We keep seeing snippets of the future of entertainment. Verizon announced one, with their NFL Network Game Extra service, now being provided to Verizon video and wireline broadband subscribers. Viewers of the service are given a “virtual control booth” enabling them to watch live, online broadcasts of NFL Network preseason and Thursday Night Football games while selecting from multiple camera feeds. Subscribers will have access to alternate camera angles and live audio feeds and have the ability to view one of four camera angles on demand, or all four angles simultaneously. Other features include:

• live online chats with other NFL Network Game Extra viewers during the live games
• game statistics, highlights and drive-chart simulations during the games
• on-demand video highlights of the games
• special events, such as college bowl games and college all-star games including the Insight Bowl, Texas Bowl and Senior Bowl

Unfortunately, the service is limited to the pre-season and is only viewable on-line through their broadband connection. The optimist in me hopes it’s a start of what will eventually become standard television viewing. I remember first learning about IPTV back in the late 90’s, and the idea of viewers being able to control multiple camera angles of sporting events was always cited as a forthcoming feature that will offer competitive differentiation. While this Verizon illustration isn’t quite that vision yet, it appears to be heading that way. I recognize that this vision is not unique to IPTV. Verizon isn’t a true IPTV player to begin with, and DirecTV has been experimenting with similar features for some time. But it is illustrative of the potential of entertainment and broadband convergence features. Features that all video and multi-play service providers will need to understand and leverage to the best of their ability.

Need to know which competitive bar to reach for with video service – look to DirecTV. Their PGA Championship golf tournament coverage is the type of differentiating program package that allows them to compete quite effectively, despite the lack of a triple play bundle. I’ll admit, the sports enthusiast in me is somewhat in awe, nevertheless, the PGA Championship package being offered by DirecTV is just the type of feature that will retain and attract video customers, and probably at the expense of their competitors. Consider the lineup, which includes extensive HD coverage:

• Four distinct channels, including: 1) Live CBS/TNT network coverage of the tournament itself ; 2) Featured Group channel which follows a single group's progress around the course, with announcers providing insight on the live play; 3) Featured Holes channel will focus solely on two of the challenging par 3 holes on the Oakland Hills South Course; 4) Players In Depth channel featuring interviews, highlights, press conferences, graphics and up-to-the-minute stats




• On demand interactive features including: 1) Top 5 Leaders: Displays the top 5 current scores against par; 2) Leaderboard: Provides information on all golfers in the field; 3) Scorecard: Hole-by-hole stats for each player in the field. The current round and any previous rounds are included; 4) PGA Championship Trivia: A new 10-question quiz on the history of the PGA Championship appears each day; 5) Past Champions: A list of the winners and runners-up from previous PGA Championships

It’s a great demonstration of how one competitor can leverage core competencies, in this case video and sports, to effectively compete against all comers. Time will tell if IPTV and cable providers can “catch up” with DirecTV. They very well may. But for the time being, DirecTV is showing leadership and vision and taking full advantage of its capabilities. Give credit where credit is due.

Time Warner Cable has launched Start Over in its New York City market of Staten Island. Start Over allows customers to restart a program in progress without the need for an in-home DVR. The service is available on both standard and high definition channels. The service is offered free of charge to digital cable subscribers and is currently available on 40 channels.

AT&T is leveraging their broadband wireless capability with DSL service to provide a converged broadband to go service. Branded as AT&T Net Reach, the new $79.95/month service targets laptop carrying customers with seamless access to Wi-Fi, 3G wireless, and home DSL/Wi-Fi service. Net Reach provides a laptop broadband connection manager that automatically connects with the strongest available broadband service among AT&T's 17,0000 Wi-Fi hotspots, 3G GSM wireless network, or the customer's home broadband service (via a home wireless network). Conceivably, customers won't know (or care) which network they're connected to - they'll just be connected to broadband. Customers must opt-in to unified billing of wireline and wireless services.

The strategy makes great competitive sense. It creates competitive differentiation between AT&T and their cable competitors. It's a great example of how telecom carriers can leverage their wireless advantage. But for how long? Cable will soon catch up. Between Cablevision's (granted they don't compete directly with AT&T) pending launch of a mesh Wi-Fi network and cable's involvement in the Clearwire WiMAX joint venture, the cable industry will soon try to flex some broadband wireless muscle of their own.

True2way,, the cable industry’s newest interactive platform is all the rage, at least early on at the Cable Show, taking place in New Orleans this week. In a “nutshell” tru2way is an open platform for interactive application development that the cable industry is banking on for some competitive advantage. The hope is that third party application developers will grab hold of tru2way and begin developing a myriad of interactive applications exclusive to the nation’s cable operators. I heard it described on CNBC this morning as bringing the Facebook experience of application development to the cable TV experience. Interesting way of looking at it, but a little bit of a stretch. In some regards, tru2way is the cable industry’s response to the promise of IPTV application development, which has been slow to get out of the gate, but also promises a myriad of interactive applications for consumers.

The true manifestation of tru2way will happen at Best Buy, Amazon.com, and Radio Shack, where consumers will be able to buy electronics equipment that can interface directly to the cable network. For example, Panasonic has already announced 42-inch and 50-inch tru2way TVs will ship this Fall. Tru2way TVs will not need a set-top-box (STB), but will have access to all of the interactive and digital features that current customers need a STB for today. That’s the first step in the tru2way lifecycle – STB-less televisions. The cable industry hopes it’s but one small step in a series of huge competitive leaps that tru2way will bring to their entertainment and triple play experience.

