DVB-NGH www.csimagazine.com regulation OTT vs payTV vs OTT Middle East Middle East market focus market Europe Ka-band in

Comcast RDK: Cable goes open source

jan/feb 2013 ConferenceAd.indd 1 15/02/2013 16:06:53 Contents

26 Viewpoint OTT securityOTT www.csimagazine.com

Satellite interference Satellite Aggregating second screen experiences as part of a MPEG-DASH

Transcoding top-level TV platform application for broadcasters

Comcast RDK: 27 Conference review Cable goes open source Highlights and the main talking points of CSI’s first

jan/feb 2013 conference on TV accessibility services Editor thecover.indd 2 15/02/2013 14:26:34 Goran Nastic 12 Analyst corner All-OTT isn’t an option so channels need to find the 34 COVER STORY: Cable gateways and the RDK Commercial manager right balance between streaming and broadcasting By promising to significantly shorten development Tiro Bestonso cycles for next-gen cable STBs, the RDK initiative also has broader implications for cable in an IP world Design and production 14 OTT vs payTV regulation Matt Mills (Manager) Is it time new rules were created that reflect a chang- Jason Tucker ing TV landscape? 36 DVB-NGH Matleena Lilja-Pelling We explore the business case of the DVB’s new stand- Keem Chung ard. Also, an expert gives his thoughts on page 40 18 Ka-band Regular contributors A look at the applications and market opportunities in Adrian Pennington, Philip Hunter, Europe as it gains in popularity 48 Q&A: Dr Leonardo Chiariglione David Adams, Stephen Cousins, The MPEG co-founder on the technology’s future, HEVC, 3D and why the industry should be less selfish Circulation 22 Middle East market focus Joel Whitefoot (Manager) Operators have to overcome limited broadband infra- structure and widespread access to free and illegal 49 Events diary Accounts broadcasting to bring OTT to the region Details of all the key events taking place in 2013 Marilou Tait, Lynta Kamaray

Editorial tel +44(0)20 7562 2401 Editor’s report: fax +44(0)20 7374 2701 [email protected] Out with the old and in with the new... Just as 2012 closed on something of a bang with the announcement that Arris would acquire the Motorola Home business unit for $2.35 billion Advertising tel +44(0)20 7562 2427 (a move that admittedly didn’t come as a shock to most), so 2013 started with the news of fax +44(0)20 7374 2701 even greater magnitude in the service provider space in the form of Liberty Global’s purchase [email protected] of Virgin Media. The move has historic precedence as Liberty has attempted it in the past, and while it is by far the biggest story of the year, many analysts are questioning the impact it will have on Subscriptions tel +44 (0)20 7562 2420 both Virgin and the payTV market in the UK. For Liberty, this latest consolidation creates further econo- fax +44 (0)20 7374 2701 mies of scale and makes it the world’s largest cable service provider, ahead of Comcast, which for its part [email protected] remains one of the most progressive operators on the planet. The most recent manifestation of this is the Website www.csimagazine.com company’s RDK initiative, the significance of which is analysed on page 34. Goran Nastic Subscription rates Per year: Europe £88; UK £68; Rest Perspective Publishing Managing Director of World £98. Cheques payable to 3 London Wall Buildings John Woods Perspective Publishing Limited and London Publishing Director addressed to the Circulation Department EC2M 5PD Mark Evans Printed by Buxton Press www.perspectivepublishing.com ISSN 1467-5935 CSI is audited by ABC Use Code PA10 It’s all about ME, and how the Mobile Experience is energizing the transformation of Media & Entertainment. Second screens and Social TV are enhancing television with interactive content and applications. Broadcasters and new services alike are making more programming available, fueling the fl ight from appointment-based viewing.

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LatinAm alliance tackles payTV piracy news in brief

Leading players in the Latin American against FTA pirates, enhance public Sky gains 25,000 OTT subs pay-TV industry have joined forces to awareness of FTA piracy, and BskyB added 25,000 subscribers combat free-to-air piracy plaguing the collaborate with anti-FTA initiatives to its new Now TV streaming region. of country-specific pay-tv service, which accounted for half The newly created Alianza Contra associations. of the company’s total customer la Piratería de Televisión Paga The Alianza expands upon a adds in Q4 2012. The over-the- (Alliance Against Pay-TV Piracy) will collaboration between DIRECTV top service (OTT) should gain in try tackle the illegal use of FTA and NAGRA, a provider of security popularity as Sky plans to launch satellite receivers that decrypt pay solutions, which joined forces in sport on Now TV later this year, television signals, illegally and 2010 to leverage each other’s anti- following beta testing which without authorisation. piracy expertise and personnel to started in December. When Sky The Alianza brings together most combat FTA piracy in South Sports is made available on the of the major players in the pay-TV America. It hopes to provide updates platform, probably by early industry and creates a framework for and results on the progress made at summer, customers will be able to broader industry collaboration in the www.alianza.tv have unlimited access to all six fight against FTA piracy. PayTV According to estimates, piracy in Latin America. FTA piracy Sky Sports channels for a 24-hour operators such as DirecTV, accounts for up to 20% of the pay-TV is driven by international period for £9.99 each time. The Telefonica, SKY Brasil and VTR will market in the region, with FTA manufacturers of FTA receivers 24-hour pass is the first time that work with content owners including piracy being one of the principal and the organised networks that Sky Sports has been available Discovery, ESPN, FOX, HBO and forms of piracy faced by the industry. distribute and support the use of with no contract. The internet TV Globosat . Together, they aim to Since 2010, over 50 brands of pirated these receivers for unauthorised service currently provides access support law enforcement actions FTAs have appeared on the market purposes. to Sky Movies. News

news in brief Japan plans first UHDTV broadcast as BT attracts 21,000 YouView subs HEVC is standardised BT has added 21,000 customers to its BT Vision IPTV service, of The Japanese government is brought forward to July 2014 for the H.265, which is expected to boost which 60,000 have taken up a planning the world’s first ultra-high football world cup final. Japan now adoption of UHDTV and higher- YouView connected box, which definition TV broadcasts as early as plans to launch 8K TV broadcast in resolution video in mobile devices as was launched by the telco last the middle of next year, in time for 2016. it uses only half the bit rate of July. In its last financial update, the football World Cup. The news UHDTV, also known as 4K, offers MPEG-4. BT said it had total of over comes as the HEVC compression definition four times higher than that As expected, the standard was 750,000 Vision subscribers, standard was officially approved by of current high definition TV. The ratified at a meeting in Geneva on 25 which represent some 12% of the the ITU last week, which is expected technology was one of the main January. ITU-T’s Study Group 16 has company’s broadband user base. to drive UHDTV, as well as over-the- talking point at this year’s CES show, agreed first-stage approval (consent) At last count, rival ISP Talk Talk top video delivery. where all major TV manufacturers of the standard known formally as had installed 29,000 YouView The broadcast launch of the showed capable models. Recommendation ITU-T H.265 or boxes. Both service providers Japanese service is roughly two The BBC and Sky have ISO/IEC 23008-2. It is the product offer the boxes for free as part of years ahead of schedule, according undertaken trials of sporting events, of collaboration between the ITU their broadband bundles. to The Telegraph, citing a report in including the Olympics and football Video Coding Experts Group the local Asahi newspaper. The from Arsenal’s Emirates stadium, (VCEG) and the ISO/IEC Moving Connected TV metadata programmes will begin from although with no commercial Picture Experts Group (MPEG). Red Bee Media will provide communications satellites to services announced so far. Satellite The ITU/ISO/IEC Joint metadata services for Samsung’s coincide with the Brazil world cup, operator Eutelsat recently launched a Collaborative Team on Video Coding new range of Smart TVs across followed by satellite broadcasting dedicated ultra HD demo channel for (JCT-VC) will continue work on a 13 European markets under a and ground digital broadcasting. Europe. range of extensions to HEVC, new multi-year deal. Red Bee will Japan’s Ministry of Internal Meanwhile, the International including support for 12-bit video, provide EPG content to power Affairs and Communications had Telecommunications Union officially 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 chroma formats, as content discovery for over 2,500 initially aimed to start the 4K TV approved High Efficiency Video well as the progression of HEVC channels in 23 languages in service in 2016, but that has been Coding (HEVC), also known as towards scalable video coding. territories such as the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordic region to make TV content easily Audio loudness gains ground in Europe searchable, and includes customised recommendations Belgium’s VRT has become the The technology standard involves audio across a number of its and voice navigation. The latest public broadcaster to embrace adjusting audio levels against television channels. agreement marks a wider shift in the EBU’s R 128 Loudness averages rather than peaks by using TVE has been using Jünger focus by Samsung and other Recommendation. loudness meters instead of traditional technology since 2003, but during smart TV manufacturers from The Flemish language peak meters. 2012 it actively embraced HD purely content to the overall user broadcaster join’s the country’s Meanwhile, Spain’s national broadcasting and as a result experience. French speaking services in broadcaster TVE recently made a upgraded its B40 and B46 processors adopting the standard, which significant investment in Jünger to incorporate SDI boards, making Telenor’s new CEO prevents the fluctuations in volume Audio’s loudness control technology, them more compatible with existing Morten Tengs has been named as when changing channels or across which it is using to normalise the Dolby products. the new CEO at Telenor Satellite content such as ad breaks on the Broadcasting (TSBc), succeeding same channel. Cato Halsaa who retires this It means the Loudness summer after a long spell at the Recommendation is gaining in Nordic operator. Tengs comes traction throughout Europe, with from Telenor’s regional office in R 128 now in force in France, Bangkok, where he was senior VP Germany, Austria, Switzerland, for Asia, in Bangkok. He has the Netherlands, the Spanish been with the Group since 1995 Autonomous Community of and has held a number of Catalonia and now the whole executive positions. of Belgium, Broadcast Engineer reports.

06 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com Europe‘s leading Business Platform for Broad- band and Content for more than 10 years

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Untitled-5 1 11/02/2013 12:54:01 News

news in brief YouTube to launch payTV offer

Orange blocking OTT traffic YouTube is ramping up its give the rest to the channel producer. “We have long maintained that France Telecom-Orange is proposition with plans to offers It has in recent times begun an different content requires different reportedly restricting bandwidth some subscription based channels in original content initiative at a $100 types of payment models,” a for online video services in the second quarter of this year. million investment cost to help YouTube spokesperson was quoted France. FT-Orange is limiting The company has invited a small attract users and advertisers, as saying. “There are a lot of our OTT services such as YouTube as number of content producers to including the launch of European content creators that think they part of a peering dispute with submit proposals for channels that channels. would benefit from subscriptions, Google and its internet backbone would charge $1-$5 per month, MondoMedia, a group that so we’re looking at that.” provider Cogent Communications according to a report in the FT. produces off-beat adult cartoons, was The move would put the Google- according to press reports, which YouTube,which has until now the most popular channel on owned site into direct competition suggest that the telco wants relied entirely on advertising, plans YouTube in one week in January with with cable and satellite, as well as Cogent to pay for the additional to take about 45 per cent of 6m views and has been seen 1.4bn streaming services such as Netflix traffic being generated by subscription revenues for itself and times since inception, said FT. and Hulu. streaming video services. It is understood its decision to charge for access has been backed up by First TV White Space equipment the French competition watchdog Autorite de la Concurrence. A Japanese consortium has reliable backup broadband The 802.22-2011standard was developed the first prototypes of communications in emergency, published by the IEEE 802.22 Nevion/T-VIPS merge base station and CPE based on the which will follow the worldwide Working Group for TVWS broad- Scandinavian media transport IEEE 802.22 standard operating in trend of promoting the TV white band wireless access to regional specialists Nevion and T-VIPS TV White Spaces. spaces - the spectrum previously areas where it is most needed and have completed their merger, The products for Wireless Regional used by analogue television - where the TV spectrum is least which first surfaced last year, Area Network in the 470 MHz -710 for wireless communication used. The IEEE 802.22 systems under the Nevion name. The new MHz frequency range will provide systems. offer around ten times the coverage company will prepare customers broadband wireless access to Regulators in Japan, the UK of Wi-Fi as well as enable to for the next generation of media underserved and unserved regional and US among others have provide reliable backup broadband transport from acquisition to the areas around the world. initiated opening up these white communications in emergency, home, including integrated The National Institute of spaces to wireless communication according to the group. solutions for managed media Information and Communications systems for efficient reuse of the The three partners said they services over IP, optical and Technology (NICT), together unused TV spectrum, which is will work closely with WhiteSpace terrestrial networks. CEO Geir with Hitachi Kokusai Electric based on non-interfering with Alliance (WSA) to provide solutions Bryn-Jensen will continue to lead and ISB, also aim to bring broadcast incumbents’ operation. for worldwide markets. the team while former T-VIPS CEO Johnny Dolvik joins as chief strategy officer. Amazon launches cloud

SkyD, Deutsche deal transcoding backhaul Deutsche Telekom will for the first time feed in the programme Amazon Web Services has launched package. Amazon is offering 20 min- packages of Sky Deutschland for a new cloud video service aimed at utes of free video to customers per its Entertain IPTV customers to customers who want to convert video month. After that, customers are expand its sports offer. The into formats optimised to play on a charged between $0.015 and $0.036 agreement starts in time for the variety of devices. per minute of video, with the price 2013/14 football Bundesliga The elastic transcoder solution varying based on the quality of video The solution, HD Adaptive season. Rights also including the has the rise in video streaming and regions the video will be trans- Streaming, encodes video content in Champions League, Europa firmly in mind which the company coded. the cloud using a single, non-proprie- League, as well as tennis and golf believes is easier and cheaper to do Meanwhile, upLynk has emerged tary adaptive format that enables content. Sky Film, Sky Welt and in the cloud. from stealth mode with the release of video to play on all major platforms Sky HD channels are also being The new AWS service pricing an adaptive streaming platform that and devices, eliminating the need to added to the Entertain platform, model is based on customers pay- it claims solves many of the problems encode a video multiple times or running until mid-2017. ing for what you use, rather than associated with current approaches repackage on the fly. ABC is already signing up for a monthly service to multi-screen encoding. using it for multi-screen delivery.

