A Platform for Better Online Video

Q&A With thePlatform's Ian Blaine

by George Winslow -- Multichannel News, 1/11/2010 3:34:32 PM

In recent years, thePlatform has emerged as a major video publishing company, working with four of the five largest U.S. cable MSOs and with more than 20 programmers. The Comcast-owned firm has played a particularly important role in a variety of "TV Everywhere" initiatives to make more video available online to multichannel-video subscribers. HD Update contributor George Winslow recently spoke with Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform and senior vice president of content publishing for Comcast Interactive Media, about the big trends in online video for 2010 and the prospects for higher quality, HD Web video.

 


Ian Blaine: I think one of the more interesting trends going into 2010 is that TV Everywhere, which has been in trials and tests, will start reaching scale. In a lot of ways, 2009 was about getting a lot of the pieces working and getting the business arrangements agreed upon and starting to trial it.

That went well and now it is about getting TV Everywhere out into a larger world of consumers and subscribers and seeing what the appetite is for it.

This is exciting because, I think, it will be a great add-on to a subscription service. It is something that people are increasingly wanting and expecting. They are watching a lot of online video from other places, so it makes a lot of sense to start adding that to your subscription.

I also think this will be one of the places where high quality video and if not high def, at least very high-bit-rate video, is a real expectation. It is an expectation not only on the part of the content providers who want to see their content is being presented in a similar caliber to what is on television but also on the part of a paying subscriber. Even if they are watching it online on their PC, there is an inherent expectation that it will look great.

So I think you will see an increase in high quality video driven by the TV Everywhere initiatives. But do that you need to deal with two things. The playback has to look great, but you also high quality of service.

Those two things aren't necessarily in direct conflict but they can be challenging to each other. The higher the bit rate you try to push, the more you are putting strain on the network. So there are both challenges and opportunities to make sure you get the right quality of both picture quality and quality of service.

On the business side, if you think about it pragmatically, you can't really just be looking to find the highest bit rate possible. You actually have to find the lowest acceptable bit rate possible because as you add higher bit rates, your costs go up.

Obviously, everyone wants to present a great experience, but there will be a lot of research to determine what is good enough. One of the important things that will emerge in 2010 is that we'll have a lot better information on whether there is a measureable drop off of viewing when you lower bit rates, or where there is a measurable increase as you raise the bit rates. I think that will drive the industry over the next year to a sweet spot, which of course will adjust [as time goes on.]

All of this, of course, demands variable playback, which I'm glad to see has really come into its own in the last year or so. You had an early pioneer with Move Networks that really got out there and achieved really beautiful playback with good quality of service because they were able to adjust up and down with how much bandwidth was being used. You are seeing Adobe and Microsoft follow suit with streaming solutions. That has been a huge step forward technically to make sure you have the best possible experience.