Betting on live and over-the-top

[Commentary] At its core, there is no great mystery (or great strategic vision) behind AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV. As more services are delivered via IP over broadband networks, previously distinct business such as voice, media delivery, home automation and data, are becoming much less distinct. No matter their industry of origin, service providers of all stripes increasingly are all in the same business (or collection of businesses).

So the real battle has become one simply of subscriber bases and customer lock-in rather than the value or margins of any one service. Eventually, every service provider will be delivering everything to everyone.

The tools for managing and monetizing live-event streaming are getting better and more scalable, at a time when advertisers are increasingly focused on live, DVR-proof programming. Live events are also likely to be critical to the growth of the mobile video business, particularly as more spectrum becomes available after 2015 and technologies like multicasting develop.

Consumers may be wary of paying data charges to watch on-demand content they could watch at other times on non-metered platforms. But for most consumers, live events still need to be watched live, and they’ll pay for the ability to watch them.

[Sweeting is Principal, Concurrent Media Strategies]