1. 1
A Rapid TV News publication
THE NEW GENERATION OF
MULTISCREEN TELEVISION
TUNING UP THE TV GUIDE
why it’s time for operators
to change their game
GOING OVER-THE-TOP
Industry and consumer
trends in OTT
4K/ULTRA HD
Getting from risk
to reward
RAPID TV EVERYWHERE
July 2016
2. 2
Contents
3 INTRO
They say a change is as good as a rest. The changes in the
last few weeks in the UK maybe may have turned that that
on its head. Is change something to be feared?
4 GOING OVER-THE-TOP
In an ever-changing environment, how exactly is the
impact of OTT being seen across the industry and amongst
consumers?
6 TUNING UP THE TV GUIDE
A negative experience with regard to content discovery can
drive viewers away to other sources. It’s time for operators
to change their game.
8 4K/ULTRA HD
Continuing to meet the needs of existing customers and
maintaining flexible service delivery are key to implementing
a successful 4K UHD strategy.
10 CHOICES IN A CROWDED LANDSCAPE
History often repeats itself. Does the over-the-top market
today look very much like the origins of the cable TV
industry in the early 1950s? Will OTT follow the same path?
12 WEAPONS OF MASS DATA
How new recommendation engine technology enables
entertainment providers to use customer data to help meet
competitive challenges.
14 MEETING CUSTOMER EXPECTATION
In an ever-changing, more demanding media market, can
operators meet customers’ challenges?
4
6
8
12
3. 3
It may indeed be apocryphal as a lot of political aficionados believe, but after
Brexit those of us in the UK probably can’t right now help but think of the
quotation attributed to former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan who when
asked what was most likely to blow governments off course supposedly
replied: “Events, my dear boy, events.”
There are very few events that can now be predicted with any degree of
certainly in post-Brexit Britain but one can say with conviction that those who
had a plan for what it might entail are very much in the minority. And that cuts
across not just the world of politics but also broadcasting.
Commenting on Brexit, leading broadcast analyst David Mercer said: “The
vote represents another sign that even the world’s largest and most stable
societies are not immune to upheaval. Amidst the turmoil business activity will
continue and opportunities will inevitably emerge, but the general rule should
be to consider investment decisions with even more care than usual and plan
for uncertainty as far as possible.”
The key areas for these investment decisions will very likely be headed by
4KTV and over-the-top. Indeed, in their own ways have been truly disruptive.
They may have as of yet very different uptake trajectories but they both
threaten to up the broadcast ecosystem in their own way. In this current issue
of Rapid TV Everywhere we look at the prospects of 4K and OTT, looking not
into the future and projecting trends but cast a glance backward to see if the
past can teach us anything about the future. It may be wise to buckle up.
We hope you enjoy this latest issue.
Joseph O’Halloran
Editor, Rapid TV Everywhere
Editor’s view
Post-Brexit Britain
Publisher
Graham Pitman
+44 7770 746 410
Editor
Joseph O’Halloran
Subbing/design
Faye Sutton
All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced or used in
any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying and
recording or by any information storage
and retrieval system without credit to the
publisher.
INFOMAG
4. 4
According to the
latest industry
stats from The
Diffusion Group,
42% of all TV
time is now spent
watching over-
the-top (OTT)
content. As its popularity increases,
so too does the pressure for
broadcasters to deliver a wide variety
of high quality linear-like viewing
experiences across a broad range of
devices.
Against this backdrop, the term OTT
has come to encompass two major
shifts in the broadcasting industry: a
shift in how viewers want to consume
content, ie across multiple screens
and activities, and in the direct
relationships content owners are now
able to build with their audiences –
independent of a multichannel video
service provider (MVSP).
The result is an industry-wide
disruption of the video landscape
– from new players to revenue
streams, viewing opportunities to
audience insights – that equates to
whole new ways of watching and
delivering content across the world.
In such an ever-changing
environment, how exactly is the
impact of OTT being seen across
the industry and among consumers?
During Brightcove’s recent PLAY
conference in Boston, this was a
topic that came up frequently.
