March/April 2018

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pIFC NAB DTVE MarApr18.indd 1 22/02/2018 13:27 Digital TV Europe March/April 2018 Contents

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10. The cable top ten

What are the key industry developments shaping the future of cable? Ahead of this year’s Cable Congress in Dublin, Digital TV Europe presents its take on the top 10 priorities for the industry.

20. A sharper picture

Opinions differ about how quickly consumers are warming to UHD TV, but many hurdles still stand in the way of the format becoming mainstream. Adrian Pennington provides an update.

26. Moving pictures

Video is expected to dominate mobile traffic in the years ahead, but much still needs to be done to ensure a seamless video experience over mobile networks. Anna Tobin reports. 26

Regulars

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

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p01 Contents DTVE MarApr18v3st.indd 1 23/02/2018 19:32 This month > Editor’s note Digital TV Europe March/April 2018

Issue no 337 Cable priorities Published By: KNect365 TMT Maple House is the month of Cable Congress, the European cable 149 Tottenham Court Road industry’s annual get-together. London W1T 7AD March Cable remains the key distribution mechanism for TV in Europe but Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5000 TV itself has become progressively less important to top-tier operators as Fax: +44 (0) 20 7017 4953 a driver of growth in recent years. Website: www.digitaltveurope.net As the video landscape has become more competitive, operators have focused on their key advantage – their network infrastructure – and on Editor Stuart Thomson broadband access, which had delivered most of their growth. Cable TV Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5314 numbers have been declining over the past decade as operators have Email: [email protected] turned their attention to marketing higher-value premium packages and advanced TV functionality and allowed analogue tiers to decline. At the same time, broadband and, above all, the bundling of broadband, TV, fixed telephony Contributing Editor Andy McDonald and mobile, has delivered higher ARPU for cable operators. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5293 In this issue of Digital TV Europe, we look at the top 10 issues facing the cable industry as they Email: [email protected] pivot to address high growth areas. Delivering higher revenue from TV itself generally means more choice and more premium content. On the other hand, the business case for higher picture quality has proved elusive. It is Contributors not clear, for example, that 4K UHD TV will bring much in the way of additional revenue to TV Kate Bulkley, Andy Fry, Adrian Pennington, operators, broadcasters and OTT TV players. But TV service providers are increasingly using Adam Thomas, Anna Tobin, Jesse Whittock UHD as a marketing tool to win over high-spending customers. One danger associated with UHD however is that consumers may be disappointed or con- Correspondents fused because the experience of viewing falls short of expectations. France: Julien Alliot; Germany: Dieter In this issue, we take a look at the current and future state of UHD TV, encompassing the Brockmeyer; Italy: Branislav Pekic availability of content and services and the firming up of standards. The DVB’s UHD-1 phase 2 spec is now complete but many questions remain over how fast broadcasters and manufac- turers will develop UHD services. What are the key elements that will determine how fast the Commercial Director Patricia Arescy market takes off? To what extent are the technology stars now aligned and what remaining Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5320 issues, if any, are likely to act as a brake on development? Email: [email protected] With some studies predicting that half of all video consumption will be on mobile screens by 2020, video is something that mobile telcos as well as fixed line TV service providers are going Art Director Matthew Humberstone to take seriously. Most mobile video consumption is via WiFi or download-to-go, but streaming over cellular networks is also likely to take some of the pie. For mobile operators this raises a number of questions – both technical and in terms of their Marketing Manager Marita Eleftheriadou business model. Also in this issue of Digital TV Europe, we look at how mobile broadcast and live streaming technology is evolving and whether this is an urgently needed technology or a Printing Wyndeham Grange, West Sussex technology in search of a use case. l

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© 2018 Informa UK Ltd All rights reserved Stuart Thomson, Editor Reproduction without permission is prohibited [email protected]

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p02 Ed Note DTVE MarApr18v3am.indd 2 23/02/2018 19:35 p03 CSG DTVE MarApr18.indd 1 22/02/2018 10:21 News > digest Digital TV Europe March/April 2018 News digest > 4 Deutsche Telekom: Vodafone-Liberty Global deal ‘completely unacceptable’ > 5 Fries: Liberty Global will not ‘dismantle’ European business > 6 Telefónica claims success for originals strategy > 8 Richard: Orange will not take part in consolidation Höttges: Vodafone-Liberty Global deal ‘completely unacceptable’

By Andy McDonald > confirmed it was in early stage Höttges: “Our offer also includes at- discussions with Liberty Glob- Deutsche tractive TV content across all Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim- al about potentially acquiring Telekom will screens – on any device. In Ger- otheus Höttges has spoken “overlapping continental Euro- protest the many, for example, with Enter- out against a potential tie-up pean assets”. deal if it’s tain TV, we aggregate linear tel- between Vodafone and Liber- According to reports, the agreed. evision and the best streaming ty Global-owned Unitymedia, discussions are focused on Lib- offers of our partners like Netflix branding it “completely unac- erty’s cable assets in Germany, or Maxdome on one platform,” ceptable” though the two companies also Telekom’s IPTV and satellite TV said Deutsche Telekom in its Speaking on the company’s have overlapping operations in subscriber base climbed to 3.14 earnings statement. fourth quarter and full year the Czech Republic, Hungary million at the end of 2017 – an “What’s more, since 2017, the earnings call, Höttges raised and Romania. increase of 260,000 from 2.88 offer has included exclusive TV concerns about market concen- Unitymedia is the country’s million a year earlier. series such as The Handmaid’s tration in the TV space and said second largest cable operator In the rest of Europe its IPTV, Tale, Valkyrien, and Cardinal, that a combined Vodafone and with some 13 million service satellite and cable TV base grew and our unique Telekom Sport Unitymedia would dominate subscribers as of September to 4.24 million – up 195,000 offering.” the German market. 2017. Vodafone is Germany’s from 4.05 million a year earlier. The company said that it “I do not see that this kind of cable leader after it bought Kabel The majority of these additions plans to continue to expand its concentration in the cable mar- Deutschland in 2013. were at Deutsche Telekom’s na- content portfolio in the coming ket can be supported from reg- Separately, Deutsche Tele- tional companies in Hungary, years – for instance through its ulatory bodies,” he said. “I don’t kom-owned T-Mobile Austria Slovakia and Greece. international partnership with believe that Germany wants to agreed to buy Liberty Glob- In Germany, the company Netflix. It also said it plans to go into a situation like Eastern al-owned UPC Austria late last said that it is focusing on mar- implement new operating con- European markets where TV year for an enterprise value of keting integrated offers and on cepts like voice control through markets are dominated by telco 1.9 billion. TV and fibre-optic lines, due to smart speakers. players.” During 2017 Deutsche Tele- the “persistently challenging In other news, T-Mobile US Höttges said that Deutsche kom grew its TV customer base development” in the fixed-net- announced the acquisition of Telekom would protest the deal, by 9.0% in Germany and 4.8% work market, primarily owing online TV provider Layer3 TV in if it is agreed. in the rest of Europe. to aggressive pricing offers of November, which closed on Jan- Earlier this month Vodafone In its home market, Deutsche competitors. uary 22, 2018.

ongoing transformation from a online businesses, which together UHD TV channels and other Bulgaria “traditional national broadcaster to generated SEK 991 million in sales services. The multiplex will serve a global digital entertainer”. MTG and SEK 195 million in operating as an experimental platform for PROG > MTG sells Nova said it will use the proceeds from income for full-year 2017. DTT broadcasters. The regulator Modern Times Group (MTG) has the sale to invest in its digital en- envisages a launch by 2024 at the sold its 95% shareholding in Nova tertainment business, as well as in latest with coverage of at least Broadcasting Group in Bulgaria in a its Nordic Entertainment and MTG France 60% of the population of France. deal that values the full business at Studios divisions – which it was due The watchdog said that it would €185 million (SEK 1.83 billion). MTG to sell to Danish telco TDC before DTT > CSA 4K UHD TV plan work in partnership with operators sold its Nova stake to PPF Group, the deal collapsed. Commercial Media regulator the CSA has and spectrum body the Agence the investment company controlled media group Nova employs 650 outlined plans to develop a new Nationale des Fréquences to identi- by Czech businessman Petr Kellner, people and the business consists digital-terrestrial multiplex that fy the resources necessary for the with the deal forming part of MTG’s of seven TV channels and 19 will facilitate the launch of 4K multiplex, while ensuring it would

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p04-06,08 DTVE News Digest MarApr18 v4st.indd 4 23/02/2018 18:44 Digital TV Europe News > digest March/April 2018

have no impact on coverage of The package will also offer access to and ER-Telecom, which grew by the country’s existing six national an on-demand catalogue of 5,000 acquiring Novosibirsk operator Events multiplexes. The CSA said it would titles. The HBO package will cost Novotelecom and Akado’s networks collaborate with broadcasters over PLN35 ( 8.40) a month. in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg. Cable Congress the course of this year to identify IPTV operators accounted for the Date: 6 - 7 March the ideal coverage area, launch bulk of the growth in subscribers, Venue: Clayton Hotel, Dublin, date and content line-up. Russia with 900,000 new customers Ireland signing up for IPTV services over W: tmt.knect365.com/cable- IPTV > Pay TV growth slows the course of the year. Growth in congress Poland The number of subscribers to pay the satellite segment increased TV in Russia grew by 3.2% last year year-on-year, which was attributed DVB World OTT > HBO on Ipla to 42.7 million, representing a pene- by TMT Consulting to MTS’s active Date: 12 - 14 March Cyfrowy Polsat-owned OTT TV tration rate of 75%, according to re- promotion of its satellite service. Venue: Intercontinental Warsaw platform Ipla has added an HBO search by TMT Consulting. Growth Satellite TV operators Tricolor Hotel, Warsaw, Poland package to its offering as part of was driven by the big five operators, TV and Orion Express grew their W: www.dvbworld.org an overall revamp of the service which collectively saw their pay TV respective bases at a slower rate that sees the launch of a new bases rise by 1.5 million. This offset than previously, according to TMT Satellite 2018 user interface. Ipla is now offering declines among smaller players, Consulting. Tricolor TV remains the Date: 12 - 15 March an HBO package comprising five which collectively lost 130,000 sub- leading player in absolute numbers, Venue: Walter E Washington channels. The service will offer HBO scribers over the year. The leading with 12.28 million, up 1.2%, followed Convention Ctr, Wash. DC, US HD, HBO 2 HD, HBO 3 HD, Cinemax growth operators were Rostelecom, by Rostelecom with 9.77 million, up W: 2018.satshow.com HD and Cinemas 2 HD along with which added 600,000 customers, 4.9%. ER-Telecom takes third place, four AXN channels – AXN HD, AXN MTS , which grew primarily through with 3.342 million TV customers Sportel Asia Spin HD, AXN Black and AXN White. the expansion of its satellite base, after its acquisitions, up 12.1%. Date: 13 - 15 March Venue: Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore Fries: Liberty Global will not ‘dismantle’ business W: www.sportelasia.com

By Stuart Thomson > Fries: national to be “a home-run investment”. NAB Show scale is the “We think we have a compa- Date: 7 - 12 April Liberty Global has no intention key to suc- ny that is continuing to grow Venue: Las Vegas Convention of “dismantling” its European cess. steadily with a broadband mar- Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, US business and remains commit- ket that’s extremely exciting,” he W: www.nabshow.com ted to growing its business in said. He said that it was “awk- markets where it can achieve ward” to be more specific about MIP TV national scale, according to the company’s plans but said Date: 9 - 12 April president and CEO Mike Fries. “We are committed to our that Liberty would either “grow Venue: Palais des Festivals, Speaking to analysts after the core markets, where we see a with” the market or “look at op- Cannes, France company reported mixed Q4 pathway to becoming a national tions”. W: www.miptv.com results, Fries said that Liber- champion,” Fries told analysts. Regarding Swtizerland, Fries ty remained committed to its He said that “scale matters said that this was a market in TV Connect core European markets. more than ever” in Liberty Glob- need of “rationalisation” and Date: 9 - 10 May The cable giant is in talks with al’s business and the company that Liberty had “some options” Venue: Olympia, London, UK Vodafone about possible dispos- would look to re-balance its to consolidate or “become a W: tmt.knect365.com/tv- als or exchanges of some assets, business in certain territories. larger player”. He said he did connect/ widely reported to include a pos- Asked specifically about not expect a significant finan- sible disposal of its Unitymedia Liberty’s intentions in the Ger- cial turnaround for Liberty’s New Europe Market business in Germany, where man and Swiss markets, Fries Swiss operation this year in the Date: 11 - 14 June Vodafone, as owner of former declined to give specific indica- face of competitive challenges Venue: Dubrovnik, Croatia Kabel Deutschland, is the major tions about the company’s plans and the company’s investment W: neumarket.com cable player. or negotiations with Vodafone. in sport rights, and compared Liberty already operates a However, he said that in Germa- Switzerland with the Dutch ANGA COM joint venture – VodafoneZiggo ny the company had “optionali- market where it took the compa- Date: 12 - 14 June – with the mobile giant in the ty” but that Unitymedia was “a ny “three years to really get the Venue: Cologne, Germany Netherlands. great business” that had proved fixed business…back on track”. W: www.angacom.de

