Users in our
U-Verse forum (also see thread
here) complain that AT&T has begun inundating TV viewers with new pop up advertisements. On the positive side, the pop ups (like
this one) don't appear to come up very often, and are advertising AT&T bundles or new services -- like getting a free pizza when you upgrade to higher-end AT&T IPTV tiers. In a TV future where everybody skips traditional advertising via DVR, the fact that IPTV interactivity is going to create a new breed of advertisement is probably inevitable. Still, consumer complaints should help shape this new landscape of advertising into something less annoying.
Update: AT&T offered this statement about the new ads:
We’ve sent on-screen service messages to U-verse customers’ previously – for example, when we rolled out THDVR, we sent customers a message to let them know that they now had THDVR service. We received positive feedback that these messages were helpful to alerting them about their service and features.
This particular message was letting customers know about a U-verse TV offer from AT&T, exclusive to our customers. It was not a paid advertisement.
It’s the first time that we’ve sent a message about a special U-verse offer. We’re listening to our customers’ feedback. We want to know what service messages they find helpful. Our goal is to use these messages selectively to inform customers about their service, not distract from their viewing experience.
Sacramento-based SureWest Communications offers consumers a mix of fiber to the home service and ADSL2+. Surewest already offers IPTV service to its fiber customers, who can get symmetrical service at speeds up to 25Mbps for $70 bundled, $84 unbundled. Customers out of range have had to make due with vanilla DSL, though last fall the carrier started offering users
bonded ADSL2+ services at speeds up to 10Mbps ($31.99).
Surewest now says they're going to offer
IPTV services to those customers before the end of the year.
Users in our
AT&T U-Verse forum are tracking AT&T's release of some free new functionality for the company's IPTV customers. "Phase 2" upgrades of the service now allows customers to record, delete or schedule recordings from any box in the house -- instead of just the primary DVR. In addition to the new recording functionality, AT&T appears to have fixed several persistent bugs (like dropped audio under some optical connections) and tweaked the service's GUI, with many users saying they the channel guide is more responsive. As part of this latest U-Verse upgrade, AT&T's also giving High Speed Internet Max customers a free 20% boost in downstream speed from 10Mbps to 12Mbps.
One gets the feeling that if Dallas Mavericks owner and HDNet CEO Mark Cuban wasn't absolutely terrified of broadband video, he wouldn't be constantly ranting about how broadband video is going to fail. Cuban's spent the last five years urging ISPs to
block P2P, supporting the cable industry's vision of net neutrality (as in:
none), insisting the
Internet is dead, lamenting
broadband video's shortcomings and generally pouting a lot. Cuban takes specific aim at Google -- who, just like the cable and telcos, is seen as a huge threat.
Google's seen as a threat not only because they're gobbling up advertising revenue incumbent ISPs and Cuban feel they're entitled to, but because Google supports things like open competition and White Space devices -- concepts that could eventually create a video free for all.
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