The industry impact of OTT
The way we see it, OTT is currently
disrupting the video market’s
economics and dynamics in three
key ways:
Stimulating the content production
process – With consumer appetite
for content never higher, and an
ever increasing array of channels
available on which to deliver it,
media companies across the board
are putting huge efforts into creating
new and often original content to
complement their existing offerings.
This extends from major providers
like Netflix to smaller niche services
like Acorn TV, or independent
GOING OVER-THE-TOP: INDUSTRY
AND CONSUMER TRENDS IN OTT
In an ever-changing environment, how exactly is the impact of OTT
being seen across the industry and amongst consumers? Luke Gaydon,
vice-president of OTT solutions, Brightcove, comments
5. 5
producers. Additionally, with user
-generated content continuing to
rise in popularity (such as YouTube’s
dominance and the growing use
of video walls by brands like
Accuweather) consumers are also
being brought into the content
production process.
Broadening the industry
landscape – Offering a far easier
route to market, without the need for
traditional TV infrastructure, OTT is
encouraging a wealth of new pure
digital players to come onto the
scene (eg Amazon Prime). Keen
to keep up with the new entrants,
existing broadcast players are also
fighting back with their own OTT
solutions such as HBO Go and
Comcast Watchable.
Opening new revenue streams –
OTT is allowing broadcasters and
content owners to reach audiences
they have never been able to target
before. Geographically, for example,
TV has always been limited within
a particular region or country – with
cross border licensing possible but
time-intensive and costly. Serving
OTT via the internet provides
broadcasters and content owners
with an opportunity to break free of
previous boundaries, and have far
easier access to a global audience.
OTT is also being used by content
owners to target different audience
demographics, such as millennials
and younger viewers whose video
experiences tend to be more online
than linear.
The consumer impact of OTT
Aside from the explosion in available
content from new and existing
global players, OTT is having
a considerable impact on the
consumer. In a symbiotic manner
it is not only being forced to evolve
around changing consumer habits,
but is also feeding and steering those
habits.
OTT is driving new viewing
behaviours – With the ability to pick
and choose their viewing on OTT
services, consumers are becoming
more focused and engaged viewers,
especially on mobile devices. In
contrast to watching linear content on
a traditional TV set, which can often
be used more as ‘background noise’
OTT viewers are deliberately asking
for the content that they are viewing.
Meanwhile, their tolerance levels are
decreasing – viewers expect a high
quality linear-like viewing experience
with no buffering and the ability to
view content from anywhere, anytime,
and on any device.
OTT is creating new consumption
options – Liberated from the confines
of the household TV, consumers are
conducting more and more of their
video consumption on smartphones,
tablets, laptops and games consoles,
leading to the rapid expansion of
the opportunities for content owners
to build engagement around their
content on these platforms and
devices. The unbundling of traditional
cable packages is helping content
owners create customised selections
that cater towards their targeted
audiences.
OTT is enabling more individual
viewing experiences – With
audience insights from video
platforms feeding back into planning,
scheduling, advertising and more,
OTT offers broadcasters the ability
to better target consumers based
on individual data. They know what
consumers want to watch, and how
they are watching it so they can
make content recommendations,
serve more personalised ads etc.
This drives higher engagement and
more insights, which in turn is fed
back into the planning – and the
cycle starts again.
The business impact of OTT
While all these trends may seem like
a lot to keep up with, the benefits
for those companies that are able
to do so – and get on top of OTT
– are huge. The good news too,
is that with technologies such as
Brightcove OTT Flow providing all
the core technology and functionality
for media companies and content
owners to quickly and cost effectively
launch new OTT services, the barrier
to entry is getting lower all the time.
Galvanising the industry, OTT is
leading to a more dynamic, targeted
and diverse viewing environment
– so if you haven’t already started
thinking about expanding or
starting your own offering – what’s
stopping you?
“Serving OTT
via the internet
provides
broadcasters and
content owners
with an opportunity
to break free
of previous
boundaries”
6. 6
Broadcasters spend considerable
time and money on content to
offer their viewers memorable
experiences. Compelling content can
bring viewers back repeatedly to TV
channels or VOD offerings to watch
their favourite shows on demand or
live, but what many content providers
need to take into account is the
fact that a negative experience with
regard to content discovery can drive
viewers away to other sources.