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p04-06,08 DTVE News Digest MarApr18 v4st.indd 5 23/02/2018 18:44 News > digest Digital TV Europe March/April 2018

periences to millions of viewers in country reached 3.8 million, consol- Global Wrap South Africa Africa, with both companies having idating IPTV’s lead over other tech- already committed “extensive nology platforms. IPTV platforms There are now 125 million sub- OTT > Kwesé into Iflix resources” to the offering. Terms of added 464,000 subscribers over scription video-on-demand sub- Econoet Media-owned pan-Afri- the deal were not disclosed. the year, compared with a decline scriptions in the US, according can pay TV provider Kwesé has of 141,000 satellite subscribers. to Futuresource. The research acquired a “significant stake” in The number of installed high-speed firm said that while consumer Iflix Africa, the African branch of Spain broadband lines in the country spend on SVOD is still just 10% the Asian subscription video-on-de- meanwhile grew to 9.2 million, of the total pay TV market, mand provider. The deal deepens IPTV > Pay TV growth up 20.6%. Fibre-to-the-home de- further growth is expected in the two companies’ existing The number of pay TV subscribers ployments accounted for the bulk 2018. 21st Century Fox is to partnership, with Kwesé and Iflix in Spain increased by 6.6% in the of additions, with 1.6 million new launch a standalone Fox News first partnering in August to launch year to September 2017, taking connections taking the number opinion-focused US streaming a version of the latter’s emerging the total to 6.4 million, according of fibre connections to over six service. Fox Nation is expected markets SVOD service in sub-Saha- to statistics compiled by markets million. Overall, there were 6.1 mil- to launch in the fourth quarter ran Africa. Iflix now has operations regulator the CNMC. Growth was lion FTTH connections, compared of the year. Verizon has folded in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and South driven by the success of bundled with 5.4 million xDSL lines and 2.6 its US video streaming service, Africa, and claims an “extensive offerings. The number of quadruple million HFC connections at the end Go90, into its Oath division, in collection” local African and and quintuple-play packages sold of September. Some 8.9 million a move that see Go90 content international series and movies – increased by one million in the year broadband connections delivered distributed through its other including some first-to-market and to September, taking the total to speeds in excess of 30Mbps by the digital channels. BBC World- exclusive programming. Kwesé 11.5 million, including 5.3 million end of the third quarter, with five wide has signed a deal with said that Iflix Africa will be its “core quintuple-play packages. The million delivering speeds in excess Migu Video, China Mobile’s vehicle” for delivering mobile ex- number of IPTV subscribers in the of 100Mbps. video platform that will deliver more than 2,200 hours of BBC content from across factual, Telefónica claims success for originals strategy lifestyle and pre-school genres. The deal with Migu Video marks By Stuart Thomson > customers in the fourth quarter. Worldwide’s first deal with The TV number was boosted by a Chinese telco. Canal+ has Telefónica claimed success for the presence of TV in all bun- officially launched its service in its original content strategy in dled offerings. According to the Myanmar, in partnership with its full-year 2017 results, with company, its decision to invest local media player Forever. strong growth of its TV platform in original productions such as The new service offers close in Spain and a ratings success flagship drama La Peste “yielded to 80 channels covering a for flagship drama series La very positive results”. It said that range of genres, including Peste. a differentiator had resulted in La Peste, largely viewed on-de- eight Canal+-branded channels Telefónica’s video revenues continuous improvement to its mand, registered the largest au- developed specifically for the grew by 7% in the fourth quar- Movistar Play offering. dience of any series broadcast by local market. Chinese internet ter of 2017 and by 5.8% for the In Spain, Telefónica added Movistar+ to date. search giant Baidu is planning full year on the back of a 14% 400,000 new customers over Elsewhere in Telefónica’s a possible IPO for its video growth in its IPTV base and its the course of the year, with global footprint the picture was streaming unit iQiyi in the US. investment in content, the com- growing take-up of its bundled mixed. In Brazil, where the Baidu has yet to determine pany said. Video ARPU grew offering Movistar Fusión. The company is focusing on IPTV the number of shares to be by 8% across all market while company said that it had 4.4 rather than satellite, its pay TV sold and added that planned to churn fell marginally. million Fusión customers at the base declined by 7% but TV remain iQiyi’s controlling share- Telefónica’s global pay TV end of the year, with 87% pene- ARPU grew by 6.1%. holder. Liberty Latin America base grew by 2% over the course tration of its TV base. Converse- In Spanish-speaking Amer- has acquired an 80% stake of 2017 to 8.468 million, boost- ly, some 76% of Fusión cus- ica, the TV base grew by 4%, in Costa Rica cable operator ed by the addition of 92,000 tomers took TV as part of their with net gains of 41,000 in the Cabletica. The all-cash deal customers in the fourth quar- bundle, up from 68% last year. fourth quarter boosting the an- values Televisora de Costa Ri- ter compared with a net loss of Overall, Telefónica’s Spanish nual total of 113,000 net addi- ca-owned Cabletica at CRC143 108,000 in the fourth quarter TV base stood at 3.8 million at tions, driven by strong uptake billion (€200 million), a multiple of 2016. The company said the end of the year, up 5% year- in Peru. Pay TV revenues grew of 6.3 times its 2017 EBITDA. that its commitment to TV as on-year, having added 81,000 by 12.8%.

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p04-06,08 DTVE News Digest MarApr18 v4st.indd 6 23/02/2018 18:44 Q&A: Edwige Dazogbo, Edgy TV

Edwige Dazogbo, founder of Edwige Magazine and Edgy TV, talks about the international expansion of the multi-ethnic themed lifestyle channel.

How do you rate Edgy TV’s success since its launch, both in Canada Edgy TV both online on OTT TV, on IPTV platforms and via apps as well and internationally? as broadcast on cable pay TV platforms and satellite free-to-air, with a Our multicultural, new media o ering has international potential. We goal of reaching more than 200 millions of viewers in total. saw growth of 200% in terms of our TV viewership following the rst Our strategy is simple and successful. We have a vision and goal to launch of the channel on one operator in December – with distribution become a major popular channel in the French-language market. on three other cable or IPTV operators in Europe, on smart TV in the US and two satellite launches in just three months. There is a demand in What is the channel’s mission and what makes it unique in the female- Canada and in the international market because of the multicultural focused lifestyle space? themes of the channel. The mission is to cover the interests of the multi-ethnic market with a Through our cooperation with various networks, we have reached multicultural TV channel that celebrates the diversity of life through some of the major companies worldwide that want to work with us, lifestyle: glamour, music, fashion and entertainment. It has been so we are starting to have success. Furthermore we had a number of created specially for immigrants from Asia, Africa, Latin America and mentions highlighting the existence of the channel in the media, and the West Indies, Europe, the Maghreb and the Middle East. we have worked together with advertising agencies to support sales, Edgy TV o ers a unique original concept and refreshing as well as adding more and more hours of interesting content to the programming, made purely from dreams and passions. This is content channel and producing new content in Canada. that is rare among TV content providers in the market in countries in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. What are your goals for the channel this year in international markets? Family and spiritual values underpin the spirit of Edgy TV. We are re- We want to join together di erent cultures’ diverse ideas of beauty, introducing this culture and these values to the world. culture and fashion. We want to create unique content, and we intend to cater to the interests of the multi-ethnic market. The channel allows What do you see as the ideal balance between global and local our advertisers to reach an international community. content, and to what extent will you seek to localise the channel in This year we aim to launch the channel in the countries we have international markets? targeted: the US, Canada, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Our content is the nal product of our big international vision, and Poland, the UK, Germany, Spain, the UAE, China, India, Pakistan, includes 70% external acquisitions, with the other 30% coming from Israel, Tunisia, Benin, Senegal, Cameroon, Congo, Mali, Burkina Faso, our own local productions in France, Canada and the US. Reunion, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. We also aim to launch sub- There will be general-interest programmes, music video brands of Edgy TV: Edgy TV Music, Edgy TV France, Edgy TV India and programmes, fashion clips, lms from Nollywood, Hollywood and Edgy TV Africa. Bollywood and other ethnic-background movies, shows featuring interviews with celebrity guests, and reality shows. What is your distribution strategy for the channel, in terms of OTT We are addressing a market that is not yet saturated and where versus a liation with pay TV operators, and to what extent are you there is a strong international demand for multicultural-themed focusing on French-language markets? programming. This is a market with a high growth potential in many We started with cable and IPTV and we want to grow the presence of parts of the world.

p07 Edgy Q&A DTVE MarApr18.indd 1 22/02/2018 12:37 News > digest Digital TV Europe March/April 2018

in 2017. Among Viaplay’s original 64% on those devices compared to Sweden output, Hassel was the service’s 61% for mobile as of December. UK most-watched new series in Sweden OTT > Viaplay viewing up and Finland; Veni Vidi Vici was the OTT > Nick Jr Play launches Nordic subscription video-on-de- second most-watched new-series UAE Viacom-owned kids channel Nickel- mand service Viaplay saw viewing in Demark; and Occupied season odeon has launched Nick Jr Play, its time increase by 25% during 2017, two was the second most-watched OTT > Nick Jr Play launches interactive app aimed at pre-school- according to stats released by new series in Norway. Overall eight Netflix has agreed its first partner- ers, outside the US for the first parent company MTG. Customers Viaplay original productions pre- ship in the Middle East and North time. The app, which includes spent an average of 32 hours per miered during 2017. MTG said that Africa with local operator OSN. OSN access to Nick Jr. shows, games and month streaming Viaplay last year, Viaplay also streamed 50,000 hours customers will be able to access music, is now available in the UK while the number of started streams of live sport in 2017, including Pre- Netflix’s content via OSN’s new and Denmark, with other interna- rose 40.5% between 2016 and 2017. mier League and UEFA Champions set-top box, which is due to launch tional markets to follow. The app Over the same period, MTG said the League football. In terms of viewing towards the end of the second quar- will provide access to full episodes, total number of Viaplay customers habits, MTG said that viewing on TVs ter. They will also have the option educational games, original videos grew by 21%, with Viaplay original or projectors surpassed mobile de- to pay for their Netflix subscription and other content. In Denmark, productions among most viewed vices for the first time since Viaplay along with their OSN package as the app will be available via mobile new series in each Nordic country launched in 2011, with a user base of part of a single, consolidated bill. through partnership with YouSee.

Richard: Orange will not take part in future French consolidation

By Stuart Thomson > Richard: cannot buy Free, which is in any had attractive content through Orange will case not for sale,” he said. Any its own OCS offering and its Orange will not participate in not be a consolidation would involve two deal with Canal+ and “did not any future consolidation of consolidator of the other players. He said need anything else”. However, the French multi-play telco in France consolidation still made sense in sports, Altice’s grip on Cham- business, according to CEO because France was one of the pions League rights meant that Stéphane Richard, despite on- only markets in Europe with a deal was desirable. going speculation about the fu- four players, which was proba- “I don’t know if we will get a ture of Altice France/SFR. Altice recently condemned a bly “not a sustainable situation deal or not – it’s an ongoing dis- Speaking to analysts after the report by the right-wing weekly in the long run”. cussion,” he said. company posted strong full- Valeurs Actuelles that it was con- Richard said Orange could Orange had 9.065 million TV year results, Richard said that sidering a sale of all or part of “help facilitate” consolidation customers globally at the end of Orange would not play a role in SFR, leading the publication to but would not participate in it. the year, up from 8.483 million any future combination except publish a retraction. The inference from this is that a year earlier. The company had “to facilitate it” and would not Richard said he did “not Orange could acquire certain reported 8.92 million TV cus- revive anything akin to its pre- know” if there would be a de- assets that may be disposed by tomers at the end of previous vious abortive move to acquire velopment relating to Altice in merging parties to secure regu- quarter. Bouygues Telecom. the coming months, but that latory approval for a deal. In France, Orange had 6.861 “There is no hidden agen- “Orange will not play a front Referring to negotiations with million TV customers, up from da and no hidden project any- role in any type of consolidation Altice to carry its pay TV chan- 6.609 million a year earlier, where,” he said. “There is no scheme”. nels, Richard said Orange had with a modest gain in the fourth project that makes sense for us He said that Orange’s talks decided it would be a positive quarter from the 6.84 million today.” with Bouygues a couple of years move to take Altice’s pay TV ser- reported at the end of Septem- Richard was responding to a ago had been engaged because vices in order to allow customers ber. question that referenced rival the deal “was outstandingly val- “to benefit from all possible con- Richard said there would be service provider Altice, under ue creative”. He said that there tent that matters to them, and “substantial renewal” of Or- pressure since last year due to was no kind of operation today sport including the Champions ange’s management team after concerns about its indebtedness “in which we could play a lead- League is clearly an attractive his leadership mandate is re- following poor Q3 results. Altice ing role”. Orange and Bouygues content for our customers”. newed. He wants “more non- announced a major reorganiza- had diverged and there was no He said if Orange could strike French” people, “more women” tion of its operations including a chance of that deal being re- acceptable terms with Altice it and “more operational people”. spin-off of its US assets in Jan- vived, he said. would take its services. In non- The new team will be unveiled uary. “We cannot buy SFR and we sport genres, he said, Orange at the end of March.

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p04-06,08 DTVE News Digest MarApr18 v4st.indd 8 23/02/2018 18:44 WORLWIDE DISTRIBUTION

Visit us at MipTV #R7.D5

Sabrina Eleuteri Benedetta Migliore Europe Area Manager Extra European Distribution www.rai-com.com [email protected] [email protected]

p09 Rai DTVE MarApr18.indd 1 22/02/2018 13:29 Technology focus > Cable Top 10 Digital TV Europe March/April 2018

What are the key industry developments shaping the future of cable? Ahead of this year’s Cable Congress in Dublin, Digital TV Europe presents its take on the top 10 priorities for the industry.

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p10-12,14-16,18-19 Cable Top 10 DTVE MarApr18v4st.indd 10 23/02/2018 18:21 Digital TV Europe Technology focus > Cable Top 10 March/April 2018

and Vodafone remains the most obvious large-scale merger play in European cable and still makes sense to many industry observers. Liberty is, however, continuing to make moves to focus on markets where it can realistically build a large-scale operation that can The need for compete with telecom players. It is trying to expand its base in Poland – by acquiring Multimedia Polska – while selling off in scale Austria, where it has a relatively small reach. Other moves to consolidate are taking place. Last year Basque Country-based Euskaltel acquired Zegona Communications-owned Telecable, another regional operator in northern Spain. Euskaltel also announced plans to expand its reach in adjacent Spanish regions cable operators seeking to rival telecom players in scale by using third-party infrastructure. IHS’s Rua Aguete believes that For and compete at national – or international – level, the the most likely long-term outcome in Spain is the acquisition of the most obvious route is to buy other operators’ networks. Indeed, northern Spanish player by Vodafone, which, through its ownership acquisitions have historically been the preferred way to expand for of the former ONO, is already the country’s major cable operator. major players such as Liberty Global, Vodafone or Altice. At the other end of Europe, Finland’s Elisa acquired Estonian Consolidation of the cable industry has progressed over the years cable operator Starman. In between, Germany’s Tele Columbus has in some markets and less so in others. While the UK and France built itself into a more considerable player by acquiring Primacom have one operator each, the industry in much of central and eastern and Pepcom. Europe remains highly fragmented. Despite this flurry of activity, the overall pace of consolidation While players such as Altice, Deutsche Telekom, Telekom Austria between European cable players remains relatively slow, perhaps and TDC – and more recently, Sweden’s Tele2 with its planned indicating that bargains are hard to find. This has probably acquisition of Com Hem – have built a mix of telecom and cable contributed to some operators turning to an alternative way of assets, Liberty Global and Vodafone have been the major players achieving scale – building out their networks into greenfield areas. in consolidating the European cable business in recent years and there has been on-and-off speculation about them taking the biggest step of all towards pan-European cable consolidation by merging with each other. The pair are currently engaged in talks related to specific territories, notably Germany, where both have cable assets Investing in the and Liberty Global is the smaller player. The groundwork for collaboration between the pair has been set network by the pair’s VodafoneZiggo JV in the Netherlands, which represents a different direction for M&A – namely the convergence of fixed and mobile networks, which also underpins the Tele2/Com Hem tie-up, a move that was likely driven by common shareholder Kinnevik, which has committed to not sell its shares in either company for at least six months after the deal is completed. Other fixed-mobile network has always been the cable industry’s biggest mergers include Belgian operator Telenet’s acquisition of BASE and The asset, with the hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) infrastructure SFR BeLux. planted in the ground decades ago giving cable players a major “In terms of M&A we will see more fixed-mobile convergence advantage over telecom operator rivals forced to build out expensive mergers between mobile and fixed broadband providers,” says fibre-to-the-home or rely on other technologies that historically have Maria Rua Aguete, executive director, technology, media and been less able to deliver ultra-fast services to consumers. telecom at IHS Markit. “These mergers are often motivated by the The quality of cable networks is nevertheless uneven and cable’s desire to offer integrated solutions, consisting of fixed broadband technical reach is limited compared with that of incumbent telcos. and telephony, pay TV and mobile services. Quad play is critical Operators have therefore continued to invest in upgrading out-of-

to retain customers and achieve growth, hence the intense M&A date plant to deliver high-speed services. However, the cost is lower activity between telcos and cable operators.” than planting fibre in the ground from scratch, which has remained A broader tie-up between Liberty, which this year split off its Latin a key advantage for cable operators – which generally have access to American interests and agreed the sale of UPC Austria to T-Mobile, more limited financial resources than big telcos.

