Thursday, April 17, 2008

Thursday@NAB08- Time to Go Home

Aw!-- I have an afternoon flight and now back at the hotel packing.  Our last supper was at an old favorite when we visit Vegas-- Pamplemousse Restaurant  just off the strip at 400 E Sahara Ave.  Why this french restaurant is named after a grapefruit is beyond me since there is nothing on the menu to suggest this.  We have been coming here for the last 12 years and the original chef owner turned over the kitchen to a new partner last August and we wanted to give it a spin.  We were not disappointed to find the best of the rest and some new creations to sample.  Lunch was at the restaurant 106 stories high at the top of the tower on The Stratosphere.  I think it is so named for the high prices rather than the altitude but in fact prices at lunch time are much lower and I enjoy the daylight view from 1000 feet up.  By the way-- this is a rotating restaurant so there is no bad seat and you get a 360 degree view.

As I change hats from blog contributor to blog reader (I don't want to miss any last day activities), I want reflect on the show.  As the theme this year indicates it is all about the content for sure but there is more to content then creation.  A big common theme on the show floor and the sessions was asset management especially as it relates to transformation of linear tape archives to file based online and near-online storage.  New assets are much less of a problem but even here if care is not taken to associate rich meta-data you will not be able to easily find the content when you need it.  

Another aspect of  content is delivery, and although 85% of US households have a multi-channel provider such as cable or DTH satellite, there are some 70 million primary and secondary OTA sets suggesting that 70% of the about 100 million households are have a vested interest in OTA reception.  The DTV transition will leave some unknown number of these 70 million sets unusable unless they connect to cable, satellite, or get a converter box and suitable antenna.  It is the suitable antenna part that worries me-- my own experience is that my secondary sets with monopole built in antennas are perfectly suitable across all the local Vs and Us but with a converter box I can only get the Vs.  Some research suggests my experience is not unique so it may represent a good opportunity for secondary outlet sales to existing cable and DBS subscribers and lots of angry calls to Congress from the OTA only households who don't want to invest in an expensive outdoor antenna installation.

The last observation with respect to content delivery is energizing OTA for delivery to non-traditional delivery platforms-- especially mobile platforms such as cellphones.  With an estimated 270 million cellphones in use, even a small fraction energized for OTA delivery will vastly increase the eyeballs and the advertising revenue linked to viewership.  In my opinion, a real sleeper however is not just the advertising revenue increase, but the additional revenue that can be unlocked from transactions via the cellco's IP back channel.  I see the ability of OTA broadcasters to share in a percentage share of the payments and also transaction fees associated with video commerce.  There is also of course the ability of OTA broadcasters to offer unique interactive content that increases the audience share and the local nature of OTA gives some special competitive advantage to network based interactive content.

Bye-Bye-  Vegus until CES at least,

Stu

1 comment:

Bob said...

Thanks for reminding me of Pamplemousse Restaurant. I used to go there every year at NAB, but I guess it got lost in my mind amdist the build-up of high-end, overpriced superstar chef restaurants. I will check it out again next year for old times sake.

By the way, anyone know a good Japanese noodle restaurant?