Set-top boxes are the only way for operators to have a managed device, according to Oliver Soellner of the management board at ABox42.
Speaking at the 6th IPTV/OTT Industry Breakfast at the ANG COM in Cologne, Soellner said he believes that operators can only be successful when they own the hardware and software. “It only works if you own the whole value chain.”
This is the case for the main TV set in the living room, but in other rooms it has to be possible to access the content on a variety of devices.
However, Gernot Jaeger, Chief Officer B2B TV Solutions, Zattoo, gave the example of the Swiss operator Salt, which is the very first in the world to offer Apple TV as the device of choice for the main TV set, in order to quickly introduce a TV service on top of its broadband access product.
“This is not the standard route, what you see is that operators do both, the classical set-top box approach for the main TV set and to have the other solutions on Fire TV, Roku, and Apple TV. This allows you to sell TV services to different target groups and use different use cases, you need both ways to reach end customers. If you want to enter the German market, you have to stand out, and you want to be the cool kid on the block, but that doesn’t mean the set-top box will go away.”
Jaeger also described some of the peculiarities of the German situation concerning network-PVRs. Even though the PVR lives in the cloud, under German law, an individual copy is needed for every user, “otherwise content owners will come after you.”
