Why can't we all just get along?

I received this question recently:

Would it be possible for you to explain why there has been an ongoing issue between Sony and cable companies?

Good question.  I believe you are referring to the recently settled disagreement between Sony (and some other consumer electronic manufacturers) and the cable industry over tru2way. 

My personal view is that the consumer electronics industry has a long history of having some very strong opposing viewpoints when it comes to major technological advancements.

I vividly recall the 1970's when video cassette recorders became the rage.  Buying one, unfortunately, forced you to make a choice between two incompatible formats -- VHS and Betamax.  For nearly 10 years people were either in one camp or the other. 

Finally VHS won out over Betamax after a long, slow, steady decline of Betamax product.  There are many theories about why VHS won, despite the fact that it was widely considered technologically inferior to Betamax.  No one liked the protracted battle -- the consumer electronics manufacturers, the studios, the retail outlets where movies were bought and rented, or consumers.  But it took nearly 10 years to resolve in the marketplace.

Twenty years later, another battle broke out, this time between two new high-definition formats being developed for DVD's.  I believe many consumers sat on the sideline before committing themselves to the HD-DVD or Blu-ray formats, partially because they remember the VCR battle.  That stifled sales of movies and the studios began to weigh in more directly in this new fight.  Finally, in early 2008, Blu-ray emerged as the winner when Warner Brothers ended their support for HD-DVD.

Over the last couple of years, tru2way (previously known as OCAP) was locked in a similar skirmish against Sony's DCR Plus.  Sony wanted a standard to be built into the plug-and-play cable card devices that would allow the consumer electronic device to access some of cable's interactive services without the need for a set-top box.  But tru2way was also designed to do just that and cable operators feared that DCR Plus would cost hundreds of millions of dollars in additional capital to support it with no consumer advantage over tru2way. 

The tru2way - DCR Plus debate was resolved before these devices were committed to production and now consumers will not have to choose.  Perhaps we have learned from history that extended technology battles are harmful to all stakeholders' businesses.  Why?  Because consumers learned from previous experience to wait out these disagreements or they risk choosing a soon-to-be antiquated technology.

New tru2way digital televisions are likely to hit the market in the next 6 to 12 months that will support a universally accepted platform for plug-and-play two-way services.  And, as we have discussed earlier on this blog, third party application writers will enjoy a common environment to which they can write.

Comments

[bofkentucky]

Bear with me,

Sony has to walk a finer line than most CE firms, as they have their paws in the content production segment as well. The Disney/Pixar/Apple triumvirate behaves in a similar fashion. They have to balance the wants of content production in DRM, forced rebuys (VHS->DVD->BluRay->internet video|Album->CD->internet music) and pay-per-view/device, with the wants of the CE sector wanting to sell a "simple" media gateway that can store, organize and distribute what you have bought.

Comcast, Time Warner and Charter, have to walk a slightly different line, they have some ties to content production, (TW's ties were the strongest but may get weaker), but they want to control the viewing environment to sometimes asinine levels, turning off commercial skip on the dvr's, allowing the broadcast flag to be implemented (American Gladiators was unrecordable on some systems last month as a "test"), limiting storage on DVR's and ad-insertion on PPV/OnDemand.

Those three apply pressure to Scientific Atlanta, Motorola and other STB makers dictating what is available to the rest of the cable industry. Platforms like Tivo, Apple, Windows MCE or MythTV who really are innovating at the STB software/hardware level are left as outsiders looking in, it frustrates the consumer, they are paying 50-150 dollars a month and being hamstrung by providers and producers before they get to watch their program.

I really hope Tru2Way works, but I fear it will more like the cell phone software platforms, the SDK may be "free" but getting cablelabs and the media companies to sign the code will be impossible unless you bow down to their ridiculous restrictions on when and how you can use the media you have paid for, meanwhile the real media pirates will still be out there with no problems.

[ARGO]

"It's all about control"
Control of copyright and patents.

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