08 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com IHS Electronics & Media Events

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Untitled-1 1 18/02/2013 16:02:21 News

news in brief Costs a “growing concern” for Tablet TV to explode multichannel operators According to new research from TDG, 58 billion hours of TV and Rising sports costs are not the only ESPN’s licence fee of $5.13 in 2012. than the overall growth. Overall video will be viewed on tablets in reason for rising multichannel bills, As the table shows, operators in then, costs are a growing concern 2017, equal to 10% of all current according to analysis by SNL 1995 were delivering around 26 for multichannel operators. TV, video, and OTT Kagan, which fears some worrying channels and paying about $7 per Back in 1995, we estimate that consumption, driving significant times ahead for multichannel sub per month in licence fees. By cable operators were getting a margin changes in the business landscape operators. 2012, the number of channels had of 76.3%, which has shrunk to below for television and online video. Channels growth and growing grown to an average of 95 and the 50% in 2012. TDG estimates that 65% of US retransmission fees are both associated costs to $34. SNL further points out that households will own tablets at the weighing on the bottom line. By The average cost of a sports average programming costs for the end of 2017 and the average 2018, SNL estimates retrans will be channel has grown at a CAGR of top four operators grew at 4x the rate number of tablets per household costing cable operators $4.90 per 3.5% over the past decade, compared of video ARPU in Q3 2012, a trend will more than double from sub per month (wholesale, not to a 2.9% CAGR for all channels. that will continue, which is why Time current levels. what the consumer is paying), However, the five- and seven-year Warner Cable and others are looking which is almost on par with CAGRs are actually smaller in sports at dropping channels. OTT for Vietnamese expats • In Europe, Belgian operator

VTC Digilink, part of Vietnamese Programming Cost Analysis For Cable MSOs, 1995-2012 Belgacom is dropping German public

telco and media company VTC, 15 Year 10 Year 7 Year 5 Year broadcasters ARD and ZDF from its 1995 2012 CAGR CAGR CAGR CAGR is teaming with China’s PPTV to ‘98-’12 ‘03-’12 ’06-’12 ‘08-’12 IPTV service package over failure to

provide a global online TV Cable video ARPU ($) 28.85 71.45 5.1 4.4 4.0 3.9 agree carriage fees. According to the service that will serve an operator, the broadcasters were Cable retrans. costs/sub ($) 0.00 2.00 - - 81.2 69.1 estimated five million Vietnamese demanding EUR1 million for immigrants worldwide. The Cable net prog.cost/sub ($) 6.83 33.78 8.9 8.0 7.9 7.4 distribution of their channels over service package will include HD Total cablenet& retrans/sub ($) 6.83 35.78 9.3 8.7 8.9 8.7 the network, while Belgacom was

TV channels and VoD content on COGS (%) 23.7 50.1 4.0 4.1 4.7 4.6 only offering €500,000, a gap too big a subscription basis. It will be to come to agreement. Belgacom will Margin (%) 76.3 49.9 (2.3) (2.9) (3.5) (3.8) hosted on the newly launched now start to carry the German RTL PPTV Asian TV Networks Retrans % of Cable ARPU (%) 0.0 2.8 - - 74.2 62.7 channel instead over the space

(ATN), a global over-the-top TV Cablenet % of Cable ARPU (%) 23.7 47.3 3.6 3.5 3.7 3.4 vacated by ARD and ZDF in the cloud built on top of Microsoft latest of such disputes in the region. © 2013 SNL Kagan, a division of SNL Financial LC, estimates. All rights reserved. Windows Azure services.

Advanced satellite planned Eutelsat will deploy a new Cisco looks to the cloud with generation of advanced functions, starting with the Eutelsat 8 West Videoscape Unity B bird due for launch in 2015. Benefits include mitigating the Cisco has enhanced its core Also supported is multi-screen point out the firm belief that the set- effects of interference by Videoscape multi-screen platform by cloud digital video recorder (DVR), top box/home gateway were not increasing control over uplink adding a number of components that which Cisco expects to become a big going away any time soon (indeed frequencies to a satellite, were gained through the acquisition deal starting this year. The company part of the bundle is a new hybrid increasing the number of active of NDS last year. will be trialling the technology with QAM/IP video gateway for channels by optimising a satellite The new release, called leading customers in EMEA in the transcoding and distributing content payload’s use of the electrical Videoscape Unity, was unveiled at first half of 2013, with commercial to IP devices inside the home). power generated by its solar the CES show and uses the power availability to following by year-end, On a wider level, Thexton argued panels, and expanding options for of the cloud to deliver content to according to Nick Thexton, CTO of that the flexibility and open repositioning satellites with managed and unmanaged devices Cisco’s Service Provider Video standards will differentiate the end- frequency agile command in a consistent way. It allows Technology Group. Thexton expects to-end solution from competitors receivers, which will improve for the ability to deliver more the cloud based deployments around such as Microsoft and other smaller coordination with other satellite advanced features such as Videoscape Unity functionality to ecosystems. operators. personalisation and integration increase throughout the next 12 Cisco is also looking at how these with social networks. months, although he was quick to offers can be hosted as a service.

10 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com News

100m smart TVs in use globally news in brief

There are now more than one hundred ARM and Android and the abundant Smart TV Installed Base Forecast: Selected Netflix vs LoveFilm Countries in 2012 million smart TVs installed in homes content on the Android ecosystem Netflix has more TV shows and Smart TV Installed Base by 2012 worldwide, according to Strategy allowing Chinese TV manufacturers Country(Millions of Units) series, while LoveFilm has a Analytics. By the end of 2012, the to offer affordable but compelling Japan 21.1 better film selection according to global installed base of smart TVs had smart TV products. Chinese TV United States 15.8 Oric. Netflix had 925 TV seasons reached 104 million. manufacturers like Hisense, TCL and China 13.8 compared with LoveFilm’s 589, Germany 7.1 In leading markets like the US Skyworth are embracing Android, of which 210 were available UK 6.8 household penetration now exceeds the analysts noted. across both services. LoveFilm, France 4.2 20%, although Strategy Analytics Smart TV technology is now on the other hand, offers 3,284 South Korea 3.5 predicts that annual smart TV sales included in an ever increasing Russia 3.1 film titles compared with 1,668 at in China will exceed those of the US number of flat panel TVs, as the Italy 2.9 Netflix. There were 260 movies this year and will grow to more than production cost of smart TVs is only Spain 2.7 available across both, as the two twice the size of the US market in marginally higher than non-smart Source: Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices providers fight for the OTT video service, December 2012 2017, driven by the cost advantage of TVs. land grab in the UK. In the US, Netflix has a catalogue of 14,142 titles, while Amazon Instant Prime offers its customers 13,185 China to lead 4K×2K TV adoption subscription streaming films.

More than half a million 4K×2K TVs forecast to follow, with just over 2 sizes ranging from 50-110”, and 10m UHDTV homes by 2016 are forecast to ship worldwide this million forecast to ship in 2016. there is also a push to increase TV Ultra High Definition TV sets year, growing to more than seven Sony, LG, Samsung, and Sharp content. The availability of content will be installed in nearly 10m million by 2016, according to NPD are all moving forward with this is key to consumer adoption of households worldwide by 2016 DisplaySearch. technology, as are other Japanese 4K×2K TVs, and TV manufacturers and 130 million by 2020, China is forecast to lead in and leading Chinese brands. Initial are anxious to prevent any potential according to Strategy Analytics. demand for 4K×2K TVs, with efforts in test broadcasting and delays that could stall adoption, as Global annual sales of UHD TVs shipments forecast to grow from standardisation are also underway, was the case with 3DTVs.” will first break through the one 333,000 in 2013 to more than 2.6 noted NPD. While several announcements million barrier in 2015 and by million in 2016. The highest 4K×2K “The efforts throughout the supply about proprietary 4K×2K 2020 they will exceed 50 million adoption is expected in China, Japan chain for 4K×2K have begun to streaming and download services units. While most early TV sets and Western Europe, as these regions align,” said Paul Gray, Director of were made at CES, satellite and will be priced at more than typically prefer the latest highly- TV Electronics Research. “Panel cable services from established $10,000, prices will fall below featured products. North America is makers are producing 4K×2K screen providers will take some time. $2,000 within the next five years, dominated by 60-100” displays.

Smart home nodes on the up UHD will be only a niche for satellite Almost 150m smart home nodes, mainly focused on energy Despite much hype, ultra HD UltraHD channel to benefit the management applications, will be channels represent only a niche broadcasting chain. But an uncertain shipped between 2010 and 2017, opportunity for satellite companies, return on investment (ROI) will according to IMS Research. This according to a new report from NSR, contribute to a slow adoption of the includes a range of devices from looking to add a dose of realism. new video format by the payTV HVAC controls, such as smart The analysts expect just 15 industry, NSR said, adding that it is thermostats and radiator controls, channels demanded by the global content owners and service providers to energy measurement devices cable TV, IPTV and DTH industries that will have to take on the risk such as smart plugs and in-home combined in 2015. The satellite side associated with driving the market. displays. Home monitoring and of the market is forecast to reach “At this stage of the market cycle, grow at higher levels, the security applications will drive $412 million in 2025 from an $8.2 there does not seem to be enough percentage of ultraHD channels the second highest proportion of million revenue base in 2015. impetus towards substantial compared to SD and HD channels node shipments. Systems that Early offshoots come from TV investments,” said report author Jose will remain very small, with consolidate these applications manufacturers and cameras, as well Del Rosario. minimal impact in revenues and will drive the market longer-term. as a Eutelsat’s launch of a dedicated While the market should begin to channel carriage.

www.csimagazine.com January-February 2013 11 Analyst corner Terrestrial TV in the multi-channel future Most channels are close to a point where moving to streaming Channels that have gone from satellite only would be cheaper but going all-OTT is not an option. Rather, it broadcast to a Freeview will be about finding the right balance slot see a big uplift to viewing. And just as for platforms scaling for OTT errestrial broadcast is the inflection point where streaming would delivery, for large consumption channels the expensive. Very expensive. become cheaper. Of the 192-BARB rated economics of OTT streaming remain highly For channels, satellite channels, only 58 are above a threshold of 1.5 unfavourable. In some cases the cost of OTT transmission is a relatively times the cost of satellite broadcast to switch to streaming being hundreds of times more than minor cost relative to the OTT alone. Meaning that on a purely individual broadcast on satellite. total cost base of the basis for the low-to mid consumption UK business, but a 24-hour channels a switch to OTT-only could become an Because they’re worth it Freeview slot on the UK terrestrial network is option in the longer term. So terrestrial most certainly still has its place. Tmany millions. And do we even need a terrestrial It would be safe to conclude, further, that the Like all of the finer things in life, it may be broadcast network? Some recent reports have majority of channels not rated by BARB expensive, but for most channels that take the suggested that terrestrial broadcast in the UK be (generally lower viewership operations) would plunge, it’s usually worth it. scrapped, replaced by multicast streaming also save by using Unicast. Even the low-view channels where, nominally, (effectively broadcast over IP) and the spectrum By extension, then, paying the considerable streaming would represent a big saving over used for other (even more lucrative) purposes. additional cost for a terrestrial slot must tip the satellite broadcast could not, today, switch to National IP multicast has yet to become an balance even further in favour of streaming? Well, streaming only. The reality remains that OTT option in the UK, but OTT Unicast streaming is no. In fact the complete opposite is true: The costs are not substitutive and will remain already well established. I have previously (in CSI considerable additional cost of terrestrial incremental on broadcast costs for the near to November-December) highlighted the issues of transmission does not tip the balance in favour of medium term. The burden placed by the need to scaling Unicast delivery to platform levels. OTT because the viewing uplift and vastly meet increasing OTT demand on larger- But an analysis of individual channels based on increased consumption driven by a terrestrial feed consumption channels, which must maintain fixed their actual viewer consumption, paints a different mean fulfilling real demand becomes more broadcast costs, is thus potentially onerous. at the single channel level. Indeed, half the challenging for Unicast. But in burden lies opportunity. The future channels rated by BARB in the UK could today The cost/benefit of terrestrial broadcast broadcast business model is likely to bundle fulfil actual viewing demand using unicast OTT remains extremely favourable. Channels are in the Unicast delivery with some form or linear streaming at a lower cost base than using satellite, business of getting watched by as many people as broadcast delivery, increasingly likely to include let alone terrestrial. And many more are close to possible. Their dual income streams of carriage an IP multicast component. Finding the balance and advertising both rely on maximum reach. in that provision will be key for distribution Analysis of the 35 BARB-rated channels platforms in coming years. that also have terrestrial carriage shows that to deliver the actual programming consumed on a weekly basis via OTT would be more expensive for 27 of the 35 channels assuming an SD feed and for 22 of the 35 channels assuming a more expensive HD feed. There’s a little chicken and egg question here: Is it the Guy Bisson is research terrestrial broadcast that creates the viewer director, television, at IHS uplift or is it the existing consumption pattern Screen Digest. In this regular that makes terrestrial broadcast justifiable? column, he gives CSI readers exclusive insight from the The evidence suggests a good dose of the company’s channel strategies service uplift is caused by the shift to terrestrial.

