Windows Phone Thoughts: Placeshifting Devices Could Threaten Mobile Video Services

"As more consumers use products such as the Slingbox to get "anywhere access" to their premium and personal content, so-called "placeshifting" technologies may face opposition from wireless carriers, according to a new study from ABI Research. The ability to stream pay TV from a set-top box and digital content from a home PC over the Internet to a variety of devices has the potential to disrupt new content services being delivered by mobile operators... Despite this potential resistance, ABI Research sees a bright future for placeshifting as consumer awareness of hardware, software, and embedded solutions grows. While today's placeshifting market is largely hardware-based, as adopters use the Slingbox or Sony's LF-PK1, a growing number of consumers will also adopt software solutions such as that from Orb Networks and SageTV, or embedded solutions such as placeshifting enabled set-top boxes."



Hollywood may not think highly of placeshifting technologies, and mobile operators may not either. The article looks at the shift in consumer dollars away from the mobile operator market to the placeshifting market - primarily because consumers want the freedom to control how they watch their media and how much they spend to watch their media. With regard to the latter, software solutions such as Orb effectively allow you to do it all for free (excluding the data costs), and the Slingbox essentially involves a one-time setup-and-go fee. So, all factors considered, what do you think? Do mobile operators have the right to oppose placeshifting technologies at this present moment, or do you think they should revise their current (expensive) offerings before whipping out the big guns (lawyers et al)?