Telecom Trends

Interesting that the CRTC released its report on the future of broadcasting the same week that The Venice Project went live. The Venice Project hopes to disrupt TV viewing the same way its founders disrupted telephony with Skype.

My initial impression is that there is lots of Canadian content available - maybe the menu is tailored to my registered location (?) - including a variety of Much Music on Demand and other music videos. However, a lot of the content was old - programming from 2004 and old Wakestock features.

You can watch a single channel and play the various content in a continuous stream or go to a menu and switch programs on demand. 1-2 second splash ads at the end of programs, so far just 3 brands seem to be showing up in rotation.

The content appears more geared to my college age kids, rather than me - duhhh. But I can handle the Poker World Tour and at least some of the music videos and interviews. It's still early.

Over the weekend, AP's Bruce Meyerson wrote "the long-awaited rollout of advanced TV services based on Internet technologies has resembled the drip of a faucet." I'd like to suggest that The Venice Project provides a window into the potential for these advanced internet-based TV services.

But there are lots of questions:

• Will over-the-top broadband IP access deliver a enough of a satisfactory result for viewers of streaming video from The Venice Project?
• Will The Venice Project get access to content that people want to see?
  
• Would The Venice Project team want / be willing to have their technology integrated into a set-top box to improve the quality and remove the stutter?
  
• Would that be going too mainstream for a development team that operates at the edge?

With the college-kids home for the school break, we'll have our own home-based focus group looking at The Venice Project for the next few weeks.

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CRTC, Venice Project