12 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com CC2013_revised image ad 8/11/12 08:54 Page 1

5-7th March 2013, The Lancaster Hotel, London

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Is it about time new rules were created that reflect a and by competition from other streaming service providers changing TV landscape, asks David Adams and from incumbent broadcasters. ttempts to control makes up at least a quarter of all video watched. Cable Europe believes that the market should the use of online Subscription volumes for OTT services are now drive commercial negotiations that will no doubt technologies can seem comparable to those for satellite TV in these continue to take place as the competitive forces doomed to failure. Yet markets. In the US 27% subscribe to OTT services evolve. “Our position is simple: OTT services can calls for increased compared to 28% for satellite. In the UK the same complement the current cable offer. Several cable regulation of online, figures are 26 and 30%. It is true that some of the operators have integrated OTT services into their over-the-top (OTT) TV OTT services in question are provided by long own platform in order to provide customers with services may well be heard on a regular basis from established broadcasters, including satellite the variety of video entertainment that they Anow on, in various different markets around the providers like Sky in the UK, but the point is the expect. Even competing Video on Demand world. And while it is true that governments or speed with which consumers have embraced OTT. services have sometimes been integrated on the regulators attempting to control the internet risk The last time Accenture asked the same questions, cable television platform,” a Cable Europe looking repressive and/or foolish, as well as in March 2011, the headline figure for OTT spokesman told CSI. impotent, there may be good reasons to try to viewing was just 8%. Even so, in some countries broadcasters are construct new rules, or to adapt existing The OTT players are not about to inherit the asking whether the OTT services against which regulations, in recognition of the way TV earth: lots of people watching TV via the internet they compete ought to be subject to the same consumption is changing. isn’t necessarily terrible news for broadcasters, if regulatory conditions as those under which they Research released by Accenture in late 2012 they have successful online services of their own; operate. highlighted the sorts of changes taking place in or for content owners (including many “A lot of broadcasters have to make the US and the UK. About half of those broadcasters), who can generate revenue through investments based on regulations and I’m sure questioned (50% in the US and 48% in the UK) licensing content to the OTT service providers. there are going to be places where people say ‘we for Accenture’s Pulse of Media Consumer Survey Some OTT players may also find it difficult to need to start standardising these things’,” says said they regularly watch OTT content via sustain themselves in the longer term. Netflix has Kay Johansson, chief technology officer at broadband on TV screens. The trend is endured a difficult period in market cap terms, technology specialist MobiTV. particularly pronounced among younger people: tumbling from $15 billion in July 2011 to $3.3 But would a regulator level the playing field by 82% of US consumers aged 18 to 24 and 75% in billion in October 2012: squeezed by higher introducing new regulations applying to OTT the UK watch some OTT content; and for 60% of licensing fees from content producers who see services, or by loosening regulations that apply to this age group (54% in the UK) OTT content Netflix undermining revenues from pay TV deals; the incumbents? Either way, the net effect can be a stifling of competition by handing an advantage to whoever has the deepest pockets. In practice, regulators, governments, broadcasters, telcos and other interested parties will act differently in different places, influenced by factors including the nature of the broadcasting landscape and the political environment. Piracy may be an important driver. In Singapore, proliferation of relatively cheap IPTV equipment has led to an explosion in illegal OTT services offering access to pirated content. On the other hand, the development of legal OTT services could reduce the profitability of piracy. If so, market forces solve the initial problem, but

14 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com PayTV vs OTT regulation

who provides the OTT services and thus gets the some pointers, but it still doesn’t say anything commercial benefit? “Net neutrality will about the quality of service this gatekeeper is going to deliver.” The neutrality issue give us some pointers, Net neutrality is now partly acknowledged as at The OTT regulation debate could be seen as just least a desirable principle in EU law and has been one aspect of bigger, on-going questions about but it still doesn’t say discussed by lawmakers in a number of territories, who controls the internet. One of the most including the US. There are some concerns about important principles underpinning the way the anything about the how it might be used, including a fear that it may online world works today is the principle of net give ISPs a commercial motive to monitor the neutrality, under which ISPs and other actors on quality of service this nature of traffic more closely, with possible the network should treat all data on the internet implications for privacy, to discover which types equally, rather than imposing tiered costs or gatekeeper is going of traffic offer most commercial gain. The constraints on different users, content types, Netherlands has introduced net neutrality laws, applications, equipment used and so on. But if net to deliver.” ratified in May 2012, now coming into effect and neutrality is not enshrined in law and a particular it will be interesting to see what happens when ISP happens to be in a position to impact the undercut by the private peering often used to view these are tested by events. Meanwhile, it has been efficacy of a service which competes with one of OTT content. interesting to observe the way Netflix has its own services, why, in this vicious, dog-eat-dog Whether a dispute is within or between capitalist world would it resist the temptation to companies, one problem is that net neutrality do so? does not cover quality of service, says Tullemans. Even if no-one is actively seeking to behave He believes that the principles which underpin unethically, there is certainly potential for what a CDN ought to do, or the way a cacheing commercial disputes to be expressed in this way. service could be used to guarantee quality of In January, France Telecom-Orange was found to service, may both be threatened by this kind of be limiting bandwidth for OTT services including dispute. “So net neutrality is very important,” he YouTube as a direct result of a financial dispute says. “The internet should be a distributed thing with (YouTube owner) Google’s internet which isn’t owned by anybody, but in reality backbone service provider Cogent access to it is always owned by someone. So the Communications. access provider is the gatekeeper and this role is Reports suggest that the telco wants Cogent to not fully defined yet. Net neutrality will give us pay for the additional traffic being generated by streaming video services, and it has resulted in the French competition watchdog Autorite de la Concurrence becoming involved. ‘We need to ask serious questions about how Web companies can put some money into networks,’ technology minister Fleur Pellerin was quoted in Bloomberg, in what is likely to be a sensitive issue on national and regional level that is unlikely to go away. Conflicts could even emerge within a single company. Bram Tullemans, project leader for broadband technology and online services in the innovation department of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), gives a hypothetical example: a cable company which also acts as a Content Delivery Network (CDN) provider. The CDN part of the company will want to offer a good service to customers, possibly including OTT service providers, but the part of the company selling its own cable TV services will not want the OTT service to be too successful – and nor will the part of the company which sells transit services, revenues for which may be

www.csimagazine.com January-February 2013 15 PayTV vs OTT regulation transferred ever more of its international traffic The issue is likely to be debated by Congress itself onto its own CDN, Open Connect, over the past at some stage. year. Open Connect now handles most Netflix In many, perhaps most markets, the shape of “The big question is video in Europe, Canada and Latin America and existing regulations will complicate attempts at how you get more a growing proportion of its US traffic. reform. For example, in Israel, as Ido Wiesenberg, Could competition effectively police the co-founder and vice-president of business competition. In many gatekeepers? Tullemans is not so sure. “That is development at Tvinci, explains cable and satellite very complicated with tripleplay-type offerings,” TV providers need to pay millions of dollars in European markets it’s he says. “Also, you may be in an area where there order to operate legally and are required to is not much competition. And if there are commit to a degree of local production once hard to compete.” problems will the end user know whose fault it is? their services acquire a certain percentage of “If you leave things to the open market and you market share in the country. Yet mobile operators have gatekeeping companies functioning not only are free to launch OTT services without any attempts at regulation: increased competition; and as access providers but also as content providers similar constraints. a need for companies to cooperate. and network owners, then there will be conflicts “Soon there will be a couple of new pay TV “I’m not sure some of these regulatory bodies of interest. The question is if net neutrality will providers, with a set top box and both VoD and can regulate the internet,” says MobiTV’s really help. But if you want to protect the internet linear channels,” says Wiesenberg. “The existing Johansson. “If you look at the big trends, social as an open distributed environment you need price of pay TV subscriptions is quite high, so the media, things like the second screen: those specific regulation to protect it. If you don’t it government want to allow this. They want new developments should open up chances for new will be like a cabling network, with people competitors to get in and so they want less players. All these trends are going to have to drive renting a collection of specific services selected regulation. But they do also want to protect some kind of change in regulations, because these by the provider.” existing pay TV providers.” are things consumers want to use. But can you In Asia, the TV industry association CASBAA regulate them? The shape of things to come published a report considering the OTT “I personally think this is going to play out Where is fresh regulation going to come from? regulation challenge in 2012. This highlighted with some new regulations on the OTT guys and Exactly what the EU might attempt to do in this some key issues affecting markets in this region, more relaxed regulations on the [incumbent area in future is not yet clear, despite the 2011 including the large number of offshore OTT operators]. The big question is how you get more Green Paper on the possible creation of a digital platforms. It suggests that increased access to competition. In many European markets it’s hard single market for the online distribution of audio- legitimate OTT services such as (or similar to) to compete. So I really hope the regulations will visual works. Netflix or Hulu might reduce piracy in markets open things up.” In the US, the debate is already underway: like Singapore, but recommends that incumbent Tomas Petru, president of the technology arguments were rehearsed in September, when the operators seek to develop effective responses to company Visual Unity, is sure legislation and Advisory Committee to new entrants. regulation will continue to lag behind technical the Congressional Internet Caucus, an NGO, In the end, two apparently contradictory forces developments, meaning, given the international held a panel for Congressional staffers and are each likely to have at least as important an nature of the internet, that it will be impossible to speakers spoke for and against cutting regulation. impact on the TV landscape in every market as stop some OTT services appearing from less stringently regulated sources. “But I hope the internet will stay a global environment,” he says, “and that regulation will be enforced by general law, common sense and general business rules.” Indeed, unless some technology company really is able to set itself up as a one-stop-shop for anyone’s internet requirements, from the backbone, carrier and CDN services to the content itself – and that doesn’t seem very likely – these companies will need to work together to provide consumer services. New entrants, and even technology giants like Apple, will need to work alongside broadcasters nd content owners. And regulators seeking to regulate OTT, or to loosen existing regulations for broadcasters will need to draw on a deep well of common sense, for the common commercial good – and for the good of the consumer too.

16 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com

Ka-band Satellite’s new horizon

The Ka-band is generating much enthusiasm as services are regulatory requirement for introduced in Europe. Philip Hunter looks at the applications DTH operators to carry local channels for every designated and market opportunities region, and there are 210 of these as defined by Nielsen, ike oil, satellite transmission lower cost than the traditional Ku-band,” says Ali the media measurement company that audits TV capacity is a finite resource, but Zarkesh, business development director at viewing in the US. Called Designated Market with seemingly endless means broadcast contribution vendor Vislink. This Areas (DMAs) these are smaller than US states, for finding a little bit more by argument though has yet to carry much weight in typically comprising a group of counties and digging deeper. Or, in the case Europe, where there is still sufficient capacity for serving them all via a single satellite footprint of satellite, by reaching out to broadcast in the Ku-band. would impose a very high bandwidth cost per ever higher frequencies. “Currently there seems to be enough capacity subscriber as some of the channels have relatively The Ka-band is the latest such iteration in the to serve DTH with Ku-Band, especially after small audiences. L26.5–40 GHz range, but already the industry is analogue transmission has been shut down,” However, with Ka-band satellite platform looking ahead to the Q and V bands in the 40 argues Gerhard Mocker, head of satellite operators have brought in spot beam technology, GHz to 80 GHz range to meet future demands for communication technologies at German vendor focusing signals into smaller beams covering just even greater bandwidth. For now though the of RF (Radio Frequency) products for Work tens or hundreds of kilometres, rather than the major satellite platform providers, Eutelat, Microwave. Mocker adds that the huge legacy thousands of kilometres embracing whole Inmarsat, Spacecom, Intelsat and SES, are base of installed Ku-band dishes that cannot continents of broad beam transmission using the focusing on Ka to stay competitive with fixed readily be upgraded to receive Ka-band downlink Ku- and C-bands. Spot beam is not exclusive to broadband networks and at the same time meet signals could hinder migration to Ka-band by Ka-band, but is less costly to deploy at the higher increasing demands for capacity from their European DTH operators, although the move to frequencies, and has been enabled by customers. The latter now includes not just ultra HD may change this. corresponding technical developments in reflector broadband providers and of course the usual It is a very different story in the US, where the antenna technology, with the arrival of lightweight suspects such as the marine sector that have no two leading DTH operators DirecTV and Dish larger reflector dishes six to 30 metres in other option, but also increasingly broadcasters. Network have been transmitting channels over diameter, capable of shaping multiple spot beams “Major broadcast networks are very interested Ka-band for several years. But this was for a more accurately. as this gives them access to more capacity at reason specific to the US market, which is the Most existing Ku- and C-band satellites have small antenna reflectors only around two to three metres across, constrained by the launch vehicle’s packaging and capable only of focusing broad beams over large geographical areas. The term High Throughput Satellite (HTS) was introduced to embrace these related developments in launch packaging, reflector technology, and Ka-band.

Different regions, different drivers In the US DirecTV and Dish Network lapped up spot beam Ka-band technology to meet their local channel service obligations affordably, reusing the same frequencies across multiple spot beams to serve the different DMAs. However, in Europe this particular driver does not exist for DTH because most countries have only a few regions rather than 210. It is then more cost effective, at least for now, to deliver all local programming to all subscribers via broad beam satellites rather than invest specifically in spot beam systems for that purpose.