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p10-12,14-16,18-19 Cable Top 10 DTVE MarApr18v4st.indd 11 23/02/2018 18:21 Technology focus > Cable Top 10 Digital TV Europe March/April 2018

Operators with access to sufficient resources such as Liberty TV through IP, but the presence in the network of legacy RF set-top Global have also sought to expand their footprint by building out boxes still acts as a brake on this. both HFC and fibre networks to greenfield areas, a strategy that has been aided by technological advances that have reduced the costs, helping to make build-out strategies a feasible alternative to acquisition of other operators, which, conversely, has become more expensive. Multiplay According to Cornel Ciocirlan, chief technology officer, Europe at cable technology provider Arris, cable operators are not only seeking bundling to make the most of their existing HFC infrastructure but are in some cases actively building out HFC rather than FTTH to new- build areas. “We still see HFC being actively built – operators are building new HFC plant. They have a choice, and all being equal they will build out fibre. But all is not always equal. The cost of an HFC home is much less, and from a capex perspective operators TV, broadband, and telephony has for want to make every dollar or euro count,” he says. Bundling years been a competitive way to upsell In fact, says Ciocirlan, operators are using a mix of technologies existing subscribers to new products, and convergence remains a in new-build areas. They are often collaborating with housing strong strategy for European service providers today. associations and builders who require fibre as a marketing In February of this year, Vodafone confirmed that it was in early tool. Operators are sometimes using the RF-over-glass (RFoG) stage discussions with Liberty Global about potentially acquiring technology that enables them to maintain a single service delivery “overlapping continental European assets”. According to reports, platform across both HFC and fibre networks. the discussions were focused on Liberty’s cable assets in Germany, Speaking at the UBS Annual Global Media and Communications which are run by Unitymedia – the country’s second largest cable

conference at the end of last year, Liberty Global president and CEO operator. Vodafone is already Germany’s cable leader following Mike Fries said that new build of network in areas where it does not its acquisition of Kabel Deutschland in 2013. already have a presence is a key growth opportunity for the operator, Speaking at the UBS Annual Global Media and Communications which was “hitting the marks” in terms of the targets the company conference in December, Liberty CEO Mike Fries commented has set. He said Project Lightning – the name of the company’s that “national scale is what matters in Europe” and said Liberty network build-out in the UK – was delivering in terms of costs and would be a “buyer or a seller” in markets where it lacked scale. rising revenues. “Lightning is doing everything we asked it to do,” Shortly after T-Mobile Austria agreed to buy Liberty Global-owned he said. cable operator UPC Austria for an enterprise value of €1.9 billion, Crucially, said Fries, Liberty was focused on “long term enduring transforming it in the process from a mobile to a quad-play provider. growth” rather than short-term cash flow, which is why it is investing Speaking on Liberty’s recent fourth quarter earnings call, in new network areas. Fries said that he has no intention of dismantling the company’s Operators with more limited resources and scale than Liberty European business and stressed that he remains committed to Global also know that extending their reach is crucial to competing growing its business in markets where it can achieve national scale. effectively with better-resourced telcos. In a number of markets This latest burst of activity is the latest in a long line of similar with fragmented cable infrastructures mid-sized operators have deals in the European market. In January Swedish telco Tele2 sought to forge partnerships with smaller local players to offer their agreed to buy local cable operator Com Hem in a merger agreement services across the local network in arrangements that fall short of that will establish Tele2 as a major integrated mobile and fixed line outright acquisition. operator. A year earlier Liberty and Vodafone completed the creation In their existing network footprint, meanwhile, operators are of their Dutch joint venture, establishing a converged fixed and seeking to reclaim bandwidth in order to offer higher-speed mobile communications operator to compete with KPN. In early broadband service to compete more effectively with rival providers. 2016, meanwhile, BT closed its £12.5 billion (€16.7 billion) buyout This trend both fuels and has been fuelled by cable losing TV of UK mobile operator EE to make its mark on the quad-play market. subscribers to IPTV and satellite, while gaining new broadband While more deals of this type look likely to follow, it is worth customers. Many operators have now moved to shut down analogue considering that the future of bundling is likely to go beyond just services, losing some legacy customers but enabling them to focus offering TV, internet and phone services. “I expect the traditional on higher-paying bundled offerings. The ultimate goal is to deliver triple and quad-play bundled strategies to continue in tandem with

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p10-12,14-16,18-19 Cable Top 10 DTVE MarApr18v4st.indd 12 23/02/2018 18:21 Q&A: Oliver Soellner, ABOX42

Oliver Soellner, member of the management board at ABOX42, talks about the advantages of turnkey solutions for TV service providers.

What are the main challenges facing telecom operators in launching from someone who is a specialist in his eld. It is easier, faster and TV services and keeping them up-to-date? cheaper to rely on the trusted technologies of a turnkey IPTV solution The TV market is developing very fast nowadays, so there is a constant than investing lots of time and money in operators’ own developments need to innovate and keep up with the latest developments, always a and investigations. need to observe the latest technologies and trends on the market. This is Next to cost, a turnkey solution reduces the overall project complexity quite new for traditional operators (e.g. cable operators) who are not used for the operator, allows the operator to grow seamlessly and benet to acting agile and keeping up with the market and competitors, since in from a steady evolvement of features and functions. the past TV services were mainly linear, without much interactivity. Last but not least a turnkey solution takes away a lot of hassle from Today there are many new possibilities in terms of features and services operators maintaining the solution including all applications, which (network PVR, restart TV, on-demand services, OTT services), which requires steady development to maintain compatibility of all apps (e.g. requires a much more exible TV solution including a strong set-top box iOS, Android, Windows). platform to be able to introduce new features over time and keep up with technology trends. To what extent are turnkey solutions more suited to the needs of small and medium-sized operators, and to what extent are larger players What are the main technology innovations that are changing the way likely to go down this route? IPTV systems are implemented and what impact will they have? We have seen a clear trend for a couple of years already towards white Looking at recent technology innovations, UHD/4K seems to be a main label multiscreen IPTV and hybrid solutions, and not only with smaller/ driver for change these days. UHD/4K requires changes in the complete medium size operators who could not handle a complex project and do content delivery system, starting with the introduction of H.265/HEVC not have the budget for it. for more ecient content distribution and enhanced content security Even larger operators are increasingly considering hosted and requested by content owners. These technology changes have an impact managed solutions, since the history shows that many operators on the whole production and delivery system (production equipment, struggled with their legacy solutions by managing a complex project encoding, transcoding, streaming and end-user devices such as the in-house, which has a lot of room for failure and requires quite a operator set-top box). Such change needs solid planning and has quite strong in-house product management and organisation with various an impact on operator TV solutions. stakeholders. Apart from UHD/4K we see a major trend on the operator side to With a turnkey solution the project complexity is much reduced, which provide comprehensive multiscreen services on multiple devices, which allows the operator to focus on his major strength in marketing and sales. also allow interactions between mobile devices and the set-top box e.g. for content discovery on mobile, playback on TV, essential control How much exibility does a turnkey oering give to service providers functions as well as remote programming of recordings. to dierentiate the user experience and their overall oering? Due to the fact that infrastructure is evolving fast and operators are In the past one of the arguments of larger operators made against white able to oer decent broadband connections on DSL and bre, more and label/ turnkey solutions was that these solutions do not oer enough more end-customers are getting access to new IPTV and hybrid solutions. customisation possibility. Today, this is also becoming less of an issue, since most modern TV middleware solutions are browser-based and What are the main advantages for operators in choosing a turnkey do oer a high level of exibility for customisation and UI changes to IPTV system as against developing a platform using multiple suppliers? achieve a unique user experience across all screens, while still leveraging Choosing a system from a trusted partner means choosing a solution the advantages of a white label/turnkey solution.

p13 ABox42 Q&A MarApr18.indd 1 23/02/2018 15:13 Technology focus > Cable Top 10 Digital TV Europe March/April 2018

the growth of more ‘evolved’ bundles that may include newer OTT when choosing a multi-play operator,” says Simon Trudelle, senior elements but will also comprise different mixes of the traditional director, product marketing at Nagra. service components,” says Jonathan Doran, principal analyst at The content protection and multiscreen television solutions Ovum and an expert in telco video and pay TV operator strategies. company works with cable customers around the world – including “We can expect more operators to drop fixed line rental, while Altice Group, Net Serviços and StarHub – which have deployed some will cater for cord-shavers and cord-nevers with dual offerings Nagra UX solutions to introduce new on-demand and multiscreen based around fixed and mobile broadband but without the enforced features and capabilities. pay TV component. Bundling options will become increasingly “From easily providing access to on-demand content, including modular so that, for example, there is a base of single or dual-play start-over, catch-up TV and cloud DVR, to onboarding OTT apps like broadband, with the choice to add pay TV or online video: a kind of Netflix, or providing linear channels delivered to any screens, our semi-a la carte scenario.” customers have successfully evolved their platforms to provide more convenience and better access to content for their subscribers,” says Trudelle. With much set-top box functionality moving to the cloud, it is important that operator-provided devices integrate new capabilities like personalisation, voice recognition, and smartphone-based Next-gen TV remote controls and video casting, while also providing access to OTT app stores. “There is an innovation gap building up in the industry, and there is a real risk for cable operators in particular – especially the mid and small-size ones in Europe and elsewhere,” warns Trudelle. He claims that distributing a bundle of linear channels is “simply not sufficient anymore to guarantee TV revenues”, with younger an increasingly competitive content landscape, user viewers in particular increasingly deciding to access TV and video In experience is arguably becoming a key point of differentiation services through OTT players. He suggests that while incumbent among operators. But to what extent do advanced TV features and cable operators need to evolve legacy infrastructure, they should set-top box developments matter to customers? take a cloud platform approach to compete with fast-moving over- In its most recent earnings announcement, Liberty Global said the-top competitors. that in Q4 2017 it added 210,000 subscribers to its advanced TV platforms – Horizon, Horizon Lite, TiVo, Virgin TV V6 and Yelo TV. The additions still only took its advanced TV total to 43% of its total cable video base, but was a significant positive in a quarter where its overall video customer number dropped by 54,500. Investing in Liberty-owned UK operator Virgin Media announced in January that it would offer customers a free upgrade to its high-end V6 content set-top box – in what it described as one of the largest customer upgrade programmes ever carried out in the UK. Virgin Media said that by the end of the year it expects the majority of its TV customers to have a V6 box – a premium, 4K-ready device that allows users to record up to six programmes while watching a seventh recording or stream. in content is one way to differentiate Pushing TV customers to their latest and most impressive TV Investing a pay TV offering. But what content experience makes sense for operators in today’s hyper-competitive works best and is this always the right approach for an operator to media landscape. Virgin Media claims that V6 customers spend on take? average two hours longer each week watching TV and are more than Premium sports rights have long been a major draw for viewers twice as likely to watch a box set – an important factor when research and a key investment for pay TV operators. While major online video shows that linear TV viewing is down overall as the popularity of on- giants like Netflix and Amazon have – for the time being at least – demand platforms increases. focused their efforts around scripted content, live sport remains an “As consumer expectations keep rising and differentiation based important reason for choosing and remaining committed to a pay on content alone is likely to become more challenging in most TV operator. markets, UX is one of the key factors that consumers will consider Another battleground that is of increasing importance, at least for

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p10-12,14-16,18-19 Cable Top 10 DTVE MarApr18v4st.indd 14 23/02/2018 18:21 Digital TV Europe Technology focus > Cable Top 10 March/April 2018

some operators, is high-end drama. In Spain, Telefónica has invested €70 in Movistar+ original productions and it recently announced plans to launch these series in 12 countries across central and south America – airing them on a new Movistar Series channel and across its Movistar TV and Embracing OTT Movistar Play platforms. Elsewhere, Liberty Global recently announced its second move into original drama, partnering with All3Media International and Amazon Prime Video to produce The Feed – a London-based series, set in the near-future. Sky, meanwhile, said on its most recent earnings call that viewing of Sky channels had increased by 6% following both critical Media in the UK was the first pay TV operator successes and record audiences for Sky Original productions Virgin to let Netflix on its platform back in 2013. The like Riviera and Tin Star. cable provider initially offered the service to a limited number of Ed Border, principal analyst, Ampere Analysis, says that pay homes on its Virgin Media TiVo boxes, before rolling it out to all TV operators can market themselves via a mix of two things – TiVo customers. Com Hem was Netflix’s second cable provider convenience or exclusivity. partner, with the Swedish operator launching it on its TiVo based Cost-effectively bundling channels and services that are available platform the same year. elsewhere, with something like a broadband package, is an example Since then the subscription video-on-demand service has of value through convenience. Exclusivity, on the other hand, is expanded to pay TV platforms all around the world. The first US important but does not necessarily need to be achieved through cable operators to take up the service were RCN Telecom Services, direct content production. This can also be offered through licensing Atlantic Broadband and Grande Communications in 2014, followed deals – such as Sky’s deal to offer HBO content in the UK through closely by Suddenlink. While the biggest US cable providers took Sky Atlantic. longer to take to the idea, Comcast launched Netflix to X1 customers Of the many larger operator-broadcasters that do effectively invest in 2016, while Charter and then Cox integrated the service in 2017. in original content, Border says the choice comes down to whether In Europe, Liberty Global’s decision to embrace the service they should produce or commission new genres – for instance in 2016 was a major watershed moment. As part of a multi-year comedy – and how to brand this original content. deal, the operator pledged to make Netflix’s content available to its “In some ways, for these large broadcasters, the rise of Netflix subscribers in 30 countries around the world. can be slightly beneficial – as they can commission local content, In the past year alone, Netflix has extended its partnership for which they own the rights in their own markets, and then sell agreement with Deutsche Telekom, struck an expanded the rights for other global markets to an international platform,” international deal with Orange, and made a multi-year agreement says Border. with Altice covering France, Portugal, Israel and the Dominican “Such deals – in which global SVOD platforms obtain near-global Republic. A pact with OSN in February 2018 marked Netflix’s first exclusive rights to a piece of content and market it as an ‘original’ – partnership in the Middle East and North Africa region. are becoming increasingly common.” “In the post-OTT era we now see the blending of the key SVOD “For smaller cable and pay TV operators, providing more niche apps by pay TV cable operators,” says Anthony Smith-Chaigneau, or localised service and content, originals become less important. senior director of product marketing at Nagra – the digital TV These services are often picked up by consumers alongside an division of the Kudelski Group. “Some would say this is letting the SVOD platform or subscribed to for their local or specialised fox into the hen-house but we see that, with the cable operators content. It is therefore more important that these platforms provide delivering good broadband, content bundling (premium to skinny),

carefully curated in-demand content, rather than major originals.” 4K services and access to SVOD and other apps, this is a strategic For general operators looking at TV seasons, Border claims it move to retain customers.” comes down to optimising choice based on local tastes. For example, Ed Border, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, says that Turkish viewers have a preference for long-form TV seasons with operator decisions to embrace Netflix are dependent on the state of long episode times, South Korea has a steady flow of one-off, short the market, the operator’s market share, as well as the relationship drama seasons, while in South America long-running telenovelas between the platform and the operator. are key. “Effectively, two things need to happen in order for an operator to onboard an SVOD platform: the operator needs to be profiting

