Tag: multiscreen

Connected TV

DLNA and HTML5 combine to meet multiscreen challenges

Posted on by Robert Guest

dlna_html5_graphic
The number of connected devices in households is growing fast. According to The NPD Group, the number of connected devices per U.S. Internet household has grown to 5.7, up from 5.3 devices just three months ago. And Cisco predicts that the global number of connected devices is set to exceed the number of humans this year.

The consumer wants to use all these connected devices to be able to interact so that content can be accessed on any device anywhere and anytime. What we’ve seen so far is that operators have launched piecemeal content sharing, for example for the PC or iOS devices. What the industry now needs to do is to deliver complete solutions that provide a one-stop-shop for all multiscreen requirements. Not only does this mean creating a service that works on every screen, it also means delivering advanced and compelling UIs that answer the needs of today’s consumer and also protect and enhance the operators brand.

Fortunately the combination of DLNA and HTML5 provides a powerful and simple route to providing playability and interoperability on almost all devices. An added bonus in the US is that DLNA is the first connectivity solution to receive FCC validation as a suitable industry standard for cable operators that need to meet the FCC mandate for IP connectivity.

This means that operators using our solutions can meet important regulatory requirements and at the same time deploy exciting, next generation TV-centric multiroom and multiscreen services that are secure, and interoperable with other systems.

If you have any comments, thoughts, opinions, or concerns surrounding the multiscreen industry we’d love to hear from you!

Joerg Eggink
Global Product Director, Connected Home

Connected TV

IHS Screen Digest report puts multiscreen monetization under the microscope

Posted on by Robert Guest

At ACCESS we are producing solutions to drive the success of multiscreen deployments. We are also aware that the business models to drive multiscreen are not yet solid – so to help drive multiscreen monetization debate forward we asked IHS Screen Digest to look at the issues surrounding monetization. The result is a white paper ‘Unlocking and Securing Multiscreen’s Monetization Potential’, now available at http://mediapilot.access-company.com/screendigest.html.

The IHS Screen Digest paper sites ‘insurance’ as the main driver of present multiscreen deployments, with monetization some time I the future. IHS Screen Digest states this as follows: “Pay-TV multiscreen is not a reaction to eroding subscription bases, or revenue loss in the present. It is a form of insurance, and secures the future where consumers continue to purchase high-value pay-TV subscriptions.  … In pivoting their extensive content offers beyond the set-top, operators can protect the future of the subscription income stream, place subscriber acquisition on firm footing, and monetise wide- reaching content distribution in proactive, incremental fashion.”
In addition, the report identifies the three following technologies as key to driving multiscreen success: DLNA, HTML5 and security.

Key findings of the report include:

  • OTT has so far had little or no discernible impact on subscriber numbers (see graph below)
  • OTT is not affecting marginal revenues from operators’ advanced services
  • Consumers content spend is still predominantly on Pay-TV subscriptions
  • DLNA, HTML5 and security are the three key technologies key to multiscreen success

IHS_graphic
Our work in producing DLNA and HTML5 solutions and our collaboration with CAS/DRM partners means that we’re playing a key role in all three technologies that IHS Screen Digest identifies as at the heart of enabling the multiscreen revolution.

Although the report finds little hard evidence of OTT yet hurting the TV operators, when I’m talking to customers they are pretty sure that Pay-TV VoD buy rates are lower when a consumer has OTT. Our research also suggests that OTT ARPU is in almost all cases considerably greater than incremental Pay-TV VoD ARPUs.

Putting together what the report says with what I’m hearing anecdotally it’s clear that Pay-TV operators are in a strong position. However, it’s critical that they guard against OTT chipping away at their customer base and VoD revenues. The best way to do that is by deploying powerful DLNA and HTML5 powered VoD, OTT, multiroom and multiscreen services that at least match their OTT rivals in terms of both usability and content breadth. If they can do that their natural advantages of existing strong content relationships, scale, QoS and customer care combined with the cross marketing and discounting they can offer to cross-sell VoD and OTT services to their existing customers will ensure that Pay-TV operators will continue to prosper relative to their OTT rivals.

 Joerg Eggink
Global Product Director, Connected Home
ACCESS Europe GmbH

Connected TV

Introducing the Multiscreen Blog

Posted on by ACCESS Europe

I would like to introduce you to the ACCESS Multiscreen blog here at http://nord.themultiscreenblog.com.w01d64c1.kasserver.com/. We think there are a number of reasons why this is a really great time to launch a blog looking at the business and technical issues surrounding the monetization of multiscreen. Most operators agree that they want and need to deploy multiscreen services and consumer demand is clearly there for access to content on all devices and at locations. But there are a number of issues – and it’s these we want to talk to you about.

Almost every operator is thinking very carefully about the business models of multiscreen – we asked IHS Screen Digest to look into this, if you would like to know more please visit http://mediapilot.access-company.com/screendigest.html. Security is another issue that isn’t going to go away anytime soon. Multiscreen needs security that’s widely available, doesn’t interfere with the way consumers want to share consume content and is secure enough to satisfy the content studios’ understandably high security requirements. We call this ‘studio confident’ security and we’re working with CAS vendors to be able to provide the market with highly functional multiscreen solutions that combine the power of DLNA, HTML5 with the security of CAS.

I hope you decide to sign up for our blog, which you can do simply by subscribing at the bottom of the page. I look forward to me and other team members writing blogs moving forward and I want to stress that we really do want to have a dialogue rather than just telling you what we think. So if you would like to respond to our blogs or say something else about multiscreen, please do get in touch by writing your comments in the box below. I look forward to hearing from you.

Stay updated and follow us on twitter @access_europe , and learn more on LinkedIn .

Best regards,
Dr. Neale Foster
VP Sales, Marketing & Strategy for TV
ACCESS

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