The Internet Challenge to Television (Hardcover)

~ Mr. Bruce M. Owen (Author) "After a half-century of glacial creep, television technology has begun to change at the same dizzying pace as the wares of Silicon Valley..." (more)
Key Phrases: local content problem, single coax, wireless cable systems, United States, World Wide Web, David Sarnoff (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

An instructive, if misnamed, volume on emerging technology in the fields of television, telephony, and computers. Owens, an economist, tends to approach his subjects with the issue of cost-effectiveness foremost. He treats his material methodically from both historical and prognostic points of view, covering radio as a precursor to television and making predictions on the success of high-definition television (HDTV). In the case of telephones and televisions, there is a further division into analog and digital subsets, and with television additional stratification between broadcast and cable media. Much of this discussion is quite helpful, and Owen certainly renders the technical jargon far more clearly than a typical owner's manual for a product does. For instance, he offers an instructive discussion on the origins of the word ``broadcast,'' employing a comparison with ``narrowcast'' to underscore the importance of bandwidth to predigital and non-computer-based forms of communication. Similarly, Owens makes strong use of charts and diagrams to elucidate his contentions. His political stance, on those rare occasions when it can be discerned at all, is innocuously laissez-faire, criticizing both monopolies and government-sponsored protection of the industry. However, the study eventually sinks under the weight of too much material crammed into too slim a volume: confusion inevitably results, despite the helpful glossary. More importantly, the issue of convergence between television and the Internetthe very phenomenon that the book's title suggests is centralcomes late in the discussion and is given short shrift. Owen seems somewhat behind the curve, predicting that television/computer convergence is further off than it may actually be, though his points about the requirements for higher computer speeds and greater memory capacity are well taken. Despite its future-oriented hype, more useful as a historical text than a handbook for the 21st century. (53 line illustrations) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

Focusing on both the effects of government regulation on the television business and the economics of communication technology, Owen, a communications economist, presents insights in both areas that are refreshingly different from the mass of speculation recently published about the nexus between television and the Internet...Owen's book is recommended for anyone interested in the television industry or the economics of the telecommunications industry.
--B. P. Keating (Choice )

An instructive...volume on emerging technology in the fields of television, telephony, and computers. (Kirkus Reviews )

This book provides an insightful view of the evolution of new media technologies by the leading authority on video economics.
--Harold Furchtgott-Roth, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (March 31, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674872991
• ISBN-13: 978-0674872998
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,161,971 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Speaking from ignorance..., July 16, 1999

By	David C. Lefevre (Lafayette IN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Bruce M. Owen makes too many assumptions and doesn't do enough research in this book. Owen's focus is the future, but he speaks about the Internet as a group of technologies that will not change in the future, that are somehow stuck in time and will never improve.

He doesn't understand the technology (like Packet Switching, the very breakthrough that made TCP/IP and thus the Internet possible). Throughout the first part of the book, he claims that the Internet doesn't have the ability to transmit high quality video. We might not have the bandwidth now, but why is this _never_ going to be possible? The technology is there, just not there for everybody yet. He cites "Moore's Law," but does he think for some reason that the Internet is immune to this Law and that it won't continue to improve?

Owen also doesn't understand the history and development of the Internet, especially not the idea of open standards. As chaotic as the Internet is, it works because groups have already gotten together and handled many of the standards issues or came up with the technologies to deal with the incompatabilities. He even asserts that it might be to the Internet's advantage if "Silicon Valley" (as if they own the Internet) invites some regulators in to help with standards issues. Anyone who knows how the Net works knows that such ideas are not only improbably, they're impossible. The Internet is not a singular, private entitiy like a TV network.

Indeed, Owen seems to have a large bias against the Internet for some unknown reason. He believes that the Internet is an elite audience and makes every attempt to minimize the number of people participating. He even asserts, with no facts to back it up, that the number of households buying computers is "leveling off."

Owen hasn't done his homework. This is a work that turns out to simply a platform for the author to try to back up his biases, including not only an anti-Internet bias but an strong anti-Regulation bias. If you are looking for clear insight into the history and growth of media, get a good survey textbook; Owen's book will simply muddy the waters more for you...

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a little extra comment, January 4, 2006

By	michael gordon-smith - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's worth balancing the previous reviews a little. In the first chapter, Prof. Owen describes a model for thinking about bandwidth-storage-compression tradeoffs and their influence on industry devlopment. I have not often revisited the parts of the book that deal with history or no-longer-up-to-date technical descriptions, but it's been well worth owning for the number of times I've gone back to that analysis in Chapter 1.