A recent Rovi survey found that 23%
of respondents across EMEA, the
US and APAC spent 11-20 minutes
every day searching for content to
watch, while 15% spent 31 minutes
searching for something to watch.
Meanwhile, 83% have turned off
their TV because they couldn’t find
something to watch. These statistics
should prove alarming to content
A negative experience with regard to content discovery can drive viewers
away to other sources. It’s time for operators to change their game, says
Charles Dawes, senior director, international marketing at Rovi
providers, as their customers clearly
aren’t finding content that they want
to watch fast enough.
A major part of this is the fact
that TV guides and content hubs
for VOD services can often be
confusing. The regularly used grid
format presents information in a way
that consumers are familiar with and
that continues to work today for linear
television.
However, it is clear that this provision
is becoming rapidly inadequate in
the face of growing channel numbers
and is a contributing factor to the
amount of time that consumers
spend looking for content. Input
can also be frustrating – using the
directional buttons on the remote
control to input search terms is not
an intuitive experience.
Evolution v revolution
There are a range of technology
choices that content providers can
make to assist consumers in finding
the content that they want to watch
more quickly by making changes to
underlying technology that powers
the grid guide. This is an evolution,
rather than a revolution in the way
that consumers experience search.
Basic steps that can be taken to
improve experience include:
● Putting in place an autocomplete
and autocorrect feature in the search
function to narrow down results in
real time and eliminate the need to
laboriously input one character at a
time with a remote
● Linking pieces of content in a more
intuitive way and making sure that
the right use cases have been taken
into account through the design
TUNING UP THE TV GUIDE: WHY IT’S TIME
FOR OPERATORS TO CHANGE THEIR GAME
7. 7
of the product – for example, by
making catch-up programmes on
VOD services easy to access and
providing full series details
• Allow for searching by more than
programme title, actor or director
For a slightly deeper approach to
search, operators could also consider
allowing search based on nicknames,
genre and tags to produce more
results. By following these methods,
operators can hope to improve the
search experience for customers
by increments, offering a better
experience.
Going beyond the grid
If operators wish to truly revolutionise
the content discovery experience for
viewers, they must think more deeply
about the technology that they can
deploy to provide their customers
with an immersive experience.
Enabling natural language voice
search is one way of doing this,
allowing customers to converse
with their TV sets in a natural,
conversational fashion to speed the
process of finding the content that
they want.
A range of new devices now offer
this functionality, including Amazon
Fire TV, Roku, Microsoft Xbox and
Apple TV 4, which can provide a
better experience for customers.
Each of these services relies on
more accurate than user-based
profile creation or ‘thumbs up/down’
ratings that are both error-prone
and do not automatically take into
account users’ changing tastes and
preferences over time. The ability
to make personalisation precise
and extremely relevant – what
the industry is now terming hyper-
personalisation – is correlated to the
knowledge graph’s capabilities.
Time for a change
Importantly, a consumer’s value
of a service changes when they
get a better experience, with 21%
being “extremely likely” and 46%
“somewhat likely” to extend or
upgrade their pay-TV subscription
if it provided better search and
recommendation features, while
19% were “extremely likely” and 38%
“somewhat likely” to do the same for
voice search capability.
Clearly, it’s time that operators
react to consumer needs and
change the way that they present
and enable content discovery. Be it
through adding new functionality to
enhance the search experience in
minor ways or a wholesale upgrade
to next generation technology,
consumers will welcome a more
usable interface that provides them
with personalised and accurate
results – it is high time operators
made this jump.
the user to have some knowledge
of what they want to look for – for
example, the title or actor. Ideally,
to build on this level of service, the
technology should be able to operate
in a more natural fashion, allowing
users to jump between contexts and
genres as one would in a normal
conversation. Searches such as
“what’s that film with the line ‘show
me the money’?” should give results,
in a similar fashion to the way that
consumers would expect internet
search engines to.
Of course, this capability needs to be
backed by extensive metadata that
goes into granular detail on shows
and stars, providing information
on cast, careers, synopses, genre
and more. Advanced semantic
technologies such as knowledge
graph-based search is helpful
here, generating highly contextual,
dynamic and searchable metadata
that can move search beyond simple
keywords to an approach based
around items that are linked to each
other in a meaningful way. This
reflects the way that people think
about content, instantly making the
technology more naturally usable for
the customer.