Embarq announced the launch of eGo, which attempts to bridge the value of broadband service with the ubiquity of home telephone service. It's a continuation of a broad Embarq strategy to incrementally add value to traditional home telephone service, making it less vulnerable to being marginalized and replaced with wireless and/or VoIP alternatives. eGo phone handsets will sell online for $129.95 and in Embarq retail stores for $99.95. First reported by Light Reading, the new service provides access to data delivered via a broadband connection directly to a cordless home phone. Initially the service will provide visual voicemail, weather, yellow page directories, movie information, sports scores, and news headlines. The cordless phone has a "fourth screen" to display the information. Embarq hopes that customers will come to see eGo service as a resource to get information quickly, rather than retrieving that information from a laptop, TV, or home computer. Embarq also hopes those customers will then begin to see additional value for home phone service, and consequently be less likely to drop it for wireless only or VoIP service from a competitor. Verizon is looking at a similar strategy with their Verizon Hub service.

Embarq is seen as quite innovative in its pursuit of creating additional value for its core landline service. They are quite aggressive with applications like fixed mobile convergence and unified messaging, both of which make a landline more valuable. eGo is an extension of this strategy and aims to make Embarq landline services more appealing, and ultimately, more competitive.

AT&T is making another assault on the “me too” scenario faced by telcoTV providers in the U.S. TelcoTV providers are constantly trying to create some differentiation between their video service and that of their cable and DBS competitors. Otherwise, all you have is a “me too” video service, with very little distinction from what’s already available in the marketplace. With that in mind, AT&T announced the launch of AT&T Online Photos from Flickr, which allows the viewing of Flickr based photos and slideshows on the AT&T U-verse platform.

According to AT&T, they are “the only video service provider to offer an integrated online photos channel... at no extra charge." The photo service channel is located on channel 91 of U-verse’s channel line-up. AT&T also offers a variety of other differentiating applications, including AT&T U-bar, which provides customizable weather, stock, sports and traffic information; YELLOWPAGES.COM TV, which lets customers search for local businesses and other information via their TV screen; and AT&T Yahoo! Games. Of course AT&T is not alone with this strategy. DirecTV has offered differentiated programming offers with interesting applications, particularly with sports programming. Their NFL Sunday Ticket and NASCAR Hot Pass programming and feature packages create considerable differentiation, and thus competitive advantage with select audiences. Cable has their fair share of differentiation attempts as well. It all adds up to an interesting experiment in trying to create the right mix of features/applications, pricing, and customer service that creates a compelling experience. The right experience drives positive retention, expanding growth, and growing ARPU – a winning proposition for any competitor.

Cavalier Telephone, a Richmond, VA based CLEC, announced the availability of Google Apps to its high speed Internet subscribers. The Google application suite will be offered through a Cavalier web domain and will provide Gmail e-mail services, Google Calendar for shared scheduling, Google Product Search for shopping, Google Picasa for photos, and the Google Start Page feature which will allow subscribers to create a customizable home page. Cavalier claims to be the first company in the communications industry to launch these services.

In a sign of things to come for interactive television, DirecTV will offer multiple screen options to viewers of the Masters Golf Tournament in April. DirecTV subscribers will be able to select up to four different camera views through their remote control. The camera view options will be located on a “Masters Mix” channel, where subscribers can select the view of their choice in real time. Both HD and SD feeds will be offered. DirecTV will also be offering an interactive leader board “widget”, where viewers can access scores and stats, a top five leader board, Masters trivia and Tournament history by clicking on a small menu icon that appears on each channel.

These developments offer a glimpse into the promise of interactive television, and the competitive differentiation it can bring. DirecTV is being creative with this option, by “simply” providing different broadcast options (ESPN, CBS), a highlight channel, and continuous coverage of two separate course holes, all simultaneously. The “holy grail” for this type of sports broadcast interactivity will be multiple camera angles, where subscribers can change the camera angle on the fly, acting as their own director. We’re a long way off from that, but at least DirecTV is making baby steps in that direction. DirecTV does similar interactive broadcasts with NASCAR. Competing service providers should take notice. It’s these types of features that may well provide the differentiation that they'll need to effectively compete.

Qwest CEO Ed Mueller acknowledged their current MVNO with Sprint isn’t an ideal option for them in these competitive times. Qwest has 824,000 wireless subscribers. Of the traditional RBOCs that are left, Qwest is the only one without a facilities based wireless network. Mueller recognizes that wireless is absolutely necessary for a company like Qwest to be competitive in the future, and their current wireless strategy with Sprint does not deliver the value they need. "I think we're very disadvantaged in the space," says Mueller in an interview with the Denver Post. Wireless is the largest growth engine for Verizon and AT&T and also delivers a clear differentiation over their competitors. Qwest is at a significant disadvantage by not having something similar.

As broadband wireless continues its ascension as an engine for ARPU expansion, companies without it will suffer. Both Verizon and AT&T noted in their most recent quarterly reports that wireless data service is the fastest growing contributor to revenue growth. Broadband wireless as an asset will be critical for telecom carriers to not only grow revenue, particularly as wireline voice revenues decrease, but also retain and attract subscribers. It will increasingly be seen as a key competitive advantage – one that cable companies will struggle to match. Qwest is wise to begin an active search for a partner that can deliver better terms and a better competitive value proposition. They will need it. Otherwise, they have very little to distinguish themselves from their cable competitors.