IPTV, a recent obsession of mine, has been a recurrent theme at the Broadband World Forum 2008 in Hong Kong, but not everyone thinks implementation is easy.

John Reister of Big Band Networks:

Entering IPTV is difficult
High competition
- Rival media types
- Many providers moving into IPTV and set-top boxes
Big investment
End users have heavy and growing demands
- Choice
- Control
- Quality programs
- Cheap

good news for IPTV is that the technology is evolving quickly.
- Compression improving
- Storage cheaper and cheaper

The strongest IPTV critique – perhaps not surprisingly – came from Peter Jackson, CEO of AsiaSat

TV is becoming more of an individual than a group event, Jackson said, which poses a problem when you are selling a product based around a set top box. Everyone wants to see the programs where they want and when they want.

Not only does this mean that more boxes must be supplied per household, but it also means that the limits of bandwidth will be reached quickly.

One answer to this bandwidth crunch, Jackson said, is using satellite tv in a hybrid way with IPTV. His company is working with several companies in that way in Europe.