Digital Lifescapes

According to a new IMS Research assessment, the FCC has adopted the disruptive technology formed when the "open" home network standard DLNA is combined with DTCP-IP and seems determined to use the opportunity to mandate the end of the "closed" pay-TV digital set-top box (STB). The FCC goal: enable any consumer electronics (CE) manufacturer's devices to access pay-TV content, which the Commission believes would foster meaningful new competition and innovation in smart video devices. The current restrictive vendor-centric service delivery model will be replaced by the FCC's non-restrictive AllVid concept -- which is a Pay-TV Gateway that translates from the platform-specific modulation and encryption (Conditional Access) to DLNA & DTCP-IP. The proprietary STB will be replaced with standards-based Digital Media Adapters that support the same protocols. An increasing number of TVs and Blu-Ray players are also including DLNA & DTCP-IP standards sup...

My big take-away from the South-by-Southwest (SXSW) Interactive festival this year was a further validation that big media companies -- traditional publishers of print content in particular -- are still searching for a way to halt their collective slide into eventual insolvency. Surely, given their vast resources, the very best big publishers are capable of evolving their business model. At least, that's their hope for the future. But, how does an innovation-challenged organization avoid extinction when unrelenting disruption of the prior status-quo continues to erode their once dominant market position? As I attended the various panels related to this topic, I was reminded of the book " Inside Project Red Stripe " by Andrew Carey -- the story of how six of The Economist's cleverest people tried to create the "next big thing" online and essentially failed, after investing six months in idea exploration. Hope in the Trust Economy Big media companies...