conax_conax 30/10/2014 16:14 Page 1
Tips for pay-TV and DTT success
How the pay-TV industry is changing from a consumer’s view
According to Tom Jahr, EVP products and
partners, Conax, from the consumers’ point of
view, pay-TV has probably changed more in
the last few years than during the first decade
of this century. TV is available on a range of
different devices; tablets are used as
companion devices; social media is
increasingly influencing TV consumption and
vast video libraries have become available to
the majority of TV viewers – just to mention a
few developments. And while this has
increased choice and made TV more personal,
it also introduces a more fragmented
experience that many consumers may find
bewildering.
What should operators look for as they
move to run content on multiple screens
and over multiple networks?
There has been a substantial amount of chatter
about OTT over the last few years and we are
now beginning to see some real solutions and
real deployments. Despite numerous
predictions of the TV dying, television remains
a 'core necessity' (only now together with a
variety of new multiscreen and mobile devices
to take the home’s TV viewing experience to
the next level). A wide variety of advanced
technologies available to guide operators to the
next level of TV content distribution were
featured at IBC 2014.
In the current market environment, pay-TV
operators are looking to get their feet wet, to
determine how to best position for
multiscreen/multi-network content
distribution.
Besides offering the content that people
want at a price they are willing to pay, it is all
about creating a compelling and convenient
experience. Stitching together the new TV
ecosystem to a service offering with a high
QoE (Quality-of-Experience) is a challenge
that pay-TV operators need to excel in. We
believe that most operators do well in teaming
up with experienced solution providers to
support them. Handling the complexity of
delivering TV over different networks to a
range of devices, while the rate of service
innovation is ever increasing should not be
taken lightly. Many operators have
experienced that their first generation
platforms cannot deal with this in a costeffective way.
So, what are some of the key challenges
for operators, besides monetisation?
Monetisation is of course the most important,
but the operational cost and the ability of the
18 Africa Briefing
Executives at Conax offer
advice on how operators
can benefit from the
changing pay-TV
landscape and the
emergence of DTT
platforms.
and third-party DRMs.
l Ensure that the security solution satisfies
content security requirements - from all
content owners and across all devices.
l Support for a wide range of business
models, consistently, on any device, and
prevent any breach of service security in
the operation. In other words, enable and
protect the operator’s revenue streams.
l Offer a unified way to manage and
operate the security solution, hiding the
complexity of the underlying security and
DRM technologies. In particular, to enable
the operator to configure and enforce a
consistent set of business rules (sales
models) and content protection
requirements across all devices and
platforms, independent of which DRM
technology is used.
l Make sure the solution is ready to benefit
from new technologies, standards and
devices when such become available,
examples include MPEG-DASH, HTML5,
delivery platform to grow and to adapt and
enable new innovative services are also key to
remaining competitive.
In order to draw a profit from the evolving
multiscreen/multi-network content
distribution ecosystem, operators need to
ensure their content is secure. Here are a few
tips on how pay-TV can harness the
opportunities provided by the expanding
content distribution universe.
Operators need a strategy where they
remain a one-stop entertainment shop.
Retention of eyeballs is crucial. Traditionally,
operators needed to aggregate content so that
consumers did not have to go elsewhere. Now,
operators also need to aggregate other online
services into their offerings – to keep
consumer eyeballs from leaving their service.
This can be other video services like YouTube,
social media services, or any TV relevant
online service. Some operators even chose to
offer Netflix as part of their service, in a kind
of 'if you cannot beat them – then aggregate
them' strategy.
How can pay-TV players manage
security in the rapidly evolving content
ecosystem?
There are some important targets that a
future-oriented security solution needs to
address:
l Enable the operator’s services to reach
the broadest range of devices in order to
drive service uptake and customer
satisfaction - and in a cost effective way.
This translates to having a multi-DRM
capable platform, supporting both in-house
new Android versions, etc.
l Enable the operator to establish his
platform of choice and control future
developments by focusing on delivering the
security system only, and working
(integrating) with other ecosystem partners
for solution deliveries, be they applications
providers, middleware vendors, content
management or DRM solutions, content
encoders, device manufacturers or others.
l Operators need to ensure that they
choose the best security provider for
handling these aspects on their behalf – a
partner who will help guide them in making
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