Telcos have undoubtedly had a chequered history of involvement in the content sector.
To underline the point, just in the last few weeks we have seen AT&T announce that WarnerMedia will be merged with Discovery, BT say it will review its sports channel and its Irish counterpart Eir go even further by deciding to close its sports channel later this year.
This begs the question, and one that will be discussed in some length at the upcoming Media Meet & Greet Webinar on Thursday, June 10, “Are telcos losing interest in TV?”
A number of perspectives on the subject have already been provided by panellists participating in the debate. For instance, David Short, digital media and technology consultant at Malkani Systems, makes the point that given the fact that IP allows for the separation of concern and it makes no sense to perpetuate the link between service and delivery. Telcos are limited by physicality and can never get the scale of internet giants.
Indeed, it can be argued that in the world of FAANGs (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet – formerly Google) most if not all elements of a service proposition should be outsourced to someone operating that thing on a massive scale. Netflix, for instance, grew because it never worried about infrastructure but instead concentrated on UX, a big data model, content rights and a robust software stack.
Meanwhile, Broadband TV News editor Julian Clover, who will be moderating the event, says we should consider who are the most super of super aggregators. David Short is of the view that the likes of Deutsche Telekom, Sky/Comcast and perhaps even Liberty Global could almost be regarded as telco aggregators and so achieving the scale to play at a global level.
Anette Schaefer, former VP of TV Business Europe at Deutsche Telekom, points out that when we look at the history of IPTV, no telcos have made money or generated any revenues. In fact, TV and video secure access revenue and in many cases the cost of operation exceeds the ARPU. This is why telcos often do not report TV and video as standalone. In the case of Sky, it stopped providing TV ARPU figures in 2017.
Aside from David Short and Anette Schaeffer, the Media Meet & Greet Webinar “Are telcos losing interest in TV?” will also feature Cyrus Mewawalla, the head of thematic research, GlobalData, among the panellists.
For further details and to register for Media Meet & Greet please go to:
