Tag: IPTV

How is the Internet affecting Pay TV?

Articles

Pay TV market becoming more segmented; service providers can take advantage | V-Net

My Comments

The connected home and ubiquitous Internet access is placing the traditional Pay-TV marketplace at a crossroads. More and more people are using tablets and laptop computers to view content that is streamed from the Internet when they want to view it in a personal setting while TVs and video peripherals like Blu-Ray players are serving as integrated endpoints for viewing various Internet-hosted video services.

Here, a few content packages with many channels that is delivered by the service provider’s own infrastructure and viewed via equipment supplied by that provider doesn’t cut it anymore. In North America especially, where the customer deals with pay-TV providers who primarily offer a content-carriage service, younger people are “cutting the cord” on pay-TV service and watching either over-the-air content or content delivered “over-the-top” by independent “over-the-top” TV services like Netflix.

The traditional pay-TV companies are having to take a few different paths to gain and retain customers.

Service offerings

TV Everywhere

This is sold in conjunction with a traditional pay-TV service like Sky Go or Foxtel Go but has the content delivered over “two paths” – the traditional cable or satellite infrastructure along with the Internet. This is primarily to allow the customers to view the same content on their computers or their mobile devices.

Typically this is furnished using an app or Web page for most desktop and mobile computing platforms where you can watch the content, and you typically authenticate with the service provider by providing your account details to that app. Some providers may allow you to view this content only in your own home while others may allow you to view it anywhere in the country that they operate in. Some of these services may offer a “download now, view later” option where you can download content to view at a later date especially if you may be in a position where you don’t have reliable Internet access.

Over-The-Top Pay TV

Another direction is to provide an “over-the-top” pay-TV service like NOW TV or Foxtel Play which works with your computer, tablet, games console of the XBox One or PlayStation 4 kind, Smart TV or similar device. These services are typically provisioned over the Internet without the need for a set-top box to be delivered to you and provide for increased package flexibility.

For example, they are provided by-the-month rather than on a multi-month long-term contract and allow for increased segmentation of content. In this case, we are starting to see the availability of separately-branded “lightweight” or “budget” content packages pitched at this form of delivery or for people to choose packages based on a personally-selected mix of genres or other factors that appeal to them.

On-demand content

The pay-TV provider is now entering a position to run an Internet-based on-demand content service which has a larger content library than what was available on their “video-on-demand” or “pay-per-view” services that were furnished via their traditional cable or satellite infrastructure.

They can offer these services to their existing customer base as an adjunct to the pay-TV services that they are offering or simply provide them to other people as a standalone “over-the-top” service. The former setup will typically have a “download-to-view” component for customers who use a PVR-type set-top box like a Foxtel iQ2 where the show would be downloaded to the device’s hard disk for later viewing.

Other offerings

Another service that could be evolved would be the so-called “multi-room” or “multi-screen” options which are typically offered by some pay-TV providers on a “per-room” basis. In a lot of cases, this could encompass an integrated TV Everywhere service.

Thanks to DLNA’s VidiPath technology which I covered previously, they could be offered simply as a “per-household” basis which or even as part of the regular content package for a regular pay-TV service. It could mean that the extra TV would be equipped with a Blu-Ray player, network media player or games console that is VidiPath-certified while the main DVR-equipped set-top box is a VidiPath content server. TV manufacturers could even roll out Smart TVs that have this feature. Not sure if you have such equipment? The pay-TV provider could sell a cost-effective VidiPath-certified network media player to connect to your regular TV and home network to benefit from this service.

Trends

But why are they offering these services?

Young people and the connected lifestyle

One reason is to court the younger consumers who are Internet-focused and device-agnostic. Here, they see the large-screen TV serving as a display for other devices like games consoles or Blu-Ray players; or they see regular and mobile computer equipment as something they can watch video content on.

As well, they live on the Internet with a desire to have their video-content viewing linked with other interactive activity. For example, they want to use the Social Web or online knowledgebases in conjunction with what they are viewing. As well, we are living a time-poor lifestyle where we wouldn’t have time to spend on poor-quality TV content.

The traditional pay-TV business model that is focused around dedicated infrastructure and the set-top box doesn’t cater for this readily especially as Internet-based technology marches on very quickly. A

Content providers are offering “direct-to-consumer” packages

In North America particularly, content providers who used to provide their TV content via a pay-TV service are now offering their content on a “direct-to-consumer” basis. This is following trends in other industries where product manufacturers and distributors are setting up online and other storefronts to provide their wares direct to the consumer in addition to having retailers sell them.

This has come about due to the “cord-cutting” trend that is occurring there, along with an increasing number of situations where a content provider who had pay-TV presence across the whole of the US is not likely to have this same level of presence. The latter situation has been brought about due to arguments and fights between the content provider and the cable-TV or satellite-TV provider about content-licensing terms.

Conclusion

I reckon that as the bandwidth improves, it could be come another path for delivering multichannel TV content in a highly-flexible cost-effective manner. Let’s hope it doesn’t become “101 channels and nothing on” – many channels and content providers that provide nothing but worthless content.

FCC intends to place over-the-top Internet TV on a par with cable TV

Article

FCC Moves to Give Internet Video Same Rights as Cable Co’s | Broadband News and DSL Reports

From the horse’s mouth

US Federal Communications Commission

Tech Transitions – Video And Future (Blog Post)

My Comments

The recent US Supreme Court decision against Aereo has shown up how facilities-based multichannel TV providers i.e. cable and satellite TV providers have the upper hand with negotiating access to content offered by the Hollywood studios and sports leagues.

But the FCC are considering allowing “over-the-top” Internet TV providers access to this same content on a par with the likes of Comcast and DirecTV. This is also in response to the fact that many American TV viewers are ending up with cable or satellite TV packages full of content they don’t want i.e. “57 channels and nothing on”.

The issue with the current situation is that Internet-based “over-the-top” TV providers aren’t placed on an equal footing to the big cable-TV providers. This is similar to how the US Congress passed laws requiring satellite TV providers like DirecTV and DISH to have access to the channels on an equal footing to cable-TV providers and this opened the doors to competition.

The opportunities provided by the Internet-based “over-the-top” services are many including the ability to provide TV content packages that are pitched at niche markets in a cost-effective manner. This includes providers that could focus on foreign-language content, wholesome family-friendly programming, and content pitched at expatriates. As well, it opens up the concept of increased carriage-service competition which can increase viewer choice and, hopefully, access to what the viewer really wants.

There is also the concept of taking a “technology-neutral” approach which also allows pay-TV companies and content providers to use a choice of technology to distribute the TV content to the end-user. This means that the likes of HBO, CBS, Comcast and co to implement Internet-based approaches thus increasing reach to a wider market. There is also the hope that this approach will heat up the demand for next-generation broadband through the US and increase the average bandwidth that Americans can enjoy.

For this to work, the FCC need to pass these rules without being sabotaged by Big Money. which is a problem that still dogs American politics.

Sony PlayStation to follow the same path as Netflix

Article

Sony’s first original TV series for PlayStation will be ‘Powers’ | The Verge

My Comments

First it was Netfilx with “House Of Cards” and “Lilyhammer”. Now it’s Sony’s turn to yield an original TV series to be delivered via the Internet and the home network.

“Powers”, to be distributed in the USA via the Sony PlayStation Network to the PS4, is a bridge between a classic “police procedural” crime drama, a filme noir, and a fantasy movie. For people outside the US, TV broadcasters will be able to buy the rights to screen this show on their channels. Here, it is proving to TV producers, directors and consumers that a company who has their foot in the IPTV or video-on-demand space can commission original programming for these services rather than using them as distribution services for other people’s content.

This is similar to how cable evolved in the early 80s when the likes of HBO started producing their own content, running it on their own channels but also selling the rights for these shows to various broadcasters who wanted to run them. Similarly Canal+ have been building up a large collection of TV content that they run on their services but also are selling the rights for the content to free-to-air and pay-TV channels that run foreign-language content like SBS in Australia.

