Not only are consumers tired of waiting for the
knock-your-socks-off world of broadband to take off. Content
providers are tired of waiting too.
That message could be gleaned at Jupiter Media Metrix's Media Forum
in New York yesterday, when almost half of the attendees left to
graze the refreshments table when the broadband panel began.
"It's the chicken and the egg complex," said Yoav Tzruya, vice
president of marketing and business development for content
software provider TeleKnowledge Group and a member of the forum's
broadband panel.
Content providers are waiting for broadband penetration to reach
higher levels before they invest in broadband services, and
consumers are waiting for more of that content to become available
before they take the trouble to sign up for faster Internet access,
according to Tzruya.
For some content providers, the answer will be to keep on
waiting.
"We have to get through the [broadband] price and availability
problems before we expect to see content," said Bryan Neider, chief
operating officer at online gaming company EA.com.
Neider voiced an opinion on the minds of many consumers - that
broadband is just too expensive and the availability still
patchy.
But industry insiders are looking to content providers to fuel
broadband growth.
"We need a killer app to get things going," said Erik Smith,
director of content and applications at broadband software provider
BroadJump. "When you have broadband content that you can't get
anywhere else, that's when it will take off."
According to Jupiter analyst Joe Laszlo, broadband growth is being
driven by early adopters who want faster access to Web sites. Many
broadband service providers are looking to content companies,
however, to give their broadband service added value so that they
can justify their fees and spark further growth.
Part of the problem in delivering specialised broadband content is
that Internet service providers have never been in the content
business before, said Smith. "Their idea of content is a dial
tone."
While some content providers, especially those in the gaming and
video industries, are already forging ahead to design services
optimised for broadband, many more are hanging back. But even
companies that are not developing services tailored specifically
for broadband continue to add rich media content such as video and
music.
As Mitch Praver, president of Nationalgeographic.com, put it:
"Sometimes broadband is in the eye of the beholder."