TV over IP?
Om points out that SBC is ready to roll out IPTV, or essentially cable television service over broadband. Sure, all you need is the bandwidth and a tuner to convert the digital signals into something your analog TV can grok. Oh, yeah, there’s the whole “local government controls the TV thing.”
Am I completely wrong to think that TV over IP is not cable and shouldn’t be treated the same? There are people already watching TV over IP. Namely, the people who are building their own MythTV boxes and bittorrenting all their favorite programs to watch on their TV. Okay, it’s “store and forward,” there aren’t any “channels” per-se, and you can pick and choose programs, but it’s basically TV over IP. Do local governments have any say over that? Do the local franchise authorities have any say over people using satellite, which we know there is a growing minority of people doing? They don’t, and there’s no reason they should have any say on TV over IP either.
