Looking beyond digitization By Are Mathisen, SVP APAC, Conax
 Harnessing the benefits of a changing pay-TV landscape and planning for a successful digital TV platform
DSO, digital switch-over, is a first step towards a new world in pay-TV. Let’s take a look beyond. Undisputedly, television has gone through radical changes in the last decade and is now entering the era of Internet TV where flexibility and device reach of a TV platform is becoming increasingly important. Content is available on a range of different devices; tablets are used as companion devices; social media is increasingly influencing TV consumption and vast video libraries have become available to the majority of TV viewers – just to mention a few developments.
Business-minded pay-TV operators will need to fast-forward from Analog TV to Internet TV to profit from multiple ways of monetizing services
Research from IBM Global Business Services suggests that 67% of broadcast professionals believe non-linear and OTT viewing volumes will overtake those of linear broadcasting within five years. A majority also believe that non-linear revenues will overtake linear in the same timeframe.
So, what is the big picture? Most operators feel the increased competition coming.
As more and more new OTT and Cloud TV services enter the market, pay-TV operators experience a loss of viewing minutes on the main TV. Most operators, those without any OTT offering, have NO share of the new devices being used to consume content. As the OTT distribution is taking place over the “regular internet” the distribution cost and risk is very low for these new, disruptive, players.
What should you do as an operator?
Absolutely key is educating both your organization and your customers on OTT and streaming services. Waiting too long will create a steep learning curve internally making it difficult to catch up, and your customers may have already established relationships with other OTT services (that you don’t control).
Basically, operators need a strategy where they remain a one-stop entertainment shop. Retention of eyeballs is crucial. Traditionally operators needed to aggregate content so that consumers did not have to go elsewhere. They now also need to aggregate other online services into their offerings – to keep consumer eyeballs from leaving their service.
Increased content security will be required in the future
So, OTT or “could TV” will take over as the preferred distribution technology at some point in the future, but how fast and how far it will go is highly uncertain. What is certain is that when the transition to OTT distribution has reached a significant level, content owners will demand higher security for their premium content.
Handling the complexity of delivering TV over different networks to a range of devices, and the introduction of new innovations and services should not be taken lightly. We believe that operators will be most successful by teaming up with an experienced security provider and solutions providers who will help guide them in making choices that will enable their platform to easily adapt for new business models and services as the market evolves and customer demands change. (source: Convergence Plus Bureau)
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