Dave Ely puts forward a pretty convincing argument against SBC’s IPTV plans. The data pipe won’t be big enough and other technologies available today are already better. Plus $99 is an outrageous price point.

On a related point, Ely makes a comment that “I don’t see live TV as ever fully going away,” well, neither do it, except, of course, the last time I watched a state of the union, I timeshifted it. I watch most sports timeshifted — there are a lot of events that are better saved for later. There’s nothing magical about live, and once you realize that, then timeshifting seems perfectly natural. For example, we didn’t watch the Oscars in real time tonight.

I’m not looking for any IP delivery, regardless of the size of the data line, to much more than deliver timeshifted content. The only reason to deliver real-time content, I think, is for interactive purposes where audience responses only hold value in real time, but BSkyB in England is already doing that with a combo of satillite and landlines. I’m sure DirecTV will offer a similar service within a year or so.

Maybe IPTV isn’t it, but the day is coming when lots of people will download a whole feast of video content over IP and watch it on regular their living room teevees. That just strikes me as inevitable. And if SBC’s price point is $99 per month, the product is doomed.

Look for IPTV to drive Internet-related revenue growth over the next five years, according to this article.

While I’m a big fan of IPTV, I’m not sure adoption will be fast enough, nor will sound business models emerge quickly enough to drive this kind of growth … but the gaming portion of this projection is probably pretty close to right.

I’ve used Flash and Cold Fusion. I’ve used FeedDemon. Is Brightcove in my future? Sounds very intriguing. If it’s from Jeremy Allaire, you know it’s well conceived.

More news favoring IPTV — better video compression (via J.D. Lasica).

What I don’t get though is that some people seem to think that viewers will watch IP video real-time, as a stream. I doubt it. Seriously. Doubt it.

Any system that does IPTV right will allow users to download shows ad hoc (surf the Web, find them, download them), or use and iPodder like system to down load favorite shows as they become available. All shows will be watched at the viewer’s convenience, not when some programmer wants them to watch it. So better compression is great, but it isn’t about watching the stream as it comes in. I don’t think.

Phillip Swann thinks the idea of Apple buying TiVo is rotten to the core.

But Apple, whose core business is personal computers and portable music players (the iPod), could not deliver one cable and/or satellite subscriber, at least not immediately and perhaps never. Over the years, Apple has developed few, if any, relationships with TV-based companies. With Apple as its owner, TiVo would not be any better off than it is today. In fact, it would probably be in worse condition because it would have to go through some transition pains from the sale.

TiVo needs an innovative leader like Steve Jobs, but it doesn’t necessarily need Steve Jobs.

A diversified media company with good relationships across the cable and satellite industries might be a good bet to save TiVo, but it makes sense that Apple isn’t a good fit. Being innovative may not be enough.

I haven’t seen Peter Jennings’ special on UFOs yet (it’s tivoed). Who knows? Maybe it’s just a egocentric exercise in pandering and hype, but having seen Jennings on The Daily Show last night, I don’t think so. And — even though Jennings is on television — I don’t think he’s the kind of journalist to tackle a subject less than professionally.

But what I really don’t understand is why would anybody think this isn’t legitimate journalism?

UFOs are a part of our culture, and one that — as Jennings pointed out to Jon Stewart — has not been given the kind of serious journalistic treatment the subject deserves. There are a multitude of interesting angles here that have nothing to do with whether you believe UFOs are spaceships, hoaxes or delusions.

The truth is out there, and Jennings is doing the journalistically honest thing (or so he says) in trying to shed some light on a fascinating topic.

Journalism isn’t all about social security reform, budget deficits and Iraq. When it’s at its best, it’s also about what’s going on in society. And society is into UFOs in a big way. Just do a Google search. There’s nothing pandering about covering what interests people. That too can be service to civic discourse.

OK, instead of asking Sprint to change it’s collections’ department number, maybe the guy could have changed his own number. Still, his ultimate solution is much funnier.

Rusty Coats is one of the brighter people in new media. He’s a natural leader who really understands how media is changing. It will be interesting to see what he does with TBO.com now that he’s taking over. It gives him a pretty powerful platform to try some of his ideas on.

News sites take note: Google has a new encroachment on the local market — type “movie:” followed by a title and/or a zip code and you get times and listings. Here’s my search for local theaters showing Aviator. Here’s what’s playing in all the theaters locally. This is scary. Scary good and scary smart. I don’t know of any regional news site that has movie listings done as well. No ads. Quick download. Links to every known review. Times, location, map. Wow. Here’s what you can expect next from Google to monetize this (I’m guessing), a Fandago-like service.

