ott story_ott cover story 21/04/2015 20:35 Page 5
The Nordic nextgeneration online TV
services will launch later in
2015 and the multi-year
deal will see content
management and
preparation, DRM,
subscriber management
and billing and advertising
insertion services for multiple
devices and platforms
handled by Bonnier
Broadcasting and Ericsson. C
More will also be supported
across multiple platforms,
including the web, iOS and
Android devices. According
to Ericsson, the platform
takes away the complexities
and challenges for
broadcasters of deploying
Internet-delivered catch-up
and online TV services to a
myriad of connected devices.
“In the massive digital
transformation we are
currently undergoing, we
have to become even more
user-friendly in everything we
do by putting technology in
the front seat together with
prime local content. We have
been working closely with
Ericsson for many years and
they were the natural choice
of partner for the launch of
Nordic SVOD service C More,”
said Almqvist.
According to Thorsten
Sauer, head of broadcast and
media services at Ericsson,
consumers want access to
content
anytime,
anywhere
and on
any
“We had to kick
in the door.”
Mattias
Hjelmstedt, CEO,
MagineTV
device, which is
something TV4 is
providing through its
platform-agnostic strategy
with the Ericsson Managed
Player being designed to help
its clients meet the needs of
their audiences in an everchanging landscape.
SHARE. Mattias Hjelmstedt,
CEO and founder of
MagineTV, noted that its
predecessor companies had
been involved in TV
streaming going back to the
1990s, but that the live TV
concept was not ready until
2010. “With VoD, you’re
trying to take share off
television,” he said, warning
that you just can’t launch a
service without the quality of
[linear broadcast] TV.
According to Hjelmsted,
there’s often a lack of a
regulatory framework. “We
had to kick in the door,” he
admitted, suggesting that the
fact that “big players” are
heading in was a validation of
the market. “There’s still a lot
of learning to be had, such as
with contract rights, looking
at all platforms, not just
one.” Alluding to the ultimate
demise of OTT entertainment
streaming service Aereo, and
recent court rulings
regarding TV Catchup, he
concluded that ‘hijacking’ of
rights was not to be viewed
favourably and warned that if
some OTT players business
models were successful, they
risked killing off those that
were feeding them.
Offering advice for
potential market entrants, he
suggested that consumers
don’t shift behaviour easily.
“Build on existing services
and then disrupt.” He felt
that the User Interfaces
needed to ev