Personalisation is also important
in bringing results that matter to
customers, and this can also be
linked to graph search. This is
8. 8
Ultra HD – ready for prime
time?
A number of factors influence
the proliferation of 4K and Ultra
HD content, including bandwidth,
technology infrastructure, security,
device capabilities and of course,
availability of the content itself.
Satellite and cable TV providers may
currently be best positioned to roll out
Ultra HD content distribution in terms
of bandwidth and sustained image
quality, and services are slowly
starting to become available.
However, over-the-top (OTT) is
widely perceived to be the route to
rolling out Ultra HD VOD services.
OTT providers such as Netflix,
YouTube, Amazon Instant and
Ultraflix have taken an early lead in
terms of actual delivery of Ultra HD
content via video on demand (VOD)
services. They are also furthering
their commitment to producing Ultra
HD content, with Netflix and Amazon
pledging to film every new original
series or movie in native Ultra HD.
Movie studios on the other hand, face
a serious dilemma when it comes to
4K content. While they are keen to
deliver the stunning experience made
possible by its near cinematic quality,
the potential revenue loss from piracy
is much greater due to the value of
the content.
Studios are seeking a secure way
to distribute 4K cinematic releases
to the public at large as quickly as
possible and the result is MovieLabs.
MovieLabs is a joint venture by
the six major Hollywood studios to
catalyse consumer media distribution
and use. They have developed two
different specifications for producing
and distributing 4K content – one
describing the standards used by the
studios to produce 4K content and
the other designed as security best
practices for operators to secure 4K
Ultra HD content. Whether studio,
operator or OTT, the move to provide
4K ULTRA HD: GETTING FROM
RISK TO REWARD
Continuing to meet the needs of existing customers and maintaining
flexible service delivery are key to implementing a successful 4K UHD
strategy, says Bruce Curtin, technical solution manager, Irdeto
The advent of 4K Ultra HD
content brings new opportunities
for operators along with a number
of challenges in terms of costs,
compatibility and compliance.
Before discussing these, however,
it’s important to note that the
terms Ultra HD and 4K have
been used interchangeably by TV
makers, broadcasters, the media
and as a result, consumers.
While they are not the same, 4K
appears to have caught on as the
de facto term for both.
What’s often lost in the discussion is
that the Ultra HD specification allows
for image enhancements beyond
resolution that can greatly improve
the consumer viewing experience.
The Ultra HD standard also allows
for 8K resolution, which is mostly
applicable for large commercial
displays. The distinction between
4K and Ultra HD content is critical
for understanding how these new
standards will impact an operator’s
business model and security
infrastructure.
The bottom line for operators
currently, however, is that continuing
to meet the needs of existing
customers and maintaining
flexible service delivery are key to
implementing a successful 4K Ultra
HD strategy. Operators who hope to
take advantage of the opportunities
will have to account for impacts to
existing business models in terms of
device resolution, encryption levels,
bandwidth and scaling.
9. 9
Ultra HD content should only be
considered as a way to enhance, not
replace, existing business models
and infrastructure investments.
Pitfalls for operators
Furthermore, a number of potential
pitfalls must be factored into any
Ultra HD strategy. These include:
Bandwidth – The bandwidth
required for delivering Ultra HD
is one of the inhibiting factors to
widespread rollout
Licensing fees – While a new
standard (HEVC/H.265) has been
developed that provides better video
compression, the licensing fees could
be an issue for device manufacturers,
content developers and operators
Existing infrastructure – Those who
hope to comply with the MovieLabs
standards will also have to make
much more significant enhancements
to their existing infrastructures and
expenditure is no guarantee of
success
Existing customers – Exported 4K
content must be protected using the
HDCP 2.2 standard. But many TVs
and devices billed as 4K, are running
HDCP 1.X. As a result, operators will
have to choose between continuing
to provide existing customers with
their regular content, or delivering 4K
content, which can only be viewed
on devices that adhere to the new
standard
4K piracy – Operators must take a
page from the pirate’s playbook when
migrating to 4K Ultra HD – offering
the content isn’t enough. Providing
maximum flexibility and ease of
access for customers will become
even more critical to success as the
quality stakes are raised
Growth and monetisation
While OTT providers have grabbed
the initial 10-15% of the Ultra HD
market the content delivery is
currently limited to VOD and catch-up
TV because the live content is difficult
to stream. Offering a competitive live
4K Ultra HD or Ultra HD Premium
experience means streaming content
at 15 to 40 Mbps, depending on the
level of frame rate and HDR support.
