The TV companies are happy with the idea that people stream content into their own home. After all more distributors there are in the market willing to pay premium rates for programming. The sticking point is that Intel’s system will actually do more than just stream programmes. It will offer a three day store and record method. This is similar what has been happening in the UK where the BBC has done rather well operating its BBC iPlayer service. This enables users to download a week load of programmes to watch them when they like.
The Intel system is even more ambitious the DVR system would automatically record every TV program and let subscribers watch them later. The program guide will become an on-demand menu for at least the past three days of TV. No more remembering to set the DVR or worrying about whether there's enough room left on it to record another show or movie.
However the entertainment industry hates that idea. That would be innovative and exactly what the customer wants. Big Content can’t get past the age where it decided when and where people watched programmes. The networks have sued to stop customers and service providers from recording their shows at every opportunity. They feel they lost a lot of ground when DVRs allowed people to record shows and they do not want a repeat of that.
So far, they have not had much luck they recently they sued and lost when Cablevision introduced a limited remote DVR system than the one Intel has proposed. It is much easier for Big Content not to support the distribution of content on Intel’s system and that is exactly what it is doing. The result is that Intel is being left high and dry and users are not getting a service they want.