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p10-12,14-16,18-19 Cable Top 10 DTVE MarApr18v4st.indd 15 23/02/2018 18:21 Technology focus > Cable Top 10 Digital TV Europe March/April 2018

enough from its other complementary existing services – such as Operators are not only investing in upgrading access networks broadband, mobile, VOD, transactional – so that it does not see the but also looking at future-proofing in-home WiFI networks to SVOD platform as a direct competitor, more as a complementary ensure that consumers are able to take advantage of the headline add-on-package; and the SVOD platform needs to be a part of a speeds on offer, he says. shared ecosystem in a country, rather than a service which is actively “A lot of operators are taking the approach, in preparing for the driving consumers away from pay TV in that market,” says Border. future, that once you put a cable modem with embedded WiFi in the “The benefits therefore are providing a more well-rounded and home, it will be there for years. You need to prepare your subscribers attractive package for consumers, without investing in a proprietary for these high-speed services,” says Ciocirlan. SVOD platform. However, if an SVOD platform is onboarded On the network side, says Ciocirlan, operators are investing in prematurely, or the operator isn’t able to adjust to changing market CCAP systems and a distributed architecture alongside DOCSIS 3.1. conditions, the operator could be left in a position where they are “The fusion of these technologies gives you the potential to do integrating a direct competitor.” Full Duplex DOCSIS, providing 1Gpbs or 1.2Gbps or whatever While Netflix’s pay TV footprint is now wide, the same cannot be speed you offer upstream as well as downstream,” he says. “It is said for its main global SVOD rival, Amazon Prime Video. Speaking not necessary this year but in 2019-20 it will be another tool in the at Cable Congress last year, Amazon Video managing director, Alex toolbox for operators to deploy.” Green, said that Amazon was “definitely open” to video partnerships Full Duplex DOCSIS, which Com Hem recently announced it with cable operators. Green, who previously worked for companies was piloting, enables cable to compete head-on with fibre providers including BT TV and Virgin Media, denied that Amazon posed by offering symmetrical high-speed broadband. There is relatively a direct threat to the traditional TV operator model and said that little evidence of market demand for symmetrical capacity currently. services like Amazon, Netflix and others “easily co-exist” with the In fact, Ciocirlan says that demand for downstream capacity is still cable and pay TV industry. growing faster than demand for upstream capacity thanks to the “In markets in which Amazon just has a Prime Video play, relative decline of peer-to-peer traffic and growing demand for without the wider Prime customers or Amazon Channels packages, streaming video and music. it is certainly possible that we’ll start to see a greater number of How much demand there actually is for Gigabit speeds in onboarding deals on set top boxes,” said Border. However, he claims general remains unclear – both ultra high-speeds and symmetrical this is unlikely in the large markets of the US, UK and Germany capacity are currently seen more as effective marketing tools than as where Amazon’s Channels initiative essentially establishes the something people need in practice. company as a rival content aggregator – one that possesses “the Nevertheless, Liberty Global last year commissioned a survey financial might to potentially bid for high-value sports or content by Arthur D. Little that predicted what it called the ‘GigaWorld deals”. innovation cycle’ would unlock a market worth between €250 billion and €660 billion a year in Europe by 2025, and between €1.3 trillion and €3.5 trillion globally by that date. According to Arthur D. Little, this will be driven by three major families of ‘GigaApps’: augmented discovery, blending digital The road content with the physical world; virtual telepresence, enabling virtual social interaction; and automated living, the delegation of to Gigabit human decisions and tasks to technology and appliances. For now, however, Gigabit speeds are primarily useful as a broadband marketing tool for service providers in their battle with one another for new customers, and major cable operators such as Liberty and Vodafone are busy upgrading their networks to deliver Gigabit broadband. the highest top-line data speeds has Vodafone Germany last year unveiled a four-year plan to invest Delivering long been one of the key tools in €2 billion upgrading its networks. cable operators’ armoury in competing with rival fixed-line players. At last year’s Cable Congress, Colin Buechner, Liberty’s managing Over the last couple of years, this has crystallised in the race to director of access networks, said that the deployment of DOCSIS 3.1 deliver Gigabit speeds over cable – seen as a suitable benchmark technology by the operator would enable it not only to offer 1Gbps that the industry can use to showcase its ability to deliver ultra high- services but also to improve the reliability of its network and use speed broadband to a wide base. spectrum more efficiently. Cornel Ciocirlan, chief technology officer, EMEA at cable Buechner confirmed that downstream capacity remained the technology provider Arris, says that upgrading or re-architecting key competitive battleground – a market fact that, ahead of the networks to make them capable of delivering ultra fast speeds has deployment of Full Duplex DOCSIS, still gives cable an advantage been a high priority of operators for the last year or two. in competition with fibre operators.

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p10-12,14-16,18-19 Cable Top 10 DTVE MarApr18v4st.indd 16 23/02/2018 18:21 Q&A: Ashish Chordia, co-founder and CEO, Alphonso

Alphonso CEO Ashish Chordia talks about TV data and its likely impact on the video industry.

What are the key applications of TV data and which groups in the TV the foundation for value-added services that create more stickiness for value chain stand to bene t most? their customers, like personalised discovery and recommendations that TV viewership data has always been in scarce supply, gathered typically take advantage of large-scale viewership data. To put this into context, on a small panel basis for many decades. Census-scale deterministic if a household never misses an Arsenal match, the TV should know to viewership data from smart TVs, connected set-top-boxes and other automatically recommend a breaking sports news clip about a trade of living room devices is now a sought-after currency for brands and an Arsenal player or a game highlight they may have missed. networks who want to engage veri ed TV audiences across all screens. And with the amount of viewership data that is available, the days of Viewership data can be used not only to better connect with an the static electronic programming guide are numbered. Why should my audience, but also to measure the eectiveness of TV ad campaigns on-screen guide be the same as yours, if we generally watch very dierent and hybrid TV and digital ad campaigns, in driving actual results. Smart types of programmes? With content fragmented across live linear TV brands are using TV data to understand their TV campaign ROI in great and OTT, TV data becomes a means of universal search and discovery. detail; for example, which creatives are driving the most tune-in to a It’s time to think about not just presenting what’s on for all viewers, but programme, or, which shows and day-parts are most eective at driving presenting a curated list of upcoming programmes - whether on linear foot trac into stores and dealerships. TV viewership data, at large scale, TV, apps or OTT services, that is tailored to each individual viewer or is also instrumental in media planning and buying both for traditional household. Large-scale TV data will get us there in the next few years. linear TV, new OTT services and related digital media. What challenges stand in the way of the industry as a whole making What kinds of data are advertisers looking for and what needs to be the most of TV data? And what solutions are available? put in place to enable both them and TV distributors to bene t? The challenges are in three main categories: adoption, consumer Advertisers are looking beyond basic demographics to decide where to experience, and overall maturity of the digital TV ecosystem. First, the target their ads and how to optimise campaign spend. Knowing which industry’s tools, methodology, processes and norms need to evolve out households have been exposed to an ad for a particular product enables of the currently trusted panel-based models, toward using true census them to optimise ad frequency on a one-to-one basis. And because TV scale data. That change is happening at fast pace, but still has a long way data can also tell them the optimal frequency for driving foot trac and to go. Alphonso for one oers free TV ad campaign insights on thousands sales, they can be a lot smarter about their spend. of US brands and brand categories, and this free access will be coming this One of the most common use cases we see in the US is conquering year to the UK. Second, the consumer experience has to be bullet-proof. a competitor’s audience. Advertisers can utilise viewership data not Privacy is a key concern from the consumer perspective and the industry just for their own brand, but for their key competitors or their entire needs to self-regulate and build better practices wherever consumer data category. So they can compete for mindshare in a much more eective is concerned. A high level of trust between the industry and consumers way by reaching granular audience segments (for example, people who is paramount. We have endeavoured to build consumer choice and have seen my competitor’s ad) across all the devices they use, in a more privacy into the core of our products, and that remains a top priority as personal, interactive way. we enter new markets. Finally, the overall TV and big data ecosystems must come together to develop means of data exchange that can lead to What other uses of data are being prioritised by device manufacturers high-value services such as advanced audience measurement across all and TV service providers and how do they stand to bene t? forms of TV, and attribution reporting for TV ads. This is something we’re TV broadcasters and networks bene t from having access to real-time happy to be working on with MTM, Sky, Adobe, EGTA and others, as part audience insights, which allows them to understand audience trends on of a consortium to help drive understanding and awareness of cross- how shows are being consumed. They can better understand audience platform, cross-border measurement. loyalty for certain shows, which in turn helps them promote the shows Other industries with complimentary data sets have made much better to increase monetisation of ad-supported content. more progress than the TV industry in understanding the value of On the device side, smart TV makers can now have a much deeper combined data sources. Expect TV data to help brands have a much understanding of how their customers interact with their product. better understanding of how TV drives auto sales, CPG sales, foot trac, Real-time audience dashboards can give TV OEMs a direct view into website visits and app downloads. We’re driving massive innovation in product usage that they have never had before. And this data becomes multi-touch attribution and cross-media eectiveness.

p17 Alphonso Q&A DTVE MarApr18.indd 1 23/02/2018 11:32 Technology focus > Cable Top 10 Digital TV Europe March/April 2018

year, highlighted the fact that adding a mobile play introduces an additional element of volatility into cable operators’ revenues, which has an onward impact on operating cash-flow. Nevertheless, said Fries, Liberty is offering quad-play “in every market that we can” as convergence becomes the key battleground for service providers. Mobile and Mobile has simply become a must-have for cable operators in order to compete effectively with multi-play rivals. The battle convergence between telecom service providers in all Europe’s major markets is a multi-play battle. Convergence is the key growth opportunity for operators in markets where new subscribers are increasingly hard to come by. Convergence is the rationale behind the merger in Sweden of mobile Tele2 and Com Hem has to create the second largest mobile cable operators, scale no longer means achieving telephony and fixed broadband provider in Sweden behind Telia. For a wider reach for their fixed networks but being in a “In essence it is all about offering your customers more choice. If position to compete effectively in mobile as well. Fixed-mobile they already sign up to cable, why not offer other services? In most

combinations such as the VodafoneZiggo joint venture in the cases it will cheaper than what a rival mobile operator offers. And Netherlands, Tele2’s acquisition of Com Hem, Telenet’s purchase the cable provider will be able to generate more additional revenue of BASE and T-Mobile’s acquisition of UPC Austria account for a from customers. Recent earnings from numerous European telcos growing number of M&A deals involving cable operators. clearly underline the value of multiplay convergent bundles in “Broadband is a core service for cable providers. Our research driving lower churn, which is another benefit,” says Pescatore. shows that it is an anchor service in the eyes of consumer. However, Operators are also engaged in ‘convergence’ in other ways by providers must offer other services given moves by all players to offering multiscreen availability of their content line-ups and move towards multiplay convergent bundles. This includes mobile, interactive features. pay TV, OTT video, and other services including the connected Mobile screens are now highly relevant devices in terms of the home, home automation and connected car. The future is all about consumption of professional content. According to Ooyala’s Global a bigger bundle of things,” says Paolo Pescatore, vice-president, Video Index, over 60% of video plays will be on mobile devices by multiplay and media at CCS Insight. the middle of this year. Ooyala found that long-form video viewing Cable’s own embrace of mobile as the fourth leg in the quad-play on mobile devices grew by 77% in the third quarter of 2017 alone. is in some respects an awkward fit. Mobile subscriptions are seen Ericsson’s Mobility Report, meanwhile, predicts that video will as an individual rather than a household purchase. Pay-as-you-go account for 75% of all mobile data traffic by 2023. is unpredictable, while cable’s strength is reliable and predicable Service providers can – and do – build a mobile video play by cash-flow. Mobile also requires additional investment in network zero-rating bandwidth hungry video services, encouraging the use infrastructure – either by developing a full MNO or one of the types of mobile devices to consume long-form video. of of MVNO that offer varying levels of control. “This is a tough decision and heavily depends on the market dynamics. Owning a mobile operator is extremely costly, need to acquire spectrum, rolling out a network. And do this across territories requires a huge investment. However, it does make sense to own the entire end-to-end fixed and mobile networks especially The smart home with the arrival of 5G. For cable providers who own the pipes in the ground, becoming an MVNO is the most sensible option,” says Pescatore. Mobile is also highly price-competitive, and multi-play – where TV, fixed and mobile broadband and telephony are bundled together – is even more price competitive – not to mention potentially destructive if operators behave ‘irrationally’ in search of market rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) market has made share. The the smart home an increasingly interesting area for Liberty Global president and CEO Mike Fries, speaking at the service providers to both generate additional revenue streams and UBS Annual Global Media and Communications conference last keep customers loyal. According to research by Strategy Analytics,