Wired sees a new golden age of radio on the horizon, and it’s all about Steve Jones blasting assorted underground punk tunes into the Los Angeles smog, it’s also about the same technological innovations that is changing all media:

Ultimately, broadcasters will have the chance to spray multiple streams of bits into listeners’ dashboards and homes - as many as six streams per station, depending on the fidelity requirements of the programming. Because the 1s and 0s in HD radio are functionally identical to those sent across the Net, says Jim Griffin, founder of media consulting firm Cherry Lane Digital, “digital audio implies the ability to carry video, software, email, text messages, you name it.” Within a few years, he says, radios will have what he calls a buffer - a TiVo-like device that stores broadcast signals at the listeners’ command. “You program it to store All Things Considered for the drive home. Maybe on the show there’s an alert about a new virus. You punch a button and download an antivirus update into your buffer from NPR B, then take that into your house when you get home.” Or perhaps you hear a review that makes you want to get a movie or an album, which you download as you drive. Meanwhile, your radio, which taps into the automobile’s GPS unit, is constantly scanning for local traffic reports, and when a pertinent one appears, interrupts and then resumes the stored All Things Considered. “At the other side of the transition,” Griffin says, “digital radio isn’t necessarily radio in the way we think of radio, other than the fact that it uses transmitters. It’s all about pushing and pulling bits into the buffer.”

The future is on-demand and personalized across all media. And only by embracing digital can radio escape a death spiral. If radio broadcasters can’t narrowcast and provide timeshift options, they will simply fade away.

Adam Curry, the godfather of podcasting, is featured in Wired.

Although podcasts don’t conform to any formula, their hosts do share one passion: circumventing the restrictions imposed on traditional broadcasting by industry and government. Partly in political protest and partly out of legal necessity, podcast music tends to favor songs that aren’t policed by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Podcasting is still so young, we don’t know what new stars will arise. The biggest podcaster of next year may not even have heard the word yet.

It’s hard to get past the opening words of this story on IPTV:

Internet Protocol, the language of most online communications …

Funny, I’ve never thought of IP as a language. It’s, well, it’s … a protocol. It’s just packets zipping back and forth. There is nothing language-like about it.

And was IP supposed to revolutionize the way we watch television by now? Who said?

What a dumb lede.

Beyond that, the story doesn’t really offer anything new to comment on.

Apply buying TiVo — seems like a natural match. And that seems to be the rumor. It would be interesting to see what Steve Jobs and his fellow innovators at Apple could do with the best DVR system on the planet. The speculation is trying up Apple’s stock, according to this report.

Steve Outing defends citizen journalism, picking up on the same link I responded to here. Of course, Outing is more insightful.

I know a some webloggers think blogs are the beginning of the end of MSM, or at least that blogs are somehow superior to what professional journalists do. It wouldn’t surprise anybody that I disagree with that; however, the sanctimony from some in the MSM about the purity of journalism, with an attitude that blogs have nothing really to offer, is equally as shortsighted. Blogs and MSM need each other. Neither is per se superior to the other. Each has a place and role. It’s better to recognize that than fight against it.

I generally keep a safe distance between my blog and my work — not because anybody told me to, but because I blog for my own personal amusement and my opinions, whether dealing with my industry or not, are my own. These days I do tend to write more and more about topics related to my industry. And I’m sure I’m getting a growing audience of readers who know exactly who I am and what I do.

So I’m breaking a bit of a personal rule here by drawing your attention to a couple of links, but I think they’re just so damn interesting, or should be to anybody who follows citizen journalism.

The first is a column for Poynter by John Moore about how a person in Thousand Oaks broke a story on the Ventura County Star’s photo blog . The second is the comments on a breaking news story from today … at this writing, more than 430 comments left by readers. One thing you might want to note about the story — there’s a link to a KCBS video. I know there are purest out there who think you shouldn’t send traffic to another site or link to a competitor, but I’ve come to the conclusion about the Web — you want people to come back, and they do that when you give them good stuff. If a link helps us tell a story better, we should use it. Web traffic is transient and fast moving. We want to be a daily habit for a core audience, but we can’t expect to be any user’s only source of news, so why ignore another news site when that site has something that will expand the value of a story? Of course, that takes a certain amount of confidence that over the long term, audiences won’t prefer that other site. That said, I’m not afraid to link to any other news site.

In a way, my writing life began in the Air Force (first paid gig, at least). Until today, I didn’t realize that Hunter S. Thompson also served in the USAF and began his journalism career as an airman. That’s where our careers diverge — he was ushered out of the military early and I finished my hitch. He became internationally famous as a gonzo journalist and I joined the Rotary.

Jeff Jarvis picks up on the theme started by Om Malik (first linked to here) and adds his own thoughts. Much of what’s being discussed sounds a lot like what SBC is proposing already for its own IPTV service.

Years ago, there was a series of public service ads in news week about writers, and one of them featured John Irving, who admitted that he couldn’t spell. I think of that story every time I run spell check. Long time readers of this blog would probably find it hard to believe I was once a copy editor. My wife eviscerates me every time she happens to read this blog (which, fortunately, isn’t often). There’s a reason I resigned as copy editor at my former daily paper and went back to being a reporter. Fortunately, I’m not alone.

The Dead Parrot Society uncovers a quote variance that is fairly significant. Whichever news organization changed the quote, and I blame Fox, there is no excuse.

If I could ride a magic carpet to anyplace in the world, it would be South Korea, just to see what’s going on with broadband and how it’s changing society.