Flying Rhinoceros Edutainment - Triple-Play Content?

April 3, 2005

When I read news about the rollout of triple-play solutions (voice, video, data), I wonder sometimes how the telcos are going to compete with the cable companies in the content area.

For example, in the geographic market where I live, the chief players are Comcast on the cable side and SBC on the telco side. Well, SBC is at an obvious�disadvantage in providing video�content against Comcast who already has deals in place to deliver a gazillion TV channels into the home.

So I was interested to see this announcement about a partnership to bring digital "edutainment" into homes:

ICTV, Flying Rhinoceros Bring Star-Studded ''On The Farm'' Channel to HeadendWare Interactive TV Platform

Reading the release, it seems to me that this partnership illustrates what might be done through converged communications to bring to market a whole new level of video content, of a completely different character than the 2-dimensional passive TV entertainment delivered today by cable and satellite providers.

Interestingly (well, for me anyway), I have worked with Flying Rhinoceros before in producing Web-based content for K-12 audiences. They are amazingly creative producers of interactive materials for children. See examples of their work at:

http://www.flyingrhino.com/