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satellite and OTT platforms) will be
complementary. “Broadcasters who are
offering linear TV via satellite, such as BBC,
ITV, Sky, Canal+, and NBCU are using VoD
to augment the customer experience. He
suggests that broadband networks cannot
today scale to provide broadcast quality
programmes to 10 million viewers at once,
and the investment is currently too much for
mobile operators. “In this instance,
terrestrial or satellite is so much better. Yet,
in the longer term, this could change
especially in highly dense, small geography
communities. For example, Now TV in Hong
Kong delivers over 190 channels of TV to 1.2
million homes purely over broadband.”
Mark Wilson-Dunn, VP of BT Media &
Broadcast, says that in general the
development of OTT platforms will have very
little impact on the linear TV via satellite
market in the short to medium term. “There
is a growing trend for the smaller, niche
channels to move away from relatively
Peter Ostapiuik, head of media product
services at Intelsat, says that while more and
more viewers are watching content across
multiple devices, linear TV remains the
number one way viewers are consuming
media. “While we do not expect an impact in
the short to medium term as viewers
continue to prefer content via linear TV,
millennials continue to ‘cut the cord’ and opt
to consume media on-demand and on mobile
devices. As a result, we believe multiscreen
viewing will continue to increase and serve as
a complementary way to view content.”
“From a satellite operator’s perspective,
satellite is uniquely positioned to support
broadcasters and programmers as they
transition their distribution models. Satellite
has the ability to deliver large-scale
transmissions that are high quality, reliable
and secure – regardless of the screen –and
remains the most cost-effective way to
multicast linear channels at a predictable
cost.”
BRIDGE. Ulf Sandberg,
MD of Paradigm, says
that media broadcasting
reliance on satellite
communication models
has shifted with the
viewers, but that the
reliance on satellite
technology hasn’t
changed. “Linear TV
satellite broadcasters are
now looking for more
bandwidth, increasing the
bandwidth of the satellite antenna terminals,
as they layer more and more data onto the
broadcast stream, offering the same OTTstyle content to their viewers. Looking more
closely, media companies are using satellite
and fibre mediums more and more to bridge
the gap from source to transmission point.
The consumer’s view of the industry is that
fibre and ADSL broadband mediums are now
taking over supply of traditional TV and
radio content, where the R