May/June 2017

Virtual reality Meet today’s immersive storytellers

pOFC DTVE MayJun17.indd 1 19/05/2017 18:11 pXX iWedia DTVE MayJun17.indd 1 16/05/2017 16:27 Digital TV Europe May/June 2017

Contents May/June 2017

Virtual reality Meet today’s immersive storytellers

10. Virtual revolution

The nascent virtual reality market is slowly coming of age, with a new crop of VR production companies helping to define what immersive content looks like today. Andy McDonald finds out more.

16 16. Head in the cloud

While cloud TV has long been synonymous with OTT, the use of cloud technology to deliver mainstream pay TV services is growing rapidly. Stuart Thomson considers the significant barriers that remain before all TV can come from the cloud.

24. Full speed ahead 24 Advances in DOCSIS technology can help cable squeeze more life out of HFC networks, but how do the costs and benefits stack up for operators? Adrian Pennington reports.

28. ANGA COM 2017: the preview

The ANGA COM exhibition and conference takes place in Cologne from May 30-June 2.Digital TV Europe takes a look at some of the technologies that will be on show. 28

Regulars

2 This month 4 News digest 30 Technology 34 People 36 Final analysis

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p01 Contents DTVE MayJun17 copyv3am.indd 1 19/05/2017 18:58 This month > Editor’s note Digital TV Europe May/June 2017

Issue no 332 Age of disruption Published By: KNect365 TMT Maple House issue of Digital TV Europe takes a look at some innovations 149 Tottenham Court Road in technology that could profoundly disrupt the current TV London W1T 7AD This business, from content creation via distribution to the point of delivery. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5000 First we look at a key development that could have a serious impact on Fax: +44 (0) 20 7017 4953 the kind of content that is created and consumed over the next few years: Website: www.digitaltveurope.net virtual reality. VR as an enabler of entertainment experiences is still in its infancy, but Editor Stuart Thomson its obvious application in gaming may foreshadow the ‘gamification’ of Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5314 content more generally. In addition the development over the next few Email: [email protected] years of augmented and mixed reality experiences could see a deeper shift in the kind of entertainment experiences people seek out. In this issue of Digital TV Europe we survey four of the companies that are leading the latest wave of innovation in audiovisual Deputy Editor Andy McDonald entertainment. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5293 VR is an extreme example of the trend towards personalisation of content (though it also Email: [email protected] has an emerging shared social dimension). That personalisation has been enabled by the application of cloud technology to distribute video to end-users. Initially used to support the emergence of OTT and multiscreen services, cloud technology is now being applied to the Contributors delivery of live and linear TV as well. Kate Bulkley, Andy Fry, Adrian Pennington, Also in this issue, we look at some of the choices facing service providers as they look to Adam Thomas, Anna Tobin, Jesse Whittock apply cloud technology to make the delivery of TV more efficient and scalable. In addition to enabling operators to reduce capex in favour of opex by enabling the virtualisation of headend Correspondents infrastructure, cloud technology is also opening up new end user applications such as cloud France: Julien Alliot; Germany: Dieter DVR, targeted advertising, and rapid innovation in the user experience. Brockmeyer; Italy: Branislav Pekic The large-scale adoption by operators of cloud-based IP video is, of course, only possible if bandwidth is available to deliver it to end users. Ahead of ANGA COM, this issue ofDigital TV Europe will look at the ways cable operators are expanding the bandwidth available to them and Sales Director Patricia Arescy extending the life of their coaxial plant further – by implementing DOCSIS 3.1 and, in the near Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5320 future, Full Duplex DOCSIS – in order to deliver ultra-fast broadband services and compete Email: [email protected] head on with fibre-to-the-home. Finally in this issue, we also look at some of the technologies that will be showcased at ANGA l Art Director Matthew Humberstone COM and look in detail at some of the top industry and technology news of the last month.

Marketing Manager Marita Eleftheriadou

Printing Wyndeham Grange, West Sussex

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© 2017 Informa UK Ltd All rights reserved Stuart Thomson, Editor Reproduction without permission is prohibited [email protected]

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p02 Ed Note DTVE MayJun17v4st.indd 2 19/05/2017 19:04 Q&A: Asaf Matatyaou, Harmonic

Asaf Matatyaou, vice-president of solutions and product management for the cable edge business at Harmonic, talks about the virtualised headend.

What is the virtualised CCAP and how can it help the cable industry nine racks of equipment to support 80 service groups. In a centralised achieve its business objectives? CableOS architecture, more than 250 service groups can be supported A software-based, or virtualised, CCAP disaggregates the software from in just four racks – a 7x density difference. the underlying hardware to provide operators with the advantages In addition to the space and power savings associated with moving associated with IT economics. It eliminates the need to purchase RF components out of the headend and into the field, decoupling the space-consuming and expensive hardware-based CMTS platforms, and CCAP core from the PHY shelf in a Remote PHY architecture leverages breaks the cycle of needing to upgrade hardware every three years or the benefits of digital fibre, such as signal transport over much longer so to accommodate capacity growth requirements. Equally important, distances and more wavelengths. virtualisation provides greater operational elasticity and orchestration. What are the main elements of a Remote PHY architecture and how How close are cable operators to moving towards a virtualised can it benefit operators? headend architecture and what challenges do they face in managing A Remote PHY architecture maintains the data and video cores in the that migration? headend but moves the RF deep into the field, so it requires either a It’s already happening. Our Harmonic virtualised CableOS solution is high-density centralised PHY shelf or high-capacity nodes with the ability deployed and in trials at select cable operators globally, and is having a to handle high data throughput. The benefits are fast deployment of IP- direct, positive impact on their ability to deliver high-speed data, video based data, video and voice services, sustainable capacity growth, and the and voice services to their customers. ability to resolve space and power constraints in the headend and hub. The migration to a virtualised CCAP is not as difficult as it may seem. In fact, a virtualised CCAP has familiar usability, configuration and What are the key elements of Harmonic’s own approach to management similar to traditional integrated CCAPs. Additionally, enabling cable operators to move to a next-generation broadband CableOS complies with industry Remote PHY standards to provide a architecture? common method of connectivity from CableOS CMTS servers to PHY The CableOS solution is built from a suite of products that work together shelves and Remote PHY devices, assuring full RF spectrum coverage to deliver data, video and voice services over existing cable infrastructure. and extending network capacity. All CableOS components are standards-based and interoperable with other compliant Remote PHY products. These include: What are the respective advantages and disadvantages of centralised • CableOS Core software, which runs on Intel x86 servers and performs and distributed architectures and what do operators need to think all CMTS functions, including control, management and data about in making a choice? processing of IP traffic across the cable access network. The tradeoffs and decision on whether to deploy a distributed or • NSG™ Pro, which can serve as either a PHY shelf in a centralised centralised architecture depends on the amount of segmentation CableOS deployment or as the video core in a distributed deployment. in the network. With a heavily segmented network, leveraging the • CableOS Ripple-1 Remote PHY Node, a hardened outdoor enclosure deployed nodes is more effective with a centralised CCAP deployment. for networks tasked with delivering video, data and voice services Alternatively, continued traditional HFC segmentation or a fibre deep over coax. plan is more advantageous with a distributed CCAP deployment. • CableOS Pebble-1 Remote PHY Device, a module for the Ripple-1 Operators can realise space and power cost savings of up to 75% node that interfaces with the CableOS CMTS to support existing HFC in a centralised CCAP deployment, and up to 90% in a distributed infrastructure and evolving fibre deep deployments with high-speed deployment. For example, a hardware-based CCAP typically requires video and data traffic.

pXX Harmonic Q&A MayJun17.indd 1 17/05/2017 10:16 News > digest Digital TV Europe May/June 2017 News digest > 4 Fries: Liberty ‘not interested’ in ITV > 5 EC calls for finalisation of Digital Single Market > 6 Vodafone: buy exclusive content ‘if necessary’ > 8 Viaplay: set-tops not necessary for SVOD > 9 Euskaltel acquires Zegona’s Telecable in e700 million deal Fries: Liberty ‘not interested’ in ITV, quad-play remains unproven

By Stuart Thomson > from a strategic point of view. Fries: acqui- company’s Q1 performance, Crozier’s departure from the sition doesn’t Fries said that “recent operation- ITV’s valuation and the premi- UK’s leading commercial broad- make sense al and commercial challenges” um that would be required to caster, combined with the Brex- at current had contributed to the poorer buy it means that the commer- it-related decline in the value of valuation. than expected financials. cial broadcaster is “not inter- sterling, has fuelled renewed “I’m not happy about it and esting” as an acquisition target speculation that ITV could be neither is anyone else from Lib- to Liberty Global, according to subject to a takeover attempt by erty on this call,” he said. president and CEO Mike Fries. a larger media group. “We haven’t yet converged them Liberty Global added 253,000 Answering an analyst ques- Fries also said that combining to the point where we can start next-generation TV subscribers tion on ITV, in which Liberty fixed and mobile assets and mar- showing you the benefits of in Q1, and said the UK and Ger- Global holds a 9.9% stake, af- keting quad-play services has so quad-play,” he said, adding that many contributed to its best first ter the cable giant reported less far failed to deliver significant the mobile business remained quarter video performance in than stellar first quarter finan- synergies and the mobile busi- in “a transition phase” for Lib- the last 10 years. cials, Fries said: “If ITV was trad- ness remains under pressure erty. This was in spite of an 18% ing at a much lower multiple it globally. He said that he hadn’t While there is plenty of room year-on-year decline in Europe- might be interesting, but with “yet seen what the real advantag- for ARPU growth in European an operating income at US$431 where it is trading today and es are from combining fixed and markets for the fixed business, million (e387 million), with the premium that would be re- mobile” and added that Liberty Fries said the mobile business “challenging” mobile results in quired, it is not interesting.” He had yet to see “real synergies” faced significant structural the UK and Belgium and “soft- said that “there is no change” in realised from putting fixed and challenges globally. He said the er than planned” cable ARPU Liberty’s position. Fries said that mobile businesses together in mobile business was highly from Virgin Media impacting departing chief executive Adam Belgium and the Netherlands, competitive and could come un- on revenues in the region. Crozier had been “a great CEO”, where it operates a joint venture der pressure quickly and unpre- Liberty said that its next-gen- but that his departure had no with mobile giant Vodafone. dictably. eration TV subscriber base impact on Liberty Global’s view Fries said that Liberty was Liberty Global’s financials reached 6.9 million in the first of the company as a target. still “at the starting gate when it were hit by poor performance quarter, representing 39% of Fries said that the company comes to quad-play” in markets in mobile in its largest markets its total video base in Europe – was focused on opportunities including the Netherlands, Bel- in the first quarter, with mobile excluding DTH. This was split that are “accretive…and not di- gium and the UK, where it has revenues across the group down across its Horizon TV, Hori- lutive”, even if it occasionally recently started marketing mo- 5%, despite post-paid growth. zon-Lite, TiVo, EOS (V6) and looked at opportunities purely bile services more aggressively. In a critical assessment of the Yelo TV platforms.

League or D1B, meaning that has exclusive internet rights to the BBC, NBCUniversal and Scripps Belgium Proximus customers will be able to matches, and holds the rights to among others. The South African watch Jupiler pro League matches the live broadcast of the country’s telco operates a Cyprus network IPTV > Proximus football along with exclusive coverage of Super Cup for the next three years. and its new TV service in the coun- Proximus has struck a deal with the Proximus League and Cham- try. The TV line-up includes BBC the country’s Pro League to secure pions League. The deal follows Earth and BBC Entertainment from broadcasting rights to Jupiler Pro agreements between the League Cyprus BBC Worldwide; E! Entertainment League D1A football for the three and rival service providers Telenet from NBCUniversal; and Sundance seasons to 2020. The new deal and Voo, which will also air the IPTV > MTN launches and CFBS Reality from AMC’s inter- complements Proximus’s grip on Jupiler League games on a non-ex- MTN has launched a TV service national channels arm. There are second-tier football – the Proximus clusive basis. Telenet additionally in Cyprus with channels from the kids channels from Disney as well

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p04-06,08-09 DTVE News Digest MayJun17v5st.indd 4 19/05/2017 19:06 Digital TV Europe News > digest May/June 2017

as the pre-school JimJam service. in the second half of this year. In of last year. The domestic decline The unscripted line-up includes His- a call with investors, Vivendi’s was partially offset by international Events tory Channel and DNI’s Discovery CEO Arnaud de Puyfontaine said growth. The African subscriber Channel and Discovery ID. There that the transformation strategy base grew by 649,000 in the year ANGA COM are news channels from Sky, the for Canal+ was “starting to bear to March, leaving the group as a Date: 30 May - 1 June BBC, Al Jazeera, France 24 and Eu- fruit”, with the number of new whole with a base of 14.7 million, up Venue: Köln Messe, Cologne, ronews. The international channels pay TV subscriptions offsetting 3.2 million year-on-year, including Germany packages starts at €29. The basic the number of cancellations. De the 2.9 million Free and Orange W: www.angacom.de MTN TV pack is €9.90. UK-based Puyfontaine said that Vivendi now customers gained as part of the consultancy 3Vision helped MTN had a “sustainable business model new distribution agreements with Mediatech 360 with source and secure the interna- for Canal+” that allows subscribers the service providers that allow Date: 7 - 8 June tional channels. to pay “the right price” for what them to supply the Canal+ service Venue: Millennium Mayfair, they want. Subscriber numbers in as part of their own bundled offer- London, UK France remained flat overall, and ings. International revenues grew W: www.nbmevents.uk/ France the pay TV outfit lost 401,000 in by 8%. Overall Canal+ revenues mediatech360summit the course of last year, leaving it for the quarter were €1.278 billion, SAT > Canal+ turnaround 5.145 million customers in France, down 3.8%. Production outfit New Europe Market Canal+ subscriber additions despite what the company de- StudioCanal’s revenues tumbled by Date: 12 - 15 June outnumbered cancellations for the scribed as a significant improve- 10.1% to €95 million for the quar- Venue: Dubrovnik Palace Hotel, first time in many quarters in the ment in its performance following ter, due to lower video sales. Canal+ Dubrovnik, Croatia three months to March, and the the launch of the new offerings. Do- Group operational income was €51 W: neweumarket.com pay TV outfit’s parent company mestic pay TV revenues were down million, down from €164 million, Vivendi said it expected a reversal 7.8% in the three months to March while EBITA was €57 million, down TechXLR8 of the downward trend in EBITA compared with the first quarter from €169 million. Date: 13 - 15 June Venue: ExCeL, London, UK W: tmt.knect365.com/techxlr8 EC calls for finalisation of Digital Single Market VR & AR World By Andy McDonald > Ansip: EC has to make sure that non-personal Date: 13 - 15 June lived up to its data can flow freely to assist con- Venue: ExCeL, London, UK The European Commission has promise. nected cars and eHealth servic- W: tmt.knect365.com/ urged the European Parliament es. We need high-performance vr-ar-world and member states to finalise computing along with a digitally key legislation and complete its skilled workforce to make the Futuresource New Content Digital Single Market strategy most out of the data economy. Horizons by 2018. In its mid-term review All these areas are essential for Date: 15 June of the 2015 Digital Single Mar- a Digital Single Market. Now, Europe’s digital future.” Venue: Ham Yard Hotel, London, ket plan, the EC said that “good the European Parliament and The EU has already reached UK progress has been made” over- member states need to adopt important agreements to end W: futuresource-consulting.com/ all, and that it has delivered 16 these proposals as soon as pos- mobile roaming charges on Futuresource-Event-New- key measures – which adds up sible, for new jobs, business June 15, 2017 for all travellers in Content-Horizons-2017 to 35 proposals and policy initia- and innovation to take off across the EU; to release the 700MHz tives in total. Europe,” said VP for the Digital band for the development of 5G IBC 2017 However, it outlined three Single Market, Andrus Ansip. and new online services; and to Date: 14 - 19 September main areas where further EU “Two years on, we propose allow portability of content by as Venue: Rai, Amsterdam, The action is needed: to develop the to update our strategy to reflect early as 2018, so that Europeans Netherlands European Data Economy to its new challenges and technolo- can travel with the films, music, W: www.ibc.org full potential; to protect Europe gies. We need cyber-secure in- video games or e-books they by tackling cybersecurity chal- frastructure across all parts of have subscribed to at home. Digital TV Central & Eastern lenges; and to promote online the EU so that everyone – every- The EC claims that a “fully Europe platforms as responsible players where – can enjoy high-speed functional Digital Single Mar- Date: 11 - 12 October of a fair internet ecosystem. connectivity safely. ket” could contribute €415 bil- Venue: Kempinski Hotel, Buda- “The commission has lived “We have already agreed on lion per year to the EU’s econ- pest, Hungary up to its promise and presented strong EU rules for personal omy and create hundreds of W: tmt.knect365.com/digi- all main initiatives for building data protection; we now need thousands of new jobs. tal-tv-cee/