Sony are also capitalising on the fact that the PS4 games console, like its PS3 predecessor and the XBox competitors, is not just a games console but rather an “entertainment console” which is also about playing video content. For example, I have seen a young adult purposing a PS3 not just for playing games but to be used also as a Blu-Ray player. Here, Sony are running an IPTV service that will be delivered exclusively via the PS4 games console alongside the video-on-demand offerings provided through the PlayStation Network.

With Sony, Netflix, Hulu and other Internet-based TV providers, it could become an easy way in for TV producers and directors to put up content ideas or the content itself to these companies for commissioning. These stakeholders can also benefit from the ability to know whether these shows are being downloaded and what kind of viewers are downloading them so as to avoid turning out rubbishy content.

Netflix–evolving to the online TV station

Article

What happens at Netflix when House of Cards goes live | Marketplace Business

From the horse’s mouth

Netflix

Netflix official logo - courtesy of NetflixPress Release

My Comments

I have given some space to Netflix in relation to its new direction as an IPTV channel in the US. Initially this name was an Internet-assisted mail-order DVD-rental business thriving in the USA – the hub of “mail order business”.

Now, this network was moving towards streaming existing content and building up partnerships with various companies associated with the online entertainment business. Here, this led towards cost-effective access to the good TV shows in so much that a lot of American households were “cutting the cord” – breaking off cable-TV service.

As well, Netflix had started to create their own TV content with shows like “House Of Cards” and “Lilyhammer”, In the case of “Lilyhammer” which I have watched when it ran on SBS in Australia, this involved the idea of coproducing this show with Norway’s national public TV broadcaster which I have seen as a big feat for a young online TV station.

This article shows how Netflix is handling the launch of the second series of “House Of Cards” and were seeing it like a “war-room” where they were monitoring who was “cottoning on” to it immediately it was launched. Here, they were able to get a granular view on what was being watched by whom using which kind of devices thus using it as a way to work out what kind of content to put their money towards.

I see this as a new approach to TV content creation and distribution where it is feasible to determine whether shows of a kind are appealing to which people so they can target certain viewer classes more easily using characteristics like “happy ending” or “cerebral qualities”. This is in contrast to standard ratings setups like Nielsens or OzTAM which yield more coarse data about viewership.

As well, identifying viewership practices like “binge-watching” have allowed Netflix to place that risk of planting all of the second-series episodes of “House Of Cards” online rather than letting each episode appear week by week as the normal TV practice prefers.

It is showing that Netflix with its “House Of Cards” TV show is highlighting what the IPTV scene is capable of and is to be about. This is where the technologies that are in place are about exactly identifying what the service’s market wants to watch and providing the content that suits this particular market.

The Aereo Supreme Court Test–A repeat of the Betamax case

Article

Aereo to Broadcasters: ‘We’ll See You in (Supreme) Court’ | Mashable

My Comments

In the late 1970s, Sony had brought to the US market the Betamax video-cassette recorder which was the first device that could, for an affordable price, record TV shows. But Walt Disney and Universal City Studios filed suit against Sony citing copyright violation because they feared that consumers would create their own TV content libraries from shows recorded off-air rather than going to the movies.

This case was taken all the way to the Supreme Court who litigated that a technology company wasn’t liable for creating a technology that infringed on copyrights. It underscored the domestic video recorder not just a device for recording TV shows but a tool to “take the content further” such as hiring out videocassettes of the latest movies through the video stores which ended up as the device’s killer application.

Aereo is a cloud-driven TV-streaming / “network DVR” service which has been disrupting the established business models that the US TV networks along with the major sports leagues, especially the NFL, rely on. The TV networks and sports leagues have taken legal action against Aereo but have lost this action to Aereo through every rung of the US legal-appeal ladder. But now it is to face the final test at the US Supreme Court and I see this as being like the Betamax case in some ways especially in relation to innovation.

Australian readers have faced a similar litigation concerning a TV-streaming service offered here due to the main football leagues having an exclusive online partnership with Telstra and both parties fearing that the partnership’s value is diluted due to a TV-streaming service offering the football sportscasts online.