18 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com Ka-band

In Europe there is though growing momentum behind Ka-band spot beam technology for high speed broadband, an area where until recently satellite has been almost out of the game, except for reaching very remote or otherwise unreachable targets such as ships. But spot beams bring a huge gain in efficiency that is enabling satellite to close the gap and become competitive with terrestrial broadband in less remote areas, even city suburbs, beyond the direct reach of fibre. Spot beams bring two advantages here. Firstly, by dividing a region up into multiple spots, the satellite’s overall energy can be focused into the beams serving more populous areas, rather than wasting it on, say, deserts or oceans where there are very few transceivers on the ground. Secondly, the ability to reuse frequencies multiple times makes it possible for a satellite to serve a significant number of individual broadband subscribers, each of which consumes bandwidth both upstream and downstream, unlike say DTH where the signal is beamed to everybody. In principle a satellite with 20 spots can serve 20 times as many subscribers as an impossible or inefficient to reach millions equivalent system with just one beam. of users,” notes Steve Petrie, UK Crucially this effective capacity gain also gives commercial director for Eutelast’s Tooway. more scope for increasing the bit rate to come As these tend to be actual rather than merely closer to fixed broadband values, in return for a headline speeds they are sufficient to deliver one smaller expansion in user numbers. This is or two channels of HD video alongside the usual band, which is rain fade, given that extending the reach of high speed broadband to internet applications. electromagnetic radiation in the Ka-band range is new areas, enabling European governments to There are two distinct markets for satellite absorbed to a greater extent by water. This was fulfill their commitments to meet set targets for broadband, the unserved, and the underserved, thought to favour broadband and on-demand bit rates in more remote areas that will not be according to Patrick French, senior analyst and video, which could tolerate the delay associated served by fibre for many years. head of the Singapore office at Northern Sky with resending IP packets dropped because of “Our Tooway satellite broadband service is Research (NSR), a specialist in satellite industry signal loss in heavy rain, at the expense of linear helping to bridge the Digital Divide by providing analysis. “The unserved are those in remote areas broadcast. But as we have seen this has not download speeds of up to 20 Mbps and upload who don’t have any alternative, while the stopped DirecTV or Dish Network in the US, speeds of up to 6 Mbps to consumers across underserved are those who perhaps pay for 4-6 some parts of which, especially in the south east Europe and the Mediterranean Basin in areas Mbps per month from their broadband provider of the country, can experience rains of great where it is geographically or economically but in reality get 500 Kbps,” says French. The intensity. This leads French to dismiss the rain undeserved market is the larger, including people fade issue altogether. “I think that’s just in many suburban communities with access to ignorance,” he says. “Physically, yes, the Ka-band DSL broadband services but too far from the is more susceptible to rain fade, but it just means “The industry has exchange to get high enough bit rates for OTT you need a dish that’s the same size as a Ku dish been working hard to TV, who would jump at the prospect of 20 Mbps to compensate, rather than a smaller dish.” over satellite. Increasingly it will not even be necessary to ensure any possible “Depending on which analyst you believe, there give up the saving in dish size, as other are ten to 20 million households in Europe that developments are reducing the impact of rain rain fade has minimal do not have access to ADSL broadband services fade, according to David Hartshorn, secretary or the equivalent, or that only get lower quality general of GVF (Global VSAT Forum), the effect.” ADSL service,” says French. satellite industry body. “The industry has been There is though one negative factor for Ka- working hard to ensure any possible rain

www.csimagazine.com January-February 2013 19 Ka-band attenuation has minimal effect on the service consumer and enterprise services through satellite being provided,” notes Hartshorn. broadband.” “There are two There are two main mitigation techniques, one being site diversity, where typically the operator Towards Q- and V-bands distinct markets for will ensure there are uplinks in geographically While consumer broadband, TV, and mobility are diverse locations. This naturally means that if one the obvious applications for Ka-band, there is one satellite broadband, site is being impacted by heavy rain, they can other area of huge potential in cellular backhaul simply switch to another site. This is not a new for mobile telephony services, given the the unserved, and the approach, and indeed has been applied with good proliferation of traffic generated by emerging 4G/ effect for decades. The second technique is LTE networks. underserved.” adaptive coding modulation operating at the Many cell sites around the world, especially modulator end by working out the whole picture, emerging markets in Africa and Latin America country, which is often not the case for Ka-band even where there may be some information but also remoter parts of Europe, are beyond the satellites at present. “If this can be solved, then missing. Hartshorn insists that these techniques reach of fixed broadband infrastructure. Satellite the internet portion of cell backhaul has great had eliminated significant degradation or signal is therefore an obvious candidate, but with one potential,” said Elinov. loss over Ka-band in the event of heavy rain. big hurdle that has to be overcome, according to Another emerging area without any such Hartshorn also contended that there was no Doron Elinov, VP Strategic Accounts at Israeli- problem is remote video contribution, extending longer any distinction between TV and broadband based VSAT equipment maker Gilat Satellite. This the range of places from which high quality in any case, with quality of service requirements is that many countries require their cellular traffic pictures can be obtained, especially valuable for converging between the two. “Internet or TV – to be terminated for entry into the global internet news gathering. “Our NewsSpotter uses what is the difference? Increasingly internet is the within their territory. This would mean that the professional-grade KA-SAT terminals for video TV,” he points out. “There is an expectation that gateway connecting the satellite’s communications contribution from crews in the field to a the satellite industry will begin delivering both with the internet would have to reside in the same broadcaster’s master control room,” says Eutelsat’s Petrie. “Using standard IP routing, the service is capable of transmitting at speeds of up to 20Mbps via KA-SAT and its dedicated ground network fibre infrastructure.” While this ability to support transmission speeds of 20 Mbps is keeping satellite competitive at present, the industry will have to make further advances to meet future demand for ever greater throughput, for example to support ultra HD. As this time approaches Ka-band capacity will become exhausted, and this will also erode one of its present advantages, which is relative immunity from interference. This is largely a function of the relatively low population of Ka-band satellites at present, but this will change. The industry will respond by moving up to even higher frequencies, according to Elinov. “We expect to go to Q- and V-band, and reach 100 Mbps,” he says. This will also involve even smaller spot beams capable of serving yet smaller local markets with high quality of service. So for the foreseeable future the whole HTS movement involving ever higher frequencies and smaller spot beams looks like ensuring satellite communications will retain a major role in broadband and TV Everywhere. In the longer term though as scope for recruiting ever higher frequencies is exhausted and fibre eventually reaches almost all households, at least in more developed countries, satellite communications may be relegated to more niche markets such as mobility.

20 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com 11832 TV Connect Advert for CSI_Layout 1 14/02/2013 12:07 Page 1

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Gold Panel Sponsors Silver Sponsors Consultancy Sponsor Executive Briefing Connected Innovation Produced by: Sponsor Theatre Sponsors Middle East TV focus At the edge of a perfect storm? Can pay TV operators overcome limited broadband regions can leverage existing facilities. infrastructure and widespread access to free and illegal The market demand is there, broadcasting to bring OTT to the Middle East? Stephen the technology is available, content rights are gradually Cousins reports being expanded to include IP-based distribution: we are at he recent turmoil that has Despite the many advantages, the Middle East the edge of a perfect storm where OTT and multi- engulfed the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) market is not without screen services in the Middle East will drive new highlights an urgent need for its challenges. The Arab world is served by around revenues and exciting, engaging consumer social and political reform, 500 free to air (FTA) satellite channels, which are experiences,” he says. but it has shown no signs of currently viewed by almost half of TV households. holding back the payTV Content piracy is also rife and many FTA viewers TV and broadband snapshot market, which is expected to also illegally access subscription-only channels. The MENA region has traditionally been the grow to 15.8 million subscribers by 2017, up from Regulatory issues continue to pose problems for mainstay of satellite television and some homes, Taround ten million in Q1 2012, according to the TV sector and the close relationship between particularly in Gulf States, either have two dishes statistics from Informa. That’s respectable growth the state and many broadcasters is often seen as or a dual LNB (amplifier) designed to take signals for a market that had a total 92.1 million TV having a negative effect. Meanwhile, some media from two satellites. households at the end of 2011, and it highlights legislation is outdated and considered by many The payTV operators Orbit Communications, the potential growth that still exists for forward unable to address recent developments such as Arab Radio & Television (ART) and Showtime thinking TV service providers. digital TV, the internet, mobile and IPTV. Arabia have dominated the pay TV sector since According to SNL Kagan, DTH penetration is But the region needn’t be seen as an expensive the mid-1990s. In 2009, Showtime and Orbit in the high 90s in almost all territories. IPTV is experiment with limited returns, explains John merged to create the Orbit Showtime Network the second biggest platform but still only tiny (in Illingworth, sales director for the Middle East at (OSN), which provides around 100 television single figures) for a handful of countries. content security, management and delivery Irdeto: channels and is the largest operator outside of Mirroring the expansion of many European “Infrastructure investment across the Middle East Turkey and Israel. (But payTV has struggled in payTV operators, the region’s biggest players are is strong, which means the deployment of highly the past and analysts at Kagan believe even post- extending the reach of managed services by scalable OTT services in the most populous merger that OSN will face similar challenges.) adding in the flexibility of over-the-top (OTT) Turkish service Digiturk is the MENA region’s

delivery, supported by improved broadband Fixed Broadband Household Penetration by Market, 2012, (%) largest overall payTV operator. Al Jazeera Sports infrastructures, in some areas, and interest from a and Abu Dhabi Media Company are also 100 ‘tech savvy’ youthful demographic keen to access significant players, having invested heavily in 90 content on a range of multi-screen devices. acquiring premium sports content for their pay 80 Overall, OTT is a good strong prospect in the TV channels, sport being the most sought after 70 region if broadband speeds and connections genre for local audiences. 60 improve, reckons Kagan. Fixed broadband penetration in the MENA 50 A flurry of OTT activity has included the region remains low, at less than 5% of the 40 recent launch of Abu Dhabi-based telco Etisalat’s population on average, with uptake hampered by 30 pan-regional services. Bahrain’s incumbent poor fixed infrastructure. IPTV has therefore been 20 Batelco launched its own IPTV service in 2011, restricted as high quality video services require a 10 having migrated its fixed infrastructure to an fast and stable connection. 0

IP-based network. And fellow telco Atyaf also That situation looks set to change though, says

Iraq

UAE

Syria

Israel

Qatar

Oman

Egypt

Yemen

Kuwait Jordan

recently launched a multi-screen OTT TV service Bahrain Milya Timergaleyeva, vice president of market Lebanon

across the Middle East, providing over 130 linear Arabia Saudi strategy for Oregan Networks, which has been Palestinian Trty Palestinian

channels and VoD content for delivery to iOS, © 2013 SNL Kagan, a division of SNL Financial LC, working with Batelco to implement its BlackBox connected TV sets, PCs, Android devices. from company data. All rights reserved. video service designed to deliver advanced IPTV

22 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com Middle East TV focus

and web features via a high speed fibre optic tech-savvy demographic who tend to spend more backbone: “Many countries are now rapidly of their disposable income on new building out internet backbone infrastructure communication types, which gives the services a capable of delivering video. One of the main traits strong chance of success. of the market is that these networks are brand As consumer demand grows, and adoption of new and have high capacity bandwidth, making mobile and tablet devices increases, consumers them the ideal highway for live multicast video,” are increasingly keen to find and consume she says. content, says Irdeto’s Illingworth: “We are now But progress is being held back in countries seeing a growing ambition to mirror linear like Dubai, where charges by network operators satellite programming across different devices, as have become prohibitively expensive. Currently, well as to provide catch-up content and premium 1MB of connectivity in Dubai costs around $200- on-demand content such as films and major TV 1000 per month, compared to just $1 per month series.” in the US. “There is a monopoly of providers who “I’ve noticed widespread interest in OTT video make more money selling expensive infrastructure content on these devices, which is powering to a small number of clients. They need to change demand for paid services in the Middle East,” their approach and realise that opening up to adds Visual Unity’s Petru. “Most of the middle more customers at cheaper rates is a better means class workforce have smart phones and even poor of securing higher and more stable revenue, lets workers use banking services on smartphones to hope it goes this way in future,” says Tomas Petru, send money home to support their families. owner of broadcast and multiscreen systems Unlike a TV, the devices can’t be easily stolen and integrator Visual Unity. can be bought relatively cheaply. We have been Tech-savvy Israel was one of the early adopters working with a broadcast company in the of VoD and, as a result, OTT implementation has Philippines that’s aiming to set up an OTT video been less disruptive for its pay TV operators than service, accessible on smartphones, targeting some other markets. Satellite operator Yes, which expats working in the Middle East,” he says. accounts for one third of the country’s pay TV Tools for two-screen viewing with payTV are subscribers, runs a VoD service that integrates OTT with DVR and HD technology. The firm’s subscribers access internet-based services through an open standard Android-based set-top box designed to stream video and other personalized content from the web onto home TV screens. The local broadcasters, Keshet, Reshet and Channel 10 all offer comprehensive, internet- based OTT programming.