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p04-06,08-09 DTVE News Digest MayJun17v5st.indd 5 19/05/2017 19:06 News > digest Digital TV Europe May/June 2017

CAB > SFR wins League paying off, with its subscription of the launch, France Télévisions Global Wrap Altice-owned SFR has secured the video-on-demand service doubling has shortened the time taken to rights to Champions League and its audience by 50%. SFR is con- make catch-up content available to The global number of pay TV Europa League football, dealing tinuing to lose customers, 111,000 30 minutes, down from about four subscribers will rise by 134 mil- a blow to pay TV leader Canal+ down on the same period last year. hours with Pluzz. Users must also lion between 2016-22 driven by and BeIN Sports, which currently register to use the service, allow- gains in Asia Pacific, according share rights to the competition. OTT > France.tv launches ing them to receive personal rec- to Digital TV Research. The SFR has secured all rights to France Télévisions has launched a ommendations and helping France research claims that the total both tournaments for the 2018-21 new online video portal combin- Télévisions build up a useful number of pay TV subscribers seasons, reportedly for close to ing all live, catch-up and paid for database of viewers. France.tv will will climb from 959 million in €350 million a year, a considerable online video content and replacing be extended in September to in- 2016 to 1.09 billion in 2022, af- increase on the previous deals. the former Pluzz catch-up and clude content from other thematic ter passing the one billion mark SFR’s first quarter adjusted EBIT- video-on-demand services. The portals – Culturebox, youth-orient- in 2018. The Asia Pacific region DA fell by 5.1% to €820 million launch of the new site, france.tv, ed Ludo and Zouzous, francetve- is tipped to add 92 million with a reduced margin, down 1.8 is the first major step towards the duction and francetvsport. France subscribers between 2016 and points to 30.3%, in large part as launch of a wider SVOD offering Télévisions director-general 2022. SNL Kagan’s First Quar- a consequence of its investment in later this year designed to Delphine Ernotte-Cunci recently ter US Multichannel Subscriber in content and in costs associated provide an alternative to Netflix in confirmed that the planned SVOD report said that US pay TV with voluntary redundancies. France. France.tv offers about 500 service would launch in Septem- subscriber numbers declined by The operator reported revenues programmes daily, combining sev- ber. She told financial dailyLes 802,000 in Q1, a traditionally of €2.705 billion, up 0.6%, with en-day catch-up content from the Echos in March that the pubcaster strong three-month period consumer revenue growing only public broadcaster’s six terrestrial had agreements in principle with for the industry. The research marginally to €1.77 billion. SFR TV channels with pay VOD and production companies based on estimated that total traditional said that its content strategy was exclusive internet content. As part revenue-share arrangements. multichannel subscriptions fell to 97 million in the quarter to the end of March. US over- Vodafone: buy exclusive content ‘if necessary’ the-top TV service Pluto TV has launched a free video on By Stuart Thomson > He said this could be demand offering consisting launched “in marginal mar- of thousands of movies and Vodafone will invest in exclusive kets” at lower cost because it TV shows. The VOD collection content “if we need to” despite was a shared platform across includes content from Lions- having a preference for non-ex- the group gate, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer clusive deals, and plans to ex- Despite being weighed down and Warner Bros and will be pand its presence and the reach by the write-down of its Indian available alongside the 100-plus of its TV services in “marginal business and problems in the streamed TV channels that markets”, according to Nick get it, we will, as we have done UK, Vodafone has posted solid Pluto TV already offers. PCCW Read, the company’s CFO and in a couple of markets”. year-end numbers. Media has launched its Viu OTT executive director. He said that Vodafone was It was boosted by the success TV service in Thailand, marking Speaking to analysts after “very happy” with its cloud- of its convergent offerings, and its 15th market launch to date. the company announced its based TV platform, which is has raised its guidance for un- Asian content with Thai subti- year-end results, Read said that currently available in a number derlying profit growth. tles – including current dramas TV was important to Vodafone of markets. Vodafone had 9.8 million TV and variety shows from Korea “because it makes converged In Spain and Germany the customers at the end its finan- and Japan – will be delivered offerings more appealing” and operator has large legacy cable cial year, rising to 13.8 million if via the Viu mobile app and helped reduce churn. networks that use alternative TV its Dutch JV with Liberty Global, website after their local tele- Read said that premium con- systems. In Germany it recently VodafoneZiggo, is included. cast. Netflix has commissioned tent was “important to our offer” launched the advanced GigaTV Vodafone now has 14.7 mil- its first original series out of but that the company preferred service for cable users. lion fixed broadband customers, Australia, placing it head-to- non-exclusive deals where pos- Read said the cloud-based or 17.9 million including Voda- head with SVOD rival Stan. Pro- sible because “we don’t believe Vodafone TV platform was the foneZiggo, with 1.5 million new duction will start next year in that exclusivity creates a lot of company’s “most modern” TV broadband customers added in Queensland on Tidelands, mark- value for telcos in the long run”. service, offering cloud-based the year. Of these, 7.7 million ing Netflix’s move into original However, he said, “If we need functionality and multiscreen take a high-speed service over programming in Australia. to bid for exclusivity in order to availability of content. fibre or cable.

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p04-06,08-09 DTVE News Digest MayJun17v5st.indd 6 19/05/2017 19:06 Q&A: Matthias Greve, ABOX42

ABOX42’s CEO Matthias Greve talks about the role service providers can play in enabling the smart home

How significant is the smart home market likely to be and what types What are the basic technology requirements for operators looking to of industry players are looking for a share of the market? enter the smart home market? What kind of investment is required According to a latest market research from Strategy Analytics, the of operators and consumers respectively? global Smart Home market will reach US$130 billion revenue by 2020. For a fully functional platform the operators need a home gateway, It is divided between US$68 billion in retail and US$62 in the operator certified sensors, the big data cloud for data processing and storage, market. The retail market will be mainly served by big tech companies as well as mobile apps (for Android and iOS). Additionally the operator like Apple, Samsung, Google, Amazon, Philips etc. and many smaller needs a team to integrate, operate and enhance the system in the device manufacturers, trying to get market share. The huge opportunity future. To have a competitive solution the investment easily can go for operators is in the other half of the market – this US$62 billion can be into the millions for development and annual operation and extension addressed by services operators in their local markets. We call this the of the services. He can either do it on his own or look for a platform/ ‘Operator Smart Home’ market in contrast to Retail Smart Home. complete solution. With our ABOX42 dotIO Operator Smart Home platform we offer What role can service providers or operators play in enabling the the operator a complete solution, with sensors, gateways, the cloud smart home for their subscribers and what opportunity is there for services and mobile apps as the end-user interface to interact with the them in this market? service. More important, we also provide a set of ready-made business Service providers can offer new Operator Smart Home Services as a models that are focusing on clearly defined use cases. Over time we subscription to their existing customer base e.g. broadband subscribers will add more products serving additional use cases to the service, so or even mobile subscribers, since the service is not bound to a dedicated the operator can create additional subscription services for its user internet connection. In differentiation to Retail Smart Home, the service base. provider can subsidise the hardware (or sell it at a low margin) and offer a subscription service. This is a well-known model in internet or mobile, How big a concern is security and privacy in building the smart home where modems, routers and mobile phone are part of the subscription and why should subscribers trust operators to ensure that their service. For the end user, the advantage is that the cost of hardware is smart home systems are safe? paid with the subscription and he has a support contact for his complete Security and Privacy are the key elements to the Operator Smart Home installation and service management. For the operator, the good thing solution. The good thing is that the subscribers already trust operators is that the focus is on subscription revenues and not on hardware sales, with their internet and telephony. The operator needs to focus on like the retail market. a system that provides advanced end-to-end security with secure On the business side these services will increase the ARPU [revenue], gateway and sensor hardware, encrypted communication and secure drive new customers and reduces churn within the existing subscriber cloud processing. Additionally, the solution needs to have a clear view base through bundled packages. This is especially important nowadays, on data privacy so the customers do not feel that somebody can enter since the margins in internet, telephony and TV are shrinking and the privacy of the home. everybody is looking for a fourth major revenue stream. What kinds of smart home applications make sense to consumers What are the challenges facing operators looking to enter the smart and what are they likely to be willing to pay for? home market and what do they need to think about before taking the With our ABOX42 dotIO Operator Smart Home solution we focus on plunge? very simple use cases, which are easy to market and attractive to a The operators should take a careful look at the business model and broad audience. A simple to use monitoring service like our ‘Home the lifetime value of the customer. Typical retail products come OK’ solution allows the user to check their home at any point in time. with expensive hardware, are complex to support in operation and On pricing, for example the operator can offer US$10 per month installation. Additionally the services and products need to have a clear subscription for the complete service which includes the gateway and benefit, which is appealing to most of the customers and not only the around 10 sensors. A comparable retail price for the hardware alone 5% of ‘techies’ within the customer base of the provider. would be up to US$700.

pXX ABox42 Q&A MayJun17.indd 1 19/05/2017 10:24 News > digest Digital TV Europe May/June 2017

ing integrated offerings. Broadband squarely on “the turbulence” of €649.3 million, down from €682 Germany numbers grew by 67,000 in the caused by French media giant million. Mediaset Spain saw its reve- quarter. In Europe outside Germany, Vivendi reneging on its deal with nues rise by €9.7 million to €240.4 IPTV > Telekom edges up Telekom’s IPTV, satellite and cable the Italian broadcaster. Mediaset’s million. Mediaset said it expects Deutsche Telekom had 2.955 million TV base amounted to 4.1 million, up success in clawing its way back advertising sales to remain positive pay TV customers in Germany at 1.3%. Internationally, the biggest to profit is due to its campaign for the rest of this year. It also plans the end of the first quarter, up 2.6% growth in TV was in Slovakia and of cost-cutting. Operating costs to put an aggressive share repur- year-on-year, giving substance Hungary. International TV revenue were down to €537.7 million from chase programme before its annual to its claim to be the only IPTV grew by 7.3% to €123 million. €549.8 million last year, giving the shareholders’ meeting, giving di- service that was growing in the company a positive EBIT of €76.6 rectors the power to buy up to a country. The Entertain TV service million and net profit of €15.9 maximum of 10% of the company’s gained 76,000 subscribers in the Italy million, compared with a net loss of share capital. Mediaset currently quarter, described by the operator €18.2 million for the same period owns 3.795% of its capital. The as “substantially stronger” than in PROG > Mediaset bounce last year. Revenues for the quarter broadcaster’s biggest shareholder preceding quarters. Telekom attrib- Mediaset has bounced back into were €889.3 million, down €22.7 Fininvest currently holds 39.8% of uted growth in broadband lines and the black in the first quarter million on the same period last year, the company’s voting rights, while TV in the domestic market to its following its €294.5 million loss last driven lower by the performance of Vivendi currently holds 29.9% of new strategy of focusing on market- year, which the company blamed Mediaset Italy, which posted sales the voting rights.

Viaplay chief: presence on set-tops ‘not necessary’ for SVOD

By Stuart Thomson > Karlén: TV Europe whether MTG’s in- Key to the company’s success Viaplay will creasing focus on digital con- in matching Netflix has been its Modern Times Group (MT- only be on tent such as eSports and the move into originals a year ago, G)-owned OTT subscription devices that sale of free-to-air and pay TV as- offering shows with local rele- video-on-demand service support key sets outside the Nordic markets vance such as Hassel, Swedish Viaplay does not need to be features. means that Viaplay would ulti- Dicks and Veni Vidi Vici. available on set-top boxes to mately become the company’s “There are so many great sto- succeed, and will continue to only pay TV offering, he said ries coming from the Nordics,” be a complement to MTG’s ly for each and every set-top box that MTG remained committed said Karlén. “This means we mainstream pay TV service in the market. to traditional mainstream pay now have a mixed content port- rather than a replacement for Karlén said that Viaplay is TV for the foreseeable future. folio of local stuff together with it, according to Jonas Karlén, available on TV screens through Karlén said that the company acquired titles.” Viaplay’s CEO. devices such as Chromecast. He would increasingly focus on dis- The Viaplay originals have of- Speaking at the Connected said “a transformation is hap- tributing pay TV through open ten been more successful than TV World Summit in London, pening” in the way consumers fibre networks in the Nordic the most popular US acquired Karlén said Viaplay, which is use video, and that maintaining markets, which he said made a content, he said, citing the pop- now present on over 90% of all a high-quality user experience compelling service as part of a ularity of The Great Escape, Black connected devices in the Nordic is more important than, for ex- bundle with high-speed broad- Widows, Black Lake and Swedish market, had no need for a pres- ample, being available on every band. Dicks. ence on pay TV set-top boxes. device. However, he said that satel- Viaplay launched as an “We don’t want to be on de- However, he said that the de- lite-delivered pay TV would also SVOD service in 2011, replac- vices that can’t use our key fea- velopment of Android set-tops continue to play a significant ing Viasat On Demand. Offline tures, so we are not present on could provide an opening as role in reaching consumers in viewing was launched in 2012, any set-top boxes in the Nordics. Android offered a standard way rural areas. and over 95% of content is now They are not good enough for a of providing services that could Karlén told Connected TV downloadable. good user experience. Develop- support all the features that World Summit attendees that In 2016, the service launched ing apps [for each box] was not Viaplay offers. Viaplay and Netflix are now far the first Viaplay original, and worth the price and very few Karlén admitted that he per- ahead of all other Nordic SVOD a month ago Viaplay become customers in the Nordic mar- sonally did “not have a tradition- services in terms of ratings one of the first sluch services to kets are asking for it,” he said. al package” any longer, relying on iOS and Android devices. broadcast sports content in 4K He said it is “too cumber- on OTT TV services including Viaplay has quadrupled sub- UHD. “We are seeing how we some” to develop native apps Viaplay for his TV viewing. scribers and increased revenue can take that even further on,” and then upgrade them regular- However, asked by Digital fivefold since 2013, he said. said Karlén.

