contact with the end user .”
“ Consumers want to discover content faster and easier with a seamless presentation layer over a full bouquet of content providers ,” suggests Eude . “ To do so , operators must create a unified catalogue so all feature capabilities (‘ continue watching ’, search , recommend , most popular , etc ..) work across content providers . By combining , aggregating and normalising metadata , it ’ s possible to build that foundation and the operator then needs to implement features and full support for aggregated content , such as multiple play options .” As to the inevitability , “ No ,” he asserts , “ as not everyone wants a black Ford Model T .” And the impossibility ? “ No , but the user interface ( UI ) and user experience ( UX ) become even more important if all content , including from third party content providers , is brought into a single place . True differentiation exists therefore in the UI / UX and Content Discovery capabilities .” KEY . “ We believe super aggregation is the key to success ,” advises Naik . “ Most of the world , with a few exceptions , once considered third party media providers to be a threat to subscriber retention . But this view has changed and today the approach is to bring the competition in but manage and control access to third party content through personalised recommendations . A universal UI is inevitable and possible . Several of our customers are leading the charge with a universal UI experience motivated by results that demonstrate that better discovery leads to more content consumption and a better ROI on content investments .”
“ From the consumer standpoint , a neutral universal UI is the Holy Grail – it provides them with a discovery experience that is tailored towards them and not the underlying business models of the platform they are using ,” says Cosgrave . “ This is very much something that is achievable when you have access to a system like those from TiVo that aggregate and deep-link content in a holistic manner . That ’ s not to say that individual applications won ’ t still have their own personalisation functionality built into their apps and tailored to their own specific content catalogue , that is often both specialised and limited . However , the overarching content discovery experience is available to operators now and is something they should consider implementing .” PACKAGING . Is third-party channel packaging back ? Is cross-channel genre packaging an option ? “ Back in the day , in each market , we had three or four main TV channels that had nearly all of the available content , almost all of which was live TV ,” recalls Donath . “ Now we have hundreds of content sources . This led to two problems – 1 . How to discover and 2 . How to access . How to access was solved by pay-TV channel bundling . Discovery was solved by an EPG . Today , we have this problem again , but compounded by there being countless sources , and massive storehouses of on-demand content . The answer today is 1 . Aggregation and 2 . Supercuration and bundling . We ’ re working with our customers to enable à la carte entertainment , embracing TV channels and apps , to solve today ’ s access problem .” “ We ’ re on an evolutionary path here ,” he suggests . “ In the first era we only had TV channels . This was followed by an era of channels plus operator-owned or licensed content , such as SVoD . Now we ’ re looking at unified access to everything ; live TV channels , operator-licensed programming , and third party content . Viewers want to be able to manage one budget that covers all of these , enabling them to spend based on what they want to watch next . The operator today has a huge opportunity to solve all of a customer ’ s troublesome search , discovery and access problems .” “ There ’ s no algorithm , no one home screen that can solve it all . It ’ s a mix of personalisation through data along with editorial curation . That ’ s what makes the difference : that ’ s what we ’ re helping operators achieve today . This is the opportunity to transform the digital entertainment experience , enabling the operator to keep subscribers , and build new audiences - this last part is critical for long term growth . Operators need to reach new , younger audiences embracing new content from the likes of TikTok , Twitch , Facebook Watch , making it all available in one platform . Live TV is not for everyone ,” he admits . BESPOKE . We ’ ve seen micro-bundles packaged by some operators to have a positive effect ,” advises Pearson . “ An interesting development is how retention and loyalty solutions can package content ‘ on the fly ’ to propose bespoke channel packs designed for the specific consumer . Tools such as digitaltwin technology combined with AI / ML , such as that offered by NAGRA Insight , are already allowing operators to test new propositions on digital twins prior to release , so it ’ s a natural next step to also propose bespoke channel packs . However , this is subject to the carriage deal / equivalent commercials allowing this . Ultimately , as we see a tighter margin squeeze , we will likely see more collaboration across content providers and service providers .”
“ We see third-party services bundled within platforms such as Amazon Prime , as well as other service providers associating their broadband service with content ,” notes Ghariani . “ I think it ’ s coming back into fashion as it offers simplicity on both the billing and discovery sides for consumers , which means better retention for service providers . Could
“ Consumers want to discover faster and easier with a seamless presentation layer over a full bouquet of content providers .” - Romain Eude , Synamedia
third party channels / services be combined by genre ? I think so . That ’ s what we ’ re doing already on Netgem TV as our interface is genre-based e . g ., we have a ‘ Cinema Avenue ’ which combines content from all third party channels in one place . That ’ s where I go when I want to watch a family movie with my kids , it ’ s great as we don ’ t have to switch between every platform to know what ’ s out there - still doesn ’ t stop the arguments about what to watch though ,” he admits .
“ That depends on each operator and the partnership it has with other services and content providers ,” suggests Sudworth . “ Third-party channel packaging is a popular option across many platforms today , while cross-channel genre packaging is not so much .
However , unifying third-party channels based on genre makes a lot of sense , and we can expect operators to do so when they feel there are benefits from a user point of view .”
“ It is sort of already happening with operators bundling their services with a few selected OTT providers , or Amazon Channels for example ,” observes Eude . “ Essentially , there are two levels to think about : the subscription level including Single Sign On ( SSO ), single billing , CRM , and the content discovery level namely one catalogue , one search , one recommendation engine , one editorial .”
“ Yes , we ’ ve seen the demise of the bundle as people rushed to make their own choices for entertainment services and now we ’ re seeing the bundle coming back into play as economic pressures bite and consumers just want simplicity ,” notes Cosgrave . “ There is a role for operators to play in both creating enticing bundles that aggregate content in a consumer friendly way as well as implementing consolidating billing ( aka BOBO or bill on behalf of ) to make things simple for the customer .”
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