Digital Home Thoughts: Placeshifting Devices Could Threaten Mobile Video Services

"As more consumers use products such as the Slingbox to get "anywhere access" to their premium and personal content, so-called "placeshifting" technologies may face opposition from wireless carriers, according to a new study from ABI Research. The ability to stream pay TV from a set-top box and digital content from a home PC over the Internet to a variety of devices has the potential to disrupt new content services being delivered by mobile operators. "New digital distribution technologies typically meet the stiffest resistance from content owners such as movie studios," says principal analyst Michael Wolf. "With placeshifting, we believe the biggest opponents will be mobile operators who see these solutions as rogue network applications that could potentially paralyze their cellular networks, as well as keeping consumers from paying for mobile video offerings being offered over new mobile video networks.""



While I think their concern over bandwidth limitations are sound, I really think this is just a ploy to get people to subscribe to contect from their providers. My carrier doesn't want me to stream my own media from my home PC - they'd rather sell it to me. I think the carriers ought to stick to what they know best: carrying. After all, they're service providers, not content providers. That's what my cable and Orb is for. :)