IPTV@IBC2010 special report


unified multi-screen TV services to provide better content than rivals. They can deliver integrated yet secure access to paid-for content across all screen environments; enable the seamless transfer of video sessions between different devices and, when appropriate, different users through shared preferences and recommendations; and, crucially, permit centralised account


management and common user sign- on facilities.


In this last context, it’s important to recognise that true convergence happens inside the customer’s head. Irrespective of what happens in the delivery and access network, the most vital link in the chain is between the customer’s eyes, ears and fingers and the interfaces used to navigate and control the viewing experience. Who controls the interface - to a very large extent - controls the consumer and broadcasters have a unique opportunity to exploit existing strong brand identities and loyalties to dominate a potentially fragmenting audience marketplace.


A unified multi-screen TV service, however, requires an integrated multi-screen TV solution. This implies that there must also be a common service management and delivery infrastructure for television capable of handling multiple and very different access, display and control environments. At the same time, it must be recognised that each TV service provider will have their own legacy architectures to work alongside or integrate, their own business workflows and partnerships with third party content owners and advertisers to support, and their own regulatory regimes to comply with. The solution here is to deploy appropriate technologies at appropriate places as budgets and strategies allow - but under a unifying framework based on open standards. Only then can financial and reputational risk be managed effectively and the necessary corporate agility maintained in what is a still uncertain world.


TV service providers are starting from a position of considerable strategic strength and should be confident about their prospects for turning these emerging consumer desires into business opportunities. After all, multi-screen TV is still, ultimately, television and content is still king. For the time being at least, TV service providers have access to the best, premium content through


Consumers buy content and services, not technologies. They don’t care about, or buy, access technology. Great television packages and experiences are what sells...After all, multi- screen TV is still,


ultimately, television and content is still king.


established relationships with the major content producers and owners as well as an ability to nurture and expose new talent and they can continue to leverage these relationships across different screen environments.


As a further advantage to be exploited, television still remains the screen of choice for the vast majority of consumers today. As a result, TV service providers can use their presence in the home to cross- promote multi-screen TV services while they develop the rest of their three-screen offering.


In addition, standalone web and mobile services have proved difficult to monetise for new entrants in the video business, but TV service providers already have established revenue streams and are well placed to position and bundle multi-screen TV as part of a wider subscription service.


TV service providers are therefore clearly capable of dominating this emerging marketplace, placing themselves once again at the centre of the increasingly complex, multimedia-rich lives that their customers are adopting. They can harness their unique strengths to define in practical terms what multi- screen TV means and, in particular, by setting the highest possible entry standards in quality of content and user experience, they can also block out new competitors before they get a foothold in the market. Their overall strategy should be to create a much more holistic, unified service experience based on the consumer insight, commercial partnerships and technology integration strengths that only a TV service provider can deliver. The defining characteristics of such a multi-screen TV service should include:


• Easy access to content. Consumers must be free to watch television wherever they want on the best or most convenient screen available to them, whether at home, in the office or when travelling. Service providers must deliver on the vision of ‘Anytime, Anywhere, Any Device’, making all technical complexity - including rights management - transparent to customers. • An extension of the home TV service. Multi-screen TV should be about far more than just making popular television and movies available in different places. It must give people access to the content that is most important to them - the


S30 l ibe l OFFICIAL GUIDE TO IPTV@IBC2010 september/october 2010 l www.ibeweb.com


content they own. Consumers should be able to enjoy their home subscription services - including DVR, PVR, nPVR and catch-up - when they are not at home and their home TV service provider is best placed to deliver this capability. • A unified television environment. Users should have access to a common service but from different screens. Their activities on one screen should be known, understood and interpreted to take account of behaviour on others. For example, automatic recommendations should take into account behaviour on every platform, while preferences and bookmarks should be readily shareable. Advertising would be even more relevant - and therefore more valuable to advertisers - if targeting is based upon what people watch across all three screens. Users should be able to find content on the PC but watch it on television, and should be able to pause a video session on their TV or laptop and resume it on their mobile or vice versa. The user interface and programme guides must all also act as familiar faces, behaving in consistent ways across all parts of the TV service.


• A streamlined customer


experience. Consumers should be able to access their favourite content on their preferred screens using only a single service provider. This means that they only have to pay once for content they can then watch in multiple locations and can enjoy the convenience of a single bill for all their video usage. It should also be possible to manage account preferences centrally, including parental control and credit levels, and have them applied everywhere without tedious repetition. All family members would benefit from a single point of authentication and a common user ID that gives them near-instant access to video services across all screens without having to go through onerous log-in procedures.


There is only one way to make multi-screen TV affordable and to provide the integrated, seamless entertainment experience that consumers will come to expect. That involves creating a unified solution for the management and delivery of video services across all screens, removing the barriers that separate technological silos and harnessing common resources, processes, features and functions in ways appropriate for each individual TV service provider.


Continued from Page S28.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32