Bloomberg Live TV online

An email discussion group at work pointed me to a free, live stream for Bloomberg TV. Not only is it live, but it works on MSN TV 2 (they even have a 56Kbps stream for those stuck in dialup land). This growing trend of releasing content online leads me to wonder if the coming IPTV revolution won't be much of a revolution after all.

IPTV is a new means of content delivery and adds some neat features, but maybe that's not where the TV revolution is heading. It's starting to look like IPTV is just another delivery medium with the same old content. Sure, it'll have snazzier menus, the ability to preview different channels at the same time, and other incremental evolutions in the TV watching experience, but is it really going to revolutionize TV? Maybe, but I have a different theory.

The medium itself is truly going to become irrelevant. Cable, Sattelite, DSL (IPTV)...it's all going to be irrelevant sooner or later. The content is simply going to go online. Content creators and publishers will be able to bypass the gatekeepers that are the cable, sattelite, IPTV networks and reach their niche markets directly. The Long Tail theory that is about to downsize the music business and pretty much shut down brick and mortar music stores is about to breakdown the walls between those that create content and those that consume it.

Another interesting phenomennon will occur if TV really starts making inroads to the Internet: we'll remove a restrictive dimension of TV content consumption: location. The other restrictive dimension is, of course, time (which Tivo and other PVRs have done away with already. We'll no longer watch TV just at home, the traditional TV watching venue. This phenomenon has been around for ages with portable analog TVs, but adoption has been very marginal due to lack of compelling programming (no cable/sattelite feeds), and cheesy technology that is diffcult to use (ever try to get and keep a signal with one of those things?). What about Portable Media Center devices that came out a couple of years ago? Weren't those supposed to remove the location restriction for TV? Yes, but that didn't work out for similar reasons...the barrier to get from content locked on my PC to roaming free with me on my Portable Media Center was too high in time and cost.

What if we removed those barriers? TV is just there, online. Anyone with a PC and broadband connection can watch whatever, whenever. Those with dialup, well...maybe they can download shows overnight, but I'd have to say that's not going to be an attractive solution for them. Better yet, what if cell phones and other handheld devices could watch these shows? Don't laugh, it's happening in Europe and Asia right now. There are even competing technologies in the space mobile TV space. It's starting to happen here as well, but slowly (as usual). I've tried the Sprint tv broadcasts with some limited success, but overall, it's sucked (the content was just canned 30 second news clips...I want to watch an episode of the Simpsons on my cell phone gosh darnit!).

Combined with wifi, EVDO, and other enabling technologies, we may be on the cusp of something bigger than even the almighty iPod...a truly location-free TV (sorry Sony).

Anyway, to reel it back in, check out all the free Bloomberg goodness streaming live now.