if IPTV is to gain access to these properties, it is possible that they will have to come up with imaginative offerings to the “Big 4” or lucrative contract offerings…. Based on the DirecTV deal, I would say that the money will talk the loudest.

Technorati Tags: IPTV, DirecTV, Sports Content, Telecom Service Provider

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