Unbundling Media
It’s often hard, for me at least, to get a grip on how new structural changes will affect an industry without using some history to base my thinking on. In this context, there may well be some similarities between the new, so-called over-the-top media players and the unbundling of the telecom networks some 10 years ago.
Needless to say, there are never 100 percent parallels between two industries, but the drive to open up telco networks by “unbundlers” and the new offerings by the “over-the-top” providers on Internet media streams, could offer some pointers as to how the future may shake down.
The OTT term normally includes players such as Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) Apple TV, Netflix Inc. (NFLX), Hulu (News Corp. (NWS), which owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of this service, is a joint owner of Hulu) and the U.K.’s YouView, previously known as Project Canvas.
