Landscape

My first experience with Internet-based TV shows came four years ago, when my son — then in high school — included something called “Homestar Runner collectibles” on his Christmas list. Practical kid that he is, he included the URL for the “Homestar Runner” site on his list, and curious mom that I am, I had to explore the entire site and watch what were, to me, a bizarre set of cartoons before agreeing to provide a credit-card number to buy the requested items.

What was more bizarre, however, was realizing how many of my sons' friends were totally hooked on a set of crudely drawn, rather silly cartoon characters. To this day, I have no idea how many English-speaking teenagers got hooked on “Homestar Runner,” but the site survives today and continues selling merchandise to kids and parents like me.

I suspect this is the essence of what author Chris Anderson dubbed “long-tail content.” As Anderson explained in his book, “The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More,” the Internet has forever changed the business model of sales by creating a broad distribution model for products that might never achieve mass-market appeal. Collectively, Anderson argues, the sales of these less-popular items can exceed those of best-sellers, if the distribution channel is large enough.

Applying the long-tail model to video is part of the appeal of the Internet video craze — viewing becomes even more personalized than today's TiVO-like services, which already allow time-shifting of personally selected content. The Internet does that one better, making a wider variety of that content available any time at all.

As we explore in this issue's cover story on page 4, it won't be long before Internet-based video is part of the IPTV package that major telecom service providers sell. Those service providers still face significant challenges, however, to just getting IPTV platforms in place — including technology choices and standards issues, which we also explore within this issue.

The IPTV landscape is constantly shifting. This was supposed to be the year that IPTV went mainstream, but as we go to press, that is not yet a reality. Which means there is plenty of time for new content to get its toe-hold in the Internet world.