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p04-06,08-09 DTVE News Digest MayJun17v5st.indd 8 19/05/2017 19:06 Digital TV Europe News > digest May/June 2017

year-on-year. On the downside, the and the new BT Sport Virtual Poland Spain Spanish operation’s supplier costs Reality App, allowing viewers to increased by 3.6% in the quarter, in choose between a 360°-produced OTT > Showmax launch IPTV > Telefónica dips part driven by increased TV content programme with commentary Naspers-owned video-on-demand Telefónica’s global pay TV base costs. Elsewhere, in Brazil, Telefóni- and graphics, or select their own service Showmax has partnered dipped slightly during the first ca saw its pay TV base slide by 7% camera viewpoint. The final will with Polish mobile operator Play. three months of this year, dropping to 1.7 million despite growth in IPTV also be available in 4K UHD on All new and existing Play contract 1.7% to 8.2 million. The company’s subscribers. In Spanish-speaking YouTube on BT TV in 4K UHD with customers will get free access DTH satellite base dropped by 8% America, the pay TV base rose 3% Dolby Atmos. BT has committed to to Showmax, which launched its to 4.2 million. In Spain, pay TV to 2.9 million. Overall, Telefónica make the Champions League and internet TV offering in Poland in numbers declined by 3% thanks to posted first quarter revenues of Europa League finals available for February. The agreement will make a decline in the satellite base offset €13.1 billion, up 5%, and operating free on YouTube, the BT website, Showmax available to some eight to some extent by growth in IPTV. income before depreciation and BT Sport channels and the app. BT million Play customers and is part The company said that its Movistar amortisation of €1 billion, up 4.8%. added 11,000 TV customers to its of Showmax’s plan to accelerate Fusión converged base grew by 4% TV base in the first three months the rollout of the service in Poland. and now represents 84% of the of this year, taking its overall TV Showmax offers a localised offering broadband base and 77% of the UK base to 1.7 million in a quarter that in Poland that includes Polish company’s mobile contract base, was generally disappointing for short films and series. The firm with Movistar Fusión’s penetra- IPTV > BT 360° football the UK telco. BT also said that its has offices in Warsaw and former tion of pay TV rising significantly. BT is to provide coverage of the new YouView user interface was Google executive Maciej Sojka Telefónica España’s pay TV base Champions League football final in now in 1.3 million homes. Consumer leads its local operations. Showmax overall at the end of the period was 360° video for the first time. The revenue for the quarter was £1.195 first launched in August 2015 in 3.616 million, of which 2.97 million telco will make 360° coverage of billion (e1.393 billion). However, South Africa. were Fusión customers, up 7.3% the match available on YouTube consumer EBITDA was down 18%.

Euskaltel acquires Zegona’s Telecable in e700 million deal

By Stuart Thomson a price of €9.50. The balance Erauzkin: consolidation in the north of the of the transaction is comprised intends to State. Euskaltel, and R and Tele- Spanish regional operator Eu- on debt. Overall, the deal values maintain cable, are leaders in our markets skaltel has struck a deal with Telecable at about 10.5 times the separate and the addition of the three UK-based Zegona Communi- 2016 EBITDA before synergies companies’ great north operators makes as cations to acquire Telecable in are taken into account. values. leaders in the State”. a deal that values the Asturias The pair have estimated that Eamonn O’Hare, Zegona’s operator at €686 million. the deal will realise €245 mil- chairman and CEO, said: The move paves the way to lion in synergies, mostly from Telecable will give the company “When we acquired Telecable in create a single operator across operational expenses. Currently, a market of six million people, 2015, we identified the potential the Basque Country, Asturias Telecable uses mobile capacity an increase of 20% on Euskaltel for substantial value creation and Galicia regions of northern from Telefónica while Euskaltel and R’s previously addressable through the combination of the Spain. is supplied by Orange. market, and a combined sub- three independent Northern Euskaltel will take 100% For Zegona the deal repre- scriber base of about 800,000. Spanish cablecos. This transac- control of Telecable for €686 sents a premium of 41% on its The operators had consolidated tion turns that vision into reality million including an estimated share price and gives a return of revenues of €701 million and and provides the opportunity for €245 million in debt in a deal 42% to shareholders on their in- EBITDA of 346 million, with significant value gain through that will see Zegona become a itial investment in the company. free cash-flow of€ 224 million. delivering the high level of syn- 15% shareholder in the Basque Zegona will have one seat on Euskaltel Group chairman ergies available and from the operator, with one seat on the the board. The combined opera- Alberto García Erauzkin said increased strength of the com- board. Euskaltel may make an tor will also create a new strategy that the group’s “intention is to bined business. Being the lead- additional payment of €15 mil- committee comprising one rep- maintain each of the companies’ ing regional operator in Spain, lion dependent on the future resentative each from Zegona, values, such as the trademarks Euskaltel is very sensitive to the performance of Telecable. Kutxabank and Corporación and the people’s talent, as they local needs in Asturias and we Zegona will receive €186 mil- Financiera Alba, the company’s are the key of their success”. know will provide great support lion in cash along with €255 mil- main shareholders. The com- Erauzkin said that “this trans- to the Telecable business and lion worth of Eusklatel shares at bination of Euskaltel, R and action completes the full cable team. fix-sell’ strategy.”

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p04-06,08-09 DTVE News Digest MayJun17v5st.indd 9 19/05/2017 19:06 Technology focus > Virtual Reality Digital TV Europe May/June 2017

Virtual revolution

The nascent virtual reality market is slowly coming of age, with a new crop of VR production companies helping to define what immersive content looks like today. Andy McDonald finds out more.

it is still early days for 2017, while CCS Insight claims that the total players to find out how the content they are While virtual reality, a flurry of VR device market – both smartphone VR and making is helping to define the VR industry recent activity hints at how far this space still dedicated VR – will be worth US$1.5 billion in today. has to grow. In the past month alone, Google 2017, rising to US$9.1 billion by 2021. announced it first standalone Daydream VR On the content side of things, some of the headsets, VR technology company Improbable more established players in this still young Rewind raised US$502 million (E450 million) in space, like St Albans-based Rewind, are a Series B funding round led by SoftBank, involved in all aspects of VR – from interative While many VR companies operating today and Facebook unveiled a new VR app for games-engine driven work, to mixed reality, are rooted in 360° video, UK-based Rewind communicating with friends, called Facebook and 360° video. However, there is also an takes a more holistic view of the virtual reality Spaces. emerging trend of talent passing from the market. Rewind founder and CEO Sol Rogers Market predictions for the space have traditional TV world over to VR. The people describes a space that ranges from desktop also been bullish. IDC predicts that total VR behind production outfits Parable VR, VR City browser-based 360° video, delivered through headset device shipments will grow almost and Mandt VR are all examples of TV experts YouTube and Facebook, at one end of the scale, tenfold from 10.1 million units in 2016 to 99.4 turning their hands to immersive content. For to game-engine driven, fully interactive and million units in 2021. Greenlight Insights the most part, their focus so far has been on fully immersive VR delivered through high- believes that total virtual reality revenues will narrative-led 360° video. end devices like the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift reach US$7.2 billion globally by the end of Digital TV Europe spoke to some of these at the other.

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p10-12,14 VR DTVE MayJun17v4st.indd 10 19/05/2017 17:58 Digital TV Europe Technology focus > Virtual Reality May/June 2017

as a 360° video version that lives on Facebook. is fundamentally going to change everything,” Rewind created a mulit-platform VR experience for recent film Ghost in the Shell. Describing the work, Rogers says: “It’s not the says Rogers. film, it’s not a trailer, it’s something which “Sadly, it takes a little bit of expensive gives you a glimpse into the universe and it’s hardware – headsets and PCs – to get us there, stand-alone.” so that route is a lot slower than we expected. “The first thing that we do with a client is But it is the one that will win in the long-run.” we try to work out what they want first and foremost,” says Rogers. “What type of content you want to create and really try and work out Mandt VR what the measure of success is.” A recent project for Jaguar saw Rewind TV industry veteran Neil Mandt remembers produce a social VR experience at last year’s a point roughly three years ago when he felt LA Auto Show for the launch of its all- there was “a real problem going on in the electric I-PACE concept car. “They wanted industry”, a sense that the “can-do attitude” of it to be a launch event to communicate to the television sector was starting to disappear. 250 journalists this amazing product in an It was this instinct that led Mandt to flip his amazing way,” said Rogers, explaining the entire TV production company to focus on VR choice of high-end, real-time, interactive VR. – a medium that, at the time was still only “on “The value came from doing it that way.” the distant horizon”. While only a relatively small number of “If you’d asked me a decade ago where my people saw the Jaguar VR experience, the career would go, I would have said, ‘TV: that’s journalists who wrote about it gave the project what they’re going to put on my tombstone’,” a wider reach. “If they [Jaguar] produced a says Mandt. However, what he perceived as a 360° video, they could have got a lot of users, shift in the industry – where deals were getting a lot of people seeing it on Facebook and harder to close and more work and edits were YouTube. But it actually wouldn’t have been being demanded for commissioned projects – much different from producing just a highly gave him pause for thought. polished 2D film,” says Rogers. “At the time, I didn’t know that this whole Thinking about the development of the VR problem was because of the cord-cutting. industry to date, he claims that companies Nobody knew it. It was like being in a have already had to take a change of tack. recession, but you don’t know until you’re six “Brands and agencies were enjoying their free months into it,” says Mandt. Looking to the PR push that they got about being the world’s early-stage VR market, where the content was first VR something – ‘insert brand’, ‘insert “not just bad, it was almost unwatchable,” product’. That all went away last summer. he decided to be among the first clutch of Now it’s more about quality of returns.” companies to compete in this space. While the number of eyeballs watching a Mandt’s roots in TV stretch back to his video is still important, Rogers says that the university days, when winning a College “We’re one of the few companies globally transformative effect of experiencing high- Emmy at 19 landed him a job as an NBC that fit the full umbrella of content,” says end VR communicates a message in more reporter aged 20. His career after that point Rogers. “When we start working with clients powerful way than by watching something included producing the OJ Simpson criminal and brands, we are not selling them [on on TV or via YouTube. “For me 360° video is trial for ABC News, producing the Sydney the idea that], ‘we’ve got a box full of these something as a necessary transition, because Olympics for NBC and creating what he things, so they’re going to be the answer for it’s fantastic for mobile,” says Rogers. “There estimates to be around 3,000 episodes everything’. We’re going ‘well what are you are 1.9 billion smartphones in the world, all of television though his 2001-established trying to get out of this?’” of them can access 360 video and you don’t production company, Mandt Bros. A look at some of Rewind’s recent projects have to have a headset to view it.” However, he His Mandt Bros. credits include ESPN gives you an indication of the scope its work. claims that this is a “pale comparison” to a full series Jim Rome is Burning, Syfy Channel It recently produced a cross-platform VR VR headset experience. series Destination Truth, and Food Network experience for Hollywood movie Ghost in the “The real-time stuff on the Rift, the Vive, series The Shed. Along the way he has also Shell in partnership with Oculus, Paramount, the Playstation VR – game-engine driven, produced a handful of films – including the Dreamworks and US-based VR studio Here where you have control, where you are part 2014 Walt Disney Pictures feature Million Be Dragons. Made in just seven weeks, the of the world and have interactivity – that’s Dollar Arm, and most recently a Burt Reynolds experience was available on Rift as a “super new and that’s a lot slower for the uptake. But movie called Dog Years, which played at this interactive”, high-end VR experience; as a once you’ve tried it, you understand that it’s a year’s Tribeca Film festival. semi-interactive experience for Gear VR; and different medium, a different art form, which Leaving TV behind and setting up Mandt

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p10-12,14 VR DTVE MayJun17v4st.indd 11 19/05/2017 17:58 Technology focus > Virtual Reality Digital TV Europe May/June 2017

VR was no small undertaking. Mandt the camera the Medusa because it literally has engagement in order to sustain audience invested in new cameras, new computers and cables coming out of it all over it.” interest. There was some of that coming new editing systems for the post-facility at his Looking ahead, Mandt believes that the VR through, but not much. That’s why we existing studios in Hollywood. He also had industry is two to five years away from going decided to do it at that point. We felt like this to learn a new production language for 360° mainstream. In two years he predicts VR will was the beginning of a genuine new phase – content – covering camera placement, sound be a “cool thing” that people will be aware of, of a new medium and it was an opportunity design and editing techniques. but only those in the know will really use. In to get in early and we felt excited enough to be “There’s storytelling that exists within 2D five years, he predicts it will be the equivalent willing to abandon our previous careers and media, whether it’s on a mobile phone or a of where we are today with the smartphone. transfer our skills across.” computer, where I can tell your brain, without “I don’t see anything slowing it down at this Between January and the summer of 2016 even sound, exactly what’s happening,” says point.” Wise and Minter-Green worked out a business plan and began seeking investment, holding talks with a range of companies and individuals “If you’d asked me a decade ago where between October and January 2017. Wise says that ultimately they believed “we’d be in a my career would go, I would have said: ‘TV: stronger position with organisations who also that’s what they’ll put on my tombstone’.” create and commission content, and have an understanding of content”. Parable’s first work was Ocean: Mystery Neil Mandt, Mandt VR Corals, a 360° tour of the corals of Palau in the Western Pacific that was made for The Mandt. “That storytelling is impossible to tell Economist with brand support from Swiss in VR because you can’t cut like that. You can’t Parable VR watch company Blancpain. push in and zoom. So there is whole new The company has also recently worked on storytelling that needs to happen.” Launched in March this year, London-based a brand-funded project, shot in Bermuda, After doing a handful of videos, Mandt Parable VR was born out of the combined focused on the America’s Cup yacht race. and his partner Gordon Whitener last year television and commercial experience of its This produced three immersive ‘mini raised US$10 million with plans to up their founders, and has attracted solid industry documentaries’, which Minter-Green says production rate. “We brought in producers backing. The company was set up by point to “all the things that make this medium who were from traditional television and Nicholas Minter-Green, the former president really exciting, because it allows privileged started training them and making shows. We of Economist Films, and David Wise, the access, geographic transformation, some did a show with [comedian] Tom Green, we former director of programmes at The Garden speed and sensation.” did some travel shows and some sports shows Productions – the company behind shows Next up is a broadcaster-funded piece, ­– a variety of different things. That then led us like 24 Hours in A&E. Channel 4 invested in which Wise describes as “pure computer- to contract work for some big brands like the the business through its Independent Growth generated VR”. Talks are also ongoing with Pittsburgh Steelers and Disney,” says Mandt. Fund. The Economist also backed the firm, as broadcasters and established on-screen talent. He soon realised that to make money in this did TV industry veteran and Studio Lambert “Every single broadcaster I would want to space, the key would be to replicate the old TV CEO, Stephen Lambert. be working with are either thinking about, or model by making “volume VR” – something Speaking to Digital TV Europe at Parable’s are already, commissioning VR,” says Wise. that could be achieved through 360° video. shared office space in London’s Kings Cross, “It will come down to how audiences engage “Everyone has a smartphone in their pocket. Wise explains that the decision to form the – do viewers come to it in significant numbers There’s two billion of them in the world. So business came about last January after a we said ‘alright, what 360° video can we make Minter-Green, while still at The Economist, that we can make inexpensively that works went on a trip to the West Coast of the US within the limitations of both VR and 360°’?” and the main talking point among all the tech What followed was a deal with US companies there was VR – despite a limited podcasting company PodcastOne, which pool of compelling VR content. will soon see the launch of a PodcastOne “We weren’t the first to spot it, but we felt, VR platform that will house 1,000 pieces of when we looked what was out there, there content. Mandt claims this will represent “the was a lot of good content but it was lacking most serialised VR 360° content anywhere”. narrative,” says Wise of their thinking at To achieve this, his team built a custom camera the time. “Our belief, in the worlds that we rig at the PodcastOne studios that they could came from, was that you need narrative and access remotely and developed live stitching capabilities for the content. “Necessity is the Parable’s first work was a 360-degree tour of mother of invention,” says Mandt. “We call the corals of Palau in the Western Pacific.

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p10-12,14 VR DTVE MayJun17v4st.indd 12 19/05/2017 17:58 Q&A: Sylvain Thevenot, Netgem

Netgem CEO Sylvain Thevenot talks about the key elements of a TV service and learnings from the company’s entry into the German market.

