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Stream free Internet TV on your iPhone and iPod Touch

joopdor

joopdor

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 24, 2008
10
0
Hey fellow friends from Macrumors. In my attempt to create a lot of attention around creating a cool new service for the iPhone and iPod , I decided to write my thoughts down and make it public. Please let me know what you think of it!

I hope it will create enough eyeballs to get this project really going!
The basic idea is this, provide around 5000 online TV streams to the 10 million iPhone and iPod Touch (wifi) users out there! Would you like something like that? please share this link to your community! (Friends, Blog, Twitter, Digg, Hackernews, Facebook whatever)

http://www.joopdorresteijn.com/Archive/stream-free-internet-tv-on-your-iphone-and-ipod-touch/

You can also share your idea's here, I will read it too!
 
I dont think you'll get many responses until you can offer something substantial that users can try for themselves.
 
The Phazer said:
Who's funding buying mobile distribution rights for these channels for their third party content?

Phazer
Click to expand...

Hi, thank you both for the answer. The Phazer, could you please elaborate on that? I'm not sure if I am getting what you are saying!
 
Assuming you are NOT just broadcasting your own privately produced content...

Any content obtained from other companies ... eg Discovery channel, has copyright and distribution restrictions....

Therefore to broadcast to iphone all this content over the web someone needs to pay broadcast fees and obtain the rights to do so from all the relavant owners.

This is expensive .... who;s funding this? Not to mention the likely bandwidth costs of video distribution
 
Well, someone has to pay to license the broadcast of television. The networks and channels will not just let you distribute television without paying for it.
 
joopdor said:
Hi, thank you both for the answer. The Phazer, could you please elaborate on that? I'm not sure if I am getting what you are saying!
Click to expand...

I can't speak for the person who originally posed the question, but I'd like to know this:

Under this proposal, would the content being streamed be duly licensed for rebroadcast or public performance? How would money be raised to pay for royalties, and how would those royalties be distributed to the content owners?
 
Also ... you're talking about multi-national .... broadcast rights usually cover a single country .... to create a broadcast hub for a vast amount of content seems a pipedream in these days with the content companies being money grabbing as they are
 
synagence said:
Assuming you are NOT just broadcasting your own privately produced content...

Any content obtained from other companies ... eg Discovery channel, has copyright and distribution restrictions....

Therefore to broadcast to iphone all this content over the web someone needs to pay broadcast fees and obtain the rights to do so from all the relavant owners.

This is expensive .... who;s funding this? Not to mention the likely bandwidth costs of video distribution
Click to expand...

Oh come on, there's plenty of free online content already. You're kinda stating the obvious -- and you're making this sound like its an impossibility.

To answer the OP I think this would be a VERY popular application(I assume it will be an application anyway) and I personally would love it. It would mean I'd have to take up less of my iphone's capacity with my own content.

Obviously, you would need to be in an area with a wifi or reliable 3g service in order for it to work without jerky video. I wonder why Hulu doesn't have an iphone application yet?
 
barkomatic said:
Oh come on, there's plenty of free online content already. You're kinda stating the obvious -- and you're making this sound like its an impossibility.

To answer the OP I think this would be a VERY popular application(I assume it will be an application anyway) and I personally would love it. It would mean I'd have to take up less of my iphone's capacity with my own content.

Obviously, you would need to be in an area with a wifi or reliable 3g service in order for it to work without jerky video. I wonder why Hulu doesn't have an iphone application yet?
Click to expand...

I agree, there are plenty of free broadcasting stuff out there. If I can watch 'em through my iphone while I'm waiting for my wife at the shopping mall, I'm golden. Even if the content is crappy, sure beats sitting on the couch waiting for 3hr shopping to end!! BTW, service should be free w/ ad.
 
chox99 said:
I agree, there are plenty of free broadcasting stuff out there. If I can watch 'em through my iphone while I'm waiting for my wife at the shopping mall, I'm golden. Even if the content is crappy, sure beats sitting on the couch waiting for 3hr shopping to end!! BTW, service should be free w/ ad.
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree that free watching for everybody is the way to go; There are hundreds of free streams out there! For that matter, maybe even an open-source/close to community project to create a better application.

