Is P2P The Answer To Large Scale Video Delivery?

That's the focus for discussion on the P2P session taking place at the Streaming Media East show in May. With the recent offerings by BitTorrent, VeriSign, Joost and others, is legal P2P finally ready for prime-time? This panel of content owners and technology experts will discuss whether P2P will finally revolutionize online video distribution. They will discuss whether the cost savings advantage with P2P is real, how P2P will translate into a competitive advantage, how P2P distribution may affect the networks and CDNs and what some of the potential problems are that P2P technology may face from the telco's. Come hear the debate on whether P2P is the answer to the fundamental capacity limitations for large-scale video audiences for today's Internet.

• Moderator: Rich Mavrogeanes, Founder And CTO, VBrick Systems
• Panelist: Brian Taptich, VP, Business Development, BitTorrent
• Panelist: Nick Rockwell, CTO, MTV Networks
• Panelist: Monty Mullig, SVP, Internet Technologies, Turner Broadcasting System
• Panelist: Christopher Levy, Chairman, Digital Media Management Working Group, DCIA

What topics or points would you like to see discussed at this session? Please include them in the comments section for your chance to win a free conference pass to the show.

Comments

[Joslyn]

I'm not convinced that p2p is going to be the way it goes. If cable operators and telcos start capping bandwidth, they could kill this trend pretty quickly.

I've tried Joost, which uses P2P, and it was great. But, I am slightly worried that I am using a lot of bandwith.

I think these questions will just figure themselves out in the marketplace. A lof new "over the top" offerings are going to come out in the next couple of years, and some will stick. Most will probably die quickly, however.

Joost is definitely going to do well, as will Apple TV.

There's an interesting post over on Shelly Palmer's site -- which makes the case that the most important element in all of this is the advertising. According to him, when some system is developed for reaching large, disparate audiences, internet TV will really take off:

http://advancedmediacommittee.typepad.com/emmyadvancedmedia/2006/10/tvvideo_web_inv_1.html"

- Joslyn

[KwangErn]

I agree with Joslyn. Many western countries we see transfer limits, whether we like it or not. Even though bandwidth prices are dropping by the year, we are still being limited by ISPs. Not even mentioning the technical infrastructure limitations. When wireless become more widespread in big cities, it will further stress our willingness to explore the wonders of Internet simply because of high prices on transfer limits.

It slows business growth.

Most new technologies these days will not be able to benefit much from current ISP policies. ISPs should review and change their stake in the world.

[KwangErn]

Sorry to spam again. Just to add, the aforementioned stays on only one aspects of P2P technology, where user involvement is necessary. But on the other end of the spectrum lies where the company use their own distributed servers to delivery content. This I see as a heavy cost, and if the users don't pay for it, or ad supported (though inconsistently unreliable), I don't see it flying at all (on the company-part). Unless a rich community is willing to lose millions per year just to kickstart. Whether the users will be willing to pay for it solely depends on existing satisfaction of current products.

Maybe I'm wrong. :)

[Digital Hobo]

Actually, the ISPs already cap a user's bandwidth, but mostly on the uploading side, which we all know is a critical component of making P2P viable.

Cisco reports that 70% of current internet traffic is P2P, and most of that is pirated content. Who pays for the bandwidth when there is a legal content explosion based on P2P? Sure there is a cost savings for the content owners, but it shifts the burden onto the ISPs who are stuck with their $40 monthly charges.

The answer is the advertising. Users are going to have to learn to accept commercials online. The content owners have been given the gift of "un-Tivoing" their content.

Services like Joost and the new BitTorrent will need to work out agreements with cable systems just like the cable networks. While this may go against the Net Neutrality issue, the stiffs in Washington will be under significant pressure to get a quick understanding of the technologies.

Also, I was unimpressed with Joost's beta. I found the content to be overly pixelated considering that it wasn't fast motion.