What features do telecom operators now regard as the essential set-up, content rights, network infrastructure, relevant proposition, elements of an advanced TVservice, and how is this changing? content security). With its TVaaS proposition tailored to the German Telecom Operators have now started to understand how essential an market, Netgem is really helping those operators which are willing to integrated multiscreen, live, time-shifted and OTT experience is whilst take advantage of the opportunity to secure additional revenues and continuing to offer to their customers a telco-grade TV service in terms customers in this challenging market. of Quality of Experience. But with the very dynamic nature of the content landscape, with more OTT content providers appearing faster than before, What particular needs do small and medium-sized service providers telecom operators also need to have a platform that allows them to easily have and what technology solutions are they adopting to get integrate any new content partner whilst offering a simple discovery advanced TV services up and running? experience when growing the content catalogue: flexibility and simplicity One of the main challenges faced by small and medium-sized ISPs is that of experience are paramount. they need support in order to launch (or re-launch) a compelling, current and innovative TV proposition. The move into triple or quad-play is key to What are the principal applications being provided by Purtel, your them since their market is small and end-user churn is not easily replaced. first German partner? Small and medium sized telcos are not in a switchers market in Germany. Purtel has historically been providing VOIP and billing services to small IPTV and multicast solutions are what they are most likely to adopt. This is and local telcos. By now having a triple-play offering they will ensure that due to the bandwidth savings and the related economies of scale that a their customers provide their end-users with a multiscreen IPTV and OTT multicast architecture brings with itself. service, which also allows them to access SVOD, TVOD, pay TV and, more On the solution delivery side, those operators would find the Netgem importantly, the German Mediatheken. This will be offered as a white- TVaaS solution very attractive, given that Netgem can guarantee a very labeled platform – provided by Netgem as a ‘TV-as-a-service’ solution. quick time-to-market, a great user interface, and a flexible and scalable In addition to this, Purtel will also offer the local ISP the possibility to cloud-based solution that embraces the challenges posed by a multicast, provide local channels to their community. By doing this Purtel ensures that OTT, and hybrid environments combined. the local ISP gets the opportunity to push content through the platform which is only relevant to its local customers – whilst leveraging the national How far and how fast are smaller service providers embracing cloud- and international content available across all Purtel ISP partners. based delivery of TV and what benefits does this bring? The adoption rate has been high for medium ISP in Germany in 2016, with How do you expect the market for advanced TV service to develop in a few regional launches. 2017 is the year of the local ISPs and they are taking Germany generally, and what specific requirements are there for this the time to make sure they are making the right choice. While a few regional market? telcos are still digesting the learnings from the early adopters from last year We expect the market for advanced TV Service to grow rapidly. A fast (and associated large investments made on bespoke implementations). growing number of millennials is pushing the IPTV market forward in We at Netgem expect the pace to accelerate across a territory of more Germany. Their needs are going towards more cord-cutting, more OTT, than 40 million households and we will be supporting the delivery of a more on-demand and more non-linear content. This obviously creates a cloud-based TV service which brings excellent customer benefits (multiple challenge to traditional cable operators as well as a challenge to traditional ways of ingesting secured content) together with great business savings ISP which are struggling to be ready to satisfy those evolving needs . for the small ISPs (no set-up cost, bandwidth savings, enhanced customer Various aspects can be challenging in this environment (operational proposition, increased customer loyalty, ongoing Innovation).

pXX Netgem Q&A MayJun17.indd 1 19/05/2017 11:28 Technology focus > Virtual Reality Digital TV Europe May/June 2017

VR City’s second immersive doc, Indefinite, looks at the UK’s detention of immigrants.

and do the broadcasters find a way to make the content available to people in significant numbers?” Wise says that commercial and public broadcasters alike see VR as a way to engage viewers, particularly hard-to-reach younger audiences. The commercial broadcasters also know that the advertisers who spend money with them are interested in VR, which is in turn helping to fuel their interest in the medium. “Having come from TV, it’s been amazing to see in the last 10 years the change in the nature of viewing habits and how fragmented the audience has become,” says Wise. “It’s Be Dragons-produced immersive journey along with thousands of others. Whereas so hard to keep hold of viewers and find an through an insane asylum. "It was genuinely in VR we were walking into a one year old audience. When you have something that by terrifying and I was exhilarated by it." A industry along with tens. So there was a lot to its very nature has all of your attention, that is second project by the same company, called be said on a personal level for that. But also unbelievably powerful.” Clouds over Sidra, which was set in a refugee from a business point of view, it seemed to The level of enthusiasm and openness in camp in Jordan, had a similarly big impact. make sense at the time.” the nascent VR space is what’s so exciting Cowan's first piece of VR work was for To date VR City has made two immersive about it, says Wise. “Anything is possible; that former colleague and was an immersive documentaries: Witness 360: 7/7, which tells that’s a really invigorating thing to be a part health and safety training video for Pearson the story of Jacqui Putnam, a survivor of the of.” He says that Parable’s aim is to create Education. This would be the starting point London 7/7 bombing attacks; and Indefinite, partnerships and help companies to achieve for VR City, which has since gone on to do about imprisoned immigrants facing compelling results. “We want to make 360° video work for broadcasters like ITV, the deportation from the UK and the detention commercially successful content, which BBC and MTV, and brands like Lexus and system that keeps them locked up. engages a wide audience and which proves Lagavulin. While the latter was a commission from that this can have a life beyond isolated bits "I thought, as a medium, it's got legs," Sheffield Doc Fest, with a small amount of of content.” says Cowan. "Even if it doesn't make it into money also coming from the Arts Council, “The question about how sustainable it peoples' homes, it can be in classrooms and in Cowan says that brands are where its most is as an entertainment medium will come training and that's why our relationship with lucrative work comes from at the moment, down to the backing it gets and the content Pearson was important at the beginning and “because they can see in the main it’s that’s created,” says Wise. “You have to trust still is to this day." experiential marketing and there’s reasonably that the tech companies know what they’re Cowan started his career in TV by working large budgets.” doing. They haven’t done all of this just for on music and live entertainment shows for "That has been our main source of revenue fun – they’ve done it because they believe in MTV, Channel 4 and ITV before setting up – brands. The slower burn, and very, very it as well.” London-based East City Films with co-founder interesting to us is to work with people like Darren Emerson. East City was set up to the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, Sky and BT Sports," produce youth-focused entertainment content says Cowan. “Everyone’s trying to figure out VR City for brands and international broadcasters, how it can be funded, because at the moment while VR City, the pair's second production there is no revenue stream based on people VR City started life in 2014 after co-founder endeavour, has taken them down new roads. having headsets.” Ashley Cowan received a call from an old “Very quickly I rediscovered the passion While Cowan says that there are not yet colleague asking if he knew how to make that I used to have in creating content,” says enough VR headsets in homes, the potential virtual reality films. "Honestly back then I Cowan, describing the genesis of VR City. “I for growth is there to be seen. “The iPhone’s didn't, I had no idea," says Cowan. However, found branded content and youth television year-one sales were 6.2 million. VR headsets two early pieces of VR content that he had wasn't giving me what I wanted anymore. across Oculus, HTC Vive, Google Daydream, experienced had a tremendous impact on him I didn't feel like I was being challenged or Samsung VR are 6.3 million after one year, so and spurred him to make steps into that space. excited, and I enjoyed the idea of being able to it can be spun any number of ways,” he says. "The first thing I watched was a piece of be one of the first. I think that was key. Setting “It’s an exciting road to be on, we just need content called Catatonic. It still lives with me up my production company [East City Films], people to continue to invest in it and it will get to this day," says Cowan, describing the Here we were walking into a 100-year old industry, there.” l

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p10-12,14 VR DTVE MayJun17v4st.indd 14 19/05/2017 17:58 CCAP/CMTS

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p15 Arris DTVE MayJun17.indd 1 19/05/2017 09:47 Technology focus > Cloud TV Digital TV Europe May/June 2017

While cloud TV has long been synonymous with OTT, the use of cloud technology to deliver mainstream pay TV services is growing rapidly. Stuart Thomson considers the significant barriers that remain before all TV can come from the cloud.

Head in the cloud

is now a familiar now containerisation, to allow their products an obvious starting point for cloud technology. Cloud TV term in technology to operate and become optimised for cloud Using cloud infrastructure to deliver IP video circles, but until recently the cloud was largely based infrastructure,” says Steve Plunkett, to tablets and smartphones is increasingly seen the province of OTT TV services, which were CTO, broadcast and media services at Ericsson. as an essential part of delivering any kind of ‘cloud native’, in industry parlance, from “At the same time, cloud infrastructure multiscreen video service. launch. Increasingly, however, mainstream pay providers have introduced better support for Beyond that, however, broadcasters and pay TV operators are looking to the cloud to provide media workloads with more deterministic TV operators are beginning to embrace cloud solutions to some the challenges they face in an performance, GPU support and most recently technology to deliver mainstream pay TV increasingly competitive environment. FPGA support. A period of experimentation services to set-top boxes and TV screens. “Two parallel trends have made the cloud and validation of the technology is now giving “What we are seeing now is a strong push a viable and preferable location for many way to large scale usage.” from some large service providers to reduce cost video processing tasks. First the vendor For pay TV operators – and over-the-air and have more flexibility and a more IT-centric community has embraced virtualisation, and broadcasters –delivery of multiscreen services is headend, and also to leverage virtualisation

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p16-17,20-22 Cloud TV DTVE MayJun17v5st.indd 16 19/05/2017 16:32 Digital TV Europe Technology focus > Cloud TV May/June 2017

Cloud technology means headends can be EdgeConneX, a US based provider that also located in large data centres. has a point of presence in Amsterdam. “What that means is that they are targeting associated with moving away from legacy the service providers as anchor tenants. If you infrastructure. One such opportunity is to have a cable TV system in a mid-size city it is deliver more content to users by integrating one thing doing video processing in the cloud OTT TV services with mainstream TV and having to locate your infrastructure 500km offerings. Another is to deliver personalised away. But if there is a data centre [nearby] and advertising to consumers – something that has you have rack space there, and a cloud provider captured the imagination of service providers is renting rack space in that same facility, and in the US, where cable advertising has always you are moving data from your network to been big business. the public cloud and back, at that point it gets very interesting to look at using public cloud infrastructure,” he says. Grubb says that as Public versus private cloud companies like EdgeConneX build out these facilities, operators can combine using them Service providers face a number of important with a public cloud provider like Microsoft or choices. One is whether to make the leap to an AWS or Google Cloud. ‘all-cloud’ delivery architecture in one go or to “In the world of VOD, with offline make the transition in stages, adopting a hybrid processing, you need to be able to transcode approach that combines broadcast technology into multiple formats to create an asset to with cloud-based delivery of multiscreen and deliver to subscribers and that is perfect for on-demand services. Another is whether to the public cloud. You need to spin up a lot [of build their own ‘private cloud’ or use public processing capability] to do the transcoding and cloud infrastructure. then that gives you a catalogue of videos for the David Grubb, chief technology officer month,” he says. of cloud business at TV distribution and For live video, on the other hand, the amount broadband technology provider Arris, says that of traffic operators are moving is very large so major operators are increasingly looking to it tends to make sense to have the processing build their own private cloud infrastructure to happen inside their own network. deliver their TV services. “Private cloud can seem like an attractive “We see a lot of adoption of the cloud as a option and a comfortable first step for technology platform by large service providers, organisations that have concerns about public meaning that they build their own cloud. cloud. The compromise is that with private There are benefits from adopting the cloud-as- cloud, a lot of the benefits of cloud migration technology-platform approach,” says Grubb. are limited or not applicable. Companies will “For live video in particular, the amount of see the benefits of virtualised computing, but traffic you are moving is very large so it tends miss out on a truly pay-as-you-go model and to make sense to have the processing happen the massive economies of scale that cloud inside your own network.” providers such as AWS can offer,” says Kiran Grubb says that the choice is not based Patel, solution marketing manager, cloud and on a simple calculation of the relative cost of delivery products, AWS Elemental. buying or renting server space, but on a range Nagra’s Trudelle says that for larger players and more software-defined functionality,” says of elements including the cost of interconnect the transition to cloud-based processing is Simon Trudelle, of TV technology provider arrangements and the amount of traffic that likely to involve building their own data centre, Nagra. For Trudelle, the push to embrace the operators are looking to move. As a result, he embracing capital expenditure to create a cloud comes first from a desire to control costs says that Arris has not seen much adoption of wholly-owned asset rather than operational more efficiently – especially at a time when pay third-party cloud infrastructure by its service expenditure to rent space from a third-party. TV providers are under pressure from those provider customers, although the costs of Operators can then use these facilities to deliver ‘cloud-native’ OTT TV providers. connectivity are going down over time. broadcast channels or IP unicast streams. There are also supply side factors at work. While many service providers are looking “One of the benefits of public cloud like AWS Vendors – including Nagra – are also looking to build their own private infrastructure, and other smaller regional players is that they to embrace cloud technology and virtualisation. Grub does see a move, especially in the US, have managed to tie together all the key stacks While the desire to reduce costs is a key factor for third-party providers to build data centres that make it possible to take a service up to in driving uptake of cloud technology, there closer to the edge of access networks. He speed rapidly,” says Trudelle. “That is attractive is also potential for business opportunities cites the example of edge data centre provider in terms of time to market and reliability. For

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p16-17,20-22 Cloud TV DTVE MayJun17v5st.indd 17 19/05/2017 16:32 pXX TiVo DTVE MayJun17.indd 1 17/05/2017 10:27 Q&A: Charles Dawes, TiVo

Charles Dawes, senior director, international marketing at TiVo, talks about the future of content discovery and unveils findings from the company’s latest consumer research.

It’s now one year since the combination of Rovi and TiVo was platform, we can be sure that mass adoption in the entertainment announced to create the new TiVo. What has changed in terms of the discovery space is on the way. Our research shows that users doing four company’s overall proposition in that time? or more voice searches per week are growing whereas those doing less It’s been a year since we announced we were bringing the two companies than four are falling, indicating consumers are starting to embrace it as together and just over eight months since we started the integration to a great way to search. form one of the world’s leading entertainment technology providers. Key to having a successful deployment of voice search that moves From a proposition side, you can see a continued focus on the product beyond a simple title or actor-based query is that the solution has access side of our business, bringing together best-in-class solutions from both to a system like TiVo’s Knowledge Graph. With TiVo’s Knowledge Graph, companies to better serve our customers. consumers are able to gain access to a service based on a real-time Since the start of the year, we’ve seen some key launches here in understanding of the way content is related to other content, taking into Europe, including Vodafone Spain rolling out the latest TiVo User account various aspects, such as celebrities, place, locations, the news Experience with Network DVR and supporting access to 4k content. and what’s relevant and trending right now. All of this works together to We also launched our new Studio, Broadcast and Network Metadata deliver an exceptional, intuitive user experience that today’s consumers Packages and announced Turner EMEA going live as the first commercial expect. customer. What key trends are highlighted by your most recent TiVo consumer What principles underlie your recently launched Metadata Packages research and how will that feed into your own product development? for Studios, Broadcasters and Networks and how can they make TV TiVo spends a lot of time doing research so that it can really understand shows and movies more easily discoverable? how the consumer is changing with relation to content discovery as The companies that produce and distribute content are facing an ever their environment changes and new services are launched. In the last more complex set of challenges as they look to both distribute their year, we’ve uncovered the alarming new trend of ‘show dumping’, where content to multiple endpoints to how that content is discovered once it consumers give up on shows they love because it becomes too costly is delivered. At TiVo, we have many years of experience with managing or difficult to continue to watch them. We observed a global average of and distributing complex metadata to multiple endpoints so it makes 37% of people in our study having experienced this. sense for broadcasters to leverage those skills. We’ve also seen some interesting results in our latest quarterly survey We’re also finding that companies want to monetise their back of North American pay TV customers. One of these is around sports catalogue, but this can be challenging if the metadata associated to the discovery. TiVo has launched sports metadata packages that are aimed programming doesn’t have all the attributes that a modern search and at helping the consumer discover content. However, in the realm of recommendation system requires. Again, TiVo can use its vast experience actually viewing content, we saw an interesting new dynamic emerge to provide a modern level of coverage for the back catalogue too. around viewership for American Football. In a season where the media heavily reported a downturn in viewing, we found that 18.2% of people What impact are you seeing from voice-enabled search and the said they were watching less NFL. When asked about why they watched application of artificial intelligence to content discovery? less, almost 50% of people who answered ‘other’ cited ‘politics’ as their 2017 really is the year that voice-enabled search has come of age. With reason. Had this been a category of its own, it would have been the fifth European operators like Sky deploying the latest generation of semantic, most cited reason – showing people really like sports for the sports and natural language based voice search as a key function of its premium not necessarily anything else.

