TV
Connect / Knect365
Strong feedback from the Media +
Networks survey suggests that most media companies embrace the current wave of
technological disruption as a welcome opportunity to get closer to audiences,
notwithstanding the commercial challenges that clearly exist.
On-demand, the ability to move
seamlessly across different screens, new content formats (including short-form
and mobile-first) as well as VR/AR are all evidence of the sector’s dynamism
and entrepreneurship.
One big question remains: How to
monetise all of this activity? In terms of priorities for the next 12 to 24
months, the survey hit upon a desire to get the technical architecture right,
with respondents emphasising the need for “reliable streaming” and “moving all
infrastructure to the Cloud”. This suggests a more general view that OTT is
about to undergo a step change.
Traditional hardware defined video
architectures are costly to deploy and maintain, exceedingly complex and don’t
scale easily. Cloud-native solutions have emerged as a way for operators to
launch broadcast and OTT services in a matter of hours, rather than the months
of old.
Cloud
ready for primetime
Accenture’s view, provided to Media +
Networks, is that shifting to the cloud is a key way in which broadcasters will
keep pace with agile OTT rivals.
“Cloud solutions help broadcasters
realise four potential benefits,” states the consultancy. “Faster speed to
market, which closes the gap on the service delivery cycle of OTT entrants;
scalability to handle spikes in workload, including live events and popular new
services; the ability to collect, store and conduct analytics on vast amounts
of data; and driving ongoing service innovation through agile development – a
culture of fail fast, fail cheap and move on.”
Virtualized hardware has provided
tremendous economies of scale against conventional on-premise solutions in
multiscreen TV rollouts. Public cloud networks, in particular, provide a
competitive landscape for media companies who do not own local infrastructure
to use pay-as-you-grow compute, storage and networking for their OTT services.
Outsourcing infrastructure should be
an attractive proposition to most media enterprises. Avoiding CapEx and the
cost of maintaining internal systems can help an organisation become leaner and
more focussed on their core competences. Similarly, the shortened time needed
to add channels provides a new competitive workflow to reach consumers OTT.
Many of the key functions used in PayTV
and broadcasting can be deployed in the cloud (both private and public) today.
These range from ingest and storage to scheduling and playout, compression -
including statistical multiplexing - encryption with conditional access,
quality assurance, monitoring and then modulation and broadcasting (or direct
IP delivery).
It would be foolish to ignore the
concerns about moving the entire broadcast workflow – which still accounts for
the bulk of television revenues – into a cloud-based operation. Traditional broadcast
technologies were specifically designed and optimised for delivering content in
large scale to locations where internet connectivity was unavailable – all from
a central broadcast location.
However, as Harmonic’s VP of SaaS
Solutions, Eric Armstrong, reports, “Service providers, especially in the OTT
space, have matured their knowledge and comfort level regarding cloud and
Software as a Service technologies during the last year, with most starting to
make investments.”
Re-aggregation
and the role of the UX
Mobile continues to be a major
consideration for respondents and an essential component for media distribution
strategies. Ericsson’s eighth ConsumerLab TV and Media report, for example,
reports that, by 2020, 50% of all TV and video viewing will take place on a
mobile screen (tablets, smartphones and laptops).
This represents an increase of 85%
since 2010, with the smartphone alone accounting for almost one quarter (an
increase of 160% since 2010). With preparations for commercial 5G gaining momentum,
it predicts the number of 5G subs will reach 1 billion worldwide by the end of
2023.
There are implications here for
editorial engagement and user experience (UX).
In terms of editorial engagement, there is evidence digital content that
is shareable or even editable generates a high level of engagement,
particularly amongst younger age groups. Notably around live events, linear
viewing is being eschewed in favour of shorter highlights sessions and social
engagement. With the shift to OTT it becomes imperative to think in a nine or
90-second editorial presentation as much as a 90-minute one.
The current trend towards more
direct-to-consumer and SVOD services is often thought to be beneficial to
consumers. It provides more choice, and platforms are likely to keep costs down
in order to attract a sufficiently large customer base. However, it could be
that this has gone too far.
