I recently took part on a panel discussion at the annual CDN World Summit in London, to explore ways in which operators can future-proof their business and ensure they won’t be turned into dumb pipes. I was joined by my fellow panelists, Aditya Kishore (Diametric Analysis), Scott Sullivan (Etisalat), Olivier Suard (SwiftServe), and Miles McWilliams (Deutsche Telekom), to discuss a range of issues ranging from the threat and potential opportunities presented by OTT providers, to a range of monetization methods that are being designed to help to drive multi-screen revenues.

OTT- Threat or opportunity?

My fellow panelists and I agreed that OTT offers both a threat and an opportunity for our industry. Scott Sullivan of Etisalat said it was generally a good thing for most of the licensees as it resulted in more services, while Miles McWilliams, Deutcshe Telekom, argued that a lot of companies continue to skirt about the issue (including Google).However, while OTT services are increasing in prominence and quality, for traditional operators, the end-to-end network provides a key opportunity to deliver not only high quality experiences, but also a high quality delivery on a plethora of different devices.

I think it’s important to note that OTT is just another feed of content in the pay TV service and premium content remains an important part of a pay TV operator’s arsenal. The key for the TV provider is to essentially aggregate, curate and add value by enabling consumers to access any content, at any time, while also taking control of the journey that leads to these high quality viewing experiences. At the very least, operators should consider the need to accelerate the user experience from a delivery point of view.

The importance of analytics and online video trends

Earlier on in the morning, my colleague Carlos Gonzalez, VP, Head of Global CDN Sales, took part in another panel session, emphasizing the importance of analytics to operators. CMOs need to be able to analyze the level of interest in the content they create. Although they may understand the value of a CDN, it’s vital to see how they are growing their systems even further. This includes identifying the most important metrics, popular devices and what assets are driving user behaviors.

According to Rob Gallagher, Principal Analyst, Head of Broadband and TV Research, Informa Telecoms and Media, the biggest challenge is not around the technology itself- it’s about translating it into business value. Operators understand the performance of the network and how to improve delivery. It’s now a case of improving the quality of experience. 

Biggest pain points for OTT

TV is very much a video driven industry, so by amassing large amounts of data together, it offers a huge opportunity for operators to monetize as data growth expands over the next five years. Once we shift to sufficient mobile broadband, we will see end users quickly understand how they can access any content, anywhere with unplanned viewing. This will be supplemented with a number of applications which will enable them to leverage this immediacy and the ways in which users interact with content. Once we get ubiquity of access through mobility, then consumers will embrace this level of service very quickly.

We see operators creating multiple strategies to get additional revenues around particular content; either by buying the content exclusively or by bringing it into their own pay TV environment or by incorporating the content into the existing pay environment on a non-exclusive deal. The other option is to accelerate this experience either through CDN technologies or other types of technologies such as LTE Broadcast, which deals with live content. It allows operators to exploit their network for quality; there is value to the content industry and to consumers. Ultimately, there are a multitude of monetization opportunities to be drawn from both of these models.

By Simon Frost, Head of TV Marketing, Ericsson.

Submitted by Ericsson.