As a result, broadcaster operators
currently have a significant network
advantage over OTT vendors in the
delivery of live events.
Alongside the challenge of growing
an Ultra HD offering, operators must
also continue to monetise HD, SD
and even analogue content via the
format and medium of their choice,
or risk losing their core business. A
conservative strategy for initiating Ultra
HD service offerings would be to first
adopt 4K content that is not restricted
by the MovieLabs specifications.
This way, operators can extend their
content offerings without cannibalising
existing business.
Operators may also want to consider
negotiating with content owners such
as studios for the rights to distribute
4K content at lower resolutions and
quality using less stringent security.
The forensic watermarking and
anti-piracy response capabilities
required by MovieLabs can be safely
implemented at any time without
interfering with an operator’s existing
content or distribution models.
An effective 4K strategy could
maximise electronic sell-through
and download-and-go options for
an operator’s existing content as
well. By implementing strategies and
platform upgrades incrementally,
operators can take an evolutionary
approach to integrating 4K into their
business model. This will allow them
to grow their 4K Ultra HD offering in
line with consumer demand, while
also carefully managing the required
investment, impact on business
models and the greater security and
technical requirements.
10. 10
The rapid growth
of over-the-top
(OTT) services
is delivering
even more
programming
choices into an
already crowded
landscape of 900+ TV networks.
It has spurred rumours of upheaval
for the TV industry, including talk of
cord-cutting, new business models
and the unbundling of TV channels.
Since history often repeats itself,
the OTT market today looks very
much like the origins of the cable TV
industry in the early 1950s. Looking
back at cable TV adoption provides
useful lessons in how OTT services
can thrive by banding together to
provide consumers with what they
want – more control of channel mixes
and a single subscription fee.
The first TV cable systems were
introduced in the US, Europe and
parts of Asia in 1948 to improve TV
reception in mountainous and remote
locations where over-the-air signals
were weak. Community antennas
were erected on mountain tops or
other high points, and subscribing
homes were connected to receive
the signals.
By 1952 there were 70 cable
systems connecting 14,000
subscribers throughout the US,
according to A History of Cable.
A key change in the focus of cable
took place in the late 1950s, when we
saw the shift from the transmission
of local broadcast signals to taking
advantage of long distance signals
in order to provide new programming
choices. In effect, this was the origin
of a programming bundle.
The birth of worldwide pay-TV
In 1972, the first significant worldwide
pay-TV network, Home Box
Office (HBO), was launched. This,
combined with the cable industry’s
beginning use of satellite technology,
led to a national distribution system
and paved the way for explosive
growth of TV networks.
The next network to use the satellite
system to its advantage was a
local Atlanta TV station that carried
sports and movies, owned by Ted
Turner. The station was distributed
to cable systems throughout the
US, and became known as the first
superstation – WTBS. It was initially
delivered to cable subscribers free
of charge. Currently, there are about
900 pay-TV subscribing households
worldwide, and 900 programme
networks, based on the NCTA.
The catalyst that really drove channel
bundling was the emergence of a
few large media companies who
controlled the majority of channels.
To ensure all the channels – even the
smaller, less popular ones – received
eyeballs and ad dollars, they began
to offer package deals that included
the popular channels with the smaller
History often repeats itself. Does the over-the-top market today
look very much like the origins of the cable TV industry in the early
1950s? Will OTT follow the same path? Charlie Kraus investigates
WILL OTT FOLLOW THE SAME
PATH AS CABLE?
“The catalyst
that really drove
channel bundling
was the emergence
of a few large
media companies
who controlled
the majority of
channels”
11. ones. In order for a cable company
to license a big name channel,
they must carry the network’s other
channels as well. The often cited
example of this is ESPN, whose
parent company Disney gets 100
million cable customers to pay more
than $5 per month for the sports
channel, even though only a fraction
of them watch. Needham & Co.
estimates ESPN receives $7 billion
a year from this, and if purchased
alone outside a bundle would cost
$20 or $25 a month.