For example, the ability to stream a local broadcast form a known area to wherever you are, a practice undertaken with Internet radio, is being tested. Similarly, the concept of cloud-based DVR services where you can pick shows to record and view wherever you like is also to be tested.  It will also be tested in the context of bringing material in to an area that is not meant to be shown in that area, such as a sports broadcast subjected to a “delay to the gate” rule where the sportscast is not shown live in the city it is played in unless a significant percentage of tickets are sold for that game.

Similarly, the concept of pay-TV companies offering IP-based services whether as a subscription option or add-on to a traditional subscription will be tested. This includes a cloud-based DVR service like what Cablevision is currently offering as a value-added service or simply offering the TV Everywhere service to view TV on your smartphone or tablet as what most cable-TV services are offering the US market.

Let’s hope that this case can shape on-line TV services for the good of the consumer rather than studios and sports leagues setting up environments to exploit the viewing public.

Time Warner Cable to be the first US cable company to move away from the traditional cable box to an IP-based setup

Article

Time Warner Cable will let you junk your set-top box next year | Internet & Media – CNET News

My Comments

Since the late 1980s, the American cable-TV industry had relied on the provision of a set-top box that they lease to customers as a way to control the business relationship. This was even though since the start of that decade, most “brown-goods” companies sold TVs and video-recorders with “cable-ready” tuners that can be directly connected to a cable-TV service.

The consumer-electronics industry and related press had been crying foul that the cable companies were effectively controlling their customers and these customers couldn’t gain access to desireable functions that the devices offered like picture-in-picture or improved remote controls. As well, the cable companies have required that customers use these set-top boxes for advanced services like pay-per-view TV and have supplied set-top boxes which are PVRs. Even the CableCARD technology which was to put more power in the customers’ hands has been met with frustration such as requiring a truck-roll for the installation of this equipment even though it could be supplied as a self-install kit.

A trend that is breaking through and affecting pay-TV is to use the home network to distribute the content to the display device. The need to bring this about was driven by the popularity of the Apple iPad and other tablet computers being used to personally view video content and these devices had effectively become an alternative to the old portable TV with the 12”-14” screen. The cable industry was also facing the reality of American households “cutting the cord” i.e. abandoning cable TV service and watching their video content either from free-to-air TV or online video services like Netflix and Hulu.

This has been aggravated through the availability of devices like multimedia-capable games consoles, Blu-Ray players and network video players that work as front-ends for the online video services.

In Australia, Foxtel woke up by providing IP-hosted pay-TV under the Foxtel Play / Foxtel Go banners where people just used particular games consoles, smart TVs, regular computers or mobile devices to watch Foxtel pay TV via the Internet.

Now Time Warner Cable have allowed a person who signs up to a “double-play” package of Internet and cable-TV with them to dispense with their set-top box if they use a Roku or XBox 360 to watch the TV content. This is starting to appear also as a trend amongst other US pay-TV firms and is overcoming various hurdles and requirements like closed-captioning, emergency alerts and “delay-to-the-gate” blackouts for sports broadcasts.

Here, these services may be offered as the “value option” for households who don’t need the PVR-capable set-top box whereas the PVR is offered for the packages with “all the fruit”. These packages would also integrate the IP-based functionality with, perhaps, support for network viewing of PVR-hosted content.

Personally, I would also see this evolve to other common platforms like the PlayStation 3 and the smart-TV / Blu-Ray-player platforms that the likes of Samsung, Sony and Panasonic are building up. It could end up as a chance for the cable industry to construct packages tariff charts and service options that exploit the capabilities of these IP-based setups.

Mohu to develop a digital-TV set-top with on-demand video for the US market

Article

Mohu Developing Streaming Set-Top Box With TV Tuner | Tom’s Guide

My Comments

The US market is heading towards the concept of “cord-cutting” where they abandon traditional cable or satellite pay-TV for regular broadcast TV augmented with online TV services. This combination of services would typically be provided through the use of the TV’s internal ATSC tuner connected to an antenna (aerial) and a video peripheral such as a Blu-Ray player, games console or network media adaptor that has access to the online services such as Hulu, Netflix or Amazon On Demand.