pXX TiVo Q&A MayJun17.indd 1 18/05/2017 10:03 Technology focus > Cloud TV Digital TV Europe May/June 2017

BBC iPlayer dghjkdsgkhskjhkdhkjdshfgjk Vendors including Nagra are enabling cloud hsdjk fhsdjkfghksdfngjdfjhkg dkdfg kjhjk delivery to support multiscreen TV.

will itself evolve, and he says that broadcasters are already embracing the concept of the virtualised headend. “If you look at our encoder partners they have embraced the cloud clearly and are migrating broadcast headends to the cloud so that they benefit from virtualisation. It is part of the transition,” he says. The advantages of cloud-based headends are well-documented. “Traditionally, headend infrastructure did not change very fast and that was OK as broadcast and video consumption did not change very fast either,” says Patel. those who don‘t have a lot of cloud expertise high-speed data business. They are building “Over the past 10 years, the growth and diversity it makes sense. For larger service providers high-speed distribution networks and it makes of devices and the faster pace of improvement and those that have footprint and an appetite sense to carry their own traffic on that network. in technology as well as completely new for capex the question is more about whether In general service providers are building CDNs technology mean that installing a traditional or not you want to write a cheque to Google on their own internal networks, whether for inflexible headend with a seven to 10 year or Amazon or someone else. Those operators live or on demand. They can also now offer expectation to get a return on investment is not are more likely to consider building their own CDN services to the OTT providers,” he says. feasible anymore. Software and cloud-based data centre and virtualised infrastructure, while architecture allows operators to maintain the making sure at the same time that they can high availability and resiliency that is essential also use public cloud providers at peak times of The headend for broadcast and add scale and flexibility to demand for content.” ensure they keep up with the market.” Other vendors have observed that, as cloud- Nagra’s Trudelle says that some operators Tom Munro, CEO of content security based delivery of TV services moves to centre have decided to take the leap and migrate their outfit Verimatrix, says that hosting headend stage, services providers are also increasingly entire delivery infrastructure to the cloud, while infrastructure in the cloud “enables you to scale building their own content delivery networks others have decided to make the shift in a more and turn up capabilities for events such as the rather than relying on third-party providers. evolutionary way. Olympics” and provides helpful failover and “Our customers are building their own “You have some larger cable or satellite redundancy capabilities. He adds that using CDNs – by their nature some are very large operators that see the benefits of the cloud, but the cloud does have security implications. “You companies and some are a lot smaller,” says Richard Brandon, chief marketing officer at CDN technology outfit Edgeware. “They are “For live video in particular, the amount doing it for quality reasons, because they want to reduce buffering and latency for live sports. of traffic you are moving is very large so it Live has become more important. Companies tends to make sense to have the processing spend so much on sports content.” However, as sports coverage moves to higher happen inside your own network.” resolution video, including HD and ultimately David Grubb, Arris 4K, latency issues associated with cloud delivery and adaptive bit-rate processing are only going sell a lot of linear TV that people appreciate. need additional security wrapping. We have to get worse. Migrating channel line-ups from They say ‘we have great broadcast infrastructure moved antipiracy detection tools to the cloud.” SD to HD online means that service bills are in place that can upgraded to support 4K and Munro says that operators that ‘go cloud’ likely to increase. “4K is scaring people who new formats and that is a smarter approach’. It are to some extent choosing operational over may need to quadruple their CDN service bill,” is about integrating the best that the cloud and capital expenditure. They also need to consider says Brandon. IP can deliver while taking advantage of the the cost of storage in the cloud and the cost Arris’s Grubb agrees that building their own existing broadcast infrastructure and using that of delivering content over CDNs. “Things are CDN makes sense for access network service to deliver linear channels,” he says. “For the tilting in favour of the cloud but it’s not the providers. “When you get to the delivery to the vast majority of players, especially large cable general answer to every problem,” he says. devices people want to use their own networks operators, it will be done step-by-step.” While ‘going cloud’ can mean pushing costs for that delivery function. It is about cost. Trudelle says that “this doesn’t mean that away from capex to opex, the technology can The reality is that service providers are in the broadcast will be static”. Broadcast technology also help reduce operating expenses. Arris’s

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p16-17,20-22 Cloud TV DTVE MayJun17v5st.indd 20 19/05/2017 16:32 Digital TV Europe Technology focus > Cloud TV May/June 2017

Grubb believes that, while operators want to Cloud technology has initially been used for move away from buying dedicated equipment OTT services. to a software-centric world where delivery software can be deployed in a virtual headend, enabling operators to develop sophisticated they nevertheless want to retain control of consumer-facing applications much more their own virtual infrastructure. The real cost easily and flexibly than has hitherto been savings for operators are, he says, operational the case. Such applications include targeted rather than in terms of capital expenditure. advertising, network DVR and delivering “If I have three headends and I need a dozen elements of the user interface from the cloud, different appliances for each, and then all the among others. spares for each of those, [compare that with] a private cloud model where you have two or three data centres with the same hardware,” Applications The nice thing about the IP CDN model is that he says. “When one thing fails you can put in each client session, even for live TV, is unicast a new one and you don’t need to worry about “Operators are building parallel networks. You so you can advertise targeted to individuals having the right kind of appliance for this type have a broadcast network and people want to in that world,” says Grubb, who believes that of building. Also you need less training.” consume video on other devices. You build a advertising will be a key application in driving While the cloud-based headend can help network that supports multiscreen. There are adoption of the technology – at least in the US. operators become more efficient, at least in new features you could turn on like network Cloud delivery can radically simplify the theory, the cloud can also play a key role in DVR, time-shift or advertising capabilities. process of inserting adverts into streams, removing the need for expensive MPEG- aware video splicers. And in the US, targeted Cable & IPTV operators look to the cloud advertising is seen a potential goldmine for operators and broadcasters alike. The ability to Broadcast technology has been around a They provide high-speed DOCSIS connectivity deliver targeted advertising is a key objective of long time, with good reason. It remains the to homes, and it is more cost-effective to have the ATSC 3.0 standard for advanced over-the- most straightforward and cost-effective way an OTT TV headend that enables them to air TV services. to reach a mass audience. For all the talk of quickly add more channels,” says Eisenberg. The need to deliver personalised or targeted the advantages of the cloud, it may take some IPTV providers are also inclined to move advertising has yet to gain as much importance time to persuade sitting providers to put straight to OTT TV – particularly, he says, to outside the US, but it could do so in the their trust in anything other than dedicated reach potential subscribers that are out of future, particularly as consumption patterns hardware. the reach of managed network video delivery. – especially among the young – begin to shift In assessing the future of cloud-based Some operators are using OTT TV technology ever more rapidly and traditional advertising delivery and the timetable for the decline to deliver a service to low-bandwidth legacy revenues decline. of traditional broadcast, Shan Eisenberg, ADSL networks, or to extend their reach to “Recent market research reports that 40% commercial director at France-based cloud potential subscribers on third-party networks. of consumers prefer ads related to products TV technology provider Netgem, believes a “It is much easier to justify a new and services that cater to their interests and clear distinction should be drawn between investment for a new opportunity rather about the same percentage are blocking ads the various legacy distribution technologies than replace an existing investment,” says altogether. Personalising ads can increase the – digital-terrestrial broadcast, satellite Eisenberg. value of the overall video streaming experience. broadcast, cable and IPTV. However, he says, established IPTV players And getting them to the user can allow for “What we see, at least in the large digital- are also using cloud delivery to enhance more efficient monetisation,” says Patel. terrestrial broadcast markets, is that there rather than replace their offering. This Nevertheless, little has happened so far to is no cost-effective way of using the cloud to is true, for example in the case of hybrid convince European operators in particular replace cost-effective broadcast technology deployments combining OTT TV delivery that there is a big business opportunity in for major broadcasters such as the BBC,” says of some services with digital-terrestrial advertising. That could of course change as Eisenberg. broadcast channels. The use of cloud service providers become more prominent In the case of cable, on the other hand, technology can enable operators to more players in delivering a sophisticated user larger players are likely to continue to use easily provide services such as enhanced experience around linear channels. traditional cable broadcast technology and search and recommendation, as well as “I do think it has the potential to be a much look to deliver video-on-demand over IP. varying the user interface according to more powerful driver because it is a new However, smaller operators may move directly region and preference. The cloud also revenue source. Every service provider has from traditional analogue cable to delivering enables operators to gather deep data the same challenge of getting new subscriber video services over OTT TV. “A lot of operators how their customers are viewing and using dollars. Content costs are going up, and video are considering using cloud IP-based delivery. content. service providers are seeing their margins squeezed,” says Grubb.

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p16-17,20-22 Cloud TV DTVE MayJun17v5st.indd 21 19/05/2017 16:32 Technology focus > Cloud TV Digital TV Europe May/June 2017

While advertising has yet to make its case in using a shared infrastructure such as the public Significant challenges remain. Europe, cloud DVR is a key application. cloud,” says Plunkett. “However, the cloud For Arris’ Grubb, migration to an all-cloud “DVR is an excellent use case for the cloud. does provide flexibility and usage based pricing infrastructure is likely to be relatively slow. Set-top box storage is more expensive to deploy, that makes experimentation, event based “The wholesale replacement of the TV maintain and upgrade for platform operators, channels and disaster recovery more viable with unicast requires a very large amount of and consumers who are used to having multi- and affordable. To fully embrace the cloud bandwidth. It is not something you could do device access to catch-up and VOD content for live linear requires a different approach to overnight in terms of provisioning that amount become frustrated by the lack of remote access schedule management, workflow and the use of capacity on the network,” he says. “The things to local DVR storage. Deploying the DVR of compressed unicast transport.” that cause it to take time are network capacity and also the other challenge is the legacy set- tops in people’s homes today. They tend to have “Our feeling is the driver will be how a long useful life and service providers tend not to want to disrupt happy customers. If you are consumers access content and what they happy with how things work and the service expect from different screens.” provider comes along and says it needs to put a new box in your house, that is an opportunity for the consumer to churn.” Simon Trudelle, Nagra For Grubb, the often-mentioned goal of enabling operators to dispense with set-tops functionality solves both of these problems comes with a serious health warning for simultaneously by storing user recordings Live experience operators. “What you find at the end of the day in cloud storage where remote access can be is that, if service providers provide a set-top, more easily and securely provisioned,” says Delivering a compelling live experience via they have a known delivery environment for Ericsson’s Plunkett. the cloud also remains challenging, especially their experiences, whether the user interface One of the hurdles to implementation of in the case of time-critical content such as live is cloud-rendered or in the box. You can cloud DVR is the regulatory restriction in some sport. Paul Larbey, head of the video business guarantee the quality that comes out. The other markets on shared copies of programmes. This unit at Nokia, says that implementing adaptive thing is that the set-top box detaches service is a major issue in the US, but is also a problem bit-rate-based live TV creates a significant lag innovation from consumer buying cycles for to a greater or lesser degree in other markets. between live broadcast and the ABR ‘near TV sets. You wouldn’t what to launch a service There are technologies emerging that help live’ stream, which is particularly problematic that means consumers have to buy a new TV. make applications such as private copy cloud for live sports events and other time-sensitive There is friction involved in box-less delivery DVR more economic, such as ‘skim storage’ programmes. “It is a huge lag, if you are that doesn’t really make sense,” he says. from Nokia, incorporating ‘just-in-time’ in a MDU, you can hear what’s happening For now, both marketing knowledge and raw packaging and transcoding. However, allowing in neighbours’ homes,” he says. Nokia has economic facts seem to play against a wholesale operators to share copies of programmes focused on reducing latency through “taking a switch to the cloud for all applications in all between multiple users would have a dramatic holistic view [and] fine-tuning the CDN from circumstances. impact on the cost of delivering a service. beginning to end”, he says. The goal is not only “There’s the cost of CDN infrastructure, In addition to advertising and DVR, to reduce the latency of live broadcasts but to that, if not properly optimised, could be an the cloud will also help service providers solve the problem of slow start-up time and issue. Operators are very pragmatic in the understand what, where and how their channel change associated with ABR streams. short term. They know they have to deliver live customers consume content. “You will better The use of multicast technology could capabilities. The big question that comes up is understand what people consume and what improve the live ABR experience, and Nagra’s whether or not it makes sense to go fully ABR their preferences are, which will become more Trudelle says that the technology to enable this either with unicast, or multicast plus unicast,” and more important and will be used in rights is moving closer to becoming reality. “As the says Trudelle. “Is there a tipping point? We negotiations,” says Trudelle. “Operators will be technology evolves, we are not that far from IP are conducting research to see if there is an able to negotiate deals with an understanding multicast streams, and efficient delivery of live economic driver that would justify a big switch of what people like and watch.” events to large audiences that can also feed into or if it’s something that will happen step by The use of the cloud to enable key better catch-up and VOD services,” he says. step. It is hard to predict and not black and applications is progressing. However the “I think there is appetite for doing more and white. There’s no magic shift that could change wholesale replacement of existing broadcast more live events. I would say that unicast ABR the dynamics. The cost of CDNs is going infrastructure and the delivery of all video via makes it possible, with some latency issues.” down 10-15% a year, potentially making it more the cloud is something for the future. “Unlike Beyond the ability to deliver specific live TV attractive. Some content delivered over broadcast file based, non-linear content processing and services from the cloud is that ultimate goal of could shift to IP and consumers wouldn’t see a delivery, live linear TV is a relatively steady state moving the entire video delivery system to the difference. Our feeling is the driver will be how 24/7 application. This significantly reduces the cloud. Could the use of ABR technology enable consumers access content and what they expect savings and other benefits that can be derived all video to be cloud-delivered ultimately? from different screens.” l

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p16-17,20-22 Cloud TV DTVE MayJun17v5st.indd 22 19/05/2017 16:32 Perfecting the Media Experience

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pXX AWS Elemental DTVE MayJun17.indd 1 17/05/2017 10:08 Technology focus > DOCSIS 3.1 Digital TV Europe May/June 2017

Full speed ahead Advances in DOCSIS technology can help cable squeeze more life out of HFC networks, but how do the costs and benefits stack up for operators? Adrian Pennington reports.

global IP traffic expected to amplifiers and cable modems, which are 2018, according to CTO Thomas Helbo. With grow at a rate of 22% to 2020, already available,” says Nik Dimitrakopoulos, Helbo intimates that the operator doesn’t to effectively accommodate ever-growing market segment manager audio and video, see much consumer demand for even higher bandwidth demands cable operators are Rohde & Schwarz. “Furthermore, DOCSIS speeds, but fibre providers have been ramping investing heavily in their existing hybrid fibre 3.1 utilises the frequency spectrum much up their advertising to boast of greater speeds, coaxial (HFC) networks and in new fibre more efficiently than its predecessors thus and that has forced their cable competitor’s networks. reducing the cost per-bit transmitted in the hand. The Data Over Cable Service Interface households.” “The bandwidth that customers are actually Specification is the industry’s long-term Several MSOs are beginning to deploy using and that which the market is asking for initiative aimed at incrementally increasing DOCSIS 3.1 in earnest. These include Cox are two very different requirements,” he says. data carriage capabilities over coax. Version Communications, Rogers Communications, “We currently have 1Gbps downstream on 3.1’s core promise is to provide 10Gbps Liberty Global, Charter Communications and DOCSIS 3.1. It’s not very high profile and not downstream (10 times faster than the previous Shaw at various stages of planning, testing or something we’ve promoted to customers but version) and 1Gbps upstream. in commercial deployment. it is available for when we need it.” Although multi-service operators can For Swedish operator Com Hem it is a “high Liberty Global meanwhile plans to have develop networks based on optical fibre to the priority”. Following its CCAP (Converged DOCSIS 3.1 up and running by the end of the premises (FTTP), the majority are currently Cable Access Platform) rollout, the Swedish year. Virgin Media in the UK, for example, focused on deploying DOCSIS 3.1. MSO is testing DOCSIS 3.1 to a few thousand has already begun its DOCSIS 3.1 rollout. It’s “This requires minimal investment and customers and will begin a “massive scale” worth noting that Virgin Media’s £3 billion works with proven technology such as CMTS, rollout by end of the year for completion in (e3.5 billion) Project Lightning network

