Upcoming Appearances: Net Neutrality Maven Paul Feldman To Speak At OTTcon East
FHH’s Paul Feldman will soon be on the road again, speaking on Network Neutrality at OTTcon East in Atlanta on June 17. OTTcon East is a conference focusing on “over-the-top” (OTT) services which rely on the Internet to deliver video content to the home. (Think Internet-accessing game consoles, DVRs, disk players and the like, all of which permit content providers and consumers to by-pass traditional video service providers like cable.)
Paul’s address (title: “Network Neutrality – Friend or Foe?”) will focus on – what else? – Net Neutrality. In addition to providing an overview of the Commission’s 2005 Internet Policy Statement and its 2008 Comcast/BitTorrent Order, he’ll also address the FCC’s latest Net Neutrality proposals and related questions, including:
- Would Net Neutrality rules help or hurt OTT video providers?
- What impact, if any, will the proposed Comcast/NBCU merger have on Net Neutrality?
- What impact, if any, will the FCC’s proposal to require Internet gateway set top boxes have on Net Neutrality?
The OTTcon event is dedicated to providing in-depth perspectives and critical analysis needed to address the challenges which OTT video pose for a range of traditional business models, such as those of pay TV operators, content owners, consumer equipment manufacturers, and over-the-air broadcasters. For instance, among the featured speakers on June 16 will be:
- Rick Ducey, Chief Strategy Officer of BIA/Kelsey, providing his take on the role of local broadcast TV in the development of OTT (sample grab: “adding free to air, local digital station into [the OTT] mix is becoming more attractive.”); and
- Richard Yelen, Managing Director of Neulion, looking at the changing landscape of TV consumption and the pressure that is putting on cable, satellite and over-the-air providers to work OTT and IPTV into their distribution strategy.
- Kevin Walsh, VP of Marketing for Zeugma Systems, getting technical about the “curse” of buffering of OTT video streams, which causes playback freeze-up.
More information about OTTcon East, including online registration, is available here.
