The Video iPod Could Save The TV Network. But What About The IT Network?

After the announcement this week by Apple and ABC that the network would begin to make its primetime shows available for download via iTunes onto the new video iPods, Cuban wasted no time praising the deal:

ABC Networks, he writes, won't be able to out-and-out swap download revenue for advertising revenue. But as download revenue grows, Cuban reasons, it could more than offset any losses of advertising revenue the networks have been feeling. Oh, and they've been feeling it.

Cuban adds:

That's a great story for those companies, no doubt. But where does this gold rush leave everyone else?

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Well, the implications for the digital home are huge. Dan Schwab, vice president at D&H Distributing of Harrisburg, Pa., spelled it out in an interview in Digital Connect:

More available content means there will be a need for more computing power and more computer storage. The Apple Macintosh will start shipping on the Intel platform next year, and make a full migration by 2007. What will that do to the supply of processors for the commercial marketplace? What will that do to the supply of other components, like memory and chipsets? There already has been a supply crunch on Intel chipsets for the past several months.

And, as Schwab and others were also quick to note, there will be a demand on the marketplace for security, for integration, for consulting. A virus that makes its way onto a video podcast could find its way into corporate networks unless infrastructure investments are made and kept up.

Robert Iger may have saved the television network by hitching up with the video iPod. But don't be surprised if the strongest implications are for the IT network and supply chain.