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p24-27 Docsis DTVE MayJun17v4st.indd 24 19/05/2017 16:35 Digital TV Europe Technology focus > DOCSIS 3.1 May/June 2017

expansion, which aims to cover around 60- where most cables are buried,” says Cornel don’t put any amplifiers between the node 65% of UK homes and businesses by the end Ciocirlan, CTO EMEA at Arris. and the home), Remote PHY or Remote MAC of 2019, includes about two million premises “It’s not a forklift upgrade,” says Belal PHY, Remote PHY shelf, RFoG, Node PON, that will be covered via FTTP technology. Hamzeh, VP of wireless technologies at cable EPON and GPON, and so on. Virgin Media will maintain compatibility industry technology standards organisation According to Ciocirlan, MSOs will pace with DOCSIS by using the Radio Frequency CableLabs. “We developed the technology their rollout based on how subscriber over Glass/RFoG technology developed to be backwards-compatible so that MSOs usage evolves and the availability of capital to enable operators to roll out fibre while can pre-seed a network, with DOCSIS 3.1 investment. Some operators plan to spend as providing broadband from a unified headend modems which will operate with 3.0. Right much as US$1 billion (e900 million) in each infrastructure. now, operators are focused on 3.1.” of the next few years to address the demand “We’ll do most of the networks in 2018 and Arris’ SB8200 modem, (which Comcast they are experiencing, Arris suggests. that will come with the first 1Gbps services in and Cox have approved), for example, will Arris highlights a number of pressing the majority of our markets,” Colin Buechner, support both DOCSIS 3.0 and 3.1, enabling factors impacting MSO decision-making. managing director at Liberty’s Access Network MSOs to build momentum by deploying These include headend capacity – where division told Cable Congress in March. them in existing networks. space, power and other facility considerations One of those markets is Germany, where “For many operators, the shift from 3.0 to constrain the ability to add more equipment, Liberty Global subsidiary Unitymedia has 3.1 represents a change not only in the protocol operators have two choices: seek denser more begun a DOCSIS 3.1 rollout starting in the city of Bochum. However, Liberty Global SVP and CTO Balan Nair has said that the “DOCSIS 3.1 utilises the frequency spectrum firm will initially target higher-end customers with the service, due to the current high costs much more efficiently than its predecessors.” of DOCSIS 3.1-based consumer premises equipment (CPE). Stefan Vanhastel, head of marketing for fixed networks at Nokia also says that Nik Dimitrakopoulos, Rohde & Schwarz upgrades involve hidden costs. “DOCSIS 3.1 requires many components to get to 10Gbps, itself, but in the approach to architecting power efficient solutions or move capabilities including spectrum availability or frequency their entire DOCSIS delivery chain – from and functionality into the outside plant. This extensions up to 204MHz upstream and the headend to the outside plant and home is one of the cases for Remote PHY. 1.2GHz for the downstream channel – with gateway components,” says Ciocirlan. Economics is also a factor. Capex and opex further possible expansion to 1.8 GHz in Operators are choosing from a number costs come into play as operators replace old some cases – as well as potentially substantial of new approaches based on the nature equipment (nodes, amplifiers, and headend infrastructure upgrades to realise the highest of their deepening fibre deployments and equipment) and move to support 1.2GHz coding efficiencies. As a result, we see many their desire to make more efficient use of and 85MHz return expansion. Where this cases of gradual introduction and maybe the headend facilities. Arris claims to have a requires new equipment and truck rolls, it full benefits will require a move to a different unique perspective on the aggregate decisions creates an imperative to minimise the number architecture.” that these operators face, due to its work in of times outside plant has to be accessed while At the RF layer there is a major shift to DOCSIS 3.1 deployments and the success of making service groups smaller to cope with OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division its E6000 CCAP platform. the increased bandwidth demands. Multiplexing) signal technology on both In the case of greenfield rollouts, it makes the upstream and downstream frequencies economic sense to put in FTTH from day one, and multiple profile support within a single Network evolution especially as replacing coax to a home with downstream channel. fibre can cost as much€ as 900 per home “These changes bring new testing “Our operator customers look to us for passed. PON becomes the logical choice here, requirements across the whole eco-chain evolutionary pathways that enable them to especially when the system can still support of DOCSIS 3.1 from network operators, to make full use of their HFC plant and fibre DPOE (the DOCSIS spec for cable modem CATV amplifier makers as well as cable deployments, while building on their installed provisioning at the headend). Similarly, for modem and chipset manufacturers,” says base of E6000s and their outside plant,” says urban multi-dwelling units where fibre can Dimitrakopoulos, all of which is adding cost. Ciocirlan. “One of the biggest challenges be pulled past a high density of subscriber Arris disagrees with this analysis, however. we see is that there is no one decision path dwelling units, PON may be more efficient “The economics of migration are not driven to choose from that is expected to reach the from a capacity and cost perspective. by the economics of the kit itself but the cost market in the next few years.” Depending on the socio-economics of of construction and replacement of cable if In other words, operators will choose neighbourhoods, pulling the intelligent, required to dig it up and replace with fibre. different approaches, including HFC with expensive components back into the That cost can be astronomical in Europe Node+0 splits (fibre deep HFC networks that secured environments and using lower-cost

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p24-27 Docsis DTVE MayJun17v4st.indd 25 19/05/2017 16:35 Technology focus > DOCSIS 3.1 Digital TV Europe May/June 2017

outside plant systems can allow operators investment to operators.” operators can continue to invest in technology to manage failures and loss while offering Part of that equation will be based on value that extends the life of their existing network similar traffic and service level performance. for money, not just the number of Gigabits, and simultaneously prioritize the deployment Operators’ range of approaches will also be which has recently dominated network of technologies like DOCSIS 3.1 and R-PHY impacted by silicon availability, finalisation of investments. based on where they’re feeling the most specifications, and levels of testing required to “Service quality is becoming a competitive pressure from customers or other providers.” verify deployment capabilities. advantage for operators in addition to Harmonic’s software-based CableOS “In many cases, the transition from sufficient transmission speeds,” says Narjus. solution addresses these challenges “by one stage to the next can be accomplished “To achieve better service quality, operators enabling the migration to gigabit capacity with simple software upgrades, permitting need to deploy solutions that will improve while also providing the benefits associated the operator to activate the change in a network operation overall. Such solutions with distributed access architecture, in convenient, cost-effective fashion,” says include proactive network maintenance and addition to immediate virtualisation Ciocirlan. “This enables operators to select devices using intelligent HFC technology.” advantages for centralised deployments”, says their ideal architecture as they look to support Matatyaou. multi-gigabit data services and migrate from Arris, Cisco and other vendors will want to continue selling CCAP equipment but there is an alternative to R-PHY. This is to use a virtual “Cable operators can continue to invest CCAP device that is also designed to push many of the functions of a DOCSIS-powered in technology that extends the life of their cable network closer to the network edge. existing network.” The goal is to miniaturise and virtualise the functions of a CCAP chassis so that more of the cable network can be software-controlled, Asaf Matatyaou, Harmonic and operators can save both space and power in the headend. QAM to IP video services without having to Nokia is pursuing this approach via make massive changes to their provisioning Remote PHY Gainspeed, a US start-up it acquired last year. and headend systems.” “We have a strong believe that the economics The fundamentals of technology “In practice, the only real options for fixed are not sustainable based on a centralised deployments may not have changed. FTTP broadband networks today are fibre [FTTP] architecture and that cable operators will still means high investment costs, but is and cable [including DOCSIS 3.1 and Remote require a move to distributed architectures,” economically competitive for new networks. PHY], and it is difficult to see how supporting says Vanhastel. “We are working hard with Cable upgrades offer lower deployment costs multiple technologies simultaneously would the standards committee at CableLabs toward in areas with completed infrastructure, and be a rational path to take for the majority standards which we think will be ready end of arguably their capacity potential make them of operators,” says Narjus. “However, the year with potential to trial early 2018.” competitive for years to come. situation changes when we are talking about Nokia’s unified cable access solution In certain countries, a pending analogue the last mile of the network. In future, we will leverages Software Defined Networking (SDN) TV shutdown may also increase the capacity see networks with a fibre backbone and, for techniques to virtualise the CCAP, completely of existing DOCSIS networks and this has example, the last mile in coax. We will also see eliminating what it terms ‘Big Iron’ hardware already made some operators postpone their versatile options and technologies for last mile from the headend and delivering a sevenfold network upgrades, according to network network implementations.” reduction in rack space and an eightfold solutions provider Teleste. “On the other Remote PHY is one option in the spectrum reduction in power comsumption. hand, many consumers may still be willing of functionality an operator can put into remote The solution also replaces legacy analogue to pay for services like FM radio,” says SVP nodes. It pushes more intelligence deeper into optical transmission with 10Gbps Ethernet of network products, Hanno Narjus. “Fibre the network while a central CCAP platform and supports both last mile access for both is the future of networks in the long run, and performs the higher layer processing. CCAP cable and fibre. fibre networks can also carry DVB-C based TV and R-PHY both have the benefits of lowering Nokia says Gainspeed’s cable access delivery. However, operators need to consider capex and opex for operators and making the products are designed from the ground up how to provide their customers with reliable, network more efficient. to support DOCSIS 3.0 and DOCSIS 3.1 and high-performing broadband services today. “While DOCSIS 3.1 allows cable operators the approach is “particularly well suited” to The investments will be determined by which to better compete [with rival operators] implementing Full-Duplex DOCSIS. services customers are willing to pay and on speed, it lives up to its true potential Moreover, Nokia Bell Labs has already how much they are willing to pay. Eventually, when complemented by a remote PHY demonstrated, via a proof of concept in 2016, consumers will decide which services they deployment,” says Asaf Matatyaou, VP of that providing 10Gbps symmetrical services want, and those decisions will affect which solutions and product management for the over HFC networks is a real possibility for technologies will bring reasonable returns on cable edge business at Harmonic. “Cable operators.

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p24-27 Docsis DTVE MayJun17v4st.indd 26 19/05/2017 16:35 Digital TV Europe Technology focus > DOCSIS 3.1 May/June 2017

Rohde & Schwarz provides equipment to test looking to the future for a symmetric service DOCSIS systems. tier will be able to offer it,” says Hamzeh. DOCSIS 3.1 and Full Duplex DOCSIS hold yet seem to be important to consumers today. out the promise of keeping cable competitive, “We see growth downstream of 40-50% a but there are alternative broadband year and below 10% in upstream traffic,” notes technologies – not least 5G, which could serve Com Hem’s Helbo. “While services don’t yet as a fixed-line substitute. require it there is a need in the market to “MSOs will have to make a judgement claim you have symmetrical speed so you can about the merits of fibre, cable and 5G when be ready when demand does come.” it comes to bandwidth and quality of service Com Hem will begin the first phase in different cases. 5G can give you faster of installing FDX in 2018. Virgin Media time to market, since you don’t have to dig reportedly has this timeframe in mind too. up the street, but fixed may well give you an Full Duplex Rather than requiring a cable system order of magnitude in terms of speed,” says to separate spectrum dedicated to the Hans Slabbinck, product line manager, MSO DOCSIS 3.1 is considered a necessary downstream and the upstream with a access, Nokia. first step toward bringing data-hungry traditional ‘split,’ FDX will enable dual-use While 5G will probably emerge as a technologies such as augmented reality, bands for traffic that runs in both directions. substiture for fixed line access in rural areas, UHD 4K television, ‘tele-existence’, medical FDX will also require an N+0, passive it will also require backhaul over fibre, and imaging and advanced gaming systems to network, which fits in with the plans of some as CableLabs’ Hamzeh points out, wireless cable customers. operators to pull fibre deeper and remove the can still be subject to bad weather and The evolution of this, Full Duplex DOCSIS active amplifiers present between the node obstructions. (FDX) is a bit further away and will require a and the home. “You have to keep in mind it’s not like fibre total rework of network topology. Development “Today, there is no critical need for a or wireline is standing still,” says Hamzeh. of Full Duplex is also slowed down by the fact symmetric tier since traffic is much heavier “We are still developing and pushing higher that symmetrical transmission speeds don’t on the downstream than upstream but MSOs capacity to the end user.” l

p24-27 Docsis DTVE MayJun17v4st.indd 27 19/05/2017 16:35 ANGA COM 2017 > Preview Digital TV Europe May/June 2017

ANGA COM 2017: the preview The ANGA COM exhibition and conference takes place in Cologne from May 30-June 2. Digital TV Europe takes a look at some of the technologies that will be on show.

F/BNC connector-based solution multicast ABR makes live HTTP ATX with patented make-before-break video delivery to any device iWedia STAND 7.A11 attenuation feature. ATX’s UCrypt scalable by turning broadband STAND 8.S72 IP to PAL (IP2PAL) mini headend gateways, cable modems, Wi-Fi is designed for conversion of routers, or STBs into active WHAT’S NEW? IP video streams to PAL in a components of an operator’s Upgrade of Teatro CI host space-efficient and cost-effective content delivery infrastructure, software manner, according to the says the company. Leveraging WHAT DOES IT DO? WHAT’S NEW? company. This device can ingest home networks, operators can iWedia has upgraded its Teatro 1.2GHz RF management, IP to PAL up to 60 MPEG-2/H.264, HD/SD manage the consumption peaks CI Host Software towards CI Plus mini-headend, satellite/TV/radio video streams and convert them of live multiscreen services for 1.4 compliance. With CI Plus 1.4.2, offerings to PAL. ATX recently acquired millions of simultaneous viewers pay TV operators can now offer WHAT DO THEY DO? Pico Digital, a manufacturer using only a few Mbps, according a Conditional Access Module ATX is highlighting several new of solutions for TV and radio to Broadpeak. The company (CAM) on which the operator products and is also participating including video encoders, satellite will show ‘zero latency’ for live can store its own HbbTV 2 User in a panel discussion covering to cable, satellite to IP, and mini streaming. The solution delivers Interface and application, and “DOCSIS 3.1 Performance CMTS. The Condor Headend the same latency experienced which supports delivery of video Utilising Hybrid Analogue DWDM system is an all-digital CATV in IPTV to live multiscreen services over IP (unicast OTT Transmitters”. ATX is offering a solution consisting of a set- ABR streaming, according to or multicast managed IPTV), host of optical transport solutions top box platform and headend Broadpeak. With nanoCDN and multi-stream management (powered by InnoTrans) focused broadcast system. ATX is also multicast ABR, operators can for dual tuner configurations. on enabling operators to deliver displaying Pico Digital’s PD1600 also deliver live HTTP TV services In its version giving support to more capacity into their existing mini headend. The PD1600 via satellite. nanoCDN allows 1.3, Teatro CI Host Software has HFC-based fibre infrastructure, device is capable of interfacing satellite operators to deliver been integrated and deployed while delivering performance with DVB-C, DVB-S/S2, ATSC live and on-demand services to within TV sets and set-top boxes. levels capable of supporting or DVB-T/T2 operators in order tablets, smartphones, connected It has been upgraded to give DOCSIS 3.1. The product offering to ingest, decrypt, transcode TVs, and other OTT devices via full support to 1.4.2 (for both is suited for long haul multi- (optional) and re-transmit video the end-user’s STB. Broadpeak the mandatory and optional wavelength transmission, hub content via IP, QAM, DVB-T, ISDB-T, will demonstrate how its cloud features) and has been pre collapses, node aggregation NTSC or MPEG-DASH/HLS. The PVR solution enables end-users certified on a reference platform and backhaul and RFoG/PON PD1600 device includes content to launch multiple recordings on using the official test suite and deployments, the company says. protection. various channels simultaneously test materials. It is a standalone ATX is also highlighting its new CONTACT www.atxnetworks.com Broadpeak offers all scenarios software component designed ChromaFlex II chassis which for shared copy and private copy and documented to be integrated integrates RF management into Cloud PVR, the company says. within the software of the target the modular optical chassis Broadpeak Using Cloud PVR, operators can device. This component may be to minimise rack space in the STAND 7.E74 deliver a broad range of services, complemented by other software headend. ATX’s CCAP-compliant including start-over, time-shift, components of iWedia’s product MAXNET II and SignalOn modular WHAT’S NEW? and catch-up TV, as well as portfolio and especially with the RF management platforms have nanoCDN demo; cloud PVR; impulsive recording, while only Teatro TV Browser that gives been expanded to 1.218GHz WHAT DO THEY DO? storing content once in cases support to HbbTV 2 and with bandwidth in order to support Broadpeak will highlight zero- where shared copy is allowed. which it is pre-integrated. “CI Plus the complete frequency range of latency for live video streaming Thanks to Broadpeak’s on-the-fly 1.4.2 is a breakthrough for pay TV DOCSIS 3.1. MAXNET II is an ultra- and HTTP delivery via satellite packaging capability, recorded operators as the enhancements dense, MCX connector-based RF at ANGA COM. The company will content can be processed on it brings allow them to get from a management solution with SNMP/ demonstrate new capabilities demand to be viewed on any CAM the same benefits they used web remote control/monitoring, of its nanoCDN multicast device type, the company says. to get from a STB,” said Hervé while SignalOn is a high-density, ABR technology. nanoCDN CONTACT www.broadpeak.tv Creff, VP marketing at iWedia.