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nearly 20 billion IoT and connected devices were deployed worldwide by the end of 2017, with a further 10 billion to be added over the next four years. Among the operators getting involved in this space is Swedish The regulatory cable provider Com Hem. It teamed up with home security and smart energy technology provider TMPL last year to offer services environment to its customers such as energy monitoring. In the Netherlands, KPN’s venture investment arm invested in Nello, a developer of a smart intercom solution, which enables keyless, remote access to residential buildings by upgrading existing intercom systems. KPN Ventures said that this was part of its wider strategy to invest in connected home services. telecommunications regulations have KPN itself rolled out smart home services back in 2016 after European been encouraging investment in partnering with one of Europe’s leaders in this space, Deutsche network infrastructure and delivering high-speed broadband, and Telekom. KPN SmartLife lets users control home security and cable operators have broadly been supportive of EU rulemaking energy consumption and the platform’s underlying technology is while occasionally decrying what they see as politically motivated based on Deutsche Telekom’s QIVICON connected home platform. meddling by national watchdogs. The EC has worked towards the Deutsche Telekom launched QIVICON back in 2013. The adoption of a new Electronic Communications Code to further the platform is designed to integrate with multiple connected devices goal of creating very high-capacity networks to enable the Digital and support new revenue generating services around areas like Single Market to become a reality. The EC estimated that €500 home security, energy consumption and smart lights. Partners using billion of investment up to 2025 would be necessary to meet its the platform include Philips, Osram, Miele, Samsung, Huawei and goals, with current investment plans estimated to fall short of this Sonos, and Deutsche Telekom customers can control services using by about €155 billion. its Magenta SmartHome App. The goal of the code is to amend existing directives covering the Filipe Oliveira, market analyst at Futuresource Consulting, says framework for communications, access, authorisation and universal that while the potential for added revenues will appeal to operators, service, and to integrate all four into a single text. In terms of access, on the whole this is not the main reason for them moving into the the code introduces a regulatory objective of promoting access to, smart home space. and take-up of, high-speed fixed and mobile broadband. “What we see happening is operators offering smart home as a To encourage investment, it sought to limit the imposition way to tie their customers into the service,” says Oliveira, adding of market access obligations by national regulators to markets that a revamped set-top box is one option for cable TV providers that don’t function properly. Cable industry body Cable Europe hoping to introduce a new hub or controller for the smart home. welcomed the proposals, but expressed strong reservations about “If you’re thinking of cutting the cord or getting rid of your pay TV the application of competition rules in cases of ‘joint dominance’ – because you have Netflix or you get your entertainment from other where two operators are dominant in a particular market. providers, it’s easy to stop paying. But if it comes out with additional Last year Belgian cable operator Telenet, which operates in services – if all of a sudden your lighting stops working or your Flanders, filed an objection to local regulator BIPT’s attempt to security cameras stopped working, or your climate control stopped force it and Wallonian operator Voo to open up their networks to working and you need to set all that up either with a new provider third parties on the basis that each was dominant in the local cable or even with a different pay TV provider – then you think twice.” market. Telenet argued that BIPT’s attempt to create a distinction Other players in this space include Orange, which introduced between cable and the wider telecom market was artificial and Smart Home By Orange in Poland in 2013 and in France in 2014, undermined the fundamental principle that only operators with while a number of operators – including EE TV in the UK – have ‘significant market power’ should be regulated. launched voice control support by linking up with Amazon Echo Liberty Global has also faced regulatory problems in the and Echo Dot devices. Elsewhere, Sky launched an all-in-one sound Netherlands – most recently because of a European General Court system last year with Devialet, marking the first partner-product ruling that annulled its joint venture with Vodafone on technical designed and built under a licence by the French audio start-up. grounds, requiring the EC to re-examine its original approval of the In the US, Comcast announced at this year’s Consumer deal because it failed to conduct a proper analysis of the impact of Electronics Show plans to significantly expand its home automation the deal on the premium sports market. Liberty Global CEO Mike capabilities. The cable giant said its goal is to make Xfinity the Fries was able to dismiss that ruling as “more of a nuisance” than “home operating system that integrates the best IoT devices” – a major blow and said he was “pretty confident the deal would including existing Xfinity Home security and automation products. ultimately be cleared”. l

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p10-12,14-16,18-19 Cable Top 10 DTVE MarApr18v4st.indd 19 23/02/2018 18:21 Technology focus > UHD TV Digital TV Europe March/April 2018 A sharper picture

Opinions differ about how quickly consumers are warming to UHD TV, but many hurdles still stand in the way of the format becoming mainstream. Adrian Pennington provides an update.

the DVB specification for 2018 should herald a significant uplift in UHD regard as UHD programming,” he says. “But Since ultra high definition (UHD) services. this is an evolution, not a big bang, and follows TV, UHD-1 Phase 2, was approved at the Peter Siebert, DVB executive director, the normal investment and upgrade cycle for end of 2016, global rollout has been slow but admits the format has had a slower start by consumers and broadcasters.” unspectacular. Digital TV Europe’s assessment, comparison to the move from SD to HD. Thomas Wrede, vice-president, new based on a range of expert contributions, is that “Many UHD channel launches are playing technology and standards, media Platforms as gaps across the supply chain are plugged, out loops of pre-recorded material; not what I at satellite operator SES offers a more upbeat

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Insighjt TV has been natively shooting and If UHD has had a sluggish start, most producing 50fps video since 2014. pundits pin the blame on costs incurred in higher bandwidth and increases in capital later [by year-end 2017], while HD went from 13 expenditure. channels to 32 in the same time-frame.” “Broadcasters need to be convinced of Rian Bester, CEO at Insight TV, the the business case for the extra cost in studio UHD factual-entertainment channel says: infrastructure when many PSBs are financially “There’s a definite acceleration in rollout and still digesting HD,” says Siebert. “I’m adoption to which Phase 2 has contributed. convinced UHD will come but it will follow The enhancements brought by HDR [High normal investment cycles, except where there’s Dynamic Range], WGC [Wide Color Gamut] an opportunity to move to build greenfield and HFR [High Frame Rate] are blatantly [operations].” obvious and undeniable. But would I call it a The media industry is always in a state of ‘tipping point’? Not totally.” transition: analogue to digital, SD to HD, and David Mercer, director at Strategy Analytics now SDI to IP-based production infrastructure, believes that the UHD rollout is “a little behind as well shifting from HD to UHD formats. schedule compared to what many were hoping “These transitions are time-consuming and a year or so ago” but concurs that momentum expensive, which leads to a classic chicken and is building again. “We would be surprised if egg situation,” says Insight’s Bester. “We have most major platforms were not carrying at least stores full of UHD TVs and consumers that some UHD services by the end of this year.” want to purchase them but not enough content A recent IABM survey indicated that 35% of to warrant the expense.” broadcasters would launch a UHD service in Futuresource attributes the widening gap the next three years; 59% said they would roll between sales of 4K-ready consumer hardware out within a decade. and content to the expense of contribution and In addition, the ATSC 3.0 standard will distribution: “Most operators see little incentive advance UHD deployments outside of DVB to shorten replacement lifecycles in order to territories beginning in Korea and then the US. provide 4K UHD STBs to consumers,” says ATSC 3.0 is designed to deliver 4K UHD and Veale. As it stands, marketing from hardware immersive audio with the increased payload manufacturers “is the most important factor in capacity combined with HEVC encoding. upgrading customers to 4K capable devices”, says Veale, rather than a desire for UHD content. Widening content gap There is little holding back 4K UHD production, with Bester claiming its cost The take-up of UHD TVs is obviously a critical has been “overstated” since 2014. “If you indicator for broadcasters. Strategy Analytics simply applied the same inefficient HD estimates that 176 million UHD TVs were in workflow to UHD, the cost difference can be use worldwide by the end of 2017. Household significant, but through efficient and smart penetration had reached 19% in North America workflow adaptions, the cost increment can be and 14% in Western Europe. minimised,” he says. “Camera development, “These data-points are helping to persuade storage pricing and more competition in many broadcasters that they have to start the post production space has squeezed the considering their own plans for UHD very incremental variance even further.” seriously,” says Mercer. Futuresource points to a significant quantity By comparison, Futuresource Consulting of content that is being recorded and produced reported worldwide penetration of 8% at end of in UHD, but not immediately being made 2017, which by 2021 is expected to increase to available to consumers. Rather, content 71% of sales and 29% penetration. Shipments production is being ‘future-proofed’ for later perspective. “We see a real acceleration of Ultra of UHD streaming devices – Roku, Apple UHD launches. HD – by 2025, analysts expect over 700 UHD etc. – are rising too. At the end of 2017 they “The gap between hardware and content channels globally. In fact, UHD is growing so comprised about eight million or 36% of all availability exists because providers need to fast that it is outpacing HD development, if units sold. “We have moved beyond the phase be convinced of the commercial benefits of you compare their respective rollout globally: of early adoption of UHD and are now in the making their content available in the higher- UHD started with 13 channels on its first year strong growth phase,” says Futuresource’s definition format,” says Globecast’s UK of commercialisation and grew to 92 two years Tristan Veale. managing director Samuel Lemercier. “This is

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p20-24 UHD TV DTVE MarApr18v3st.indd 21 23/02/2018 17:04 Technology focus > UHD TV Digital TV Europe March/April 2018

not happening overnight.” features, the most significant being HDR, runner in Europe and Japan for traditional There’s little in the way of premium value which delivers a bigger visual punch than live/linear services. Recent announcements in 4K to be squeezed from the consumer. added pixel count. from AT&T/DirecTV add weight to Strategy Competition among SVOD streamers has Telestream’s vice-president of product Analytics’ prediction that HLG will become the actually lowered the price of 4K UHD content. management, media workflow and production de facto distribution standard in broadcast. Apple meanwhile doesn’t differentiate in price solutions, Scott Murray’s take is typical: “4K “The absence of metadata simplifies the between its 4K and HD titles on iTunes, forcing is not necessarily a driver, especially when the entire broadcast chain especially for live events Amazon and Google to remove or reduce the images are so compressed. What will drive and scene-referred technology will not need differential for their resolution-specific tiers. widespread adoption is not more pixels but re-mastering for different display types,” says Yet content is deemed “critically important” HDR.” Felstead of HLG. by Tim Felstead, director of strategic and The industry typically uses the term ‘HDR’ However, it is the dynamic metadata of operational marketing at technology provider to refer to the combination of three image Dolby Vision and the metadata extension to Rohde & Schwarz, and “a necessity” by technologies and not the HDR transfer HDR10 (HDR10+) that makes these formats Leonid Berkovich, vice-president of marketing function alone: HDR plus Wide Colour Gamut more suitable for on-demand content and at Viaccess-Orca. “With 4K content available, (WCG) plus 10-bit sample bit depth. services. Originally developed by Samsung as the entire business can be rolled out,” says HDR techniques can be applied with an alternative to paying Dolby a licence, royalty- Berkovich. “visually stunning results”, says Felstead, to all free HDR10+ has the backing of Fox and The pressure to create more content is resolutions and frame rates. Warner Bros (along with Panasonic). however dampened by the available outlet However, there has been no clear agreement Most, if not all, online services use different channels, a factor that Felstead links to the on the ‘best’ HDR solution to use. As was HDR technologies simultaneously. For reluctance of media companies to allocate the apparent at CES, TV manufacturers have example, Netflix has content available in bandwidth required for UHD. clearly anticipated that a winner from the HDR10 and Dolby Vision. Amazon, Wuaki. “Broadcasters must invest in UHD at format war will not emerge anytime soon, and tv, iTunes, YouTube, Sony’s Ultra Streaming multiple points, with this investment currently are insuring themselves by offering all manner Service, Sony Playstation, Google Play Movies not being matched by the financial return of formats in their latest display lines. & TV, Vudu, UltraFlix, Fandango, Xbox one from customers,” Felstead says. “As such, The good news is that there’s near universal and Playstation 4 are all offering a few – but the upgrades and content acquisition are agreement that the HDR10 and HLG formats not necessarily all – of the various technologies. challenging for many operators that are seeing are must-haves, with Dolby Vision a strong “Once the specifications settle down we will increasingly suppressed margins.” third place. Samsung is a notable abstainer with see a standard set available across the whole Even the Winter Olympics featured limited regards to Dolby Vision. Philips/Technicolor’s spectrum of UHD 4K video viewing services online,” predicts Nagra’s product marketing chief Anthony Smith-Chaigneau. “Standards “Once the specifications settle down we have reached a milestone where quality is at a level required with new standards taking will see a standard set available across the backward compatibility as a main requirement. whole spectrum of UHD 4K video viewing For example, HDR10+ is now used by Amazon services and is backwards compatible with services online.” HDR10 devices.” Anthony Smith-Chaigneau Indeed, Amazon’s entire library of HDR content on Amazon Prime, including The 4K production by comparison with the 4,000 HDR technology also has supporters – LG for Grand Tour, is now available in the HDR10+ hours – including 860 live hours – it produced one. The DVB for its part has ratified HLG and standard, and can be viewed on 2017 UHD in HD. Matters may change this summer PQ10 (from which HDR10 is derived) in UHD Samsung televisions. when FIFA and production partner Sony Phase 2. Further standards convergence is likely. Over produce all matches from the World Cup in To clarify further, Dolby also had a hand time, Futuresource predicts HLG will likely be Russia in 4K HDR, although how many free- in developing PQ (Perceptual Quantization) phased out in favour of PQ10. “The developers to-air public and commercial rights holders like and derived its 12-bit solution from it. Veale of HLG themselves admitted that it is a stopgap the BBC and ITV will launch a UHD service, says: “This can be delivered in such a way to streamline the switch over to HDR,” says even temporarily, for viewers is unclear. that if a device has a 10-bit display then it will Veale. “Many TVs and AV hardware use a seamlessly show at the fullest capabilities of transfer function to convert a HLG stream to the display. However, if the panel is 12-bit and PQ10 anyway as displays more commonly Alphabet soup the company licenses the Dolby Vision product support this correctly.” then it will show Dolby Vision in all its glory.” HD HDR services are likely to appear too, Of course, in addition to bandwidth-hungry Devised by NHK and the BBC, allowing says Veale, “particularly for broadcasters with 4K resolution, the UHD-1 Phase 2 spec caters backward compatibility with SDR displays, it’s bandwidth constraints, such as terrestrial for the introduction of additional audio-visual no surprise that HLG is emerging as the front- broadcasters or those distributing via IPTV that

