One of the key marketing challenges for any company, especially one deeply embedded in the ever-changing TV and video industry, is being able to spot the shifts in market trends and consumer needs ahead of our customers and of course, the industry.
It was therefore gratifying for me when a panel of progressive, European pay-TV operators from different heritages and operating in very diverse market conditions, unanimously declared that the future of their video service delivery and monetisation is IP – a direction that we have been heralding for sometime now. Each of them illustrated a clear ambition to migrate to IP-centric, software-based service delivery solutions, including revenue security.
Speaking at the recent Broadband TV News-Verimatrix Multi-network Forum held during ANGA COM in Cologne, Germany, Eric Meijer, senior innovation manager at Ziggo in the Netherlands, Wolfgang Zeller, VP service engineering at Kabel Deutschland and Thomas Helbo, CTO of Stofa in Denmark, joined TiVo’s Joe Weber, vice president of technology strategy and myself, in a professionally moderated discussion with Broadband TV News editor Julian Clover.
Rights and Rights Management in Multi-Screen Monetisation?
While extolling the virtues of IP to expedite the delivery of multiscreen services and monetise new business models, the second takeaway from the panel was their shared frustration at the slow progress by the Hollywood majors and sports organisations in loosening up the management of program rights to enable better monetisation of content across multiple-networks and devices by pay-TV operators. The discussion focused primarily around the reasonable number of devices per household covered by operators and if those rights extend outside of the home.
Of course, it’s all about balancing the risk of multi-network and device content distribution with the reward of reaching as many people as possible. The good news with software-based, IP security is that operators can keep even greater control over where their content is enjoyed by being able to limit locations and IP addresses for example. They can also meet the demand from their customers who want to consume content out of the home, which comprises a completely different set of rights.
It is not only the ability to reach as many people and devices, as possible that is a driver for pay-TV operators to IP-centric networks, but also the ability to better monetise their content with such business models and attractive services such as network PVR. The ultimate goal is enabling subscribers to record and watch their favorite channels from any device, literally anywhere. Again, the lack of clarity and conformity around content rights is a concern, although the operator panellists did agree that they would not want to carry the content storage costs of their customers, or get into that business, even if they were able to offer a PVR service across devices.
QAM DVB-C Still Owning the Last Mile
The third major take-away from the Forum was the discussion around the switch from traditional cable to IP across the operator networks. It is evident that the strategy is being adopted, but only as far as the last mile. It was agreed that it remains most cost-effective to use edge QAM DVB-C, with Wolfgang Zeller, believing that DOCSIS 3.1 would become the most preferred delivery, at least for Kabel Deutschland.
Finally, the discussion returned to the all-important topic of business models, including advertising and cross-promotion throughout the home. The technology is now in place and the desire is certainly there, the question now is can content owners, broadcasters and service providers start working together to monetise them to everyone’s benefit? I already look forward to next year’s show to find out how far we have progressed.