Would be awesome if macrumors would pick this project up, just like Techcrunch did with $200 tablet: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/21/we-want-a-dead-simple-web-tablet-help-us-build-it/
 
barkomatic said:
Oh come on, there's plenty of free online content already.
Click to expand...

There's not much actually, and what there is is usually limited in ways that make it difficult to view on a mobile for a reason - i.e. that extra residuals are due to actors/writers/music labels etc if it is distributed to mobile phones as opposed to over the wider internet. This is often a seperate residual to internet distribution to re

I am quite serious here in saying that even a single TV channel could need $50 million per annum to pay those costs, so who's paying it?

Honestly, it's not technical issues that hold back streaming from the iPhone for the most part. It's legal ones.

Phazer
 
The Phazer said:
There's not much actually, and what there is is usually limited in ways that make it difficult to view on a mobile for a reason - i.e. that extra residuals are due to actors/writers/music labels etc if it is distributed to mobile phones as opposed to over the wider internet. This is often a seperate residual to internet distribution to re

I am quite serious here in saying that even a single TV channel could need $50 million per annum to pay those costs, so who's paying it?

Honestly, it's not technical issues that hold back streaming from the iPhone for the most part. It's legal ones.

Phazer
Click to expand...

I agree that legal issues are something important to consider, but have to emphasize that the number of Tv Channels that offer their content online is increasing fast! Example: Bloomberg
I wonder what the legal issues would be if we simply offer these streams in an application. Please let me know what you think
 
joopdor said:
I agree that legal issues are something important to consider, but have to emphasize that the number of Tv Channels that offer their content online is increasing fast! Example: Bloomberg
I wonder what the legal issues would be if we simply offer these streams in an application. Please let me know what you think
Click to expand...

I'm not a lawyer, but I imagine that content providers would fall all over themselves for an opportunity to advertise on a platform like the iphone and will provide content at favorable terms for that opportunity.

However, I'm guessing that perhaps the networks are already working on their own applications for the iphone--possibly. Also, what do the terms of service say about streaming video over 3g? I wonder if AT&T would have fits.
 
It would be like Slingplayer, without the Slingbox. :)

I would subscribe to that. I imagine others would too, and that's how it could be funded.
 
Reasons why tv will never be on iPhone:

1)Bandwidth. IP's will just not support the bandwidth requrements to stream a video signal. Too much data. They are already capping data for people.

2)Legal knots. Distribution rights are VERY expensive. Unions will want extra fees to pay actors, writers, etc. per play, per episode. Studios will want to advertise as well as control content availability(NY has different TV than LA than Miami than London than Tokyo.) The only way TV will get on phones is if the major studios get together and create a system that they control. That industry is notoriously stingy and overbearing when it comes to when and where stuff gets played. Even worse than movie studios. They want to get paid more than anyone is willing to pay. They want more control than any potential partner is willing to give. It's kind of irritating how much they tell you when and what you can watch.

3)Social issues. The market is not there. Sure there are people who will watch. Sure there are a few times when most users might use it. However, People have lives. 10million iPhone users does not translate into 10million tv viewers on said iPhones. People work, go to school, drive, do other things, etc. When they are at home they just watch their regular tv if they want.

Reasons why TV WILL come to phones:

1)Flash will come. One day it will come and that will make viewing video possible. Just like on your comp.
2)I have visions of ISP's hooking up with TV/Movie studios to offer a service like mobile cable that you pay for. Its one more way to get another 30-50/month from your budget.
 
interesting said:
Reasons why tv will never be on iPhone:

1)Bandwidth. IP's will just not support the bandwidth requrements to stream a video signal. Too much data. They are already capping data for people.

