TV Your Way

Trialing for Dollars

Someday IPTV will bring the latest Web collaboration features to your living room, so you can rate TV programs, view other people's recommendations, or even exchange messages while watching. IPTV's massive pipes will deliver high-def channels, movies on demand, fantasy sports and gaming, and (eventually) user-controllable multiple camera angles for live concerts and sporting events. IPTV carriers will also gather anonymous viewing data that will help marketers send you more-precisely targeted ads.

In addition, the technology might even let you turn your home into a mini-broadcast studio, says Ed Gracyzk, director of marketing and communications for Microsoft's TV division, which provides software for IPTV services such as AT&T's U-verse TV.

"If TV brought the world to your living room, IPTV can bring your living room to the world," Gracyzk says.

A bigger draw for most people may be so-called "triple play" services, in which a single company delivers entertainment, broadband access, and phone services via one fat pipe (followed up by an even fatter bill). If your mom calls while you're watching Survivor, her Caller ID information appears on your set, so you can hit the pause button and pick up the phone (or not).

Such technology is "the stuff of The Jetsons," says Gartner analyst Laura Behrans, "and it's tantalizingly close."

However, to deliver IPTV to the masses, telephone companies like Verizon and AT&T (which was recently purchased by SBC Communications) must expand their fiber-optic networks, which are currently available only in parts of the United States (see the chart of TV services).

IPTV providers also must jump through the same regulatory hoops that cable companies have faced. "Having to secure a FiOS franchise in every town has been our biggest roadblock," says Shawn Strickland, vice president of product management for Verizon's FiOS TV service.

Today's IPTV offerings are more like typical cable or satellite service, albeit with spiffier program guides and search tools. For example, most of FiOS TV's 180-odd channels are delivered via the same technology as cable TV; only the interactive programming guide, search tools, and video on demand are true IPTV services. More advanced features are still several years away.