At the current time, it appears the ‘brave new world’ of IPTV is in dire need of a serious rethink by the networks. The only one that seems to work is the ABC’s iView, which while very useful, I don’t think totally fills the expectations of people’s needs.

Take tonight (Sunday 31^st July 2011). For those of us that cannot get digital TV but are Formula One fans, the announcement that OneHD would be streaming this was greeted with joy. Shame it doesn’t actually live up to the hype.

The Hungarian GP started 5 minuted ago, but still no feed, despite the OneHD Twitter feed telling us it is all hunky dory. The same thing happened last GP too, with the feed only kicking in at around lap 7 – but we were continually told by the Twitter feed that it really, really was working. Based on the Twitter replies to tha , I was not alone; dare I suggest that the OneHD  people are checking a local network feed and not the broader Internet one?

Earlier in the day a colleague in New Zealand tweeted that a supposed feed of the AFL was not working either. Listen TV networks, if the feed is NOT working, treat it as a dead air signal and put up a message on the website saying so, so that we are not left wondering if it us or our ISP. How hard can that be?

Apart from live feeds, can we also get some consensus on what we can get through ‘net enabled devices? Through my PS3, I get iView and Channel 7 (for what THAT is worth. 7NOW is almost unwatchable as it coughs and hiccups all over the place). But why cannot I get SBS?  Do Channel 9 even have one?

I understand there are commercial arrangements between hardware vendors and the networks, but imagine buying a TV that didn’t receive all channels, or say, a radio that only received Alan Jones? God forbid.

There needs to be some agreement between all the ‘stakeholders’ that benefits those that ultimately pay the wages – the viewer – before this whole new broadcast paradigm really takes off to all participant’s satisfaction, and also closes the distance/location  gap that curses much of Australia.

By David Hague

David is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He lives at Sydney's Avalon Beaches nearly on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety, fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com