Ahead on smartphones and tablets The widespread adoption of smartphones across the MENA region will be a major factor to fuel demand for paid OTT services. According to Google’s annual Mobile Planet smartphone study, conducted with Ipsos MediaCT, the United Arab Emirates has one of the highest smartphone penetration rates in the world, with 62% of mobile phone users owning smartphones, compared to just 44% in the US. The study found that MENA smartphone users are actively using their phones to shop, with 41% of users in Egypt and 39% in the UAE having made a purchase on their smart phones, compared to 35% of Americans. OTT video services are also very popular with the young and

www.csimagazine.com January-February 2013 23 Middle East TV focus

becoming mainstream in Israel, fuelled in part by the nation’s love of Facebook, with residents Middle East Fixed Broadband Market spending more minutes per month on the social networking site than any country in the world, 2010 2011 2012 according to digital business analyst Comscore. “To show how pioneering Israel is, in November, Broadband DSL households (000) 5,301 5,885 6,465 Yes released an augmented reality-based mobile Broadband cable households (000) 752 768 788 app for iOS and Android that adds interactivity and gameplay to their flagship TV series Living in Broadband fiber households (000) 259 482 703

LaLa Land,” says Levi Shapiro, strategy Broadband fixed wireless households (000) 499 630 745 consultant and professor of communications at Media Innovation Lab. He adds that, despite Broadband satellite households (000) 33 37 40 being a very small market with roughly 1.2 million Other broadband households (000) 12 14 12 PayTV homes and only two players (cable Total broadband households (000) 6,859 7,814 8,753 operator, Hot, and satellite operator, YES), technologies tend to be deployed in Israel Broadband households/total households % 17.9% 20.0% 22.1% relatively early compared to the largest global © 2013 SNL Kagan, a division of SNL Financial LC, multi-channel operators. from company data. All rights reserved.

Beware broadcasting restrictions Television piracy is endemic in the Middle East and tackling it will be intrinsic to growing technologies, forcing users of illegal receiving GlobeCast to expand France 24’s HbbTV service subscribers in the region. It is estimated that 58% devices to purchase new devices and legitimate to the Middle East. of people are engaging in illegal downloading and subscriptions if they wish to continue viewing live The project trial will enable satellite TV viewers copying of fresh content. broadcast payTV channels,” said Oregan in the region to use their connected televisions to Illegal satellite STBs that can receive a payTV Networks’ Timergaleyeva. interact with France 24’s linear and non-linear service without a subscription are also widespread Operators planning to enter the region should content, which utilises a combination of and the region has a historic lethargy to taking also be made aware of the broadcasting traditional broadcast delivery and CDNs. The aim action against their import and usage. Cable theft restrictions imposed by most Arabic countries. is to see if HbbTV enhances the quality of users’ is a particular problem in Lebanon and Egypt, What is considered adult content differs greatly viewing experience with a view to combining with TV households in Lebanon paying $123 from country to country and is generally much traditional broadcast delivery with CDNs. million a year to pirate operators. The practice is more strict than in Europe. Limitations are also In the Middle East, as in the rest of the world, so widespread that some people are often not placed on certain political opinions, which leading TV operators are coming to realise that aware they are paying pirates for requires more compliance checks. “Clients we the best strategy to gain subscribers and increase their cable connection. work with often ask a delay to broadcast to enable their revenue is to combine the security of “To stamp out this problem them to switch off the sound or image if managed IPTV with the flexibility and channel owners such as Al Jazeera necessary. Even one complaint from a customer adaptability of OTT delivery. Dubai’s incumbent are now turning to card-pairing to the local regulator can mean a programme has Etisalat, for example, provides both an IPTV to be shut down,” says Visual Unity’s Petru. service for high-end fibre customers and an OTT A smoother path towards popularising pay TV offering for its lower ARPU users. Underpinning and associated OTT services in MENA could this, however, is substantial local investment in come through the widespread use of harmonising related technology and infrastructure, which is technologies such as Hybrid Broadband Broadcast not currently available in all MENA countries. Television (HbbTV). The black market for illegal TV consumption is In September last year, Orange and Arabsat also holding back pay TV’s progress and, agreed to work with France Telecom subsidiary combined with a large young population used to gaining free access to internet video, could enable the standalone OTT model to overtake structured services. The Middle East is a region of many contradictions, but whatever the future brings, the revolution will certainly be televised.

24 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com

Viewpoint Second screen success: the content hierarchy Tom Cape discusses how broadcasters can take the next step to embrace the second screen opportunity on a wider platform level

econd screen companion don’t have such an obvious second screen work. For example, a platform like Virgin TiVo applications provide real engagement opportunity. Potentially though, a could aggregate individual programme apps from strategic value to the TV channel can offer its own ‘Channel’ level app a number of its channels into one cross-channel business, equally as which aggregates content across multiple offering, a ‘portal’ through which the lower-level important for engaging programmes. Alone these programmes may not apps are accessed. It could also then include viewers while a show is on justify an individual app, but in aggregation offer intelligent content discovery, interactive the air as building and a worthwhile experience to the viewer. advertising or remote control features that work maintaining interest when a show is off the air. This can then be aggregated again to a across all the channels. SAs content becomes more internet connected, collection of channels as part of a TV platform This aggregation could easily be achieved second screen companion experiences are emerging app, potentially as a natural extension of an EPG through two possible levels of technical to provide an enhanced, more complete, more app which interacts with the Set-top box (see integration. By simply presenting a frame in the interactive and more engaging TV experience. They Sky+ and Zeebox for examples). However at the platform or channel app that points to the provide better promotional responses, higher brand moment these top-level apps, while having programme app’s content using URLs; or with the and content engagement, increased loyalty and breadth, are lacking any depth of content. provision of the data and images from the more effective harnessing of social media to The most holistic and compelling companion programme app as a feed to the higher-level app promote content. proposition would be a ‘best of both worlds’ (XML-based) which then pulls the content in. There is a natural hierarchy of content in solution which has both the depth of content at One of the biggest challenges with this concept broadcast: Item > Series > Brand > Channel > programme level with the breadth of content at a however is the alignment of standards and the Platform. Each level of this hierarchy, from a platform or multi-channel level. Using the approach across multiple broadcast companies to lower-level programme to high-level TV platform hierarchy described above to create such a make this work. Having been involved in a aggregation provides a unique opportunity for solution sounds like a challenge, but it could number of cross-broadcaster initiates (ie, Project engagement with viewers via companion apps. easily work. Kangaroo) I am all too familiar with the A growing number of broadcasters have already As we’ve seen, programme makers and challenges of this. However, if properly sponsored launched companion apps at programme level to broadcasters have already started investing in the by one or two key lead organisations (think supplement viewers with extra content that is development of individual programme apps so it’s YouView) it is not impossible and the benefits synchronised to what’s occurring on the TV. not a huge stretch for them to expand that for the customer and opportunity to promote Polls, exclusive photos, videos, facts and games proposition and aggregate these into a broader content consumption would certainly make it intend to engage with viewers already using a channel proposition. For example, Channel 4 worth the effort. second screen while watching TV. could create a single companion app that This is obviously a simplistic view of quite a aggregates the content and features from its sophisticated approach and quite a few details Towards an aggregated app programme apps like Million Pound Drop. MTV would need to be worked through both as a Channel 4’s Million Pound Drop, which features has already been ambitious on this front and proposition and technical solution, but it does a compelling content experience that enables launched WatchWith, a companion app that allow for a single solution to work for all with viewers to play along live with the show, apply to supports its entire primetime line-up. minimal duplication of effort and more be a contestant and connect with peers on social Alternatively, a multi-channel app which importantly minimal duplication of cost. media, is a great case study for a lower-level integrates lower-level programme apps into a However you approach it one thing’s for sure, programme app. Most individual shows however broader cross-channel proposition would also the potential for companion apps for all levels of the content hierarchy is enormous and having a big TV screen with interactive capabilities is changing the way people consume content. Item Series Brand Channel Platform

Tom Cape is CEO at Capablue

26 January-Feburary 2013 www.csimagazine.com www.csimagazine.com Gold Sponsors: TV Accessibility conference TV Silver Sponsor: In associationwith Conference review

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Access all areas CSI hosted its first conference on TV accessibility in Carey called for end-to-end solutions in this space, arguing December, which found that despite progress being made in that organisations such as the last few years there is still much work to be done RNIB should not emphasise one aspect of accessibility over another. In spite of V accessibility services, which Age UK, Panasonic, British Sign Language protestations to the contrary, he further argued, include but are not limited to Broadcasting Trust (BSLBT), BskyB, BBC, Virgin “if something is not legislated and/or regulated subtitling, signing and audio Media, EBU, Channel 4, Swiss Txt, World Blind clearly and specifically, nothing happens” description, have historically Union, Digital Accessibility Centre, Sony, DVB although this was called to question and a point threaded a fine line between a and HbbTV, which is being rolled out in millions of much debate over the course of the day. must-have and a nice-to-have. of connected devices across Europe. The event Carey’s message was echoed by Peter Bourton, Increasing pressure from was sponsored by Red Bee Media, Deluxe, Ivona head of content policy at Ofcom, who outlined lobby groups combined with a realisation from the (now owned by Amazon) and Screen Systems. how the regulator was not only moving beyond Tindustry that there is a market opportunity to be quantity and towards quality of access services tapped have combined to drive the agenda to TTS and the EPG issue provision, but also that one of its two main greater prominence. The day started with a keynote from Kevin Carey, priorities this year is helping visually impaired Millions of people just in Europe are affected chair of the technical committee at the World users get more benefit from EPGs. by some form of visual or hearing impairment, Blind Union, who questioned what lessons have In the UK, the amount of access services has making these offerings a strategic priority for been learned in the move to digital television. been addressed and the country is widely regarded broadcasters and other companies in the TV value Carey lamented a missed opportunity with the as the leader in the field. Subtitling is available on chain. One estimate shows that 16 % of the adult UK’s Communications Act of 2003, which didn’t over 70 linear channels, with over 80% of that Europeans have health problems that make the clearly enough specify the accessibility of content subtitled, while audio description is consumption of broadcast programmes difficult electronic programme guides (EPGs), for which available on every platform with standard or impossible. As CSI’s conference discovered he admitted the RNIB as a lobbyist had to take equipment, according to Bourton. At the time of during the day, the fact that certain sections of take a considerable degree of responsibility. the Communications Act barely ten years ago, this community have a sizeable disposable income “There is after all not much point on insisting on subtitling was confined to a few digital channels also makes for a strong business case to embrace audio described programmes if the consumer and audio description was virtually non-existent, these services. can’t locate the channel,” he said. he noted. While some 20% of content is audio Extending these services to new on-demand The schedule for the digital switchover had described on the most popular cannels, which is (VoD and catch-up) and connected platforms is a already been set out by the time the EPG issue above current target levels, the labour intensive key challenge for the industry going forward, one had fully surfaced (the DSO incidentally was nature of providing it means it remains a big that this conference specifically looked to address, completed in the UK last summer). challenge going forward (more on this issue can both in the UK and an international level. Nevertheless, Carey did acknowledge the Act be seen online at www.csimagazine.com/csi/ The one-day event was held in association with as a “landmark in the story of accessible Ofcom-access-services-agenda-shifts-focus.php). the Digital TV Group (DTG) at London’s British television” because it enshrined in law under the In terms of better access for visually impaired Film Institute (BFI) in December, attracting some auspices of Ofcom the right of people with visual viewers, Bourton highlighted promising of the key decision makers and opinion formers in and hearing disabilities to gain access to a defined developments in text-to-speech (TTS) technology, this space, including the likes of Ofcom, quantity of programmes through the additional which was introduced some 30 years ago but still Authority for Television On Demand (ATVOD), services of subtitling, signing and audio leaves room for improvement in quality. The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), description. challenge is now to harness these for the benefit

28 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com Conference review

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of this group, many of who have watched feature on all its TV products going forward, issues seriously, they’ll continue to stay with you television for years before losing some or all of according to Mark Vasey senior manager at the and spend with you,” he said. their vision. company’s IPTV and DTV solution centre. The subject of business models was central to a Bourton said Ofcom wants to encourage more The Talking TVs feature the use of assistive mid-afternoon panel, during which David and better TTS solutions and also wants to see voice that aids with programme description, Padmore, executive team member at Red Bee them integrated into mainstream equipment, navigation, search and discovery, without Media, wanted to debunk a little of the myth that without a mark-up on prices. additional hardware or software (more these services are very costly to produce, noting Accessible devices are often more expensive information is at www.csimagazine.com/csi/ they have come down enormously in price over and, according to the chair of the DTG Panasonic-taking-Talking-TVs-into-Europe.php). the last decade as the volume of has grown. Accessibility Group, the biggest issue it has is Polish solutions provider Ivona also showcased Another important point he made was that working towards a common experience and he the capability of its TTS solution, with broadcasters are beginning to recognise the value- hopes commercial opportunities can be opened if applications ranging from VoD and screen readers add these services provide, beyond pure manufacturers can be persuaded to implement to second screen and even smart ATMs. The accessibility. These include uncovering basic features (an overview of the DTG’s work company, established in 2004, claims to be the programme material within archives for clip-based around access services can be seen on page 32). leader in its local market and has set in sights on programmes, whether it’s for compliance Indeed, Ofcom has started discussions with international expansion with plans to create purposes for example. platform providers, including Virgin Media, Sky ‘Ivona voices’ in multiple languages, including “I am not sure the business model of the and BT Vision, in order to work with them to get those as difficult as Welsh, which it demonstrated understanding of the value that can be derived this technology available in the next generation of at the event. from those access services, I don’t think that is products and services. Ivona has partnered with VoiceBox, which fully understood. The model works but it’s not TTS and associated technologies were developed an app similar to Siri, and worked with really understood,” Padmore pointed out. demonstrated later, with a presentation given by ex-Paralympian Ian Sharpe, who uses its One point that was made by the panel was that Panasonic on its voice guidance TTS system, technology in his proprietary HTML5-based rather than trying to construct complicated designed for the UK market but now being taken Talking TV guide. interventions to force people into action it would internationally. Panasonic first introduced the Significantly, Sharpe argued his solution be more beneficial to figure out incentives for so-called ‘Talking TVs’, which support TTS highlights the difference between usability and compliance. In other words a carrots rather than technology and were designed for the UK market disability and that blind people should be more sticks approach. with input from the RNIB, this Spring inside 30 involved in the design phase of the UIs and not “We have an ageing population and an models of plasma and LCD televisions. The just the testing phase. “We should make EPGs expectation that sight and hearing impairment company now intends to add TTS as a standard with everyone in mind rather than treat will become more commonplace and therefore it’s accessibility as a bolt-on.” just sound business to make sure that you are catering for the needs of that audience,” explained The business case: to regulate or not to David Mortimer, head of digital inclusion, Age regulate? UK. Sharpe also argued there is a lucrative business The other point made by Gareth Ford case to be found in this market, based on an Williams, acting head of usability and accessibility estimated spending power of people with at the BBC, is that the provision of these services disabilities to be in the region of £192 ($250bn). comes down to a sense of trust between PSBs and “There’s a massive commercial opportunity for TV viewers. The corporation is also bound by the those who get it right and even better if you get it BBC Trust to take a holistic approach to business, right first. You’ll get what in marketing terms I he noted. think is called an advantage to capture this It was generally accepted that legislation is market. Disabled people are not used to having tremendously useful, as long as the requirements their issues taken seriously. So if you take their sensible and agreed by all stakeholders.

