The other major challenge service providers acknowledge regarding content is the thorny issue of digital rights management (DRM). Moving content across platforms can violate DRM agreements and create challenges for content providers who want to maintain control of how their product is used and prevent theft and misuse.

“DRM is embedded in the content, which has restrictions on what can be done with it,” AT&T's York said. “We adhere to the rights that are granted. There are issues to be sorted out upstream — with producers, talent, unions and guilds — before we can transport all content across platforms.”

That alone prevents AT&T from sharing Web content freely across the in-home IP networks it is creating as part of its U-verse and HomeZone service offerings, he said.

“Our primary focus over the last year has been programming for U-verse,” York said. “We are seeing our content partners be very careful about some of the technology issues and what is happening with their content, and we need to be careful getting content that isn't necessarily free on the open Internet.”

Cisco's Bosco sees service providers struggling with the transition from their traditional silos of service to a blended offering of content across multiple delivery platforms. “Progress is more company by company at the moment, on this continent,” he said. “Folks are struggling at different points of launching, trenching and integrating. There is increasing recognition that there is a need to look at a customer holistically.”

Baker of ClipBlast believes IP video will play out much as the Internet itself did — into something much more than anyone now expects.

“If this were 1995, we would probably be asking the same questions about the Internet that we are asking about video now,” he said. “What is going to be the most used function — will it be entertainment, will it be education, will it be commerce? What we found was that every interest group in the world gravitated to the Web. We believe the same thing applies to video.”

Visit our IPTV One-Stop to keep up-to-date on IPTV stories, and don't forget to look at Telephony's Guide to IPTV, a recent supplement on the subject.
www.telephonyonline.com/IPTV