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We’re in the middle of the most challenging times since the Great Depression, and even as communication services have become indispensible to people in the 21st century, they’re still not immune to the effects of a global economy in freefall. But in the midst of tough times, service providers still have to press forward, whether it’s with their transformation projects to become more efficient or developing innovative new services to stay relevant in a highly competitive market. Providers from all aspects of communications – wireline, mobile and cable – are interested in creating, delivering and monetizing digital media services, and giving them all the help they can get in creating an environment to foster new business models and solutions to problems plaguing the value chain such as content lifecycle management, personalized advertising and service profitability will help ensure their continued success. TM Forum’s Content Encounter , which will be showcased...

The Digital Media value chain- from the creation, through the delivery and to the consumption and monetization of Content-based services - is full of bumps and potholes. Manual processes, unique requirements, proprietary formats, and players trying to our muscle each other has resulted in an environment where profits are hard to come by and the user experience is sub-optimal. The TM Forum, with its Content Encounter and other related programs, is reaching across the telecoms, cable and media industries to try smooth out the chain, forge a win-win amongst the players and most importantly, ensure the customer’s experience is over the top. But this won’t happen if protectionist attitudes remain in place. This is why it is critical we create a wide community of interest, using web-based tools to ensure we engage with the most number of people possible. Where do you see friction or worse, roadblocks that have to be changed or removed? Please let me hear your ideas.

Well… amid the requisite fanfare and a public beta longer than the gestation period of a Bactrian camel, Hulu has finally launched ( http://www.hulu.com ). As background, Hulu is a JV of NBC-Universal and News Corp (Fox) and is designed to be their in-house, legal retort to YouTube and other streaming media sites. We'll see if it takes off or not. Traditional advertisers (aka those who need to curry favor with the parent companies) have expressed glowing desires to spend their ad money on Hulu. But that could change in a nano second if Hulu doesn't deliver the viewers. And based on what I've read, Hulu provides advertisers with little more than a basic subscriber profile. They certainly don't offer some of the more cutting edge personalization and targeting capabilities that companies such as ScanScout, NebuAd and others offer. Then again, those guys don't have $100M in the bank and an inside connection to major content creators. So the times they get more interesting...