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are able to apply some ABR [adaptive bitrates].” In spite of the success of early non-HDR The distribution bottleneck UHD services – notably those of Sky and BT in the UK – it’s clear that the debate around If content is King then distribution is Kong, as the industry’s biggest challenge is finding a HDR has contributed to the uncertainty a well-known cable executive once said. UHD cost-effective approach that supports a variety many broadcasters feel about deploying UHD bandwidth requirements are intensive, even of networks; satellite, cable, and ADSL. services. using HEVC compression. Satellite, therefore, “For live content, satellite can carry UHD EBU senior executive Dr Hans Hoffman will continue to play well in the UHD world, video in real time by using more spectrum has criticised industry players for “being short- given its point-to-multipoint advantage, for a per channel,” she says. “This scenario is sighted in the belief that pushing individual good decade because, with satellite, additional more difficult for VOD, which requires unicast HDR solutions will drive market adoption subscribers don’t add bandwidth costs. This streaming. Push VOD allows operators to store more quickly and to their own benefit”. He benefit grows as viewers consume more and popular content in the house, and this approach believes that investments and new service more UHD content. might be key to reducing bandwidth costs.” rollouts will remain on hold until the industry Statistics provided by satellite research Fixed-line distributors’ fortunes will vary stabilises. group NSR reveal that just 0.17% of channels depending on the infrastructure choices they Smith-Chaigneau meanwhile reports that distributed using satellite are UHD today, a have made. Cable operators want to leverage some operators launching UHD services are figure that includes DTH platforms and video new technologies such as DOCSIS 3.1 to opting to go without HDR “because the quality distribution to cable TV and IPTV headends. distribute UHD over IP. For telcos, investing in was still not entirely satisfactory”. “They still However, notes senior analyst Alan Crisp, this fibre is necessary. “Once CCAP is deployed, the want to fine tune the end-to-end chain to make figure under-represents the benefit to satellite cost per bit will be more affordable [for cable],” sure they deliver a clear difference compared to operators, given the significantly greater says Thierry Fautier, Harmonic’s vice-president the HD equivalent,” he says. bandwidth requirements for UHD. of video strategy. “For IPTV [operators], a Mercer confirms this. “Many broadcasters NSR predicts that 930 UHD channels will be are reluctant to commit to UHD until there’s on air by 2026, a figure in line with Euroconsult’s greater clarity on which HDR standards will be forecast of 1,116 UHD channels by 2025 out of a Fautier: Once CCAP is adopted, and until uncertainty over technical global total of about 47,300 channels. “UHD is deployed, the cost per bit issues in workflow and distribution has being increasingly viewed as a defensive play will be more affordable. been eliminated,” he says. However, he adds, for many DTH platforms rather than from a “Sooner or later broadcasters will come under purely additional revenue perspective,” says pressure from competitors, not just in TV but Crisp. “Introducing UHD is one way of being in OTT and even 4K Blu-ray, to make their able to increase subscriber levels and retain move towards 4K and HDR.” existing customers to combat competition from 25Mbps stream is only possible over fibre, Currently, the technology is ready for end- OTT and other services.” and that infrastructure is gradually being to-end UHD HDR. There are production, SES carries 38 UHD channels (including built. We will have to wait few more years until encoding and networking delivery technologies demo and test channels) out of a total of over UHD becomes mainstream with fibre. In the for broadcast and unicast, as well as decoder 7,700 TV channels. By comparison, Eutelsat meantime, 1080p is the highest resolution that equipment and TVs able to process 4Kp60 in carries a total 6,755 channels of which 1,200 are can be delivered over DSL.” HDR10 and HLG10 with some channel-based HD and 15 are UHD as of December 2017. For OTT TV providers, given that the average Next-Gen Audio. “Despite some negative market sentiment internet speed today is 8Mbps, most content The ‘full fat UHD experience’ of NGA, HFR about satellite distribution, it’s still a very reaching homes is likely to be 1080p60/50 and WCG is likely to play a secondary role in efficient way of reaching a large audience,” rather than true UHD. However, there are the perception of most consumers at this stage, argues Samuel Lemercier, UK managing developments in train to help. but equipment manufacturers are nevertheless director of Globecast, which doesn’t manage “The cost of CDNs is, of course, having a positioning themselves to differentiate their or distribute any permanent UHD channels at direct impact on UHD deployments, but in hardware. present but says it regularly fulfils UHD event the case of Netflix, we see that OTT operators WCG (BT.2020) “is the natural next requests for broadcast and OTT carriage. “But can successfully build their own CDN delivery step of competition between TV hardware as always, it comes down to cost. For a cable mechanism to cope with the bandwidth manufacturers once they have exhausted their operator to manage UHD signals, they have to and cost challenges of UHD,” says Fautier. attempts to promote HDR,” suggests Veale. roll out new set-top boxes, which is expensive. “Content-aware encoding [CAE] techniques “Implementation in conjunction with HDR For broadcasters to deliver UHD, using a CDN are being used by Netflix and we expect similar is already in train but broadcasters are largely model is a better approach. CDNs can handle techniques for upcoming live UHD deployments. dependent on content producers and the large amounts of content effortlessly via the CAE will bring UHD bitrates down to 15Mbps consumer’s AV set-up for the quality of WCG very high bandwidth.” for 20160p60 or from 5Mbps to 3Mbps for their customers receive.” Nivedita Nouvel, vice-president of marketing 1080p60 [recommendations provided by the With regard to Higher Frame Rate, at CDN technology specialist Broadpeak, feels Ultra HD Forum].” “the issue becomes one of economy with

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Amazon’s The Grand Tour is now available in the HDR10+ standard.

SDR-to-HDR upconversion algorithm. Futuresource reports that consumer awareness of HDR has “barely grown” over the last two years and remains at 40% in the US and closer to 20% in Europe and developed APAC countries. Veale says: “From an idealistic view it shouldn’t be marketed as HDR. It should be an intrinsic part of the UHD development as was originally intended, and therefore not a monetisable element. The improvement of UHD resolution over HD isn’t that significant but when HDR, WGC and NGA are included as standard, then it becomes media[companies needing to estimate if HFR per second for theatrical exhibition, rates of a much more attractive proposition and one will bring them ROI”, says Felstead. “Temporal 50/60fps are realistic for TV today. TV drama which will be a significant improvement of resolution is a fine goal for certain types of and theatrical will likely remain at 24/25fps quality when consumers do upgrade.” media like sport, but it is only one element and for editorial reasons but higher frame rates Telestream’s Murray calls the whole alphabet not currently a high priority in the minds of our can enhance the quality sports, which could soup a “muddle”, while VO’s Berkovich customers.” ultimately benefit from the maximum of says that “operators have ideas about how to Next generation audio (NGA) meanwhile 120fps. monetise HDR, but it’s hard to project how seems to be getting the least priority and Insight has been natively shooting and much viewers are willing to pay for this service.” attention, but Bester believes this will rapidly producing 50fps video since 2014 but Bester The availability of suitable broadband change during 2018. NGA implementation says the upper limits of the UHD spec are not connections could also have an impact on has already begun; BT Sport and Sky have yet practical. “100/120fps are just found in consumer perceptions. Some 34 million adopted Dolby Atmos. “The audio experience test content as camera, post-production and households worldwide have a 4K TV and is incredibly important,” agrees Peter Sellar, broadcast chains and even displays are still access to an SVOD package with UHD associate director, broadcast, at the UK’s catching up,” he says. content. “Most of these would have watched Digital Television Group. “NGA provides other Unlike HDR and WCG the (double or triple) UHD content at some point this way. However, advantages through the ability to personalise increase in bits required for HFR needs to be due to broadband limitations, most wouldn’t the experience, or tailor for accessibility.” taken into account. HFR-suitable mezzanine consistently stream in UHD,” says Veale. Insight TV is evaluating NGA and says compression systems are an option, but they “Early adopters will be frustrated by the the possibilities of applying it to content are will require standardisation and add complexity older inadequacies of their equipment or may promising for various reasons, “ranging in the production chain. not realise it’s not performing as desired,” from providing specific audio for the hearing Smith-Chaigneau says, “Devices have to says Smith-Chaigneau. “Many consumers impaired to adding additional audio per scene. handle very large amounts of data in their will have to make their own assumption, The engagement for our viewers can be greatly circuitry and this raises many challenges. and clearly learn that higher quality means increased,” says Bester. Additionally, in distribution, backwards higher bandwidth requirements. It is a safe The key issue here is that broadcasters are compatibility issues with legacy standard frame assumption that UHD still requires at least totally reliant on the consumer’s audio set-up. rate [SFR] systems need to be solved.” 16Mbps of bandwidth to be considered good As a way round this, Futuresource notes that These cost factors “means the market isn’t enough quality.” some broadcasters are offering relatively low- going to see any dramatic uptake of HFR in the The quest for the perfect picture is by no priced set-top boxes integrated into a soundbar. foreseeable future,” says Lemercier. means over. It will no doubt carry on for many HFR would seem to be an easier transition, years to come, driven by the desire to bring since there are only two main choices: 100Hz true-to-life images into the home. or 120Hz. In reality, says Hoffman of the EBU, Consumer confusion Will content providers and distributors a number of questions are still unresolved: go further? The prospect of 8K broadcasts “Will consumer electronics devices apply The downside of all these twists and turns is currently disregarded by nearly every simple or more sophisticated frame rate in the development of UHD will be the contributor to this piece. Bester’s view is typical: conversion algorithms, or will they depend on inevitable confusion and incompatibility issues “With 4K UHD content still relatively scarce a true higher frame rate broadcast signal? And experienced by consumers. Even Samsung’s and only really starting to drive mass market what about interfaces such as HDMI to carry marketing team appeared confused when in a awareness and adoption now, I simply cannot HFR signals?” tweet from IFA2017 they claimed HDR10+ as see 8K on the near horizon. I simply don’t see While cinema appears stuck on 24 frames superior to HDR+, Samsung’s own proprietary it as feasible nor desirable in this decade.” l

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CMMA18Ad_210x297_Kadium_D1.inddp25 CommiunicAsia DTVE MarApr18.indd 1 1 22/02/201814/2/18 5:28 13:20 PM Technology focus > Mobile video Digital TV Europe March/April 2018

Moving pictures

Video is expected to dominate mobile traffic in the years ahead. But much still needs to be done to ensure a seamless video experience over mobile networks. Anna Tobin reports.

demand for video on mobile economically. Consumers will increasingly on delivering media content to contained The screens is at an all time high and demand reductions in data consumption locations, such as stadiums and concert halls, it is yet to peak. According to a Nokia Bell Labs charges or expect near universal broadband/ often limited to the duration of an event. Nokia, mobility traffic report, mobile video streaming WiFi access. If operators are to thrive under however, has shown that eMBMS can be used will represent 79% of all mobile data traffic by these conditions they will need to adapt their to cover a much larger area,” he says. “Single 2020. business models too. Frequency Networks [SFN] technology has Although users have often come to been tested over a large footprint to prepare expect slow start times due to buffering and for wide area TV coverage up to nationwide disruptions in service, the smartphone is LTE technology networks. With SFN, all base stations use already often the first screen of choice for exactly the same frequency to transmit TV consuming video for the younger generation. What was a very narrow geographical target content, which maximises the number of And for people in much of the developing area for distributing mobile content is now simultaneous TV channels broadcast over a world, it’s the only available screen. getting much wider as a result of developments large geographical area in a given amount of This presents two challenges for content in LTE broadcast or eMBMS technology. This spectrum. The technology holds promising creators and distributors: they must iron has been a game changer for the industry, new business opportunities for mobile out those quality problems and they must according to Roland Mestric, director of operators to distribute TV over their LTE ensure that their content can be viewed marketing for Nokia’s IP video business: mobile broadband infrastructure. Subscribers anywhere, at anytime, efficiently and “LTE broadcast deployments have focused will be able to watch TV on their devices

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p26-28 Mobile TV DTVE MarApr18v3st.indd 26 23/02/2018 16:58 Digital TV Europe Technology focus > Mobile video March/April 2018

Nokia: New video standards and processing an interesting paradox, says Simon Trudelle, techniques will bring even more scale. senior director of product marketing at Nagra. “While video consumption on mobile investment case has also been improved by devices outside the home is on the rise, a lot the emergence of additional use cases on top of that consumption comes from short-form of video streaming, such as delivery of OTA video or it is done offline, as various physical software updates,” he says. constraints – from steel beams in buildings With growing demand for highly to subway tunnels or fast-moving cars and personalised content, particularly when it trains – make stable and reliable 4G video comes to revenue boosting fully-targeted network access challenging at best, or simply adverts, some mobile operators are not possible in many mobility situations,” concentrating on enhancing the unicast says Trudelle. “In parallel, subscribers also experience, optimising the bandwidth in their want personalised replay video access even core network and monetising adaptive bitrate when at stadiums, transportation hubs and (ABR) and HTTP-based video streams. open-air live events, where the concentration But for linear TV, ABR has a fundamental of 10, 20 or 50,000-plus devices connecting scaling disadvantage, with a requirement for an to an on-demand service puts severe stress exponential growth in the amount of bandwidth on mobile infrastructure or pushes up costs required when compared to broadcast LTE, says too high. Industrial WiFi solutions have been Mestric at Nokia. However, he adds that there emerging as an alternative solution for these are a number of tools in the operator’s arsenal specific use cases.” that can go a long way to alleviating some of Even though LTE broadcast technology these issues: “Dynamic rate shaping and bitrate makes large-scale consumption possible, most throttling allow an operator to deliver ABR long-form mobile video is currently watched manifests where the bitrate and resolution are via WiFi networks or it’s downloaded to be more suited to network saturation and device watched later on the go. characteristics,” he explains. “Re-fragmentation “Mobile networks are already seeing a good can adapt ABR fragments to make them more deal of video streaming usage, enabled by the suitable for the loss and latencies expected on higher data rates of 4G networks,” says Archer mobile networks and conditional encoding at Akamai. “It’s less common for pre-recorded provides the ability to re-encode content at lower content such as TV programmes and films to rates that vary as a function of video complexity be streamed over mobile networks. One of the and network saturation.” key reasons for this is that data consumption, Currently, the most efficient way of if you don’t have an all-you-can-eat bundle, is delivering mobile video depends very much on far more expensive over a mobile network than what your use case and business model is, says over a fixed-line or WiFi.” Archer at Akamai: “If you’re a subscription With strong competition in the market viewing company with a library of box-sets leading to mobile data prices falling and without eating into their mobile data plan and to stream to viewers, for example, in today’s the creation of unlimited packages, cellular independent of network load.” market unicast is almost always going to be the streaming could see an upsurge in popularity As LTE broadcast becomes scalable, with an obvious solution. If you’re looking at live video in the near future, but until that coverage is LTE/eMBMS-enabled device it will be possible – such as sporting events – LTE broadcast is more or less universal it will remain lacking in to receive content delivered over a multicast currently going to be best for that content,” he reliability. And unless the distribution costs fall stream. The problem is that not all devices says. “If a company is quadplay and owns the this business model won’t be sustainable for support eMBMS. Samsung is on board, but content and the infrastructure, the economic operators in the long term either. Apple has yet to implement the technology, model changes and, again, LTE broadcast is The realisation that the appetite for long- which cuts out a substantial chunk of the probably the better option for live delivery.” form content on the move isn’t there –because market. the quality isn’t up to scratch and because It does have a growing fan base though, consuming video in this way gobbles up says Michael Archer, chief strategist, mobile Universal WiFi expensive data – has also led service and technologies at CDN giant Akamai: “An content providers to look at pushing new ecosystem of support has gradually built Interestingly, while mobile video technology content formats. They are trying to move into up around the technology, including major has been developing, user behaviour has short-form content provision, says Trudelle network operators and network vendors, to been changing too and this is not necessarily at Nagra: “It’s clear that innovative service the point where the technology now has the in a way that exactly matches the evolution providers are now looking at ways to provide base to attract investment and take off. The of technological possibilities. This has led to short-form content better suited to the mobile