2)Legal knots. Distribution rights are VERY expensive. Unions will want extra fees to pay actors, writers, etc. per play, per episode. Studios will want to advertise as well as control content availability(NY has different TV than LA than Miami than London than Tokyo.) The only way TV will get on phones is if the major studios get together and create a system that they control. That industry is notoriously stingy and overbearing when it comes to when and where stuff gets played. Even worse than movie studios. They want to get paid more than anyone is willing to pay. They want more control than any potential partner is willing to give. It's kind of irritating how much they tell you when and what you can watch.

3)Social issues. The market is not there. Sure there are people who will watch. Sure there are a few times when most users might use it. However, People have lives. 10million iPhone users does not translate into 10million tv viewers on said iPhones. People work, go to school, drive, do other things, etc. When they are at home they just watch their regular tv if they want.

Reasons why TV WILL come to phones:

1)Flash will come. One day it will come and that will make viewing video possible. Just like on your comp.
2)I have visions of ISP's hooking up with TV/Movie studios to offer a service like mobile cable that you pay for. Its one more way to get another 30-50/month from your budget.
Click to expand...

Then how did a website like Hulu pull it off? What is different about a website that could play content on someone's laptop in a coffee shop as opposed to an iphone? Somehow they were able to get beyond all these supposed legal hurdles and provide a free service.

I can see AT&T opposing streaming video over 3G for bandwidth reasons but really that's the only hook I potentially see.
 
barkomatic said:
Then how did a website like Hulu pull it off?
Click to expand...

They spent hundreds of millions of dollars and employ (literally) a thousand rights lawyers.

What is different about a website that could play content on someone's laptop in a coffee shop as opposed to an iphone?
Click to expand...

The fact that rights holders sell the rights for one and not the other, and the fact that networks don't buy rights from third parties that they're not using because it would be a waste of money.

One would note for instance that the BBC iPlayer does have some content available to an iPhone for streaming over wifi, but less than the PC service. The Olympics would not let any of their content be streamed to a mobile phone, so the Olympic coverage was blocked. Same with Heroes from the iPlayer site.

(and again, the iPlayer is only there because the BBC have several hundred full time rights professionals and spent an eight figure sum on content rights per annum).

Somehow they were able to get beyond all these supposed legal hurdles and provide a free service.
Click to expand...

It's not free. It's advertising funded. Heavily advertising funded.

Phazer
 
Perhaps the OP or a moderator should modify the misleading title of this thread ("Proposal to Stream free Internet TV ...").
 
So, what will happen when the iphone/touch are powerful enough to run a standard browser (or something close enough) and be indistinguishable from any other computer with wifi?
Will the networks stop offering shows for free on their websites?
 
slothrob said:
So, what will happen when the iphone/touch are powerful enough to run a standard browser (or something close enough) and be indistinguishable from any other computer with wifi?
Will the networks stop offering shows for free on their websites?
Click to expand...

If a full-fledged Flash player were available for the iPhone, then services like Hulu would automatically become playable directly on the iPhone, without any need for a new, separate service. At a first pass it would become very difficult for the content providers to tell the difference between streaming to a desktop and streaming to a handheld.

If AT&T didn't appreciate the bandwidth implications, then their recourse would be to contractually restrict streaming media, and/or technically block/throttle streaming media over their network.

If the content providers didn't like the distribution rights implications, then their recourse could be to withdraw the service entirely, or else they might start tracking the IP addresses to which the content is being delivered, and block delivery to IP addresses that are known to belong to the various cellular telephone service providers throughout the world (eg. AT&T Wireless). (However, that would lead to some false positive results where some otherwise potentially legitimate distribution to 3G-equipped laptop wireless cards would also be blocked. C'est la vie, I suppose.) Similar things are already done by various streaming services to block access based on geographic location.
 
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