Networks defend this practice as a
subsidy to fund niche programming
with smaller audiences, spreading
the money around so that a broad
range of content can be produced.
The upshot is that niche content
channels gain a large subscriber
base as a result, which drives more
ad revenue.
Enter OTT. The variety of
programming available from OTT
services has driven discussion of
cable cord cutting. The motivations
for this are clear – cable subscribers
on average view only 17 channels
out of the hundreds that are included
in most cable bundles, and don’t
want to pay for channels they
never watch. The hope is that OTT
services will deliver the channels
they want to watch at a greatly
reduced monthly bill. How many
channels will consumers subscribe
to, given separate monthly billing and
programming search user interface
menus for each? Limelight Networks’
recent State of Online Video report
revealed that the majority currently
pay for two or less.
There is also another type of
bundling serving as an additional
obstacle to cord-cutting – the triple-
play deals for TV, phone and high
speed Internet access. OTT services
are delivered as IP traffic on the
Internet. You can just purchase
Internet access, however the cost is
a large percentage of the triple-play
fee. Add in a few OTT subscriptions,
and you are close to what the original
cable bundled packages cost. As
a result, the percentage of pay-TV
subscribers cancelling their service
is quite small. In the past 12 months,
about 5% of the 100 million US pay-
TV households have cut the cord,
but new subscribers added 4% - for
a net loss of only 1%, according to
eMarketer data.
Survival in numbers?
Is it possible OTT services
working together can thrive in this
environment? There are several
developments that may lead to
solutions. Cable providers maintain
the advantage of an installed base of
almost 100M subscribers due to their
dependency on Internet connection
services. They have been upgrading
their networks to cope with traffic
increases and new 4K TV, so they
have an interest in driving traffic to it.
Partnering with multiple OTT services
to form programming bundles,
combined with a universal program
search capability and a single monthly
bill could be an attractive offering.
Amazon Prime is already doing
this to some degree, offering a
channel for other OTT services to
leverage the Amazon video delivery
infrastructure. Included in the
package is video delivery over the
Amazon network, a single monthly
subscriber bill for all channels, and
advertising of the OTT service to all
Amazon subscribers. This is very
much how cable networks operate
today with their multiple channels.
The major TV broadcasters also
own multiple OTT services for video
on-demand catch-up TV, as well as
movie channels such as ShowTime,
Chiller, SyFy and others. With the
market power of these traditional
broadcasters behind them, expect to
see bundles that include their OTT
channels.
Will the OTT industry takes its signals
from the history of cable? What will
the tipping point be? Stay tuned!
12. 12
Combating
customer churn
and growing
revenue streams
have become
huge challenges
for OTT and
pay-TV providers
as subscriber preferences, viewing
patterns and delivery systems
undergo a great deal of change.
While it would be great to have a
crystal ball to determine subscribers’
future wants and needs, many
entertainment executives are relying
primarily on anecdotal data and gut
instinct. Some, however, are turning
to advanced data science, including
‘big data’ solutions, to enrich
customer experiences, drive down
operational costs, decrease churn
and increase both the subscriber
base and sales.
Going beyond gut instinct
Very little is predictable in the
entertainment distribution industry.
Cable and telecoms companies,
pay-TV, streaming media and OTT
firms have best-in-class technology,
state-of-the art services, unbeatable
price bundles and loyal subscribers.
Yet it all seems like roll of the dice
as to which providers will win market
share.
Or does it? One of Xavient
Information Systems’ clients, a
leading US OTT provider, spent a
great deal of time and effort to launch
a new product, only to discover that
the vast majority of customers either
needed help with or were irritated
by various technical issues related
to the new product. Additionally,
this OTT provider was facing other
major issues related to equipment
components, the way packages
were bundled, pricing, and account
closures on seasonal bundles.
Leveraging the surge in social
media use by subscribers during the
past few years, this provider began
addressing customer concerns by
first analysing their social media
interactions to understand their
preferences. By continuously
monitoring live feeds, the client
was able to identify immediate
issues, decipher their emotions,
the underlying tone, sentiment and
concerns and quickly responded
Ravindran Venkidapathy, vice-president, client Solutions, Xavient
Information Systems, looks at how new recommendation engine
technology enables entertainment providers to use customer data to
help meet competitive challenges
WEAPONS OF MASS DATA
13. 13
with timely remedial actions. The
result of course, was a higher level of
customer satisfaction.