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p26-28 Mobile TV DTVE MarApr18v3st.indd 27 23/02/2018 16:58 Technology focus > Mobile video Digital TV Europe March/April 2018

on-the-go experience and fight for ‘mobile eye Nagra: service providers are aiming to provide share’, keeping subscribers on their service short content better suited to mobile. throughout the day, instead of seeing them consume video on platforms like YouTube subscribers living in urban areas, where Wi- and Facebook,” he says. “Powering these new Fi is the pre-dominant way of accessing video video services requires more flexible back-end services, mobile bandwidth and QoS are less platforms that can address multiple consumer of an issue. So differentiation going forward profiles, over multiple delivery networks. Such may actually be on price and service bundling. use cases were taken into account in the design Some traditional pay TV providers may find an of our OpenTV Signature Edition platform opportunity to become MVNOs or partner with announced at IBC 2017.” telcos to create content and network bundles and strengthen their subscriber relationships, while adding a revenue-generating unit to their The 5G future business model…The impact of 5G networks on the content industry will be positive overall, yet As 5G becomes a mainstream mobile it has to be seen as an incremental opportunity technology it holds out the possibility of to increase reach, more than a revolution that revolutionising mobile and, through 5G fixed would send other network technologies to the wireless access (FWA), home-based media recycling bin.” consumption too. 5G could provide faster and Video is already the largest consumer of data higher bit-rate streaming and enhanced quality, on the average smartphone. This would seem delivering data rates of tens of megabytes to to make it a priority for standardisation, but tens of thousands of viewers with microsecond progress has been slow in this area. Things are latency. “It will enable seamless delivery of beginning to change, however, says Archer at highly personalised unicast content delivery, Akamai. while paving the way for Ultra HD and 360°/ “One area where broadcasters are getting VR viewing on mobile devices and video involved in the conversation is through enabled CE devices that leverage FWA in the 5G-Xcast – a project bringing broadcasters better ways to work together.” home,” predicts Mestric at Nokia. together to analyse the requirements for future In order for 5G to take the baton from 4G, a 5G will open up innovative revenue streams technologies, ranging from UHDTV to mixed near universal standard or group of standards needs to be agreed. New video standards are needed to make 5G “If you’re a subscription viewing company video consumption grow and they will happen, says Mestric at Nokia: “New video standards with a library of box-sets to stream to and processing techniques will bring even viewers, in today’s market unicast is almost more scale. Fast Start and Low Lag based on ‘chunk encoding’ and CMAF provide ultra-low always going to be the obvious solution.” latency, ensuring that the mobile stream is in Michael Archer, Akamai sync with the broadcast feed, so each viewer enjoys a goal at the same time, regardless of the too, says Christopher Mueller, CTO and co- reality and to scope the technical specifications content source,” he says. “In anticipation of 5G founder of Bitmovin: “The traditional telcos needed to deliver them,” he explains. “In video streaming, organisations including the are having to adapt their business models. developing media delivery solutions, the project Stream Video Alliance and 5G Americas are They have to invest in the infrastructure and aims to take account of the wider use ranges already defining recommendations and best in mobile broadband technology in general to of 5G, including services to vehicles, public practice-related mobile delivery and addressing keep up with the pace of change,” he says. safety and health and the Internet of Things subjects as diverse as scalability, quality of There is, however, the possibility of a to ensure that they dovetail together. However, experience, geo-fencing for licensed content geographical rift opening up, driven by quality examples of this collaboration are too few and and service protection for streaming media.” of service and 5G reach in urban and rural far between and there is currently no agreed As history has shown for every mobile areas, suggests Trudelle at Nagra: “Mobile standard for 5G deployments. The biggest technology that has come before it, 5G standards operators are entering a new phase of the issue will be getting mobile operators and will eventually emerge, but the technology may market where the battle is for geographical broadcasters to agree to build one ecosystem be stalled in the meantime. While the waiting 4G/5G coverage and overall quality of service that works everywhere and for everyone. There game is played out, consumers will continue to for video streaming. Insufficient reach and/ are not enough broadcasters getting involved in use a mix of delivery systems involving live play or video quality will lead to subscriber churn setting the standards and more of them should and download to enhance their experience of and more so in remote areas,” he says. “For be talking to their MNO partners to establish watching video on the move. l

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p26-28 Mobile TV DTVE MarApr18v3st.indd 28 23/02/2018 16:58 Q&A: Gernot Jaeger, Zattoo

Gernot Jaeger, chief ocer, B2B TV solutions at Zattoo, talks about the cloud-based multiscreen IPTV service newly launched by 1&1, a tier-one European telco and one of Germany’s largest internet service providers.

What is the solution and platform behind the 1&1 cloud-based IPTV service. Very clearly, more devices are becoming relevant. Certainly, Service? the big screen and the set-top box remain core but, next to them, a For 1&1 we developed 1&1 Digital-TV, which is a fully hosted and growing number of devices play a role. For example, we see a strong managed white label IPTV solution. The multiscreen IPTV service for trend towards consumer streaming devices such as Apple TV and 1&1 is based on unicast IPTV, via direct network peerings with 1&1. 1&1 Amazon Fire TV. provides the network, ensuring the quality of the solution thanks to a At the same time, more use cases have to be supported smoothly, strong broadband network and a strong Quality of Service approach. ranging from multi-device scenarios at home to true OTT/TV Zattoo then provides the entire technical platform that makes a state- Everywhere scenarios for both linear and non-linear content. of-the-art TV and entertainment experience happen. And of course, every TV service provider has to gear up for more Our platform covers everything from ingest of TV signals and and more types of content, as additional content requires seamless encoding and transcoding, including digital rights management, all integration and content discovery as well as smart monetisation the way through to the middleware and the front-end applications. across all devices. This includes applications for an operator set-top box as well as for Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV, iOS and Android mobile devices. For all What are the bene ts for 1&1 from using the Zattoo multiscreen IPTV this, we leverage our own, proprietary end-to-end platform that has service? been built over 12 years, nowadays serving more than three million A proven track record, short time to market, operator grade availability customers. and cost eciency are very clear benets for every operator All in all, it is a true one-stop solution that enables 1&1 to market its working with Zattoo. On top of this, we guarantee ongoing further TV o erings comprising various product bundles, thus raising ARPU, developments of the entire IPTV solution – we call this the Zattoo retaining existing customers and attracting new ones. ‘Evergreening Roadmap’. Let’s take a look at time to market: for 1&1 there was no complex Is this a live-only IPTV service or does it come with non-linear content project of setting up systems or integrating various vendor solutions as well? into one end-to-end solution. This end-to-end approach, combined For 1&1, we bring together linear and non-linear content to any device with our vast experience in setting up IPTV as well as OTT services and thereby respond to the increasing demand from end-customers makes it easy to implement and deliver excellent products with a very for innovative features such as cloud PVR, catch-up and time shift TV. short time to market. The catch-up feature for example, enables viewers to watch selected Let’s also look at cost eciency: there is no huge investment in programmes up to seven days following the initial broadcast. hardware, software or in a team, simply because all of this is part of the Due to specic German content regulations, the cloud-based PVR service provided by Zattoo. And at the same time 1&1 benets directly even provides each 1&1 customer with an individual copy of each from the economies of scale that come with a big platform serving recording for his exclusive use. This is di erent from the ‘master copy’ dozens of tenants and millions of end customers. network PVR that we provide in many other projects. In a nutshell: we are very happy to provide 1&1 with a cloud-based multiscreen IPTV service that comes with a standard setting feature What are the drivers pushing the development of IPTV services? set. And we see ourselves as a long-term innovation partner because it We observe that customer expectation are higher than ever and takes both the best network and the best TV service to constantly stay growing fast, thus shaping the requirements for a state-of-the-art IPTV ahead of the curve.

p29 Zattoo Q&A DTVE MarApr18.indd 1 22/02/2018 11:37 Technology > in focus Digital TV Europe March/April 2018 Technology in focus Infrastructure, equipment and product news for digital media distribution

In Brief Roku reports strong 2017 results but shares drop

Net+ taps VO Roku recorded a strong year active Roku accounts stood at Swiss service provider Net+ has of growth in 2017, but its share 19.3 million at the end of Q4, up tapped Viaccess-Orca (VO) to price dropped in after-hours 44% compared to a year earlier. power its new multiscreen TV trading following a weaker than Trailing 12-month ARPU in service. The Net+ Mobile TV expected revenue outlook for the the fourth quarter was a record offering is powered by VO Player current quarter. US$13.78, up 48% year-over-year. and offers a unified viewer Announcing its full year and “The tectonic shifts we are experience across Android and fourth quarter 2017 results, Roku seeing in the media and enter- iOS devices, as well as via web said that Q4 net revenue grew Roku described 2017 as a tainment industries continue browsers on PCs and Macs. VO 28% year-on-year to US$188.3 “milestone year” with revenue to strengthen our streaming Player is compliant with the million ( 153 million), driven by growing 29% year-on-year to opportunity, creating new paths DVB-Sub subtitle format and platform growth of 129% YoY to US$513 million. This compares to for Roku to pursue and deliver also includes digital rights man- US$85.4 million. Gross profit for revenue growth of 25% in 2016. rapid revenue and gross profit agement for video-on-demand Q4 grew 64% year-on-year to A key driver for growth was growth,” said Roku CEO Anthony and live content. US$73.5 million. the company’s platform segment. Wood, and CFO Steve Louden, in The company said that it en- Here revenues were up 115% a statement. Telekom Romania partners ters 2018 with strong momentum year-over-year to a record $225 “The fourth quarter of 2017 with Zenterio and is “very encouraged” by the million, driven by strength across was a fantastic quarter for Roku, Telekom Romania is using trends it is seeing in its platform Roku’s advertising and content reinforcing our leading position Zenterio OS to power a new segment. However, its Q1 net rev- distribution services. in smart TVs, streaming players, series of set-top boxes for its TV enue outlook of US$120 million Full-year gross profit grew OTT advertising and content Interactiv IPTV service. Telekom to US$130 million missed analyst 65% to US$200 million, stream- distribution. We have never been Romania customers can now projections of US$132 million, ing hours were up 59% year-on- more excited about the future of enjoy features like live TV, according to Bloomberg stats. year to 14.8 billion hours, while our business.” video-on-demand, network PVR, time-shifted TV, USB PVR on the new STBs. Zenterio OS is an in- Rai Way bids for Telecom Italia DTT towers dependent operating system for interactive TV that is designed Italian digital-terrestrial TV Italia is selling the unit off as part company with a 50% EBITDA to give operators the flexibility platform operator Rai Way has of a move to obtain European margin. to choose set-top boxes from teamed up with financial investor competition authorities’ approval Berenberg’s analysts said that any vendor. F2i Fondi Italiani per le Infrastruct- for Vivendi’s acquisition of control “the transaction would appear to ture (F2i) to launch a joint bid for of the company. fit with Rai Way’s objectives of in- Canal Digital renews Telecom Italia-owned Persidera. Rai Way has not disclosed creasing the number of multiplex- Xstream The deal would see F2i hold financial terms of the bid. Analysts es it manages” and would make Nordic streaming and TV every- and manage the rights of use of at Berenberg, citing Italian reports strategic sense. where provider, Canal Digital, the spectrum currently granted to that it was under €250 million, The structure of the agreement, has renewed its partnership with Persidera for its DTT multiplexes, noted that this figure is well below giving F2i control of the spectrum, over-the-top (OTT) cloud tech- while Rai Way would acquire the the amount Telecom Italia has is designed to work around Italian nology provider Xstream. The network infrastructure with the reportedly been seeking for the regulations that prevent one com- deal will allow Canal Digital to simultaneous signing of a long- unit. Berenberg said that a €250 pany from controlling more than further grow its own and parent term agreement for the supply of million deal, valuing Persidera at five digital-terrestrial multiplexes. company Telenor’s customer broadcasting services. about six times EBITDA, “would Rai Way currently controls five base across the Nordic markets. Persidera owns and operates appear at face value to be a very for pubcaster Rai while Persidera five DTT multisplexes. Telecom cheap deal” for an infrastructure owns a further five muxes.

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p30-32 DTVE Tech MarApr18v4st.indd 30 23/02/2018 19:05 Digital TV Europe Technology > in focus March/April 2018

Androme.tv launches platform Nagra divests In Brief

Technology outfit Androme has SmarDTV JW Player taps SpotX launched what it describes as an Video player provider JW Player all-in-one TV platform. According Kudelski Group, owner of Nagra, has teamed up with program- to the company, Androme.tv is saw its profits take a hit from matic ad technology outfit already being deployed by Portu- the slowdown of traditional TV SpotX to launch Video Player guese cable operator Nowo and activities, with operating income Bidding, a new product that is Maltese cable operator Melita for before restructuring costs designed to simplify ‘header their recently-launched advanced dropping from US$113.5 million bidding’ whereby publishers can TV offerings, according to the “With androme.tv, we offer the ( 92.3 million) to US$48.1 million. simultaneously garner bids for company. TV functionality that is desperate- Net income, which was also hit by ad impressions from multiple Androme, which has developed ly needed in the telecommunica- restructuring costs, plunged from demand sources at once, before services for Telenet and Liberty tions and broadcast industry: the US$88.5 million to US$2.7 million. calling the ad server. According Global previously, is pitching agile and cost efficient deploy- Kudelski overall saw its revenues to SpotX, Video Player Bidding Androme.tv as a multi-device ment of TV platforms. We focus from continuing operations rise streamlines the header bidding end-to-end TV platform that on working this way so we can by 7.1% to US$1.068 billion, driven process by combining JW Play- enables services including live TV, better adapt to new trends in the by increased cybersecurity and er’s global publisher footprint video-on-demand, catch up TV, competitive and fast-moving TV public access sales. with SpotX’s advertising tech- startover TV and local and net- ecosystem.” Digital TV segment revenues nology solutions. work-based DVR across multiple Portugal’s Nowo launched its grew by 4.2% to reach US$688.4 devices. new TV service early last year, million, after a year in which Ku- France Télévisions taps “Maintaining consistency with Androme supplying the user delski sought to streamline its dig- Arkena in high user satisfaction is a interface. Other technology part- ital TV operations to “seize new France Télévisions has chosen challenge currently facing the ners include infrastructure provid- opportunities more effectively,” Arkena to provide transcoding market. In the coming years, this er VP Media Solutions, compres- focusing on end-to-end offerings capability for its planned – and will remain important as telecom sion specialist AWS Elememtal, and integrating its Conax unit. much delayed – SVOD offering. companies come under pressure security provider castLabs and Kudelski’s results didn’t include Arkena’s content management to serve the right content to their CDN specialist Broadpeak. Melita its SmarDTV conditional access system, Cloud4Media, will end users via, for example, recom- also launched its new TV service module and set-top unit, which is receive media files, and check, mendations,” said Raf Van Ham, last year, tapping set-top supplier being treated as a discontinued prepare and deliver them in all founder of Androme.tv. ADB for an RDK-based platform. operation. formats necessary for distribu- tion across multiple devices. “We are honoured to have been cho- Caavo launches unified TV box sen to work on a project of this magnitude,” said Jean-Baptiste US set-top box start-up Caavo has where it lives. Ultimately, this cre- Darras, chief marketing officer launched the first 5,000 units of ates more choice and the freedom of Arkena. its unified home entertainment to watch TV the way you want,” box. said the company in a statement. RDK Management and The device was built with a Last year Caavo closed a Broadcom partner vision of “simplifying TV”. It con- US$17.5 million round of Series B RDK Management and semi- necting different TV inputs and funding from backers including conductor firm Broadcom have services – including live TV, DVR Time Warner Investments and partnered to integrate chip- and streaming apps – and offers Lauder Partners. set-level software development universal search across them. Caavo’s other backers include kits (SDKs) from Broadcom with The box has a voice-enabled re- Sky, which invested US$2 million RDK’s open source software. mote, is compatible with Amazon in 2016 when the company was worked at Microsoft on the Xbox The move is designed to make a Echo or Dot devices, works with still a stealth startup. team that launched the Xbox One. common software porting layer 4K TVs but is not HDR compati- Caavo was co-founded in 2015 Krikorian died unexpectedly in to simplify and standardise RDK ble, and is available for US$399 by late Slingbox founder Blake 2016 aged 48. He first developed deployments across set-boxes ( 324). Krikorian and tech veterans the Slingbox TV streaming media used by video and broadband “With Caavo, everyone has Andrew Einaudi, Ashish Aggarwal device with his brother Jason service providers around the access to all the amazing content and Vinod Gopinath. Einaudi is Krikorian in 2002 and sold the world. they already pay for, regardless of company CEO and previously business to Echostar in 2007.

