Introduction
By 2016,
more than 30 million households will be using operator provided TV-everywhere
services according to market research firm TDG. This means every Cable,
Satellite Operator or even the Content Provider need to define their
TV-everywhere strategy. A lot of Companies serving the Video Industry viz. Top
Cable Providers, Top Satellite Providers and Content Providers are already in
the foray and have started defining their TV-everywhere strategy. I want to
discuss in this post all the different factors involved in defining
TV-everywhere strategy.
What are different factors involved in building a TV
Everywhere Strategy?
Define
an applicable Business Model
TV-Everywhere
service is a key to a Cable or Satellite Operator. TV everywhere involves costs
however presents a revenue opportunity to Operators in addition to creating a
product differentiation. TV Everywhere service can influence the customers to
perceive their cable or satellite service is desirable and also encourages
healthy competition amongst cable & satellite operators.
Based on
several surveys, it is already known to us that a Customer is willing to pay an
addition fee to get his favorite shows on all 3 Screens viz. TV, PC &
Mobile ( including Tablets ).
Define
Authentication Rules on different devices
"Authenticate" is a term adopted by TV
Everywhere providers to let viewers know they need to prove they are a pay-TV
subscriber in order to access content.
In
other words, there should be a defined mechanism to enforce rules to deliver
content to all 3 screens viz. TV, PCs + Tablets & Mobile Devices. Evaluating
the different authentication mechanisms and choosing the right one will go a
long way in delivering the simplicity required for an end-customer.
Applying
a uniform authentication scheme for watching Live-TV, DVR & VOD content can
be useful.
Authentication
rules depend on what different mobile, tablet & PC-MACs will be supported.
It is important to understand what streaming protocols & encoding solutions
are available on these devices.
Work
with Content Providers and Studios on approved digital rights management
schemes.
Forge Relationship with Consumer Electronics Partners
TV Operators need to work with
Consumer Electronics Manufacturer to ensure their services are working on the
latest devices pushed to the Market.
Depend on Third Party CDNs or build your own CDN
For
delivering a high quality video (VOD content service can be clubbed into
TV-everywhere Product) or for large scale deployment and management of
TV-everywhere product, it is necessary to build your own Network or hire a CDN
Operator viz. Akamai or Limelight. This involves costs to delivering the high
quality TV-everywhere service.
Support Service Operator’s Infrastructure and
Ease of Integration
Cable
or Satellite Service Operators must be able to bundle your TV-everywhere service
with their other value-add services. What does your TV-everywhere platform
provides in terms of SDK or Libraries or Software Components to integrate their
current offerings with TV-everywhere. Cable Operators are used to TV-centric
model and now they need to move away from Single Screen to Three Screen Model ( TV, PC/Tablet & Mobile screens ).
