TV 2.0: The Future Isn't 关于 Delivery, It's 关于 Experience

当我们谈论视频行业的商店时, whether we are from old-world broadcast or new-world over-the-internet, we often categorize video one of two ways: linear or OTT. 对于许多, linear is video that’s delivered by traditional broadcasters according to a schedule determined by the programmers and accessible by an electronic programming guide (EPG). Viewers can watch shows at their scheduled broadcast time, which is especially relevant for episodic content, 因为剧集每周只播出一次. 传统上, this was the service that we paid for monthly, delivered into a set-top box sitting next to the television set (or received over the air through an antenna).

OTT is video delivered over the internet to apps, browsers, phones, and connected devices. 这些服务的订户, 谁还每月为访问内容付费, can pick and choose what they want to watch and when they want to watch it. 章节内容? 进入“狂欢”.” There are no restraints on when a user can watch most content through an OTT provider.

But are these two types of video fundamentally any different? 简短的回答是否定的.

Linear video can be delivered over coaxial cable or IP and, 除非内容是“现场直播”,” it doesn’t have to be according to schedule. 假设 朱蒂法官 下午4:30有空吗.m. 周二. 但那一集是三个月前拍的. 它根本没有被“广播”. 只是送过来而已. 所以观众可以选择在下午4:30观看.m. 通过他们的传统广播公司或, 如果他们愿意, on demand through some OTT service (or maybe even the broadcaster). 当然，有时候 朱蒂法官 is being filmed and delivered in real time (or kind of real time), but that’s live linear. It’s a pretty unique use case that refers to only a subset of video types like sports or special episodic content such as 美国偶像. And although most OTT providers cut their teeth in the on-demand space—the non-linear content—they are branching into live linear at an ever-increasing pace.

视频，看起来只是视频而已. 要么是现场直播, and a viewer must watch it at a specific time, or it’s available whenever the user wants to watch it, 在任何设备上. It really doesn’t matter how it’s delivered, 通过机顶盒或OTT服务, although it will increasingly be provided over IP as operators move in that direction.

重要的区别是, 而, is the experience viewers have with that video through the various devices they use to consume it. 通过运营商网络提供的视频, 通过机顶盒, may be significantly different than the very same video provided through an OTT service. 想想现场直播的体育赛事. 通过DAZN这样的服务收看, a viewer could perhaps switch camera angles and even see data overlays on the players. I recently heard that the NHL is experimenting with 5G in arenas to provide that exact functionality through an IP-based video stream (which would only be available through a browser or an app). You don’t get this kind of functionality via a traditional operator on the TV (unless the viewer is opting to consume video through an app on the TV, 而不是通过机顶盒).

This is what’s going to define the future of watching television—not how the video is delivered, but the experience that it provides the viewer. From social integration to augmented reality to virtual reality, TV will become video delivered over IP to endpoints that can be programmatically enhanced with additional functionality. So we really shouldn’t be making a distinction, either in industry conversations or within the general market, about the difference between linear and OTT. 而, we should focus on the difference between non-IP and IP-delivered video, 不管是谁提供的.

[This article appears in the September 2019 issue of 流媒体杂志 作为“TV 2”.这都是视频."]