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MARKET FOCUS
merging markets
such as the so-called
BRIC countries
(Brazil, Russia,
India and China) are key
drivers of global growth in
pay-TV subscribers as
developed markets experience
flat growth rates, according to
E
Russia and adjacent
territories are among the media
markets tipped to experience
significant growth in the years to come.
Here’s Advanced Television’s overview
of the sector and its prospects.
Jake Saunders, VP
and practice director
at ABI Research. The
firm noted that the
worldwide pay-TV
subscriber base
surpassed 886.5
million at the end of
3Q 2013; a 6% YoY
increase, generating
$62.6 billion service
Insider’s view
Tom Jahr, EVP products and
partners, Conax, stresses the
importance in distributing
multiscreen content of
securing business assets.
10 RUSSIA Briefing
revenue in the third quarter. By
contrast, the pay-TV subscriber
base in Western Europe grew
less than 2% in 3Q 2013 from 3Q
2012. ABI Research forecasts the
global pay-TV subscriber base
will eclipse 1 billion by 2018,
generating service revenue of
$229.6 billion. BRIC countries
will account for 68% of total net
additional subscribers by 2018,
according to ABI Research.
UK-based Digital TV Research predicts
that Russia’s Tricolor TV will become the
second largest
pay-TV operator
in Europe by
2018, with 15.7
million
subscribers. The
l Ensuring secure delivery of
valuable content over a variety
of networks, and to a wide
range of devices, is highly
complex. From a security
perspective, PCs, the various
smart phones, tablets and
connected TV-platforms very
significantly – each requiring
and individually tailored
security solution. However, it
doesn’t mean the distribution
operation has to be highly
complex too.
l A well designed content
security solution provides the
operator with a consistent
method of configuring and
enforcing business models and
content protection rules across
all devices, to enable/disable
content streaming to specific
platforms based on content
rights, and to add and remove
devices from user accounts,
etc.
l The key is to create an
abstraction layer between the
device implementations and
the management interfaces.
Through this approach, the
complexity of OTT and
multiscreen security has
minimal impact on an
operator’s day-to-day
operation.
l Secure and non-intrusive
authentication mechanisms are
also relevant to counter
account sharing threats. People
sharing the same account can
kill an operator’s business
model, but there are different
means to counter this.
Authentication wise, the
challenge is to offer high
security without interfering
with the end user experience.