APB PANELLISTS
6 NEWS & VIEWS
February-March 2015
Broadcasting v2.0 – maybe your enemy is really your best friend
by graham stephens
On this second day of the second half of the second decade after the second millennium , when this piece was written , it is a timely reference point to consider Broadcasting v2.0 . What could this look like ?
Current national and commercial terrestrial broadcasters argue that their vertically integrated model must be allowed to continue indefinitely , that they have an inalienable right to UHF spectrum access “ in the national interest ”. Pay-TV , on-demand TV and on-the-go TV are merely optional extensions of choice , and many viewers of traditional linear free TV are just not interested in these “ addons ”. Plus , when there is a live event of national importance , a broadcast topology is still the most spectrum-efficient and guaranteed means for everyone to receive it .
Meanwhile , the march of the mobile operators continues . They argue that 4G has an unpaired spectrum multicast option that can match the capacity of traditional broadcasters once the infrastructure is in place , and will offer a broadcast TV service that can flexibly scale from local to national as required . At the same time , they campaign for more paired spectrum for unicast delivery while , in many instances , using what they have rather inefficiently .
Last-mile fibre is being rolled out , offering the promise of near-infinite bandwidth to the home gateway , from where the IEEE 802.11ac standard offers multi-room media access with no need for Ethernet cables or powerline adaptors , no satellite rain fade or rooftop antennas either .
So who is right ?
What is really at stake here is that terrestrial broadcasters fear losing control of their primary distribution platform and having to negotiate access as just one of the many potential content providers on a telecom network . Their content may be highly relevant to their audiences ( think local news and sports ) but as a free-to-view service they will find it difficult to compete for access with the deeper pockets of pay-TV operators .
In addition , “ must-carry ” obligations are only as strong as a regulator perceives the relevance of their content
❝ Make your own future in digital media and don ’ t expect things to remain the same for very much longer .❞
offering to be . If pay-TV operators provide a good free news service ( such as Sky News in the UK ) or good local sports coverage ( such as Astro Arena in Malaysia ), why bother promoting the competing offerings of the national free-to-view broadcaster with a limited budget ?
For a good view of the future , it is worthwhile considering the recent statement from the UK regulator which , in paraphrase , stated that freeto-view broadcasting would continue to be a significant component of the national media consumption mix until 2030 . Or , to put it another way , it may well have become an irrelevance after 2030 .
In Germany , the birthplace of digital broadcasting , there will be no migration to DVB-T2 . The German regulator believes that DVB-T will satisfy that nation ’ s needs for DTTB ( Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting ) until the entire platform is switched off — presumably sometime in the next decade .
In the US , there is a growing body of opinion which believes that “ broadcast television ”, as distinct from video and audio live on-demand streaming , will be dead in the water by 2020 , such is the speed of HSBB ( High Speed Broadband ) access infrastructure roll-out ; the rise of secure multicastenabled delivery options powered by software-defined networking ; and rapidly declining viewership for the traditional broadcast networks , both free-to-view and pay-TV .
However , here in Asia , there is also the political factor to consider . National broadcasters are invariably still closely linked to the Information Ministry . The nightly news usually commences with the latest policy statement tied to a ministerial visit . How does the government connect with its people if national broadcasters ’ messages
❝ The telco domination of media distribution , both wired and wireless , is as unstoppable as the tide .❞
are getting submerged in the general multi-channel clutter of a telecom distribution platform ? This is probably the most compelling reason why vertically integrated DTTB will probably survive longer in Asia than in the West , even though Asian telcos are just as technologically advanced as their western counterparts .
But all this is just a delaying factor and the telco domination of media distribution , both wired and wireless , is as unstoppable as the tide . Broadcasters who understand this are not saying so openly , not wishing to break ranks prior to WRC 2015 in November this year , but privately will be abandoning their investment in vertical one-way broadcast platforms and putting all their efforts into producing compelling and relevant content . It is the difference between being an irrelevant “ must-carry ” and a desirable “ musthave ”. Only the latter will survive in the world of Broadcasting v2.0 .
Telcos , in general , have shown their inability to compete in content production and aggregation . For them , content is merely a driver to sell bandwidth and connectivity . So they do content badly and infrastructure superbly . But the same is true in reverse and broadcasters need to use this window of opportunity , before one-way broadcast networks disappear entirely under the weight of telco demand for additional spectrum , to build their local content portfolios and develop their local content aggregation skills to compete — not with their local telcos , but with the international aggregators and producers who will dominate future media consumption with a
Andrew Anderson
General Manager Group Broadcast Services Seven Network Limited
APB PANELLISTS
Lim Kian Soon
Head of Satellite SingTel one-size-fits-all content proposition based on western tastes and values . The media world will be a poorer place if Reed Hastings ( CEO of Netflix ) rules it with no credible local competition .
Pay-TV operators using DTH ( direct-to-home ) to access remote areas with little hope of HSBB access any time soon and access to spectrum in the Ku- and Ka-bands may survive as vertical broadcasters a little longer . But they too will lose their direct subscriber relationships eventually as cord-cutting really starts to take off and they no longer have the deep pockets to purchase high-value international content .
So play to your strengths , you broadcasters . You will know your local audiences ’ tastes and preferences better than Hollywood does — especially when you use two-way digital platforms that allow for accurate viewer metrics to be collected . Use one-way legacy DVB platforms while they exist by all means , but concentrate your real efforts on better ways of engaging with your audience using CDN and cloud service providers to get your content out to mobile devices as well as homes , going on-demand as well as linear , and offering all-you-can-eat subscriptions and compelling free-to-view streams as well as pay-to-own downloads , where live streaming is not appropriate or not possible at the moment .
Make your own future in digital media and don ’ t expect things to remain the same for very much longer .
This is the future of Broadcasting v2.0 . Migration will not be easy but it is better to accept the inevitable early on and prepare to embrace it rather than to act like Shakespeare ’ s King Canute trying to hold back the tide using spectrum wars and existing subscriber relationships as you decline into irrelevance . You are fighting a battle to survive in the new world of user-generated and on-demand content — but you are likely fighting the wrong enemy .
Graham Stephens is CTO of Barisan Noble .
Joe Igoe CTO MediaCorp