Long Tail of Television

As if 900 channels of digital cable are not enough, telephony companies in Europe are in a mad dash to implement IPTV in a response to the growing threat to their existing fixed line business. Every single EU countries is, has or will roll out IPTV this year and it has caused a boon for equipment manufacturers like Cisco (Scientific Atlanta), Alcatel and Ericsson.

Several European phone companies plan to announce significant expansions of Internet protocol television, or IPTV, this week, led by Deutsche Telekom, which is spending 3 billion euros and has linked about 4 in 10 German households to broadband TV.

Where as in North America, it has not gotten off the ground, European households can look forward to more choice and more importantly the right choice. My biggest beef about TV is that for me it is mostly useless. I watch about 2-3 hours of TV each week and that all PBS so I am probably not a good sample. However what I am is a good example of a trend of people that are disillusioned with the quality and substance of Television so prefer to look for other avenues of entertainment.

The benefit I see is tailored television where we could choose what channels we want. Wait forget that, forget channels, I would like 100% on demand television where I can choose the programs and the timetable so it would be ready for me when I want watch it.

Wait there already is system called iTunes that does that....