MyPCTV...the unsung new new new media revolution

So, 3 weeks on and MyPCTV (My PC connected to my TV playing YouTube videos) continues to charm the masses as the New New Interactive Media play.

We've taken it a bit further now, integrating various bits and pieces to make a smoother "lean back" experience. Looks promising. Surfing some parts of the web is fun too, especially picture rich media.

I have had 4 main criticisms of the concept of running internet TV straight off the broadband pipe through a pc/laptop rather than a STB / IPTV setup however:

(i) Most people don't have TV screens that you can connect laptops to. My view - true, but the people who do are the early adopters and early mass market, and thats all that a service such as this needs to get off the ground.

(ii) Most people don't use the PC for this role, they see the set top box as the way TV is delivered. My view - true again, but enough plays have proven that if you make using the PC easy for media (eg iTunes) people will take to it - and fast. Furthermore, if this is very cheap - say a software download + webservice - then it forces competitors to subsidise their STBs fully, hurting their business models hugely. Hmmmm....

(iii) It won't work because people like to use remotes to control TVs, not PCs. My view is 2-fold - firstly, it is not too hard to make a PC able to be controlled by a remote, and secondly just wait till people have this hooked up to a remote keyboard and experience everything else they can do as a couch potato like read emails etc.

(iv) The quality is not HDTV standard, or even SDTV. My response - hell yes, but the content is awesome...and we know people will put up with poor quality for delightful content. Also, big broadband pipes plus ongoing technical development will most likely make it better very fast. Early music downloads were very poor quality too, remember

After 3 weeks of great Long Tail TV on MyPCTV, my response to the doubters now is this - just set it up at home, try it, and think about what is needed to make this a really sexy service. Then think about how you might do that, and how hard it really would be. Non trivial, sure...but not too hard.

W(h)ither IPTV?