Just a few years ago, this approach
wasn’t an option. Decisions on
remedial actions would have been hit
or miss because social media usage
did not reach a threshold level to
generate sufficient data for analysis
and action.
Wielding weapons of
mass data
While live feeds from social media
reflect current concerns, historical
data accumulated over time – a
data lake of various chats, email
interactions, voice transcripts,
and payment habits – help create
a holistic profile of a subscriber,
a better insight into their likes,
preferences, and behaviours. Using
a profile filter, OTT firms and other
broadcast entertainment providers
can dismantle a haystack, and filter
it strand by strand to find a needle,
the much-needed subscriber profile,
within micro seconds.
The offering Xavient implemented
for its OTT client, which ingests
mountains of data and turns it into
sensible insights is commonly known
as a recommendation engine. Within
this engine lies a technique called
collaborative filtering, a collaboration
and aggregation method that
automatically filters the profile of
a user by collecting preferences
and behavioural information from
many users. These engines employ
complex machine-learning algorithms
and are typically built on top of large
data lakes and have the ability to
guzzle a huge deluge of live social
media streams. They not only
present OTT, pay-TV and other
providers with precise insights into
their subscribers’ likes and dislikes,
but they can also be tuned to predict
their viewing behaviours and provide
solutions such as sentiment analysis
and real time monitoring.
By overlaying live social media feeds
on top of historically accumulated
internal data, providers now can
further increase the accuracy of
predictions and instantly spot
anomalies in a subscriber’s
behavioural patterns as they occur.
There are no more agonising waits to
unravel the mystery. OTT providers,
cable and telecom companies and
streaming firms now can identity a
potential churner up front and take
appropriate action to retain the
subscriber by matching patterns
of a typical churner profile. By
matching patterns of former churned
subscribers, clients are now in a
better position to precisely forecast
a subscriber drop and a potential
revenue drop, and take proper steps
to ensure a subscriber stays on,
either with a different level of an
existing product, or a new product
altogether. This approach helps the
client cut costs and better manage
its revenues.
This approach would not have made
much sense a few years back. The
infrastructure and the sophisticated
tools available today to overlay,
juxtapose a live feed atop latent data
of mammoth proportions were not
mature then.
With the use of predictive analytics
and recommendation engines,
OTT and stream media providers,
and cable and telecom firms now
can create better metrics on KPIs,
content quality, viewer engagement,
ad quality and frequency, device
mixes and preferences. These
metrics help providers enhance
their subscriber satisfaction, arrest
churn, and influence major key
business decisions. Armed with
predictive patterns around audience
classification, customer preferences,
and device interplays, measuring
these KPIs has become a lot easier
and more meaningful than ever
before.
Deep learning solutions
While Xavient’s client’s primary
objective was to stop churn, these
highly flexible deep learning solutions
can be further customised to identify
subscribers for the cross selling or
upselling of services, and to identify
and segment subscribers to receive
advertisements specifically targeting
these groups.
Seeing the value that can be
unlocked out of the once untapped
oceans of data, service providers
are finding innovative ways to wield
these weapons of mass data, setting
their sights on precise targets with
informed intelligence. At the same
time, they are slowly shunning the
impulse to make decisions based on
instinct. Good old big gambling days
are nearing an end, giving way to
calculated big data bets.
“Very little is
predictable in the
entertainment
distribution
industry”
14. 14
Change has always been a constant
in broadcast but there has never
been so much change occurring
so quickly. It’s not just in terms
of the new types of products and
services on offer, it’s also in terms
of the fundamental nature of media
companies.
