Euromedia July August 2013 | Page 21

coverstory_cover story 12/07/2013 17:23 Page 6 consumer acceptance, with challenges around ease-of-use, accuracy and latency issues. As these products improve, then gesture controls may have a positive role as an alternative to the traditional remote control. Euromedia: What are the prospects for a retail market as a gateway for multiple services/devices, or will this remain an operator supply? Accedo: Retail is very important for discovery of new devices and services, and we see an increased shift to physical retail being more “showrooms” and actual transactions and fulfilment are taking place elsewhere. This makes much in the world of video distribution where the experience is everything, but the delivery involves sign-up, registration and delivery via broadcast or IP. Amino: There are significant opportunities for an aggregator of products and services. Operators are ideally suited to this role due to their ownership of network infrastructure and billing relationships. However, this does not rule out other types of companie s establishing themselves as an aggregator, providing they have the right partnerships in place and can offer a wide enough range of products and services to meet the customer’s needs. Arris: Retail plays a role in the distribution of boxes to the consumer. However, for the foreseeable future, set top boxes and gateways are generally customised to work in a particular service provider area. There are many reasons for this including content security/DRM, different middleware, authentication, etc. That said, operators do use their own retail outlets as well as major chains as a sales point for their services. Conax: A retail market requires an interoperable and standardised STB / gateway platform for apps/middleware, security, etc – or standardized mechanisms that enable STBs to be customised for an operator in the field. This is a long way off, especially for advanced STBs such as gateways. But standards such as HbbTV, DLNA and CI + could become key enablers for such a retail market. Easel TV: In the long run, we may end up with a more open retail market however this is not an immediate prospect. Even with the move to the cloud, operators must choose which CE manufacturers’ platforms to work with in order to keep integration costs under control. Over time, as standards for platforms become more firmly established then the more open market becomes feasible. EKT: A retail model whereby the STB solutions are certified by the operator also gives eco system security whilst putting the owners on the consumer / retail to fund the boxes. However if the operators wants to have 100% control over its consumer programs – it would want to own the complete chain including the selection, testing and distribution of the STB. Entone: Consumers have historically resisted purchasing devices that are wed to a specific service provider. On the other hand, sales of DVDs, Blu-Ray players and TVs in general have done well because the open standard makes them compatible with multiple content sources. This being the case, it’s likely the Humax: There will definitely be an opportunity for a retail market as a gateway to multiple services/devices. Already some major Operators within Europe are offering their services on consumer devices as well as those supplied directly. This will continue to grow as it offers the Operator the opportunity to access customers outside of their normal domain, and of course save money on the purchase of consumer devices. Inview: The retail market is already thriving with multiple devices and options available. The key is always content though. Access to great content determines who will be the most successful in this game. Operators have the rights to the most exclusive content. But as more OTT services launch which are not affiliated to a particular operator, the retail market will provide an alternative to the subscriber model. Irdeto: Some of our customers are already very successful in retail markets, including Ziggo in the Netherlands and operators in the Middle East where consumers purchase settop boxes, CI+ CAMs and smart cards in stores. While many markets will remain operator-controlled for some time to come, the fact that consumers increasingly demand to watch content on tablets, smartphones and PCs will drive the support for TV services on unmanaged devices. KIT digital: This is a question that will probably be answered by the market, and may indeed vary from country to country. Existing examples such as the Roku STB (and the Apple TV device) exist as a retail product providing a gateway to multiple services. While pay-TV operators maintain a vice-like grip over premium content they are likely to dominate the supply of gateways tied into their own delivery networks. MoCA: Operators will have to take a more active role in home network to ensure quality gateway will be provided by the service operator, while consumers will replace STBs leased from the operator with apps on consumer owned devices like tablets, smart TVs and game tablets. httv: SAT>IP is a good existing example for such retail devices. It does not require to be managed by the operator. It could be extended to a more generic DVB>IP solution. of experience and as a differentiator for their own services. The retail channel will also continue to parallel service providers as the former will drive the latter, and the latter will respond to the former. Pace: With operators offering competitive subsidised packages there is no compelling reason for users to purchase gateways in retail (also add the fact that unlike mobile phones EUROMEDIA 21