the connected world supplement special report Supplement sponsored by
The past two decades have witnessed the inarguable rise of the digital pay-TV offering. During this period, the pay-TV eco-system has become a staple in key economies around the world. TV viewing figures are on the rise and the DVR has become a household essential as television viewers around the world suddenly became spoilt for choice following decades of limitations imposed by analogue transmission. As content choice has expanded, the way in which it is delivered has too. With the wide spread availability of Internet-enabled devices and increased bandwidth capabilities, Over-the-Top (OTT) content delivery is fast becoming an effective means for pay-TV operators to increase their reach with subscribers, particularly through horizontal devices such as tablets, smartphones, games consoles and PCs. Jonathan Beavon, vice president, segment marketing, NDS, reports.
offer content across multiple devices in addition to their existing offerings. But there are a number of challenges to providing such services - from navigating issues related to carriage rights and providing an acceptable quality of service, to protecting not only the content on their platform, but also ensuring that only those with subscription privileges are the ones with access. The real opportunity that we see in
T
OTT is the value-add it can provide. Whether it’s additional content delivered on-demand to a hybrid set-
Infinite content, infinite possibilities: what does OTT enable for pay-TV?
he ubiquity of content-ready connected devices has provided a market in itself for multi-platform services, and our pay-TV operator customers are now looking to
Jonathan Beavon, vice president, segment
marketing, NDS.
top box, specialised programming that would not have the take-up to justify delivery over broadcast, or a service on the iPad using streaming over the Internet to deliver a TV-like experience, our aim is to ensure that our customers have the solutions that they need to implement OTT services in a way to suit their subscribers. The NDS InfiniteTV solution takes care of the entire OTT eco-system, from content packaging and negotiations, to the securing of content delivery and user interface solutions for horizontal and vertical devices. We’ve already seen phenomenal
interest in our new multi-platform DRM solution, which is inherent to the challenges that pay-TV operators are facing. With studio approved DRM that not only protects content on the platform and ensures the integrity of the service, VideoGuard Connect - the pay-TV DRM from NDS - solves a number of challenges for operators looking to implement services across connected devices. With streaming technology, domain management and support for multiple-DRM environments, VideoGuard Connect provides the framework for multi- platform services. But stepping outside of the traditional pay-TV experience, albeit on additional devices,
S22 l ibe l the connected world supplement september/october 2011 l
www.ibeweb.com
connectivity and OTT delivery opens up a plethora of content possibilities. That’s not to say that we’re proposing putting low-quality home video on the pay-TV platform, but professional quality content that is perhaps of a specialised nature or a regional variation and currently not available through pay-TV subscription. InfiniteTV Exchange, the business-to-business content marketplace, enables content owners to expand the reach of their content and operators to integrate special interest OTT programming - in the form of channels - into their pay-TV offering. With InfiniteTV Exchange, subscriber choice is not only in their viewing device, it’s no longer 500 channels (in comparison to the analogue range), but an infinite amount of content on an unlimited number of devices. For the past decade we have
highlighted the potential of hybrid platforms and the enriching content and services that a broadband connection can provide, as a technology provider, what’s exciting for us is what has developed beyond that. Platforms around the world are introducing hybrid functionality to their set-top boxes, but at a faster rate they are looking to implement applications and services for devices. One thing that we quickly recognised was the
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