IPTV content comes from all sorts of different content owners and, potentially, through many different paths into the home. Consumers currently don’t have a good way of consolidating this content into a single view, with a single interface and with the ability to search for content from various sources without using different devices or entering different silos of content.

Software vendors like Zinc and Boxee and content providers like Hulu are currently offering consumers some level of content consolidation, but not in a mainstream way and not outside of the PC model. How are the IPTV service providers going to step into this role or can they even do so? Who drives the car here: 3 rd party developers, IPTV SPs or content owners? Will SPs be willing to break out of the walled garden model and provide this kind of service at a time where nearly a million Americans have already “cut the cord” to TV services just as they have done with wireline phone services?