FEATURE


Table 1: Two Methods of Generating Profits Advantages


Revenue sharing


Disadvantages


• Share of distribution • Share of distribution depends on income


• Providers exposed to lower risks


• Costs are clearly understood


• Entering business is easy


• Much content is provided


Based on guarantees


• Share of distribution • Rights holders might is constant for rights holders • Cost of rights


have a low share in distribution.


• Costs are unclear


management is low • Higher risks for providers • Works mainly for well known content


streaming services for typical exclusive-use STB or consumer digital TV sets.


Some telecommunications companies in Japan provide a platform for IPTV services. Actvila is the only IPTV service platform established by consumer-electronics companies. Although these companies had previously been manufacturing digital TV sets with a portal for IPTV and preparing the service platform, their specifications were not unified.


Only Actvila provides download services, and their use is not yet widespread. The downloaded content is offered to users at a similar price to products such as DVD.


For promoting IPTV services, the need for unified specifications and platform for the service are recognised. That was the reason for establishing Actvila to deliver content through the Internet. If users had specific digital TV sets that were compliant with Actvila and broadband networks, they could immediately enjoy IPTV services. This was an important factor in the spread of IPTV.


Hikari TV and Movie splash are managed by the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) and KDDI, respectively (Table 2). NTT is the leading telecommunications company in Japan, and KDDI is ranked second. NTT provides a portal not only on exclusive-use STBs but also on the digital TV sets manufactured by some consumer-electronics companies. KDDI provides content to cable-TV STBs as well as exclusive-use STBs. U-Next and BBTV, which was the first IPTV service in Japan, are also provided to exclusive-use STBs.


Thus, the platforms for IPTV services in Japan are presently supported by consumer-electronics companies,


16 BBTV


might be too low for stakeholders


• High cost of managing rights


• Difficult to manage sharing of distribution


Table 2: Five typical IPTV services Service


name Operator delivery service Actvila


Actvila video


Hikari TV


Movie splash


On demand


streaming and downloading*


NTT Plala On demand


streaming and linear video


KDDI U-next Usen On demand


streaming and linear video


On demand


streaming and linear video


BB cable linear video 7,000 25,000 STB, Internet TV STB


* Actvila alone includes content-download services, although downloads are not currently being offered.


major communication companies and new communication companies.


3.2 NOD services


NOD services have been launched using the platforms for IPTV services. These provide only VOD services. There are two major classes of NOD service: ‘catch-up services’ that allow viewers to watch many TV programmes that were broadcast recently (news programmes, for example, are provided just a few hours after they air); and ‘special-selection archive services’ that give viewers access to programmes stored in the NHK archives. The NOD services are operated according to the distribution guidelines and utilize four main types of media, as listed below. Screenshots from the main portals of each of these services are shown in Figure 3.


Table 3: Summary of NOD services Service


(Operator) acTVilavideo


full (Actvila) Hikari TV


(NTT plala) J:COM on


Movie splash (KDDI, Cable TV-on-demand


service platformer) NHK Online


(NTT


Kinds of Service


Video format and bit rate


for Digital TV set with HDTV H.264 broadband


For Digital TV set with HDTV H.264 closed networ


demand (J:COM, TV-on-demand Major cable


For Cable services


For Cable


TV-on-demand services


For On-demand services from PC


Communications) web browsers (approx. 6 Mbps)


(approx 6 Mbps) HDTV MPEG2


(approx 14.5 Mbps) HDTV MPEG2 (approx 14.5 Mbps)


Adobe Flash Video (384kbps, 768kbps, 1.5Mbps)


6,000 10,000


Types of content Number of Receiving contents


terminal 20,000


Internet TV (Consumer TV set)


STB, Internet TV STB


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