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p30-32 DTVE Tech MarApr18v4st.indd 31 23/02/2018 19:05 Technology > in focus Digital TV Europe March/April 2018

In Brief BBC launches first AR app for Civilisations

ABOX42 teams up with from the launch of the new series. cally using an AR globe or via the Singularity A range of artefacts have themes of the series. Germany-based set-top provider been digitally scanned and will be BBC R&D has separately ABOX42 has teamed up with available to view as part of a new developed a Story Explorer tool US-based TV technology outfit virtual exhibition. The app will fea- to let people discover the series Singularity to market a joint TV ture exhibits including an ancient and its themes in a digital way everywhere solution for the US, Egyptian mummy from Torquay through a range of text, clips and Canadian and South and Central Museum, Rodin’s The Kiss from images, and is making a range of American markets. ABOX42 The BBC is to launch its first aug- the National Museum of Wales digital tools available to partner has integrated its Smart STB mented reality app to accompany and The Umbrian Madonna and organisations of the Civilsations platform with Singularity’s its new arts and culture series, Child from the National Museum Festival, a programme of events to HTML5-based middleware to Civilisations. The UK public broad- of Scotland. accompany the series. support IPTV and OTT mul- caster has teamed up with over 30 The app will feature a ‘magic Museums, galleries and libraries tiscreen services with features museums from across the country spotlight’ feature that will enable will be able to use a Single Oper- such as live, catch-up, restart, to create content for the app. users to uncover annotations, ator Mixing Application tool, built and on-demand TV. ‘Civilisations AR’ is being audio and imagery that enrich by BBC R&D, enabling them to developed by BBC Research & the story of each exhibit. Other produce live broadcasts of talks, Axel Springer invests in Development and Nexus Studios, features include: X-ray, enabling panel discussions and Q&As to Magic Leap enabling people to explore some users to see through or inside a professional broadcast quality. Axel Springer Digital Ventures of the most important exhibits an object; Restoration, allowing Another tool, Seenit, will enable has invested in US-based Magic from UK museums in the comfort users to virtually restore artefacts; museums to engage audiences by Leap, a company that is focused of their living rooms. The app will and Navigation, enabling them to enabling them to contribute their on integrating digital content be available for IOS and Android browse an exhibition geographi- own user-generated films. into real world environments. Axel Springer said that the investment marks part of its Live sports VR platform LiveLike raises US$9.6m efforts to participate in innova- tive technologies that have the LiveLike, a technology company The company’s backers include potential to “present journalistic focused around offering live former NBA commissioner David content and classifieds in new sports in virtual reality, has raised Stern, Evolution Media, Courtside formats and environments”. The US$9.6 million ( 7.8 million) in Ventures, Elysian Park, Dentsu German-based digital publisher, Series B funding. Ventures, and the GC VR Gaming famed for titles like Die Welt, Bild LiveLike’s live streaming Tracker Fund. New investors in and Business Insider, also has platform is designed to transport this round were Greycroft Part- shares in companies like Jaunt, users into an interactive 360° ners and Lepe Partners. innovate live sports viewing. What AirBnB and Uber. ‘virtual suite’ overlooking the field “LiveLike has been successful has me excited about LiveLike of a featured sport event, where because we have built a platform is how they are bringing social Liberty taps Benu Net- users can connect with friends or that connects with younger viewing to live sports in a way works for IPv6 migration other fans to watch the game via generations seeking a more that connects friends and fans like Liberty Global is tapping Facebook. The company’s mission non-traditional experience,” said never before.” virtual network specialist Benu is to make live sports viewing Andre Lorenceau, founder and Fox Sports senior vice-presi- Networks to provide technolo- more dynamic and immersive chief executive officer of LiveLike. dent of field and technical opera- gy to enable it to transition its by using virtual, augmented and “Thanks to our investors, we are tions, Michael Davies, said: “In our broadband user base to IPv6. mixed reality to more broadly ap- now in a position to hire for key nearly two years of working with The international cable operator peal to tech-obsessed sports fans. positions and continue delivering LiveLike, creating our FOX Sports is using Benu Networks’ IPv6 LikeLike has partnerships with a premier next-generation sports VR app and working on sports like Dual-Stack DS-Lite solution, the likes of FOX Sports and the OTT platform.” hockey, football, basketball and based on its Virtual Service French Tennis Federation and Stern said: “We have all seen soccer, we have found them to be Edge platform to move to IPv6 said it will use the investment that the media landscape is innovative, nimble, and atten- without having a negative im- to expand its partnerships and changing. With the rise of cord tive to this exciting and rapidly pact on existing subscribers’ use further build out its product and cutting and the increased com- changing platform. We are looking of IPv4 internet or applications. platform to make it “even simpler petition from e-sports, there has forward to continuing to imagine and frictionless for users”. come a true need to evolve and the future with them.”

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p30-32 DTVE Tech MarApr18v4st.indd 32 23/02/2018 19:05 22-24 OCT.2018 SPORTELMONACO.COM #SPORTELMONACO

Meet the Elite

SPORTS MARKETING & MEDIA CONVENTION

p33Sportel Sportel A4_2018.indd DTVE MarApr18.indd 1 1 19/02/201822/02/2018 09:3113:26 People > Places Digital TV Europe March/April 2018

On the move

Robert channels in Spain and Portugal, preceded the departures of Andy Kaplan is one of three Redeleanu is to has expanded its business unit Amazon Studios department president-level executives leaving take over from to now include France and Italy. heads such as Joe Lewis and Sony Pictures Entertainment Frans-Willem The newly titled AMC Networks Conrad Riggs. In the interim, (SPE), with worldwide distribution de Kloet as International Southern Europe Amazon Studios COO Albert chief Keith Le Goy rising in the CEO of Liberty will be headquartered in Madrid Cheng took on Price’s duties. reshuffle. Kaplan will leave his Global-owned and manage Sundance TV Cheng, Amazon worldwide film post as president of worldwide UPC Poland. Redeleanu, who is France and will explore new head Jason Ropell and worldwide TV channels with Sony Pictures currently CEO of UPC Hungary business opportunities in the TV acquisitions chief VP Brad Television chairman Mike Hopkins and Romania, will replace De Kloet, French market and work toward Beale will all report to Salke. taking on these networks plus who is leaving the company, on distributing channels and content Crackle, Sony’s streaming service. April 1. Redeleanu has served as in Italy. Eduardo Zulueta will Satellite Also exiting is president and CEO of UPC Romania since 2013, lead the new unit, under the title operator SES TV marketing chief Sheraton taking additional responsibility for of president of AMC Networks has named Kalouria and home entertainment the Hungarian operation in 2016. International Southern Europe. the CEO of boss Man Jit Singh, whose Before joining Liberty Global he Zulueta is also president of AMC SES Networks, exit means Le Goy will take on was marketing director of telecom Networks International Latin Steve Collar, that area of the business as company Telemobil. America. Manuel Balsera, senior as the next well as leading worldwide sales vice president of AMC Networks president and CEO of the wider operations. Le Goy reports into Dailymotion International Southern Europe, will company. At the same time Hopkins, who joined from US VOD has appointed lead affiliates, ad sales, marketing Andrew Browne, who was until service Hulu towards the end of former Red Bull and digital. Pilar de las Casas recently chief financial officer of last year, and Sony Motion Picture TV executive will oversee the programming O3b Networks and CFO of SES Group chairman Tom Rothman. David Rios, to and acquisitions strategy as between 2010 and 2013, has been The changes come after former head up Latin vice president of cinema and appointed as the next CFO of SES. Fox Networks Group chief Tony American and documentary channels. Both Collar and Browne start work Vinciquerra became CEO and US Hispanic content partnerships. as CEO and CFO designate with chairman of SPE in June last year. Most recently he was head Former Dyson immediate effect, but they will of programme and platform CEO Max Conze officially take up their roles on Fox Networks promotion at Red Bull TV and will take up April 5 following the company’s Group (FNG) before that he was Red Bull TV’s the same role AGM. Current president and has promoted head of global communications. at German CEO, Karim Michel Sabbagh, from within broadcast group will step down to “spend time for a new head Satellite operator AsiaSat has ProSiebenSat.1 with his family and to pursue of its digital promoted Lara Kwok to vice- Media. He will take up his post new interests” and current CFO consumer president of business development on June 1 and replace Thomas Padraig McCarthy will retire. group. Jeff Hughes, who joined and strategy. Kwok, who joined Ebeling. ProSiebenSat.1 deputy FNG in 2016, will succeed Brian the company in August as CEO Conrad Albert will act as Vodafone UK has named Vodafone Sullivan. He is a former BSkyB director of business development interim chairman before Conze Group’s technology enterprise (now Sky UK) and Omniphone and strategy, takes up her new joins. Ebeling’s departure was director, Scott Petty, to chief exec. Sullivan, a former Sky role following the retirement of announced in November last year. technology officer. Petty succeeds Deutschland and Sky UK chief, Sabrina Cubbon. Kwok previously He was originally due to step down Jorge Fernandes, who was was promoted to president and worked as principal of the Greater in mid-2019. recently named CTO of Rogers COO of FNG last year. Hughes

China investment team at The Communications— ´ in Canada. At the was previously FNG’s president Longreach Group and has also NBC Entertainment president same time Vodafone UK’s head of technology. His new role puts held a number of positions with Jennifer Salke is to become of mobile networks, Kye Prigg, him in charge of digital strategy, investment banks in New York and Amazon Studio’s head of content, will take on responsibility for fixed TV everywhere initiatives and Hong Kong. replacing Roy Price who departed networks. Petty joined Vodafone streaming products. l in October. Price departed the from Dimension Data in 2009 and AMC Networks International, the company amid sexual harassment since then has held various roles Please email contributions to: operator and distributor of pay TV claims late last year, which at the company. [email protected]

Visit us at www.digitaltveurope.com 34

p34 People DTVE MarApr18v3am.indd 34 23/02/2018 18:59 p35 NEM DTVE MarApr18.indd 1 22/02/2018 13:22 Final analysis > Kate Bulkley Digital TV Europe March/April 2018

“In a world where Google, Amazon and Facebook are increasingly focused on video, it is no wonder that scale appeals. The big legacy media players are facing ambitious and deep-pocketed tech companies that are coming to eat – or at the least eat into – their lunch.”

Size matters

months have seen a And look at Telefónica, which has seen its growth as the appetite for SVOD services con- Recent plethora of mega-media video ARPU grow 8% in 2017 off the back of tinues to grow. deals on boardroom tables. No doubt more its investment in content – including original The demand for premium episodic drama will be coming, but not all will work out. All commissions like La Peste, which helped drive series has gone through the roof, driven by this buying and selling looks on the face of it viewing to its on-demand platform. Content the growing appetite of the big tech platforms to be about one thing: that bigger is better. But and especially content that appeals to local for stand-out series that will raise their visibil- is the calculus as simple as size wins? tastes, is going to be increasingly important to ity among potential subscribers and as Face- Look at the recently tanked deal of Danish drive attention and audiences to any service, book and YouTube up their video ambitions, telco TDC buying the entertainment assets be it a triple-play communications provider or among advertisers as well. of Sweden’s Modern Times Group (MTG). a local broadcaster. Meanwhile, HBO is thinking more inter- Lauded as creating the “first truly convergent Indeed, in a world where Google, Amazon nationally about both HBO Go, it’s OTT offer, media and communications provider in Eu- and Facebook are increasingly focused on vid- and about its content, while Netflix and Ama- rope”, the deal was unceremoniously dumped eo, it is no wonder that scale appeals. The big zon are also ramping up commissioning that only a few days after it was announced. The legacy media players are facing ambitious and appeals to local tastes. The likes of HBO, and reason? TDC received a sweetened takeover deep-pocketed tech companies that are com- producers and distributors from Fremantle- offer from a consortium led by infrastructure ing to eat – or at the least eat into – their lunch. Media to the BBC are all having to move more group Macquarie and the latter was wholly Christmas 2017 produced the shocking quickly – and greenlight projects faster – as uninterested in the MTG assets, which by news that media’s consummate mogul Ru- the competition for A-list talent grows. their very nature are riskier than the cash flow pert Murdoch was throwing in the towel and Not to say that there aren’t partnerships to to be reaped from relatively predictable tele- selling the bulk of the 21st Century Fox enter- be struck between the tech giants and the leg- coms infrastructure. tainment business to Disney. He may be in acy media companies with both broadcasters Has TDC missed an opportunity? Perhaps. his 80s but Murdoch is still very much with and platforms co-commissioning with Netflix There’s no doubt that MTG – or parts of it – it. His view is that the big tech giants are best and Amazon. It’s not a zero sum game. At will still be very much in play, given that major fought by joining forces with a bigger player. least not at the moment. But Disney, which shareholder Kinnevik is facing a TV concen- “From a strategic point of view, this is the has pledged to no longer sell its content to tration issue following the merger of Tele2 right time to sell,” Murdoch told reporters and Netflix, is clear that building its own scale and Com Hem. Perhaps MTGx, the group’s analysts when the deal was announced. “We business is key to thriving going forward. high-growth business, including online busi- are living in an age of disruption.” Meanwhile HBO parent company Time nesses and eSports, could be spun off. The US$66billion ( 54 billion) deal will Warner is also part of the scale-play land-grab, The failure of the TDC-MTG deal doesn’t see the Fox movie studio, television produc- having agreed last year to be bought by tele- cloud the overriding view in media that scale tions, and international businesses, including com giant AT&T. The combination of big telco matters and that ownership of content assets Star TV in Asia and Sky in Europe, go to Dis- AT&T and big media company Time Warner is a key differentiator. ney. Disney’s ambitions in over the top servic- has an increasingly familiar ring. The scale- Look at the continued moves by Liberty es – and its majority ownership of BamTech play, including vertical integration of distri- Global to work with Vodafone in markets which gives it control over its OTT technolo- bution and content assets, is now considered around Europe. Liberty is looking to sell “over- gy – combined with Fox’s content, its stake in the sine qua non of survival in the “disrupted’ lapping assets” in markets where the two Sky Europe and ownership of Star TV should media landscape. l players both operate, namely Germany, where help propel the new Disney-Fox combo to Vodafone already owns Kabel Deutschland. build out alternatives to Netflix and Amazon Kate Bulkley is a journalist specialising Scale matters. services much faster. OTT is key to future in media and telecommunications.

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p36 Final Analysis DTVE MarApr18v4st.indd 36 23/02/2018 18:49 2018

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