But if they wanted a “one-unit, one-remote” solution, they would need to purchase a smart TV which has the necessary front-ends for the online services. For those of us who keep an existing TV going, Mohu are intending to field to that market a digital-TV set-top box which connects to an antenna and the home network to gain access to local free-to-air TV and the online video services. Here, you can gain back the ability to watch TV using the one “clicker” and this set-top box can pass through HDTV signals to HDMI-equipped flatscreens or projectors from the free-to-air and online services.

I would like to be sure that this device also uses composite video connections so that it can work effectively with those legacy CRT TVs that haven’t been thrown out as well as being part of the DLNA Home Media Network, whether as a media player or controllable media renderer. This would be important if you do download content to your NAS and play this on your TV.

The concept can be expanded on with a DVR function so that TV shows can be recorded off-the-air and watched without ads or as a DVB-T-based variant for Europe, Australia and other countries that use this standard.

At least this helps the people who want to move away or keep away from cable TV still have the benefits of a set-top solution that integrates both free-to-air and online content.

Foxtel to launch Play IPTV very soon

Article

Foxtel to kick-start Play tomorrow – Good Gear Guide by PC World Australia

My Comments

Foxtel is having to adapt their pay-TV setup to face the new connected reality. This is brought on with “cord-cutting” where people are less likely to continually subscribe to pay-TV; IPTV-based competing pay-TV services being offered by ISPs, telecommunications companies and other companies; as well as the younger market becoming more “flighty” and moving to different locations. It is in contrast to the traditional pay-TV view where the service is provided to the suburban household with a TV in the main viewing area connected to the pay-TV service via a cable connection or satellite dish using a set-top box and the service based on a long-term account.

Here, they are responding to this situation by offering the Foxtel Play IPTV service which is delivered without the need for a set-top box. This service works at the moment with the XBox 360 games console, the recent Samsung Smart TV as well as a Web-browser session for Windows and MacOS X regular-computer platforms.

The Foxtel Go “TV-Everywhere” package is offered as part of the equation, being able to run on iOS devices running iOS 5 onwards as well as Samsung Android devices running Android Jelly Bean 4.1 onwards.

The accounts will be offered “by the month” rather than a long-term contract to cater for a large range of situations. This encompasses situations such as “event-specific” viewing, occasionally-occupied houses and people with changing budgets and lifestyles.

At the moment, two accounts can gain access to the service at any one time with each account being able to be bound to three devices. But the system could be improved to cater for share-houses that have more than two people viewing concurrently.

The Foxtel Play platform would need to spread out beyond Samsung Smart TV to more smart-TV platforms especially Sony with their PS3 games console, It will also need to encompass the fact that some of the smart-TV platforms have this functionality on video peripherals like Blu-Ray players or network media players

Similarly, there could be provision to allow people who have a traditional set-top-box subscription to either create a “portable” IPTV account for viewing in other locations or convert to a “Play” IPTV account that mirrors their current package.

The services could be augmented by a collection of “on-demand” TV services that aren’t just a “catch-up” service. This could include hiring pay-per-view movies through the Foxtel Play infrastructure or simply subscribing to channels that primarily show content on an “on-demand” manner.

It is showing that the whole business model of pay-TV is not about an infrastructure-driven setup but about a service that is more “end-to-end” in an infrastructure-agnostic manner.

An interesting view on TV’s new direction from the Independent

Article

Netflix? Amazon? YouTube? A surfer’s guide to TV – Features – TV & Radio – The Independent

My Comments

This article is showing how the Internet-based on-demand TV service is gaining more traction as a way of distributing TV content.

For example, Netflix is effectively becoming the HBO or Canal+ of the online TV world. HBO and Canal+ had started out initially as premium pay-TV broadcasters in their own markets – the USA and France respectively. This was mainly based around buying movies and other top-shelf TV content from movie studios. Then they gradually built up a repertoire of original TV content that they could sell to other free-to-air and pay TV broadcasters. Examples of this include HBO’s “The Sopranos” and Canal+’s “Spiral / Engrenages” both being highly-engaging TV drama serials.

