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SDRNews SDR2009-04-21 Noose Tightens in a Flash

April 20th, 2009 Administrator

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Flash Tightens the Noose

by Andrew McCaskey
In a Flash, the Noose Tightens PDF Print E-mail
Written by Andrew McCaskey
Monday, 20 April 2009 20:17

Tightening the Noose

Cable operators had to keep a straight face while their pulse involuntarily quickened at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention when Adobe announced the extension of Flash to the television screen, working with both content providers and display manufacturers. They are one step closer to being chopped out of the distribution path, and facing the destruction of their business model.

Flash is used for online video streaming by the likes of Hulu and YouTube. If set top boxes begin to arrive to market late this year and prototype units with built in Flash interface hit CES in 2010, a veritable tipping point is upon us in the next 18 months.

Blu-ray players at $99 (with an industry that insists on a premium for the media) are potentially non starters. The popularity of YouTube and Hulu are about to sweep them away as a delivery vehicle. Removing the media PC or Apple TV from the path (in the mind of the average consumer) and placing Flash video entirely within the realm of the remote control is the last step in removing all that pesky broadcast industry delivery from the middle of the equation.

This brings a number of things into focus: Bandwidth caps are a last ditch attempt to maintain control while the cable industry figures out how to keep their business model intact, or transition on the strength of their virtual monopoly position in most of the country. Google’s big bet on the currently money-losing YouTube could be vindicated bigtime when they become the preferred provider, with a trained audience of millions bypassing the browser and going directly to the flat panel on the wall.

As far as broadcasters, and cable distributors of television: Prepare to be dis-intermediated. The noose just tightened, ever so slightly

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