IPTV in adolescence

Like a lot of adolescents, the IPTV market right now is full of anxieties and questions. When will it be mass-market? When are we going to see hot new applications? When is it going to be mobile? And after these questions are answered, there are bound to be more.

What generates all this anxiety is the environment in which IPTV is growing up. It represents the first major new market for telecom service providers since they discovered data and wireless back in the ‘80s. IPTV also represents the best bet for them to compete as cable, voice over IP and wireless capture their core voice revenues. But it is coming of age at a difficult time because everything about video, and particularly IP-based video, is changing. In a sense, IPTV is like the eighth-grader whose parents move to a different state. The maturation process is expected to continue even though the surroundings are no longer familiar.

Recognizing that IPTV is in this transitional phase — definitely real-world, but not yet mature — this issue of Telephony's guide to IPTV looks at some here-and-now issues as well as some looming challenges. Our cover story, by IPTV beat writer Sarah Reedy, explores the muddle in the middle as multiple middleware competitors seek to either topple Microsoft as industry leader or latch onto anything the software giant hasn't already captured. The explosion of middleware vendors is a clear indication that this market has a ways to go before it hits maturity.

Right out of the chute, IPTV providers had to worry about security because their ability to license content was necessarily based on proving they could protect it from piracy. But security industry veterans are warning that the real threat to IPTV will happen when the service is more widespread and catches the interest of the professional brand of content and service thievery. In our second feature, I present both the service providers' and security vendors' views on the topic.

Finally, Web services are growing up right alongside IPTV, and it's clear their paths will cross. But it is less certain what the technology and business models will be at that intersection. Executive Features Editor Rich Karpinski, who covers Web services for Telephony, takes a look both at the how and why of an IPTV-Web services hookup and the current generation of Internet video players ready to compete with IPTV for consumer eyeballs.

Collectively, this content represents our best take on where IPTV is right now and where it is going on its road to maturity.