Netflix initially bought movies and other similar content from other studios to show through their on-demand service. Now they, like other online TV providers such as Amazon and Hulu, are building up a repertoire of original content.

Most of these online services offer subscription and content-management models that allow you to watch a series over a short term such as a “marathon viewing” over a weekend or over a long term like viewing an episode or two every week over a month or two.

This is affecting the traditional TV broadcasters who are having to face up to what these online content providers are offering to their viewers. One way that they are answering the trend is to invest more in their catch-up TV / on-demand services. This may include making more of their content catalogue including their back-catalogue material available through their on-demand services.

Similarly, an increased number of co-production deals are being struck between traditional broadcasters and online content providers concerning TV serials. Here, these shows would be given their first-run by the broadcaster in its home territory while being made concurrently available on-demand through the online content provider’s market. An example of this is the “Lilyhammer” TV serial about an American mafioso who turned State’s evidence and had to head to Norway under witness protection. This show, which I have cottoned on to when it was shown on SBS in Australia, is an example of this kind of co-production arrangement, this time by Norway’s public broadcaster and Netflix.

Of course, YouTube isn’t just standing by, letting this trend happen. Here they are relying less on those crazy-cat videos towards running paid channels with good original content courtesy of their Original Channel Initiative. This is in addition to having the likes of Vevo solicit professionaliy-produced content on to the YouTube catalogue.

It definitely shows us that TV isn’t just about loafing on the couch watching programmes according to the broadcaster’s schedule but more about chasing down the shows we want to see when we want to see them. This could also make terms like prime-time become so less relevant.

The relevance of broadband Internet for the expat and migrant community

A group of people that I do come across a lot are the expatriates and migrants who move from one country to another on a medium to long term basis. Some of them move out on a permanent basis whereas others do move on a temporary basis such as establishing a business in the new country.

One example that I deal with regularly is my barber who is an Italian and who has family members who are at home in Italy. Here, I spend a fair bit of time with him making sure his computer and home network works properly because he uses Skype and Facebook a lot to communicate with his relatives in Italy rather than using the telephone service.

But this class of user is very dependent on communications with their home country. This can be underscored by regular telephone and email communications between relatives and friends in their own country along with a desire to benefit from content that reflects on what is going on in that country while they exist in their new abode.

One technology that I have noticed that has swept expats and migrants off their feet lately is Skype. These people can engage in long video chats with their relatives who are based in their home country for nothing. The software is available across nearly all regular and mobile operating systems and an increasing number of smart TVs are being equipped with Skype, with the user just buying an accessory camera-microphone kit in order to have these videocalls on the big screen.

Similarly, an increasing number of network-capable video peripherals like Blu-Ray players are being equipped with Skype functionality which comes alive when the user buys the accessory camera-microphone kit. Here, this enables people to add Skype to their existing large-screen TVs in a similar manner to what the video recorder has done for older and cheaper TVs.

Another technology that pleases this market is the availability of newspapers and news services online through the Web or the mobile interface, provided by the news publishers themselves. This allows the expat to know what is going on at home and benefit from the publisher’s look and feel that has the “homely” taste rather than the weekly print editions that appear at some newsstands. In some cases like Britain’s Daily Telegraph, this is augmented by the establishment of a dedicated online department who furnishes resources targeted at this market.

Yet Another technology that also helps the expat and migrant community is Internet-based broadcasting. Typically this allows these people to benefit from content that is broadcast from home in their new country. It manifests in the form of the Internet radio with access to Internet streams of radio stations that broadcast to particular towns and neighbourhoods. This has been assisted through the use of TuneIn Radio, vTuner and similar Internet-radio directories.

As for TV, some companies and groups have targeted the expat market well with the AFL providing an overseas-only IPTV service for Aussies away from home wanting to know what the team they barrack for is up to. As well a few companies are running similar IPTV services but there needs to be a lot more work done on discovery and provisioning of these services. This includes integrating them in to the main smart-TV platforms, allowing for “buy from the couch” opportunities and providing a good-quality service.

At least the broadband Internet is showing itself as being highly relevant to the expat and migrant community and I always recommend the establishment of a good broadband service and home network for such groups.