“Content is getting disaggregated
across so many different OTT apps and services that people don’t know where to
go to watch what they want to see,” concluded a recent survey by PwC. “Entertainment and media companies have long
competed on two dimensions: content and distribution. To thrive in today’s
increasingly competitive, crowded, slow-growth marketplace, however, they must focus
on a third dimension: user experience. Platforms should be created with
embedded deep searching across all apps, beyond just the one being used, so
people can easily find the show they want to watch.”
PayTV operators, with deep expertise
in content aggregation, have an opportunity to become aggregators of
aggregators. Onboarding becomes a key part of such a strategy: U.S cable co.
Comcast being just the latest to embed Netflix directly to its product lineup.
Post OTT
Aggregation means not only bringing
together different sources of content, but also consistent services, such as
catch-up or network PVR, together with a curated content selection for every
customer, plus business intelligence and targeted advertising. The end game is
better value proposition for the customer.
“Users need to be able to switch
between these services effortlessly with a simple, uncluttered and engaging
interface that doesn't overwhelm them with options,” says Anthony
Smith-Chaigneau, Senior Product Marketing Director at UX and security systems
vendor NAGRA. “At the same time, UIs also need to create a bridge between
content silos - searching for one particular piece of content should not entail
accessing multiple apps.”
With OTT having permeated the
mainstream TV ecosystem as one of the leading content delivery options, it is
no longer ‘over-the-top’ in its original sense It is this blurring that has led
NAGRA, to coin the term ‘post-OTT’.
Media 4.0
There are implications for content
production and format too. Clearly all businesses are undergoing rapid change
in their business models as AI, big data, IoT and cloud computing combine to
offer the potential for a step-change in efficiency. Industry 4.0 is often used
as a descriptor for the way that these technologies can produce the ‘smart
factory’ which strives to make its own decisions and perform autonomously. A
similar change is occurring in the way video is produced, distributed and
consumed and can be referred to as Media 4.0.
In video production, the process of
identifying and distributing video content over IP makes it possible for media
producers to follow their audience’s consumption patterns including the device
they are viewing it on. Media 4.0 is the idea that video production will move
from a program-centric to a story-centric process, where the content is
automatically produced, targeted and distributed to the viewer.
Not as far-fetched as it sounds, the
first stages of this are already happening in the field of news and sports
production where the vast amounts of video being generated on a daily basis are
already making manual search and discovery hugely problematic. AI/ML engines
are now being applied in the news and sports room to extract rich metadata from
video as it is ingested with the next stage being introduction of more
automated assembly/editing processes – and ultimately the delivery of bespoke
content streams to individual viewers.
Follow the discussion at TV Connect:
The mood is set by the opening keynote [9
May, 09:30 - 10:15] in which IBM Head of Product, David Mowrey, DTG CEO
Richard Lindsay-Davies and Liberty Global’s Group Technology Strategy &
Insight Director, Adrian Drury dissect the transition to IP.
The rise of the multiscreen is given a
unique perspective from TalkTalk Head of Product Robert Davis [9 May, 16:40 -
17:00]. There’s also analysis of the role of Social media in the future video
ecosystem and how it is already influencing consumer video behaviour [9
May, 12:20 - 12:40]
Should all processes really be
software-defined? The virtualization of the video lifecycle goes under the
microscope at the session ‘Dumping Iron’ [10 May, 11:30 - 11:50]. Take a deeper
dive and join executives from Sky, YouView and BT to discuss How much of your
business should be in the cloud? [10 May, 14:00 - 14:40].
Learn more about how AI and automation will
affect distribution and infrastructure? [10 May, 12:10 - 12:50] with Paul
Kanareck, Director of Online & Brand for ITV among other expert panellists.
Does cloud infrastructure make hardware
irrelevant, for example, and what are typical timelines for migrating to
cloud? AWS Elemental explains How Cloud
is giving media companies the edge on [10 May, 14:40 - 15:00]
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