www.csimagazine.com January-February 2013 29 Conference review

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Towards connected devices lack of a common standard for subtitle files. This challenge, because we’re operating in a framework The wide gulf that exists between linear broadcast lack of standardisation is a particularly big issue of other people’s technology. You do feel like you and connected services is a case in point. that Johnson thinks ATVOD can help improve. are spinning plates continuously when you are UK on-demand co-regulator ATVOD is Although this should resolve some of the trying to support all these different types of working with interests groups and the industry to issues, it’s the lack of “joined up thinking” that’s service on all this different types of platforms,” reduce technical barriers related to rolling out missing here, according to Claude Le Guyader, bemoaned BBC’s Williams. access services onto these platforms in order to business development manager at Deluxe Media. But finding creative solutions between bridge this gap. “It’s not a particular will against providing the hardware, software and services is a must, as ATVOD’s duties require it to “encourage” service, it’s just who is in charge of making sure some of the results that have been borne out of service providers to ensure that their services are it’s available,” she said, noting it has implications partnerships between manufacturers and charities progressively made more accessible to people with for moving those access files from the cinema such as RNIB. disabilities relating to sight and/or hearing, release through DVD, and onto TV and new Ian Sharpe had identified smart TVs, which are although it has no power to compel. To this end, emerging connected devices. increasingly connected to the internet, as a huge it has developed and published best practice Again, how much this can be solved by opportunity that he is excited about, and there is guidelines for subtitling, signing and audio legisaltion on an EU-level was a moot point. On also hope that emerge of so-called second screen description on VoD services. the one hand, Dr Jonathan Hassell, a thought- devices can alleviate the situation, so it is not all Its second annual survey on the provision of leader in Accessibility & Inclusion, at Hassell doom and gloom then. access services on VoD platforms, released in late Inclusion, pointed out that the European These are still quite early days in the November, shed light on the current market state Commission is in fact considering a European consumption of TV beyond the main set and it (see http://www.csimagazine.com/csi/Taking- accessibility act. The details of the act are sketchy, will be very interesting to see what progress has access-services-onto-connected-platforms.php for but it is believed to be quite encompassing, said been made on the connected front in 2013. detailed findings). Hassell, including ICT, devices, and the Web. ATVOD chief executive Pete Johnson On the other, WBU’s Carey noted earlier in the cautioned delegates that provision varies widely day that the largest technology companies CSI would like to thank all our sponsors as without across platforms, a point picked up by Ian operating in the EU currently are either Japanese them the conference would not have been possible. A Mecklenburgh, Virgin Media’s director of or American, making the impact of such follow-up event on this topic will be held towards the consumer platforms, whereby the cable operator regulation arguable. end of the year in London, with exact date and has no control over the catch-up TV environments “Service providers have a really difficult location to be announced. when consumers go into the different catch-up players on its platforms. While encouraging, all this of course points to the scale of the challenge going forward. It is also a source of great frustration to users want to see the same content across platforms but are met with either patchy or non-existent offerings in the over-the-top and wider multi-screen space. One of the biggest problems is that it’s impossible to simply re-use linear programme assets onto new services, while Johnson also identified capacity issues (especially for signed and audio described programmes) as well as a

30 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com Untitled-1 1 10/9/2012 2:33:49 PM Guest column Coming to a TV near you

The DTG is updating the U-Book to encompass accessibility Alongside this, key accessibility features have been requirements for connected TV services and receivers, while specified in the D-Book, the an updated subtitle chapter will be published in early 2013 technical specification for digital terrestrial television, since the first edition was published in 1997. The DTG has successfully identified and documented the best practice for subtitling, audio description and remote controls on the current DTT platform.

Working with ATVOD Over the last few years we have seen the integration of TV services and web-based content and it is essential that, in the development of new types of services, accessibility is not compromised. The Accessibility Group is now monitoring the accessibility of services delivered via connected TV platforms and has established a liaison with ATVOD for this purpose. TV Group (DTG), the industry association for An updated version of the U-Book which will digital TV in the UK, has been committed to contain accessibility requirements for connected ensuring digital TV products and services are TV services and the usability of connected accessible to all since its inception. In support of receivers as well as an updated subtitle chapter the Digital Action Plan, the DTG established a will be published in early 2013. Domestic Systems Group to explore the Membership of the Accessibility Group is open he UK is a leader in digital interconnection of devices and aerial systems. It to all DTG member organisations and currently TV accessibility. UK also discussed and agreed the specification for includes key representatives from manufacturers, broadcasters are required to Text to Speech before it was submitted to Digital broadcasters and charities. If you would like to provide high quality access Europe for international standardisation. participate in the DTG’s work on accessibility services - to date 100% of the Later the group narrowed its focus to look at please contact Hannah Langston hlangston@dtg. BBC’s output on all of its the usability features of digital receivers and org.uk seven main TV channels is subsequently produced the U-Book: the usability subtitled with ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 guideline document for television accessibility in Tproviding subtitles for all programmes on their 2011, which is publicly available via the DTG main channels, and all UK public service website. Further refocusing then took place and broadcasters have audio description available on at the group morphed into the Accessibility Group least 20% of programmes. The UK also has a high tasked with adding accessibility guidelines such as number of accessible TV devices such as the subtitle creation and display, audio description ‘talking’ televisions, set-top boxes and recorders and text-to-speech conversion, to the U-Book. from manufacturers such as Panasonic and The usability guidelines are intended to TVonics and developed in partnership with the assist receiver manufacturers and detail issues RNIB charity, and Freeview recorders from that could potentially affect the usability of a Humax and Panasonic which can record subtitles product (eg remote control design, packaging, on programmes. user manuals), whereas the accessibility guidelines Simon Gauntlett is technology Usability has been a critical feature of UK are of more interest to service providers. The director at the DTG, the industry digital television since its launch in the early group also has a mandate to increase the association for DTV in the UK. 1990s at which time the Government published a awareness of accessibility issues in TV services This is the latest in a line of regular guest columns to Digital Action Plan which included clarification through the dissemination of information to those provide CSI readers with updates on the to be provided around the use of digital TV involved in the creation of content, its broadcast DTG’s initiatives and activities. products in the home environment. The Digital and reception.

32 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com Cable gateways Source code

Comcast’s Reference Design Kit (RDK) promises to breathe according to Charles new life into cable by making it more nimble and flexible, Cheevers, chief technical officer for CPE products and particularly with the evolution towards more advanced STB services at Arris, another gateways, discovers Goran Nastic licensee that has added the RDK platform to some of its easoned observers of the the distribution and update services to maintain CPE solutions. cable industry will be the generic main line release of the RDK and to “It conceptually allows, for example, a single aware of the pedestrian help bring on new licensees, which are OEMs, DLNA implementation for all cable products, pace at which things SoC makers and service providers. It allows for which would then put the onus on the CE move. As the rest of the innovation in the code base, particularly in the companies to do interoperability with the cable world keenly looks to application space where it can allow most focus of devices, not the current way – where each cable adopt HEVC for, initially, time and resources on application development device has to go through interop with all the CE over-the-top services, there are still huge islands of and less time on the basic platform elements. To devices,” says Cheevers. Scable equipment that are yet to even transition this end, the company has built up quite an Moreover, he adds, it also allows cable to beyond MPEG-2 to MPEG-4. The convergence of impressive list of licensees (see table on page 35) leverage wider technology groups such as W3C to sectors, services and media – and more and the number is growing at a steady pace. This push for support of functions that work better in specifically of TV and internet - has thrown should reduce the cost per device and increasing the STB/TV environment and that get the cable’s more conservative tendencies into sharper price competition too. HTML5 world aware of the requirement to have focus, especially when compared to the fast support for cable solutions and security systems. moving and dynamic CE world. The message here from Comcast and the So Comcast thought it would do something “There will be industry at large is that STBs are here to stay, about it. The largest cable operator in the US, and albeit turning into advanced home gateways or one the most progressive cable companies in the operators who don’t media servers, capable of supporting thin clients, world, decided to release a Reference tablets and other screens in the home for IP Development Kit (RDK), which provides a single have experience video. The RDK itself facilitates this architecture software platform that shortens development with headed and headless versions of RDK cycles and creates economies of scale for cable defining products so gateway code, as well as IP STB player code. A CPE. The RDK is essentially a pre-integrated further realisation is that, as cable moves to software bundle that creates a common closely that they end IP-based gateways, these devices will have to be framework for powering IP or hybrid set-top boxes refreshed more frequently than traditional STBs. and gateway devices. The objective is to have a up putting together collaborative, open source-like initiative in the Component levels cable space, much as is found with the Android RDKs that look more RDK in itself is not a complete solution, but community on the handset side. rather a distribution of many platform elements Underpinning it is a growing acceptance that, like glorified RFPs.” that allow for rapid application development. At much as with the mobile industry itself (and last year’s The Cable Show in Boston, Comcast’s incidentally smart TVs), it is no longer about the “By having the industry collaborate in an open Steve Reynolds, senior VP of CPE and home device itself. Innovation is becoming increasingly source-like way for lower and middle layers of the networking, summarised the thinking behind it. software-based while a hardware-centric view of software stack in the long run should free up “The typical set-top box development cycle was the world is seen as outdated. Comcast saw the more cycles for all of us to focus on higher taking about 24 months when we launched this benefits of other vendors and operators adding to software layer, value-added features, services and project, and that’s just a long time to go through the RDK code base community going forward, distributed applications as the connected home the whole process of building the box, building the idea being that with PVRs becoming a evolves,” says Pascal Portelli, SVP at Technicolor the software, and getting everything up and commodity it makes more sense to compete on a Connected Home, an RDK licensee. running. So we had this notion of building a service rather than platform level. It’s a huge amount of open source code – tens reference design for software that would bring all Additionally, major roadmap additions can be of millions – but with a smaller subset of it the of the modules together in a pre-integrated kit, developed by the contributors to the code base. focus of the RDK and the incremental where we could take that kit and work directly Because of this, Comcast is currently providing all applications and services for cable solutions, with the SoC manufacturers to get the RDK up

