Pay TV under peer pressure

TELEVISION broadcasting has taken an interesting turn with the introduction of Peer to Peer TV (P2PTV).
P2PTV is alive and kicking on the internet, yet most Australians are unaware that it exists.
The reason is most likely the fact that current uses of P2PTV are mostly unlicensed rebroadcasts of Asian television channels.
P2PTV is essentially, in its present form, a way for internet users to freely access live television channels from around the world. Its users, as the broadcast’s name suggests, automatically become peers on the network.
This means that like Bittorrent, the more people viewing the one channel, the faster the playback for everyone.
This spells trouble for pay TV providers in Western countries such as Australia and the United States, because the unlicensed broadcasts contain a high percentage of Western sport, movies, and music channels that people in Australia are paying as much as $100 a month with a Pay TV subscription.
For example, Foxtel’s sports package costs Australians an extra $15.95 a month on top of a basic $36.95 subscription, yet it is possible to watch live streams of Asian Cup soccer and other soccer leagues around the world free of charge using P2PTV.
This should be a concern for pay TV broadcasters, who despite offering better image and sound quality, are now seen to be charging for content that can be accessed for free on the internet. And the fact that most of the channels are Asian presents a mindboggling problem for pay TV companies’ lawyers.
A viewer in Australia can tap into a P2PTV channel the same way someone with a satellite dish can access thousands of channels.
The offshore element creates a tangle of legal issues that is sure to create headaches for pay TV providers in their West to have Asian authorities crack down on local ‘seeds’ (people providing the P2PTV broadcast).
E-Talk believes that, unlike the music industry’s attack on internet piracy – which still resulted in big labels selling music online – Australia’s television industry should embrace the new technology.
Unlike the server-based IPTV technology, P2PTV does not rely on gross amounts of network infrastructure at server side because the broadcast is boosted by each users’ internet connections. So, adopting the technology would make the inferior quality, Asian-language P2PTV that currently exists irrelevant.
Local streams, even if offered on a considerably cheaper subscription than the higher quality broadcast of pay TV, would be a hit for people wanting to watch such channels from their PCs.
The technology is also more affordable for providers.