What IPTV should look like in South Africa

This week has been a week of reviews and I figured why stop now. With the recent announcement of Pay TV operators in South Africa I thought it would be best to look at IPTV in the form of Joost and what local operators can learn from them.

Joost can best be described as a blend of traditional and Internet TV in one user-friendly desktop application and as Joost’s website explains:

“It’s free TV, with the choice to watch alone or with friends. Joost is packed with internet tools such as instant messaging and channel chat, allowing people to really share the TV experience……. Joost isn’t just video on the internet – it’s the next generation of television for viewers, content owners and advertisers everywhere.”

The desktop application, available for PC or Mac, is really an experience to behold. It’s simple, easy to navigate and offers a huge set of features that really start to change your perception of what TV is meant to be.

Navigation happens via the half-circle buttons in the application and clicking on the Channel Catalogue to the left of the screen brings up a well formatted bouquet listing of available Channels and Genres. I counted more than 180 different channels to chose from and there seems to be a big focus on music channels in general.

Once you’ve found a channel you like, in my case the Sport Illustrated Swimsuit channel tickled my fancy, you simply click on it to get a full listing of available items to watch.

But the fun doesn’t end there. There are integrated Widgets built into Joost and clicking on the My Joost link brings up a list of available widgets that you can install to the application. This is where the interaction begins and widgets like video rating, Instant Messaging and blogging functionality are sure to be popular with the Geeks of tomorrow.

Ok, so Joost is cool but can the same model be applied in SA? Well the short answer is not until broadband becomes more of a reality in this country. We have this silly misconception that we have broadband in this country when in fact we have a narrowband infrastructure.

I’ve been testing Joost on a 1Mbps connection and I haven’t been able to watch one single clip, video or movie without it buffering. This as you can imagine makes TV viewing on the Internet impossible.

Having said that I do feel that if Telkom get their act together and Telkom Media start seriously contending with Multichoice we as consumers could be the big winners in the end. Telkom’s idea of broadband for the next couple months years is speeds of up to 16Mbps which will make products like Joost and IPTV in South Africa a more viable option.

And my advice to Telkom Media, e.Sat, On Digital Media, Walking on Water and MultiChoice – download your copy of Joost now and start modeling your IPTV offering off this.