www.csimagazine.com January-February 2013 33 Cable gateways

and running on those chip platforms before they standards. In terms of standardisation, it is CTO Balan Nair to a gathering of press and even started building the box around that chip,” expected that Cable Labs will take up certain analysts at Horizon’s official unveiling at IBC last said Reynolds. components and look after those going forward. year. Horizon has since attracted 100,000 Comcast thinks that the RDK will help reduce EuroCableLabs likewise is known to be following subscribers in The Netherlands and 20,000 since cable’s two-year STB cycles to around 12 months developments and sees the benefits in promoting it launched in Switzerland in January, with and perhaps even shorter. the RDK to its operator community members for Germany and other markets to follow, and Liberty In short, the driver is to innovate, develop, and cross-pollination, although the group did not sees it as a key weapon for winning and retaining deploy much faster that what has historically been respond to CSI’s questions in time for this feature. customers, as well as coverting analogue ones to possible with proprietary software stacks. In the According to Cheevers, there are specific digital TV. past, development, bug triage, and bug fixing has requirements that a European operator needs to Indeed, Virgin Media, soon to be taken over by proven difficult and slow, as everyone holds on to be able to support including DVB-SI or a Liberty, issued its own rallying cry back in 2009, their software in a closed way, impeding progress replacement solution, teletext, picture-in-picture, when it warned that cable has to get its act between engineers in different locations from as well as support for application level together. “We’re colliding with CE. We need different companies, with one engineer not able to functionality such as the integration of CI+ scale,” said Kevin Baughan, at the time the see the same source code as another engineer, solutions and HbbTV will have to be integrated cablenet’s director of technical strategy. according to Technicolor’s Portelli. into European products based on RDK. “A common approach is needed with quality “Technicolor applauds Comcast for starting the “As with all shared source initiatives it makes and robustness of the device, but with flexibility RDK initiative. It is bold, it is ambitious. We can more sense for some of these features to be on top. The creative industry needs to be able to only perceive this as a necessary and interesting developed once and added to a generic Euro let rip with the technology. We should also be part of what has today become an inefficient way release to be leveraged by all European operators able to use common APIs using GEM as a basis. to make our products,” he says. and vendors supplying solutions,” says Cheevers. If we end up with five different designs of how to The RDK stack includes the CableLabs Global gateways use this then no-one succeeds because the market reference implementation for tru2way middleware. While the OCAP and Tru2way initiatives in North fragments so we have to find ways of working It also supports optional, proprietary elements, America may not have reached critical mass, the together,” he said, in what is very much a including Adobe’s Flash engine and the Microsoft feeling is that RDK already has the backing of a prophetic echo of the logic behind the RDK. PlayReady DRM. Open-source components of the large enough ecosystem for it to succeed. Virgin now uses the TiVo platform (so do RDK include GStreamer, QT and WebKit, which Operators around the world are said to be Spain’s Ono and Com Hem in Sweden), leading are execution environments that can be tailored to showing an interest in deploying RDK-based to questions what the future holds for its product each MSO. The point is that the RDK has the products, with the first rollouts expected by the partner once it becomes part of Liberty. As with ability to support multiple execution end of this year, or early 2014. For its part, the offerings on show at CES this year by environments, which allow cable operators Comcast has rolled out the RDK-based X1 Comcast, Dish and Verizon, the Horizon box, develop their own guides and specific platform in seven markets as of February and made by Samsung and based on a modified applications, including UI experiences based on plans to deploy the boxes, initially the Pace version of the Snowflake UI from NDS (now open technologies like HTML5 and Javascript. manufactured XG1 HD-DVR, to the majority of owned by Cisco), features six-tuners while TiVo Operators thus have freedom to experiment with its footprint this year. was once famously described by Liberty new product offerings and can use their own web Interestingly, Liberty Global, which recently executives as a ‘quarter step’ towards STB media developer resources to create and deploy features launched its own Horizon TV gateway platform, is servers. But perhaps of greater significance is the more rapidly. an early licensee. As with other MSOs on board it strategic priority that cable operators are finally Arris’s Cheevers notes there is presently a lot remains to be seen what plans the world’s largest placing on gateway devices as the enabler for of activity around evaluating the RDK for delivery cable operator has in mind, but Liberty knows controlling the digital connected home. of new services, one of the key areas being the better than most the pain and expense (the costs introduction of HTML5 user experience using the involved an eight-figure dollar sum) it takes to A new MSO-vendor dynamic RDK distribution to support the frameworks launch a complex gateway, having suffered At a high level, the RDK could also turn into a required for HTML5 applications. multiple delays since the project was first cable CPE equivalent of the converged multi- This makes the RDK is as relevant to operators publically announced in March 2010 at the Cable service access platform (CMAP) – a Comcast-led worldwide and not bound to any North American Congress conference. initiative that removes silos on the headend side - “In hindsight, I am so glad neither I nor because the operator is taking a leading role in The Pace made Comcast xfinity box NDS knew how hard it was going to be defining what its networks should look like. because we probably wouldn’t have started As Infonetics Research analyst Jeff Heynen the project. It’s sometimes better to not notes, in the past cable operators would let know, take the plunge and then go on the CableLabs define the products and run the journey, which has been an emotional roller standardisation and testing efforts. Now, it is the coaster for a number of us,” said Liberty MSOs themselves that are defining the products,

34 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com Cable gateways

test particular or integrated components,” he says. As with all shared source initiatives, the feeling is the RDK will succeed or fail by its adoption. The challenge will be to prevent ‘forking’ which fragments the energy behind the initiative, with people and companies going in different directions, notes Technicolor’s Portelli. “Care has to be taken on this because there are thousands of details in each of our network service providers’ systems that make each one like a fingerprint – unique; keeping the industry moving in a way where our individual energies are feeding the collective whole will be delicate, but there certainly is a path to success,” he says. Whether the middleware business changes as a result and pure middleware solutions potentially Source: Comcast Cable shift to be RDK based or RDK leveraged solutions remains to be seen, as does how MSOs which are then standardised by CableLabs (and more than likely take an RDK-based solution as a will go about embracing its various components. EuroCableLabs). turnkey solution and won’t have the same The early signs are promising and, at the very “I think we’ll continue to see operators being resources to invest in changing or adding to the least, Comcast is committed to the initiative and more assertive and public about defining the solution themselves. will make it work for its requirements. equipment they want in their networks. At the The RDK has visibly generated a great deal of end of the day, it’s about cost reduction and Test and integration work positive attention and it will be interesting to supply-chain management,” says Heynen. RDK is consequently fostering some new players track how its future evolution and timeline So it’s no surprise that European are following in the market offering services to integrate and compare to that of CMAP on the network side. what Comcast is doing with respect to the RDK test RDK solutions, as well as offer control plane Used together in the right way they are capable of and CMAP, as both solve similar issues faced by solutions for RDK-based CPE devices. keeping cable competitive in a new era where IP – European cable operators. It’s a very different One company positioning itself as a and all that entails - is the name of the game. approach to developing video and converged consultancy and systems integrator in the RDK Table: Some known RDK licensees solutions for the home, where the MSO in many space is Ireland-based S3 Group, which became a cases is a co-development partner rather than just licensee in May 2012 on the back of much the end customer. But Heynen sounds a note of interest from its operator customers who want to Entropic caution in some operators going down this route. migrate towards next-generation STBs. Broadcom “There will be operators who don’t have “There is momentum behind but nothing is Charter Communications experience defining products so closely that they easy in life. It all sounds great but then not end up putting together RDKs that look more like everybody has the exact same requirements, and Time Warner Cable glorified RFPs. Historically, operators have relied that’s where the challenges of test and integration Liberty Global on vendors providing some idea of what their come in,” says Philip Brennan, VP of S3 Group’s Rogers Communications capabilities are. With an RDK, the operator is TV technology business. Pace defining everything,” points out Heynen. Regarding migration, operators need to decide That sort of symbiotic relationship from the how much of their logic will be cloud-based, as Cisco past changes, which could lead to operators’ the application layer will likely interact with the Evolution Digital timelines actually getting longer rather than head-end much more than the current generation Intel shorter, warns Heynen. of STBs, according to Brennan. Humax Cheevers at Arris thinks a scenario will emerge S3 Group is also working directly with where larger MSOs potentially do some Comcast on improving or increasing the test Arris/Motorola development themselves or fund the development coverage of the RDK, because as the initiative ADB of specific components or features. They may also broadens in scope there is a need for new Technicolor contract a separate integration test and documentation and new specifications that the Huawei certification company to validate the development Irish software house is helping with. “The idea is Think Analytics work done by the prime hardware and RDK that as it is pushed out, there will be test software vendor. He thinks smaller operators will frameworks that will become part of it, so you can S3 Group

www.csimagazine.com January-February 2013 35 DVB-NGH Will MNOs come to the party?

The new DVB-NGH standard stands a better chance networks, and point-to-point connections, to broadcast of success than its predecessor, DVB-H, as it has the overlay networks is one of the support of broadcasters and content providers. But the most promising scenarios,” he says. real question is whether a separate broadcast network is NGH is based on the DVB- really required and how mobile operators will perceive it, T2 terrestrial specification. T2 has enabled a time division says Adrian Pennington multiplex (TDM) that allows for the provision of different he DVB completed its Next for live programming, and how easy it will be to types of transmission frames on the same RF Generation Handheld get chipsets into the devices,” he says. channel. On that basis T2 and NGH frames can specification in late October, Barry Flynn, principal consultant at be transmitted together for addressing different bringing in advanced Farncombe thinks the case for DVB-NGH still receiver types. This flexibility, says the DVB, is modulation and coding needs to be proven – and to a large extent one of the main advantages of the new terrestrial technologies designed to depends on whether the mobile operators can be DVB standards. future proof broadcast to persuaded to play ball. The standard incorporates technologies to handheld and mobile devices. The rationale for DVB-NGH, according to boost data rates and improve resilience against TThe standards body will be hoping for success the DVB’s executive director, Peter Siebert, transmission errors, including Time Frequency this time around after the failure of most first was to ‘provide the most robust and spectrum Slicing (TFS), with a single tuner, non-uniform generation efforts, including its own DVB-H efficient mobile broadcast standard by adopting constellations, improved error-correcting LDPC (handheld) standard, introduced in 2004. state-of-the-art technology.’ Robustness and codes, more efficient time interleaving and Kay Johansson, CTO at IPTV solutions spectral efficiency were identified as necessary individual robustness of the service components provider MobiTV, suggests that DVB-NGH has preconditions for it to work. (eg video and audio) also enabling the application a much higher probability of success than its In addition, says Siebert, a good business case of Scalable Video Coding (SVC) and Multiview predecessor, because it has the backing of both and market players willing to invest in such a Video Coding. broadcasters and content providers. “However, it technology are required. is hard to say what the impact on the market will “The offload of content be. We will have to wait on user consumption to of mass demand from ascertain whether DVB-NGH will only be used mobile communication

DVB assumes that together with LTE for unicast and WiFi for indoor, NGH will be the best technology for feeding these mobile devices with the most popular content.

36 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com DVB-NGH

Table 1: NGH TV service definition

Full service Terrestrial broadcast Access Reception conditions (in Typical Service bit (terminal) Max. Receiver Screen dimension Receiver Antenna/Power source categories the service area) rate Speed

SDTV 4 to 1 Mbps Wireless, Embedded antenna with external Portable access Indoor and Outdoor 0 to 15 km/h Portable set 5 to 19 inch (HDTV possible) power source with internal backup

Telco Handset 2,5 to 5 Wireless, Embedded antenna with internal Slow mobile access Indoor and Outdoor 0 to 15 km/h Mobile TV inch power source ( Battery)

Telco Handset 2,5 to 5 Wireless, Embedded antenna with internal In-vehicle Mobile TV inch power source ( Battery)

Mobile vehicular access 15 to 350 km/h

Vehicle mounted antenna with power from Outdoor Mobile TV Fixed/Portable 5 to 19 inch vehicle battery

The LDPC codes enable a message to be sent a lot of capacity for multiple high-quality demand TV and pushing downloads to local over a noisy transmission channel. However, it has video channels.” memory, and is trying to create a standard so yet to be fully adopted by broadcasters and there For MobiTV’s Johansson, MIMO is also a very that content providers do not have to rely on are traditional error correction solutions that can important improvement in DVB-NGH to enhance live broadcasting all of the time. be just as efficient. the efficiency and flexibility of the spectrum: “By “Over the last few years we have seen a TFS allows multiple users with different increasing the number of antennas that can significant growth of tablet and smart phone speed requirements access to a communications improve receiving and transmitting on devices it populations,” explains DVB’s Siebert. “These resource in a manner that is cost effective over a increases data throughput without requiring devices are equipped with high resolutions wide range of access speeds (it compensates for additional bandwidth. displays which are well suited for TV signals.” different local field strength variations of the two “As LTE is deployed across Europe, IP-based The DVB assumes that together with LTE to six RF channels in use). technologies will play an important role in the for unicast and WiFi for indoor, NGH will be According to Johansson, “It enables you development of DVB-NGH,” he adds. “MIMO the best technology for feeding these mobile to split up the spectrum and optimise system and basic wireless technologies will help to devices with the most popular content. utilisation, offering increased frequency diversity support mobile devices and basic mobile “Broadcast brings limited content to an and robustness.” reception and MIMO will also help with the unlimited audience, mobile communication Another element of gain in NGH are flexibility of the service.” unlimited content to a limited number of users,” the non-uniform 64-QAM and 256-QAM says Siebert. “So these two systems [LTE and constellations, which are also not leading to Designed for mobile DVB-NGH] are perfectly complementary.” higher receiver complexity. DVB-H was launched to provide linear broadcast The DVB suggests that NGH is better suited services such as TV and radio for handheld to broadcast than 4G/LTE because of its larger A MIMO first devices, but since then significant changes have FFT sizes and ‘state-of-the-art error control However the main reason for gain, and the taken place in the delivery and consumption of coding’. In addition, it says, significantly longer technology attracting most interest from other multimedia content. guard intervals allows for larger SFN cells, which regional and terrestrial broadcast groups, is The DVB has consequently tried to address allow for more efficient use of the spectrum. MIMO (multiple input multiple output). The and cater to mobile use cases, including on “DVB-NGH provides higher spectrum wireless technology uses multiple transmitters efficiency and robustness [over LTE],” says and receivers, essentially to widen the broadcast Siebert, noting that one can adjust the parameter ‘pipe’, allowing more data to flow through at “As LTE is deployed settings more in one or the other direction. “DVB- a time. NGH is targeted at operators who only want to According to Flynn, “MIMO is probably the across Europe, offer mobile services – rather than broadcasters most significant technology introduced – it is in who want to offer mobile broadcasts as an fact the first time a digital TV broadcast standard IP-based technologies additional service.” has deployed it. The use of multiple transmit and In the latter instance, T2-Lite or a mobile- receive aerials considerably increases throughput, will play an important configured DVB-T2 PLP would be used. The which will be further enhanced by the use of the standards body also believes mobile operators new HEVC video coding standard. That allows role in the develop­ with congested LTE/4G networks will require a you to allocate quite a lot of the bandwidth to broadcast profile to relieve network congestion, ensuring signal robustness, while still delivering ment of DVB-NGH.” and that DVB-NGH provides a better solution