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p28-29 ANGACOM Prev DTVE MayJun17v4am.indd 28 19/05/2017 18:54 Digital TV Europe ANGA COM 2017 > Preview May/June 2017

“The specification will become challenges the migration offers This high-performing node can be in an uncertain and rapidly mandatory in September this to operators. The company turned into a Remote PHY device changing marketspace. At the year and device makers shall get will talk about deployment of by replacing its cover, according show the company will highlight ready for that date. Integrating DOCSIS 3.1 Remote PHY devices, to the company. The node allows the AC9100 Neo and AC9100 Teatro CI Host Software, a robust, taking intelligence deeper into operators to adopt DOCSIS 3.1 Neo RPD. The AC9100 Neo is an reliable, and pre certified software broadband networks, and how frequencies and later migrate to a updated version of its intelligent, component is definitely a secure operators can utilise technology distributed network when further 1.2GHz optical node, the AC9100. way to achieve this objective.” to improve services. It will also capacity increase is needed. It offers the same performance CONTACT www.iwedia.com showcase a wide setting of The node features intelligent and supports future migration to product launches and updates for functionalities, which enable Remote PHY technology. It will HFC networks and headends as operators to improve the quality also showcase the DAN200. This Teleste well as last mile and connected of their services regardless of was designed in co-operation with STAND 7.G31 home. The Remote PHY the chosen network architecture, Casa Systems, and is a DOCSIS technology will offer operators according to Teleste. Teleste will 3.1-compliant Remote PHY node a way to increase capacity also use ANGA COM to address that supports interoperability with by enabling more advanced customer churn factors. At the Casa Systems CCAP CMTS. The modulation methods. However, beginning of 2017, it conducted E3 is the first member of Teleste’s legacy platforms will co-exist a comprehensive research on new, 1.2 GHz product range, the E with the new technologies for churn and the events preceding series, and will also be introduced WHAT’S NEW? years to come, says Teleste, and it. The research offers insight into at the show. Teleste will also show AC9100 Neo the challenge for operators is to what happens before customers DuraAplus+ flyleads and a wide WHAT DOES IT DO? make sure that legacy platforms decide to churn and what range of other HFC products Teleste will focus on the next continue to offer returns on could be done to build up loyal as well as solutions for network steps of cable network evolution investment. Teleste will introduce customers. It also provides useful management, headends and after 1.2GHz network upgrades its new DOCSIS 3.1 Remote PHY- managerial guidelines for cable professional network services. and the opportunities and compliant node, the AC9100 Neo. television executives operating CONTACT www.teleste.com

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p28-29 ANGACOM Prev DTVE MayJun17v4am.indd 29 19/05/2017 18:54 Technology > in focus Digital TV Europe May/June 2017 Technology in focus Infrastructure, equipment and product news for digital media distribution

In Brief ABOX42 showcases smart home bundle

Samsung approves You.i Set-top provider ABOX42 used its or elderly parents with assisted Samsung has approved the You.i presence at last month’s NAB Show Greve: living requirements. Engine video app platform as in Las Vegas to highlight a new operators “You can create over time an app development option for range of smart home solutions that do not want different use cases that can be sold the Tizen TV operating system. it believes will enable operators to complex as separate subscriptions.” The announcement was made market relatively simple bundles to systems. He said that operators could in conjunction with the 2017 subscribers for a modest fee. subsidise the equipment and make Tizen Developer Conference The ABOX42 dotIO operator money from an ongoing subscrip- where Allan Isfan, director smart home solution takes the separate gateway.” tion. Starter packs could be priced of business development for form of a white-label managed Greve said that operators “do at €49 with subscriptions from €10 You.i TV, demonstrated how service including gateways, sensors not want complex systems” with a month, he said, compared with the You.i Engine can provide with various use cases, a big data support for diverse retail products. retail prices in the range of €400- for creators of Tizen TV apps. cloud service and mobile applica- “We deliver the package – oper- 500 for the same equipment. Apps for Samsung Tizen TV are tions. ators prefer end-to-end solutions,” Greve said the ABOX42 platform generally developed using web Speaking to Digital TV Europe he said, adding that operators was “100% secure” and that the technologies like JavaScript and in Las Vegas, ABOX42 CEO Mat- found the smart home market chal- company had “solved all the secu- Samsung also supports Native thias Greve said that the company lenging because of the complexity rity and privacy issues” associated Client (NaCI) – a technology had discussed plans to develop of integrating retail products and with this type of deployment, introduced by Google to enable additional revenue streams with competition from other players in adding that its expertise in pay TV C++ applications to run in a operators. the market. was crucial here. “For the set-top standard browser. “It’s a turnkey solution where What ABOX42 offers is a to be secure is always required for Accenture: TV viewing more popular on non-TV the operator can offer subscription complete system including sensors, pay TV. WiFi routers were never Monaco taps Hubee smart home services,” said Greve. a camera, and motion and smoke built with [high level] security, but Monaco Telecom has tapped “Some want to combine a set-top detectors that can support applica- for the smart home you need that,” Hubee to develop its Replay box and gateway, others want a tions such as monitoring children he said. catch-up application in HTML5 Javascript. Monaco Telecom re- cently launched Replay as a new Accenture: viewing popular on non-TV devices offering on its LaBox Monaco Telecom service. The applica- More people now prefer to watch Some 13% also said they percentage of consumers who tion includes features such as TV shows on internet connected prefer watching TV shows on their prefer to watch TV shows on a most-watched content along devices than on traditional TV smartphones, compared with 10% TV set – dropping from 47% to with theme and date filters and sets, according to new research by last year. “The dominance of the 10%. In the US the proportion fell parental control. LaBox Monaco Accenture. TV set as the undisputed go-to from 59% to 25% and in the UK it Telecom will use Hubee’s Huge The company’s Digital Con- entertainment device is ending,” dropped from 56% to 25%. platform catch-up CMS module sumer Survey found that the said Gavin Mann, global managing The study also found that some to improve catalogue manage- percentage of consumers who said director for Accenture’s broadcast 41% of consumers said they would ment and for alert and status they prefer watching TV shows on business. rather view short video clips on monitoring tools, according to television sets plummeted by 55% The report notes a four-year their mobile phone, up from 28% Hubee. Separately, Arte France over the past year – from 52% trend in the decline in TV viewing last year. By contrast, just 5% said has teamed with Hubee to up- to 23%. At the same time, the and said that as recently as they would rather watch short grade its ArteVOD application in proportion that said they would 2014 some 65% of consumers clips on a TV set. QML for Iliad Telecom’s Freebox rather view TV shows on a laptop preferred the TV set for viewing The research results are based Révolution platform. or desktop climbed from 32% last TV shows. In India there was a on an online survey of 26,000 year to 42% this year. “particularly steep decline” in the consumers in 26 countries.

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p30-33 DTVE Tech MayJun17v4st.indd 30 19/05/2017 16:37 Digital TV Europe Technology > in focus May/June 2017

Altice USA to launch next-generation set-top box In Brief

Altice USA is to roll out a high- Goei told Digital TV Europe that long term, and we are a long term Sappa partners Magine er-powered, updated version of the box would be a higher-pow- player.” Swedish broadband and TV pro- the single combined set-top, cable ered version of the La Box device The Altice USA chief said that vider Sappa has partnered with modem and WiFi router it has al- already deployed in Europe and he expected further changes in OTT TV technology platform ready deployed in France via SFR. would include additional features the US cable market, including and service provider Magine to Speaking at the NAB Show in such as an improved UI and voice further consolidation. However, he launch a TV everywhere service Las Vegas, Dexter Goei, president control. said that while Altice would weigh for its customers. Sappa be- of Altice and chairman of Altice He told DTVE that Altice’s plan further opportunities carefully, it comes the first business-to-busi- USA, said that the box, described is “to go fully IP” with this device was nevertheless “happy” with its ness customer use Magine’s full as a single communications hub, in the second half of next year, but current scale in the market. end-to-end solution in its home could “deliver the most effective declined to give a specific timeline “We are very focused on our market of Sweden. Sappa said performance of any WiFi router for the rollout of the box itself. existing operations. We are doing the deal will address the mul- today” supporting speeds of up Goei told NAB Show attendees an IPO to be ready for any type ti-platform needs of its existing to 1Gbps. that Altice saw an opportunity to of combinations... but we may not customers. “It is something that will drive bring its technology and invest- have to use it [for that].” less clutter in the home, [and ment know-how to the US, adding He said that Altice would con- Improbable funding provide] a much more powerful that US network infrastructure tinue to look at opportunities but London-based virtual reality user experience,” said Goei, who had seen less investment than that M&A deals are more about technology company Improba- revealed that the device is cur- other markets. making strategic sense rather ble has raised US$502 million rently being tested by Altice Labs Goei said that fibre “remains than achieving scale for its own (e452 million) in a Series B in Portugal. the most robust and reliable sake. Goei said that he was “cau- funding round led by SoftBank. “We are relying on a group technology” and that Altice is a tiously optimistic” about the new Improbable said it will invest the technology effort to bring a new big believer in investing in fibre regulatory environment in the cash in developing its technol- product to this market,” he said, now. “We know we’ll be at compet- US and that new FCC chairman ogy – including its SpatialOS claiming that no other provider is itive advantage relative to some Ajit Pai had helped clear up some distributed operating system. It currently bringing such a product of our peers,” he said. “We think it of the issues impacting on the also plans to up recruitment at to the US market. is a good return on capital in the industry. its London and San Francisco offices. Improbable uses cloud computing to allow the creation Quickline taps Broadpeak for OTT TV service of ‘virtual worlds’, which can be used in games and large-scale Swiss cable operator Quickline peak enables us to support a broad simulations of the real world. has tapped Broadpeak to provide range of formats and devices, Its first product, SpatialOS, is the underlying technology for making it easy to manage the user a distributed operating system its Quickline TV service, which experience and gain insight into the for massive-scale simulations. delivers over 400 channels of live QoE perceived by end-users. The It integrates with major game and on-demand content, as well flexibility and deployment experi- engines and has been in live as cloud DVR, to IPTV and OTT TV ence that Broadpeak offers makes beta trial since March this year. users. Broadpeak’s BkA100 analytics them a solid technology partner for As part of the new funding Quickline is using Broadpeak’s system is connected to the work- the long term,” said Remond Krebs, round, Softbank managing BkS300, BkS400, and BkS100 flow, allowing Quickline to gather CTO at Quickline. director Deep Nishar will join the video servers, BkM100 CDN man- data about video delivery, generate “Being involved in the OTT world Improbable board, and the VR ager and BkA100 video delivery statistics about content popularity, gives Quickline a competitive edge company said it will explore and analytics to deliver the service. and provide feedback on what in the pay-TV marketplace,” said identify ways to form “mutually Using Broadpeak’s BkM100 CDN is going on within the delivery Jacques Le Mancq, CEO, Broad- beneficial relationships” with manager, Quickline can manage system. peak. SoftBank, its partners and load balancing and failover tasks “When launching advanced In addition to Broadpeak, portfolio companies. Existing for clients. The BkM100 system video services in the multiscreen Quickline is using SeaChange to investors, Andreessen Horowitz monitors the popularity of content environment, efficiency and provide support for multiplatform and Horizons Ventures also based on subscriber usage performance are critical in a CDN content management and delivery, made follow-on investments as patterns to deliver live and VOD and video server solution – given monetisation and the subscriber part of the new funding round, content more efficiently, according the large number of media assets experience, including RDK-V-based in addtion to Softbank. to Broadpeak. that are being delivered. Broad- set-top box software.

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In Brief Ericsson strikes deal for pay TV in China

Meo launches live VR Ericsson used the NAB Show in images and poster art, clips and Altice-owned Portuguese Las Vegas to announce a new trailers, ratings, cast and crew telecom operator Portugal partnership with local technology information, series and episodic Telecom/Meo has laid claim to provider Inspur to deploy pay TV data. It will also offer a package of have become the first opera- services in China. applications including recommen- tor in Europe to offer live TV Inspur will provide set tops dations, universal search, deep channels in a virtual reality and servers and the first service linking, rights management and environment through Samsung provider client is Shandong Cable. analytics to enable personalised Gear VR headsets powered by The new service will deliver live viewing experiences. recommendation capabilities to Oculus. Meo has launched the and on-demand TV content to Thorsten Sauer, VP and head market and integrate them with VR service as part of Meo Go, 20 million subscribers in 17 cities of broadcast and media services, the data Ericsson already has. its multiscreen TV offering. The across the Shandong Province. said that current implementations He added that speech recogni- new Meo Go VR application Ericsson also launched a new of content discovery is very com- tion is becoming more important, enables users to follow series recommendation system, bringing plex. “We want to make it much not only as a way to enable rec- and soap operas as well as live together TV and movie data faster to the market by establish- ommendation but, in the future, experiences such as jumping sources with analytics capabil- ing an ecosystem,” he said. as something that could enable from a helicopter or snowboard- ity. It said that this would bring Sauer said that Ericsson is voice triggered control of the ing, and a visit to the Cristo Re- together data sets including working with partners to bring smart home in the future. dentor statue in Rio de Janeiro. The content has been developed via partnerships between Meo Conax, Evolution take IP video to new markets and Portuguese broadcaster SIC, fashion channel FTV, Syfy, US cable technology outfit Evolu- to Smith. “This has History and Clubbing TV. The tion Digital and content security been holding up Conax and app also takes users to a virtual, specialist Conax plan to launch [the] transition to Evolution technologicially advanced living their eVUE IP VOD set-tops and IP. It is expensive Digital room where viewers can watch hybrid IP delivery platform in new and complicated,” unveiled live TV channels on a giant markets. said Smith, adding their plans screen, as well as viewing the The companies used the NAB that eVUE TV pro- at NAB. available 360° content, accord- Show to highlight their existing vides an end-to- ing to the telco. The app was solution for operators in the US end solution, including encoding, to create a nice packaged solution developed by Altice Labs, the market and said that they have DRM, packaging and CDN. “This is for Conax customers.” Altice Group’s Portugal-based ambitions to roll it out internation- a platform that manages all com- Tom Jahr, EVP of products and R&D arm, and Gema Digital, a ally in multiple markets. ponents. There is IP VOD, IP linear marketing at Conax, said: “We are specialist in the creation of VR, Brent Smith, president and CTO and network DVR. Our customers trying to find ways to take this augmented reality, holographic of Evolution Digital, said that the and currently providing IP VOD international and we are working and interactive experiences. company’s hybrid box, the eBOX, is but there is a [path] to provide IP out ways to do it.” The launch of the new service now being deployed by a number linear and network DVR too.” In terms of US market deploy- has been timed to coincide with of US operators – providing Ti- Smith said that operators are ments, currently still the primary the launch in Portugal of the Vo-enabled DVR from the network under pressure from OTT TV target for the collaboration, new Galaxy S8 smartphone by as well as OTT TV services for providers and offering IP video Smith said that rival OTT devices Portugal Telecom. The applica- operators that have struggled to quickly would enable them to suffered from the constraint of tion is available for download at break free of legacy QAM-only in- provide similar services quickly. being IP-only. the Oculus Store, while Samsung frastructures in a way that makes While Evolution Digital has However, he added that op- Gear VR glasses can be used economic sense. deployed its technology in Mexico erators have built their systems with Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+, Traditionally, IP video has meant and the Caribbean, Smith said the around QAM so a hybrid box would S7, S7 edge, S6, S6 edge and S6 finding encoder providers, DRM partners would also develop their be a better device to enable IP edge+ equipment, available at providers, packaging suppliers and joint solution into a pre-integrated migration, as the box still receives Meo stores, to view the content.. CDN providers – a process that solution for DVB operators outside cable channels through QAM. The Meo Go service is availble Evolution Digital has sought to the US market. “We want to create eVUE also enables multicast to all Meo TV and home internet simplify and make more practical a common platform so Conax cus- IP services, allowing operators to customers. for the country’s numerous small tomers can have a more simplified deliver IP services to a wider base and medium operators, according way to do [IP video]. We are trying than rival unicast platforms.

