One Down, A World to Go June 28, 2007
Posted by ianmartinez in : General , 1 comment so farIt isn’t necessarily something that will reverberate through the trades or industry gossip, but the signing today of a free trade agreement between the U.S. and Panama is big news. It’s good news.
Often overlooked as we here in DC fight all these battles over bit prioritization and spectrum allocation — both important to be sure — is the sheer volume of trade the U.S. conducts with other countries. This FTA is a small one, in global, terms, smaller for sure than the FTA we’ll sign with Korea on Saturday. But each one of these bilateral agreements lowers tariffs for American manufacturers to ship their products into those markets.
This isn’t as big as the Korea FTA Saturday, but it’s still a step in the right direction. I look forward to seeing whether the rest of the blogosphere is paying attention to this. They should be.
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Using Technology to Sell Telecom June 26, 2007
Posted by geoliv in : Trends , add a comment
One of the quieter stories at NXTcomm was the presence of increasingly more sophisticated programs used to demonstrate products. These Second Life-esque uses of animation and CGI allow equipment manufacturers to give quick easy demos without lugging massive, heavy and expensive equipment everywhere. Adva Optical, CIENA, Cisco Systems and many others featured these hand controlled programs.
CIENA says they’ve had the virtual touch-screen demos for years, and actually features their demos online. Allowing potential buyers to visit their site and virtually tour the products saves them time and costs. Further, enabling their sales staff tot take the virtual demonstration with them on laptops adds additional cost savings.
Adva Optical just added their demos to the trade show line-up. Similarly, they plan to use the application with their sales-force and online, too.
While a wow-factor now at the show, it’s clear that these animated demos are becoming the mainstream form of highlighting a physical product. They save money, time and potential damages. Look to see more of these Second Life-esque demos.
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Not Yet Archiving Private Thoughts, Though June 25, 2007
Posted by ianmartinez in : General, Policy , add a commentMan, we missed so much during last week’s craziness — there was stuff in Chicago we didn’t even get to.
This one stands out, though; Google’s policy blog, with heavy participation from the company’s DC players, including Adam Kovacevich, Google’s Global Communications and Public Affairs Manager and an all-around great guy.
With Google’s emerging presence on the Hill this blog will be worth keeping an eye on.
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Internationality (Part II)
Posted by ianmartinez in : General , add a commentMissed in all the excitement around last week’s show were several small but important news items in the tech world. Among these I’m most interested in YouTube’s announcement that it would take its site “international,” for rollout in nine new countries.
The Post IT blog also says YouTube already has agreements in place with European television and broadcast companies and sports teams like the BBC, France 24 and Real Madrid. It’s a great example of a small American company being nimble enough to ink the kind of content deals so frequently discussed at NXTcomm.
The international movement more generally comes just as the Bush Administration prepares to sign Free Trade Agreements with South Korea and Panama, both extremely important to the Tech/Telecom industry. Here at TIA, our international team has been actively involved in dialog with both countries to ensure that protectionism doesn’t creep into the ICT language in the final drafts.
The issues at stake in the two FTAs are very different, but the unifying principle is the same as that driving American content providers to make deals with foreign companies — an open, unrestricted market benefits consumer choice and business bottom lines. Everyone wins.
One of the main considerations of the South Korea FTA, especially, is its potential to level out the current trade deficit between our two countries by making American goods more readily available in the Korean market. Though that thinking is aimed mostly at manufacturers, there’s no reason it can’t, and shouldn’t, apply to content as well.
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Diversity NXT June 21, 2007
Posted by ianmartinez in : General , add a commentModerated by former film and TV star and current Black Family Channel exec Robert Townshend, prominent minority content players discussed the state of the industry Thursday morning at NXTcomm.
Panelists basically agreed with the sports executives that sporting content will infiltrate most market niches and drive technology uptake.
The mainstream of appeal of “minority” content was also on the lips of panelists. Jeff Valdez of SiTV said carriers “need to understand the we are unique” yet there are plenty of “manstream amercans that have interrest in Latino and Spanish-speaking content.” He added that Latino providers should be could be placed in the main tier of services as major contributors to the US content market.
Townshend riffed on the value of minority consumers to the networks — he said his nickname as a child was “TV Guide” because he watched so much of it. Obviously, that panned out for the star of “Hollywood Shuffle,” “The Five Heartbeats,” and a hilarious cameo in “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka.”
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Sporting News
Posted by ianmartinez in : Trends , add a commentAs content plays an increasingly important role in carrier revenue, it only makes sense that sports content, among the most popular in the world, will be front and center on executives’ minds. Panelists for Thursday’s Sports Production for the Small Screen keynote discussed the industry as it stands.
Vendors are seeing an increased interest in delivering the same content over 3 screens for “seamless mobility” in their sports coverage, said Modulus CEO Bob Wilson. The bad news, he said, is that with so many standards and choices “there’s just massive confusion.” The good news, though, is that content providers and vendors are adopting the MPEG-4 standards, best symbolized by Apple’s decision to take up the standard.
Tanberg TV President Al Nunez agreed, saying “all the platforms out there can at least agree on a single compression.”
A lively discussion over use rights and footage sharing of sports content, spiced by Wilson’s iconoclastic claim that he “can’t wait” until Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron’s longstanding home run record.
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