Bob Wright to ISPs: clamp down on piracy, illegal downloads

Now at NXTComm in Chicago, former CEO of NBC Universal and current General Electric vice-chair Bob Wright is holding keynote court.

We are all in the business of aggregating audiences and delivering them to advertisers," Wright said. "For those who are successful at this the benefits are going to be enormous."

As to challenges, Wright mentioned the need to develop new advertising models that will enable mobile content to be profitable for content distributors as well as telecommunications companies.

The lean back of watching television is completely different than (the viewing experience) of mobile handset, perfect place targed interactive advertising. We need to work together by mining the data while ptorecting customers privacy

Wright also touched on the challenge of protecting digital content.

"We are challenged to protect our content," said Wright, who added that many Internet Service Providers have been and are "facilitating the theft of the same video offerings that we are seeking to sell together. It makes no sense." 

On the other hand, Wright praised the willingness of several leading ISPs to educate subscribers about the wrongness of piracy and illegal downloads, as well as notifying illegal uploaders and downloaders that "this must stop."

Wright demanded that ISP's clarify the consequences of continued infringement for customers in a tone that is reflective of "education, not punishment.