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p30-33 DTVE Tech MayJun17v4st.indd 32 19/05/2017 16:37 Digital TV Europe Technology > in focus May/June 2017

Finland’s DNA to launch Android 4K set-top box In Brief

Finnish telco DNA is to become entertainment business. Oculus closes VR studio the first operator in the country “This device is for anyone who Facbook-owned virtual reality to launch an Android-based open wants to watch diverse television company Oculus has announced ecosystem 4K-enabled box, the content with minimal hassle. plans to “wind down” its VR DNA TV-hubi. Thanks to DNA TV-hubi, watching content arm, Story Studio. In The device, which will be and using online programmes and a company blog post, Oculus’ launched in the spring, will enable content on your TV is now just as vice-president of content, Jason users to bring online video servic- easy as using apps on your smart Rubin, said that the company es to the TV as well as to watch ers, which enables simultaneous phone.” had decided to shift its focus mainstream TV channels. viewing and recording. The device Separately, DNA has moved to away from internal content cre- DNA TV-hubi’s use of the includes software-based encryp- switch the remaining DVB-T pay ation to “support more external Android operating system is tion for pay TV channels. TV services in its digital-terrestrial production”. Last year Facebook compatible with the applications The Sagemcom-manufactured platform. The switch to DVB-T2 committed an additional of Finland’s three biggest TV DNA TV-hubi has Bluetooth sup- was scheduled to take place on US$250 million (e225 million) to channels, Katsomo, Yle Areena port for wireless game controllers, May 17. fund VR content from develop- and Ruutu, along with YouTube, and it can be connected to an The majority of terrestrial-net- ers around the world. Rubin said Netflix and Viaplay. Subscribers external hard drive for recording work pay TV and all high-defini- that Oculus is going to use U$50 can download applications from content and be controlled with an tion channels were already being million of that to fund non-gam- the Google Play store. application on smart phones, tab- broadcast in the newer format. ing, experiential VR content. Other services without Android lets or smart watches. The device Following the change, 85% of the apps can be streamed to the TV also includes voice recognition Finnish population will live within Euskaltel 4K Android box via the box’s Google Cast func- support. the coverage of all terrestrial-net- Spanish cable operator Eu- tionality. ”People are accustomed to work pay TV channels. Customers skaltel’s CEO Francisco Arteche The box can be used to watch accessing content and services outside the coverage area can used the company’s first quarter linear TV channels from DNA’s flexibly with any device, and DNA still watch the channels over a presentation to confirm that cable network and the Finnish TV-hubi is now making this possi- broadband connection with the the operator would launch a digital-terrestrial network. It ble with televisions as well,” said DNA TV application or with the new 4K-enabled Android box comes equipped with two HD tun- Mikko Saarentaus, director at DNA DNA TV-hubi device. along with a new set of services. In a conference call following Euskaltel’s quarterly results, Freeview Play revamp due to roll out this year Arteche said the services would be available to new and existing A new Freeview Play interface Freeview EPG, and the new design customers. “This will be very with a revamped electronic will introduce genre-based recom- Thompson: a attractive to consumers,” he programming guide is currently in mendations. richer, more said. The company will offer a development and is due to launch “Our goal is to evolve the content-fo- new bundled offer focusing on later this year. TV model for those who love cused guide. an offer of “more for more” to During a panel session on broadcast TV but want the added drive up ARPU, while maintain- ‘innovation in broadcast’ at the benefits that IP-connected TV ing a certain level of choice to recent DTG Summit, Digital UK allows,” said Thompson. customers. CEO Jonathan Thompson showed While he claimed that none of easy navigation to content,” said a picture and gave details of the the updates are “revolutionary”, Thompson. “I think hybrid is an Molotov taps castLabs in-development offering. enhancing the service will help over-used word, but that is the French live and catch-up TV He said it would provide a serve people who want “the best future of television delivery for streaming service Molotov “richer, more content-focused of free and a route to pay; that’s the forseeable future. We want has agreed a DRM deal with guide to Freeview content” with absolutely the focus of what we’re to make broadcast TV better by castLabs. Molotov has selected direct routes to different player trying to do.” using connectivity to the internet the multi-DRM solution from applications and universal search “With Freeview Play we are as a way of improving the choice, castLabs, which delivers FairPlay across all apps available via the trying to bring many of the flexibility and functionality that Streaming by Apple, Microsoft hybrid Freeview Play platform. philosophical elements that made viewers are offering.” PlayReady, Google Widevine Thompson also revealed that Freeview a success to the hybrid Digital UK meanwhile has said and licensing through a single there will be more programme market – simplicity, universality, that the Freeview TV guide will be integration. images compared to the normal lack of contract, choice, and updated and expanded in August.

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p30-33 DTVE Tech MayJun17v4st.indd 33 19/05/2017 16:37 People > Places Digital TV Europe May/June 2017

On the move

Russian pay TV leader Tricolor will be VP of programming at overseeing the French public Eutelsat’s chief commercial and TV has named Olga Molostvova Nick UK, reporting to UK and broadcaster’s commercial units development officer. Leroy joined as programming director in Ireland general manager Alison and production activities. Verley, Eutelsat in 2010 as director of charge of the operator’s own Bakunowich. She was previously succeeds Laetitia Recayte, strategy before assuming the role channel portfolio. In this new VP of programming for the UK who has occupied the role since of director of engineering in 2013 post, Molostvova will be charged and EMEA at Scripps. August 2015. The role involves and chief technical officer in 2014. with overseeing the activities of supervision of the broadcaster’s the pay TV group’s wholly-owned OTT and TV everywhere three commercial units – France AMC Networks’ Joel Stillerman is channels, including programming, technology specialist Xstream Télévisions Distribution, France joining streaming service Hulu as analysis of the competitive has named Jacob Barlebo Télévisions Publicité and chief content officer. The new role environment and the needs as global sales and marketing Multimédia France Productions. will see the exec driving overall of subscribers. Prior to joining director. In his new role, Barlebo content strategy, overseeing Tricolor TV, Molostvova served in will be responsible for managing Ooyala has acquisitions, expansion of the a number of programming roles, Xstream’s international sales appointed the originals slate, development and including programming director teams, extending the firm’s former CEO content partner management of 7tv, which she rebranded, partner network and marketing. of software- teams. Current content chief Craig growing its audience fourfold, Barlebo has worked in a number as-a-service Erwich will remain as senior VP as deputy CEO for research at of sales and marketing roles, company and head of content, focusing TV group YUTV Holding, and as most recently as international Syncplicity, on original programming after programming director of music business development manager Jonathan Huberman, as its new Stillerman joins later this summer. channel Muz-TV. She has also for IT security and consulting firm chief executive. Huberman took headed up the working group on FortConsult and as head of global up the role effective April 18 and History chief the TV audit panel for TNS Russia. sales and business development will focus on the future growth Jana Bennett at I-New, a mobile virtual network of Ooyala and strengthening is to leave Peter Flamman enabler. its market leadership. Former A+E Networks has landed a CEO Ramesh Srinivasan joined to create a new role at The managing hospitality software and solutions London and Viacom and director of firm Agilysys in January having New York-based will oversee BT Sport and exited Ooyala after less than a production company. A+E CEO MTV and BT TV, Delia year. Nancy Dubuc told staff Bennett Nickelodeon Bushell, has had informed her of the plan to across a large part of Europe announced Szymon launch a new business earlier this as well as in Africa and the plans to step Karbowski, spring. Former BBC Worldwide Middle East. Based in Madrid, down following a three-year stint research and channels chief Bennett has been he will oversee development at the UK telecoms operator. development with History parent A+E for nearly and production, acquisitions, Bushell will stay at BT until director at four years, initially relocating from scheduling and operations across the start of June to oversee a Polish cable London to New York to launch the the channels and their digital handover of responsibilities and is operator Toya, female-skewed FYI cable channel. services. Flamman replaces Laura due to announce her future plans has left the company to become She also ran the LMN network Abril, who is now the senior VP “in the coming weeks”. Bushell business development director before moving to lead flagship editorial, Iberia, covering Comedy joined BT in 2014 and has helped at technology outfit Vector. channel History to replace Dirk Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and to drive growth in revenues and Karbowski has been replaced at Hoogstra. A+E is searching for a Paramount Channel. Flamman TV subscribers, overseeing the Toya by his long-standing deputy, replacement, but in the meantime,

joined Viacom in late 2015, launch of BT’s European football Michal— Domanski´ . History executive VP and head having been at Turner in London coverage, its BT Sports app and its of programming Paul Cabana for almost 15 years in a variety 4K Ultra HD services. Satellite operator Eutelsat has and his team will report into of leadership roles. Separately, named Yohann Leroy as deputy A+E Networks Portfolio and A+E Nickelodeon UK & Ireland France Télévisions has appointed CEO in addition to his current role Studios president Paul Buccieri. l has hired a Scripps Networks pay TV veteran Julien Verley as as chief technical officer. Leroy international VP of programming. its new director of commercial will serve alongside co-deputy Please email contributions to: As of July 3, Katharina Feistauer development, charged with CEO Michel Azibert, who is also [email protected]

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p34 People DTVE MayJun17v5st.indd 34 19/05/2017 19:11 &

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The Content Innovation Awards is an initiative from Digital TV Europe and sister publication TBI - Television Business International, that celebrates innovation in content, distribution and delivery and the wide-ranging achievements of the companies and individuals who bring video content to the world.

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CIA17 ANGACOM A4 ad.indd 1 24/04/2017 13:13 Final analysis > Kate Bulkley Digital TV Europe May/June 2017

“In the new world where Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are taking share and direct-to-consumer offerings are proliferating, traditional media companies are having to get into the game too or risk being left behind.”

Discovery’s German venture

can tell the TV world is changing service there will help Discovery leverage its ample, a cycling enthusiast can buy a season You when one of the biggest players two German free-to-air channels, DMAX and pass for cycling events only. It’s about cater- there is – Discovery Communications – TLC, within a bigger offering. The two com- ing to what Zaslav calls “super fan groups”. announces a massive new digital partnership panies’ ad sales houses will work together to Not long ago, companies like Discovery, with one of the biggest free-to-air broadcasters provide advertisers a cross-platform ad buy. NBCUniveral and Disney relied on affiliates in Europe, Germany’s ProsiebenSat.1. The ambition is to turn 7TV into a true to sell their channels. The battles were about The deal is specifically for what the two skinny bundle competitor in Germany and, what carriage fees could be extracted and how companies call a “next generation OTT/mo- when subscription services are added on, to “window” content between the ad-support- bile service” that Discovery CEO David Zaslav beat Netflix and Amazon at their own game. ed broadcasters and pay TV. The new game is says could be rolled out in other European Such an offer would also create competition additive, but it is also very different: it is about markets and possibly around the world. to Sky Germany and other pay TV players. getting to know your end customer a lot bet- Up to now, these two players have had little Think of the Discovery-ProSiebenSat.1 deal ter than you ever did – or needed to – before. in common, much less considered working as a Hulu for Europe. Lang and JB Perrette, Zaslav describes direct-to-consumer moves together on a venture that is critical to both who heads up all of Discovery’s international as part of the company’s “pivot” from a focus companies’ future growth and continued rel- business, have form here: both helped cre- on channels to a focus on intellectual prop- evance to consumers. But in the new world ate Hulu in the US. “From my experience at erty. Not only is Discovery spending much where Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are Hulu 10 years ago, I know that you need a more on creating original long-form content taking share and direct-to-consumer offer- great product but also a tech experience that but last year it invested a whopping US$100 ings are proliferating, traditional media com- works for consumers,” said Lang. “Like Hulu, million in the millennial-focused venture panies are having to get into the game too or we are starting with a free-to-air offer, but over Group Nine, a network of digital media sites risk being left behind. time it will expand to paid subscription offers including The Dodo and Thrillest, devoted, Unveiled in May, the joint venture is a di- as add-ons.” respectively, to animals and male-targeted rect-to-consumer play, providing consumers ProSieben’s SVOD service Maxdome will subjects. The move to create more digital-first with access to the free-to-air services from remain separate from 7TV for the time being, content includes working with Snapchat de- Discovery Germany and ProSeibenSat.1 un- as will the Eurosport OTT app, but both will veloping shows for its Discover platform as der the current 7TV app, with the ambition to likely be added later. Discovery has a lot of fi- well as creating a Snapchat channel for Eu- add pay services in the not-too-distant future. nancial skin in the German sports game. Not rosport with plans to include content around The deal “strengthens our all-screen strate- only does it have the Olympics rights from the Winter Olympics next year. gy,” says Zaslav. For free-to-air broadcasters it next year, but also Bundesliga rights for the So will apps edge out TV viewing? Lang be- is also no longer enough to rely on the lin- next four years. lieves that the new TV and video landscape is ear broadcast business. Catch-up and on-de- Discovery’s tie-up late last year with Major not a zero sum game, and that “demand is go- mand are what consumers want, on multiple League Baseball’s digital business arm MLB ing to go up” to match supply. Reed Hastings devices and screens. OTT ‘bundles’ are a logi- Advanced Media to form BAMTech Europe said recently that Netflix’s competitor is sleep. cal next step. Indeed, Discovery is working on is a key differentiator. The streaming video At some point it will be time to switch the TV a number of direct-to-consumer offerings in joint venture based in London will provide off. The question is: when they wake up, what Asia and already has its Eurosport app. broadcasters and content owners, including app will consumers turn on? l Mike Lang, president, international devel- Discovery’s own channels, with the tools to opment, digital and Discovery Nordics, says create robust direct-to-consumer services. Kate Bulkley is a broadcaster and that because Germany is not a “robust” pay By late summer the Eurosport app will use writer specialising in media and TV market, launching an OTT, ad-supported BAMTech to offer tailored services, so for ex- telecommunications. [email protected]

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