It’s not just upstarts such as Netflix
but also the traditional media
companies. Comcast is very much
one of these. As far as brand
equities go, there are perhaps
none so stable and traditional as
Comcast. It is a staple of the US
cable communications industry. But
it is so much more these days as its
Wholesale division emphasises.
thePlatform
Comcast Wholesale delivers
solutions to media and technology
companies worldwide, reducing the
complexities of distribution through
what it calls an advanced network
architecture, which has thePlatform
at its heart. Wholly owned by
Comcast since 2006, thePlatform
began life in 2000 and has been
one of the pioneers of online video
publishing and video management
solutions. The company designs
and supports streaming video
businesses on PCs, mobile devices
and TV with media companies such
as Time Warner Cable, Viaplay,
CBS Interactive, NBC Sports, British
Telecom, Liberty Global, The Scripps
Network, A&E Television Networks
and Rogers Communications.
Yet for all this success, says Barry
Tishgart, Comcast Wholesale vice
president for overseas sales, service
and product management for IP
solutions, the company needs to
make more people aware of what it is
doing in multiscreen television and to
want to make the company’s offering
bigger than mpx. “I mean, mpx is
a key part of it; the online video
platform that deals with the workflow
and the publishing and the playout of
context,” he says.
“We’re trying to broaden that solution
suite to make sure customers
understand we have other solutions;
we have CDN. We can do strategy
consulting around the engagement.
We can help customers with their
commerce solutions, so we want
to make sure that we’re playing
a more direct role in leading the
engagement versus just being part of
the engagement.”
All well and good but how does
this stack up in the ever-changing,
more demanding media market?
Customer demands are changing.
Are operators able to meet them and
if so what does this mean for them
as business concerns? Are operators
aware of just how the industry has
changed around them? Tishgart
thinks they are but acknowledges
that there are issues to address, not
least pricing models.
Pricing models
“I think operators are, but the
challenge is really driving a business
model that maps to customer
demand, and what I mean by that is
there’s definitely costs for content,”
he observes.
“Everything just can’t be free
everywhere. I think that’s part of
the customer expectation, not
completely free, but that they want
some centralised searchable way to
consume content on any device, and
so we have to work with operators to
In an ever-changing, more demanding media market, can operators
meet customers’ challenges? Joseph O’Halloran reports
RAISING THE BAR TO MEET THE
CHALLENGE OF CUSTOMER EXPECTATION
15. 15
build very broad catalogues, which
are easily accessible and provide
high quality video playout for a
reasonable cost to the consumer.
So I think operators are aware, but
there’s still a gap between what
customers want and want operators
are able to provide.”
Customer expectations
What is this gap though? Are
customer expectations just too
high, believing that when it comes
to entertainment services that
everything’s possible and on
anything? Tishgart believes that
a starting point is just how many
different types of services there are.
“I think there are different
expectations, dependent on the kind
of subscription or service that you’re
looking for,” he argues.
“If it’s a niche sport channel — say,
rugby-focused — consumers who
want an immersive experience in
rugby could be highly satisfied,
because there are probably services
out there that could be created for a
fixed monthly cost. You can get all
the rugby news and live sports action
you want, versus somebody who’s
more general. For example, there’s
hayu, which features reality television
from the US, so people who like
those types of shows, like the
Kardashians and Real Housewives,
can get an immersive experience
around that.
“So I think that customers’
expectations are being satisfied
in niches, but for more general
consumption, it seems like the
TV bundle is the way to go, so for
people who want news, sports,
entertainment, movies, that one
is harder to deliver in an OTT
experience, because there’s so
much content, and obviously there
are costs associated with that
content that need to be addressed,
so that’s more covering into the TV
everywhere space.”
The reality facing companies such
as Comcast Wholesale is that the
industry is seeing better quality
devices that are able to play out at
higher quality, and networks, mobile
networks are able to deliver bit rates
to drive that. In addition to the likes of
Netflix and Hulu, YouTube is now on
board with Red, raising its quality.
What this means is that the industry
has to create a video processing
environment that can continue to
encode at rates that customers
demand. What this also means is
that Tishgart knows that his in-tray
will be full for the foreseeable future.
“I think we will go through a period of
continued, maybe more aggressive
mobile video growth, and then we’ll
get to a point where customers will
sort out winners and losers in the
space, and we’ll maybe in three to
four years see more dominant, more
players like Netflix, so more winners,
and more choices.”
“I think customers’
expectations are
being satisfied
in niches, but
for more general
consumption, it
seems like the TV
bundle is the way
to go”
Barry Tishgart, Comcast
Wholesale
