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We have also seen some good examples of pay- TV providers adopting an aggregator model .”
“ Business models related to personalised advertising will grow in popularity ,” predicts Broadpeak ’ s Nouvel . “ We envision revenue sharing between operators that provide the infrastructure , and content providers that have control over ad insertion policies . Infrastructures will offer links to different ad decision servers , and pay-TV will become more of a hybrid business .” PLETHORA . “ There has been a plethora of streaming video services in recent years , with D2C services helping drive increased uptake , but also service stacking and multiple service uptake ,” notes Futuresource ’ s Sidebottom . “ Therefore the need for content aggregation is more important than ever . Pay-TV operators will play an important role in aggregating third party services alongside their own premium content offerings , live sports , and breadth of channels , as well as providing high speed broadband . D2C providers also see them as an important partner in helping reduce churn to their services .”
“ Pay-TV has an advantage in that it owns fixed infrastructure which is more conducive for delivering linear channels ( and highprofile events , and also increasingly moving into wireless ),” suggests Irdeto ’ s McCarthy . “ Pay-TV operators , especially outside the USA , have also been well-positioned to secure local content ( and combine it with attractive ‘ Hollywood ’ content ). However , we should not underestimate local content . If we look at what people are watching on TV in Europe for example , you will see that local shows still gather the most eyes . And though the STB is a source of high capital expenditure , it does simplify the delivery of its interface into every home . OTT providers need to contend with the yearly release of TV models , new handsets , gaming consoles , etc , and the continued maintenance of their UI on older TV models ,” he advises .
“ There is still lots of experimentation taking place to determine what is the best value proposition that meets today ’ s and tomorrow ’ s changing consumer demand . From skinny bundles to à la carte to millennial-focused bundles ( mobile BB + pay-TV operator OTT ). Are 200 + linear channels still required today ? Or does a subscription with 30 linear channels that includes Netflix and Disney + make more sense to the modern consumer ? Why not have their own OTT service , priced competitively to attract a generation of customers that have not grown with scheduled TV as their main source for video entertainment ? Pay-TV operators need to look at how to make their operations more efficient : - how / when to transition to all-IP video delivery , what services to keep in-house and which to outsource . Only time will tell .”
14 EUROMEDIA vMVPD . “ Pay-TV will move closer to vMVPD solutions , only with more content , local brand recognition and the ability to bundle video and broadband ,” envisages MOBITV ’ s Routt . “ vMVPD solution pricing has continued to rise to the point there is effectively price parity between MVPD and vMVPD offerings . With a streaming cable service available on all mobile and 10-foot retail devices , an MVPD can compete effectively against vMVPDs by leveraging their existing customer relationships , broadband / video bundling and strong local brand .”
“ Pay-TV will continue to exist as the aggregation of standard TV , and OTT streaming services ,” says Netgem TV ’ s Eisenberg . “ In a changing market , consumers are increasingly embracing models that are low cost and low commitment . Netgem are reinventing pay-TV by proposing a lighter offering with free to air streaming and ad funded VoD with live channels at its heart , supplemented by an aggregation role across free and premium subscription services .”
“ There is a trend of a portion of those who are cancelling a traditional service moving to an online service , but what they are doing more is instead of going from pay-TV to standalone OTT services which aren ’ t under a pay-TV model ,” notes Parks ’ Nason . “ All these people are finding that a lot of their content they got from their pay-TV service they can get through one of the SVoDs . The problem is , they are having to cobble together three , four , five , six to get the content they want , because not even Netflix has all the titles . They are technically trying to cobble together some kind of a PTV bundle , even though it ’ s from these individual services . What is happening in a lot of cases is the consumer realises : “ I used to pay 80-100 dollars on a traditional service , and I got my Internet . Now I ’ m paying 70-80 dollars to have , five , six or seven services . In the US , there is a serious need of reconfiguration or some type of way to evolve .” ACCESS . “ Viewers will continue to pay to access all the great content being produced ,” asserts Synamedia ’ s Peled . “ The money flow may just be divided differently between the content producers and the networks delivering it . The only real danger to pay-TV is streaming piracy which is siphoning off billions in revenue that rightfully belongs to content owners and services providers . Left unchecked , we ’ ll be watching a replay of the music industry ’ s
“ OTT D2C players have been instrumental in breaking the shackles of annual contracts .” – Shane McCarthy , Irdeto decline and transformation , although , very sadly , scripted video content cannot bring in alternative income from live performances .”
“ Premium sports is an area in which pay- TV still has a strong role ,” notes Verimatrix ’ s Bergenwall . “ This is largely due to the fact that pay-TV by nature is an effective content aggregator and can deliver high quality video with minimum delay . The way that D2C providers typically require viewers to download apps can cause disruption to the experience if a sports fan were to need to download various apps just to access the big game .”
“ As TV habits continue to evolve , so will our TV offering ,” affirms Virgin Media ’ s Bouchier . “ We are an aggregator and will remain focused on offering our customers a fast and intuitive experience that is personalised to them , housing the content and apps they love under one roof . With our next generation TV platform , Virgin TV 360 , this experience is now more seamless than ever . Live sport is a perfect example where pay-TV still holds its power . With the Premier League broadcast deal split between different broadcasters , people don ’ t want to be paying over the odds and juggling various contracts . We offer the most convenient and cost effective way for football fans to watch all of the action in one place , whether that ’ s on BT Sport , Sky Sports or Amazon Prime ,” he adds . Will network providers still be bundlers , or will different organisations step in ? “ Telcos hold a massive advantage here , but they understand very little about video , let alone about content ” says Haleem . “ Some sort of collaboration and / or convergence between pay- TV entities and telcos can be a game-changer in helping pay-TV go against the D2C threat from Internet heavyweights .”
“ Other organisations will likely try to emulate this model but pay-TV operators have a unique position with existing consumer relationships and subscription models that lend themselves to being the aggregator ,” adds Buckland . “ That said , they need to be building that approach now to maximise that opportunity .”
“ In a few years , we could see some global initiatives by content providers that want to boost their services by leveraging access to private datacentres owned by operators ,” suggests Nouvel . “ Google , Amazon , and other big names in the streaming world have successfully promoted this approach . Within these datacentres , we expect to see increased usage of containers to enable dynamic resource allocation .”
“ We expect network providers to very much remain aggregators and bundlers , but the structure of such offerings will change ,” predicts Sidebottom . “ The increased focus on third party apps in recent years rather than channel / service / content curation will