It Seems Almost Daily Now That Huge Television Deals Embracing Internet Broadband Are Announced, But Lost in The Shuffle Was An Announcement By Internet Giant Cisco That It Now Embraces Television

And the reason it’s such a big deal is because it signals that the people who most influence Internet technology have given up on their dream that the PC will become The visual receiving device in the home on which all new media products converge – video, text, games etc., -- and instead it is back to old faithful -- the television in the living room. The PC, for the most part, will remain consigned to the home office.

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And even though there are already two shareholder suits against the deal accusing Scientific-Atlanta of selling out too cheaply to Cisco at $43 a share, only a 3.7% premium over the share price before the deal was announced, market analysts still expect the transaction to complete by early next year.

With telephone companies around the world getting into the broadband television business, and with more and more terrestrial television programming finding itself fed on the Web, and with very few homes without a television as compared to homes with computers, it just makes sense that the family television set in the living room expands its role as the reception unit of choice.

Companies like Cisco and Microsoft are already helping telephone companies build their interactive television networks delivered over an Internet protocol network. They are also involved in getting what is delivered to the PC over the Internet onto your television set. One reason Microsoft’s new gaming console, Xbox 360, sold out in its first day in most US stores is because it has the ability to transfer digital media from Media Center PCs to any television.

Cisco likes its chances in the home television business. Most homes have more than one television. Someone is going to have to provide the networking know-how to move all of those Internet offerings around the house so they can be received on any television.

And while many of the announcements this month about using the Internet for streaming programming has come from the US, a major new report from Screen Digest says that Europe will have 8.7 million Internet TV subscribers by 2009 -- double the forecast for the US -- compared to just 658,000 such viewers now in Europe. IPTV in Italy by 2009 is expected to hold 20% of the pay-tv market, in France it is forecast at 17% and in Spain at 16%.

The US in 2009 is forecast to have about four million IPTV subscribers, 3.4% of the US Pay TV market.

“Even in a couple of years, the US will not have the growth rate that we see in Europe, because the competition, particularly from cable, is very strong in the US,” according to Daniel Schmitt, a Screen Digest analyst.

Meanwhile, November, 2005, may go down in the history books as the time when television learned to embrace new video supply technology, including the Internet, rather than fear it.

CBS, for instance, signing a deal with Comsat for video-on-demand, said it believes such programming could be worth up to $5 billion a year to broadcast TV networks on the assumption that 50 million households would be willing to spend $100 a year for the privilege.

CBS will make available its top shows via Comcast early in 2006 for 99 cents an on-demand episode. NBC has made similar arrangements with DirecTV and ABC has its most popular shows on iTunes at $1.99 an episode.

But CBS, in addition to its Comcast deal, is also looking to do a deal with Google or Yahoo for video search and video-on-demand.

NBC that under normal circumstances would have killed off its fledgling Trio digital cable service because of poor carriage instead is going to keep it alive, but only on the Internet. The channel features music videos, classic TV shows, and documentaries.

“Instead of losing one cable channel, you’re gaining three to four broadband Internet channels, “ said Lauren Zalaznick, president of Trio. It will be an interesting experiment to see if such stations can survive on broadband whereas a profitable life as a digital cable channel was near impossible.

AOL has announced a free Internet TV service for early 2006 featuring six channels, making available 3,400 hours of Warner Brothers classic prime time hits of long ago – one of the few examples of convergence inside Time Warner that owns both companies.. The service will be free because each 30 minute program will have two minutes of advertising.

And AOL was also the major financial backer in a $16.2 million investment in Brightcove, a start-up that provides a sophisticated way of delivering Internet-delivered video with advertising self-contained.

NBC has started streaming its Nightly News broadcast after its airing on the US West Coast. The network claims that ratings for the terrestrial broadcast have gone up as a result.

Court TV, meanwhile, says it plans to broadcast the trial of Saddam Hussein on its Internet site with a 20-minute delay. The Court TV Extra Internet service costs $5.95 a month.

One expected consequence from so much diversity and choice is that the ratings for established terrestrial channels will begin to fall and new figures just released show that is exactly what is happening in the UK. The BBC has lost about 500,000 households since last year that watch one of its channels for at least 15 minutes a week. The two main BBC television channels have lost about 6% of their audience this year.

Most other UK channels suffered similar fates with the blame falling squarely on the number of digital channels now available plus the Internet. But all of the UK terrestrial channels are deeply involved in providing broadband programming.

With so much programming being made available, the very real question is going to be whether there will be enough viewers for each to make a profit. As in so many times in the past, it will be the survival of the fittest.