What is it with OTT? Seems like the pool of companies interested in trying to figure it out grows by the week. The latest – Intel, who according to the Wall Street Journal, is attempting to build an OTT video subscription model.
“Intel has for several months been pitching media companies on a plan to create a ‘virtual cable operator’ that would offer U.S. TV channels nationwide over the Internet in a bundle similar to subscriptions sold by cable- and satellite-TV operators …” reports Sam Schechner and Don Clark of the Wall Street Journal.
Intel joins a long list of tech heavyweights including Apple, Google, Verizon, and a host of others who are exploring how to shake up the traditional pay-TV business model through a new Internet delivered package of video.
There is no imminent offer from Intel, but according to the report, the service may be branded as Intel and could include its own set-top-box. Intel is facing the same hurdles discovered by others regarding OTT – namely gaining the proper content rights to package such an offer. It’s no trivial task. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings thinks the hurdle probably can’t be overcome. “I don’t think that is going to come into existence,” he recently said, referring to the idea of a virtual cable MSO like what Intel is apparently exploring.
Maybe Hastings is right. But it seems like all of this effort from so many different companies will yield some sort of virtual cable offer. It’s just a matter of time in my book.