www.csimagazine.com January-February 2013 37 DVB-NGH than LTE’s broadcast modes. successful for VoD delivery,” Johansson observes. “The new standard’s future success will There is another agenda too behind DVB- depend on whether this scenario actually comes NGH, which is to reach out to the other digital “We will have to wait to pass,” observes Flynn. “As well as on whether terrestrial groups notably the ATSC. It has begun on user consumption subscribers are actually prepared to pay (enough) work on its own third-generation specifications for mobile broadcast services.” ATSC 3.0, which will likely take support fixed to ascertain whether According to Johansson, mobile operators reception as well as mobile use cases. realise that multicast and broadcast can provide “The current ATSC standard already includes DVB-NGH will only a more efficient way to deliver content, “as broadcast to mobile devices such as mobile streaming media on a unicast connection can phones and tablets, and this will be an important be used for live often incur high bandwidth costs. aspect of any new system,” states Jim Kutzner, “With the development of LTE and IPv6, the lead of the Next Generation Broadcast Television programming, and real question is if a separate broadcast network is planning team at the ATSC. really required. The multicast or broadcast So would it be advantageous if DVB NGH how easy it will be to approach is definitely the right method when it and ATSC 3.0 were aligned? “There would be comes to delivering popular live or linear economies of scale if ATSC 3.0 is aligned with get chipsets into the channels. NGH/T2 to allow for commons chipsets,” notes “4G/LTE’s enhanced Multimedia Broadcast Siebert. “We believe that the DVB technologies devices.” Multicast Service (eMBMS) has much shorter mark the reference point for terrestrial intervals and targeted coverage but can be turned broadcasting standards. In so far alignment the first quarter of 2013 it is too early to state on and off and used for other bi-lateral services,” seems likely.” when commercial devices may become available he says. “On the other hand, DVB-NGH is always According to Johansson however, the only logic but the DVB points out that “the advanced on and has much larger intervals and coverage. to align these services would be to lower costs for technologies which comprise NGH will play a Both have their own benefits, so it really is down equipment manufacturing. “There is no reason for role also in conjunction with development of to how it will be used. the US to switch to DVB-NGH, as ATSC MH has further terrestrial standards in other parts of “For large data content, the diversity and the already been deployed.” the world.” usage patterns of when and where it’s watched, Europe is the main opportunity for DVB-NGH and the way content is consumed today, makes Likely timeline and it will be the first market to deploy the it difficult to apply these technologies and be As the standard will be submitted to ETSI within technology. This is because the US and Korea already have their own standards in place for the transmission of digital television for handhelds. However, general progression of DVB-NGH is still probably a couple of years from now. “We have to realise that eMBMS is driven Channel capasity from BBC MIMO 2 x 2 model 14 by the mobile industry – who control and build the mobile devices,” says Johansson. “It will MIMO 12 SIMO be difficult to get DVB-NGH into these devices SISO unless it benefits the mobile industry in any way.

10 Broadcasters are essentially trying to put a broadcast technology into a device and a market

8 segment that they cannot control. Technology is changing dramatically as many technology providers start to go over the top.” 6

The figure opposite illustrates the MIMO 4 advantage especially for higher SNRs. The DVB explains: You can derive the gain by comparing the Ergodic capacity bit/sec/Hz 2 SISO/SIMO curves with the MIMO curve for a particular spectral efficiency. Note that MIMO is 0 part of the NGH terrestrial and hybrid MIMO 0 5 10 1 5 20 2 5 profiles, but not of the base (terrestrial) profile, ie its implementation is not mandatory when adopting NGH. MIMO comes with higher receiver complexity.

38 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com Keep ahead in this

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2013 DVB-NGH: Comment The long and winding road

Barry Flynn traces the chequered past of DVB’s NGH smartphone or tablet. It might have been expected standard and asks if it – like DVB-H – is doomed to fail that T2-Lite’s arrival would put paid to any further talk of n 31 October 2012, the This shadow hung over DVB-H2 for several a separate second-generation mobile broadcast DVB announced that it years. The commercial requirements for DVB-T2 standard. But at IBC 2012, the new DVB-NGH had approved its new appeared to favour the UK position when they standard featured prominently on DVB’s agenda, standard for handheld appeared in April 2007, stating that the initial and as expected it was approved at the end of devices, DVB-NGH. purpose of the standard was “to facilitate the October – nearly seven years after it had first Based on the second- successful launch of new terrestrial HDTV been mooted. generation terrestrial services”. But the requirements still went on to standard DVB-T2, it contains a number of specify that DVB-T2 should be able to support What’s in the DVB-NGH standard? Oinnovative improvements and extensions designed portable and mobile broadcast modes. Much of the history laid out in the previous to facilitate the reception of broadcast content on Thus, at IBC in September 2009, the newly- section finds echoes in the content of the DVB- mobile and portable devices over the next decade. appointed executive director of the DVB Project NGH specification. For a start, it is based on It has been said that in order to understand the Office, Peter Siebert, still thought it possible that DVB-T2 and heavily overlaps with it in technical future, you first need to understand the past, and “maybe [DVB-NGH] is only DVB-T2. The terms. It has a hybrid profile according to which DVB-NGH’s history within DVB has been a long elements of DVB-T2 are a good candidate.” terrestrial and satellite transmission schemes can and chequered one. It first emerged in 2006, The delay in nailing this issue down was be combined (as in DVB-SH); and it also contains when Prof. Ulrich Reimers, who has recently exacerbated by the emergence of a hybrid satellite some of the extra forward-error correction retired as chairman of the DVB Technical version of DVB-H (DVB-SH), which temporarily techniques T2-Lite deploys to enable additional Module, gave a presentation about the existing diverted DVB’s standards-setting process. The robustness. mobile standard DVB-H, where he revealed that dramas afflicting DVB-SH – which involved At IBC 2012, Siebert highlighted a number of “a study mission on a possible DVB-H2 system is everything from disputed frequency allocations to features that differentiate DVB-NGH clearly from due to be started in 2007”. the launch of a crippled satellite – merit a its predecessors. He emphasised its use of MIMO However, the timetable for the creation of a separate article in their own right. Suffice it to say (Multiple Input Multiple Output), noting that next-generation version of DVB’s mobile that DVB-SH never really took off. NGH was the first broadcast standard in the broadcast standard was almost immediately This might have cleared the way for a renewed world to deploy the technology. MIMO makes use derailed by two developments: first, DVB had push on DVB-NGH, but that didn’t happen – at of multiple antennas at both the transmitter and already begun work on an upgrade to DVB-T least not immediately. Instead, in July 2011, a receiver end to improve throughput, and was (known today as DVB-T2). Second, DVB had also new version of the DVB-T2 specification was considered but eventually rejected for DVB-T2 agreed to back Alcatel’s plans to develop a hybrid published, which added a new profile “intended because it would have been incompatible with satellite version of DVB-H (known as DVB-SH). to allow simpler receiver implementations for very existing fixed rooftop aerial installations The issue with DVB-T2, as Reimers himself low capacity applications such as mobile (obviously, this is not a concern in portable or explained to me at the time, was that at the broadcasting.” mobile devices). outset, no-one could be quite sure what kind of This was dubbed T2-Lite, with the previous In separate comments, Phil Laven, the DVB standard it would become: at one extreme (which fixed DVB-T2 profile now renamed ‘T2-base’. Steering Board Chairman, indicated DVB-NGH UK DVB members were pushing for) it might be T2-Lite is limited to a maximum bit-rate of would use the new coding standard HEVC, an HD-centric broadcast standard; at the other 4Mbps, whereas the full HD-centric T2-base which would further enhance throughput. (which the German membership favoured) it profile runs up to 48Mbps (in the UK, DVB-T2 At IBC, Ericsson claimed that lab results could emerge as focussed on mobile. If the latter uses around 40MBps for DTT HD). T2-Lite suggested HEVC could deliver 40-50% and more turned out to be the case, then the implication I also avoids processing- and memory-heavy in bandwidth savings over current industry took from our conversation was that DVB-H2 modes, allowing more efficient receiver designs video-coding norms such as H.264. might be redundant. to be used, eg for a DVB-T2 tuner in a NGH would also allow video and audio components to be individually allocated their own robustness levels, noted Siebert. This would mean that if the video component was temporarily lost due to interference while on the move, the audio information might still be retained.

40 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com DVB-NGH: Comment

Other notable features DVB-NGH includes At IBC in September 2011, I had asked Laven However, for mobile operators, the broadcast are: why he thought T2-Lite would succeed where modes available within the new LTE/4G standard • A silicon footprint nearly half that of DVB- DVB-H (and DVB-SH) had failed. Laven made were not able to match what their DVB T2, made possible largely by memory two points. First, mobile operators would be equivalents could offer. “NGH could slot in to savings (for instance, time interleaving has facing a serious problem with network congestion [fill] the LTE gap,” he suggested. been enhanced in such a way that NGH if video consumption on mobile devices continued Interestingly, both sets of comments suggest demodulators require only half of the to increase at current rates. Second, the new that DVB’s thinking about mobile broadcasting is de-interleaving memory that T2 needs). stripped-down, rugged T2-Lite profile allowed the shifting. DVB-NGH is there, in part, to help • The ability to insert local services into technology to be easily tested in the marketplace, mobile operators deal with a network congestion large-area Single Frequency Networks because it could be integrated into a DVB-T2 issue caused by the explosion of video usage on (SFNs) – SFNs are likely to be adopted for multiplex without the need to build a dedicated handheld devices, just as T2-Lite is. It’s not really NGH instead of Multiple Frequency network. This had been demonstrated to be about broadcasters’ needs. Networks, since they facilitate uninterrupted technically possible and therefore potentially We have in fact, returned to the hybrid model broadcast reception when moving from cell made T2-Lite’s use much more cost-effective than originally postulated for DVB-H, where a to cell. DVB-H – if only in terms of lowering the initial handheld device would incorporate both a DVB-H • A wide array of other techniques which entry bar. and a 3G tuner. This time, though, it would be improve coding rates and signal robustness This year, with the launch of DVB-NGH a mobile operator’s 4G/LTE handheld device compared to DVB-T2. looming, I asked Siebert why DVB felt the need integrating a terrestrial tuner rather than the other for two new mobile broadcast standards. way around: the mobile operators being seen as T2-Lite and the business case for mobile Siebert made an interesting distinction: DVB- the prime movers rather than the broadcasters. broadcast NGH (a temporary name, he hoped) was “the For a body with the word ‘broadcasting’ in its Based on early industry optimism about mobile solution for a person [ie an operator] who only title, this represents something of a departure. broadcasting, in 2005 Informa put out a forecast wants to do mobile”. T2-Lite, on the other hand, Moreover, if the model is to work, it does rather that predicted the global number of DVB-H users was targeted at broadcasters already using or depend on the materialisation of the perceived would be around 75 million by 2010. As we know, committed to DVB-T2, but who also wanted to mobile network congestion issue. Unless that this is not what happened… provide a mobile broadcast service on their happens, the mobile sector is unlikely to come Everyone now accepts that DVB-H – despite existing networks. knocking at DVB-NGH’s door. support from the European Commission – has Siebert went on to differentiate between two failed. The reasons for this are complex, and use-cases for mobile TV: one where unicast video Barry was a consultant at Farncombe. He is now revolve around a number of factors, including – such as YouTube – was involved, where a director of Barry Flynn Communications. spectrum scarcity, the expense of building cellular model was optimal; and one where many dedicated mobile broadcast transmitter networks, viewers want to consume video at the same time the lack of DVB-H handsets, and – last but not (eg the Olympics, football games, etc), where a least – consumers’ unwillingness to pay a high broadcast model was required. enough price to receive the same terrestrial broadcasts on mobile devices that they had previously received for free on their living room TV displays. DVB-SH represented an attempt to address at least one of these issues, namely the cost of building a dedicated transmitter network in every DVB-H territory. A single S-Band satellite could deliver pan-European mobile broadcast coverage, and local retransmissions using the terrestrial component could piggy-back on existing 3G networks. But that attempt – even though based on an improved business model – has now arguably collapsed, too. Yet the historical timeline I have detailed here shows a DVB undaunted by such failures. DVB- SH was succeeded by T2-Lite, and T2-Lite has now been followed by DVB-NGH. Are they, too, doomed like their predecessors?

www.csimagazine.com January-February 2013 41 Appointments Ins and outs

Welcome to the first in a series that will track executive changes taking place in the industry. This page will be updated every issue

Christian Brent, FIC Scott Pranger, RGB Fox International Channels (FIC) has named Multi-screen solutions provider RGB Networks Christian Brent as VP of research & strategy for has hired Scott Pranger as VP of global channels. Europe. Based in London, he will head the research Pranger is in charge of sales growth of the company’s team and all resources across Europe as well as TV Everywhere solutions globally by strengthening its working closely with local offices on their audience, relationships with the largest resellers and systems affiliate and advertiser strategies. Brent comes from integrators serving the global cable and telecoms BBC Worldwide Channels, where he was VP of strategy & audiences markets. He comes to RGB from Envivio, where he was VP of global for seven years. Prior to that, he worked at O2 and Walt Disney, channels and led partnerships with key systems integrators and where he spearheaded the channel’s launch in Latin America. technology partners worldwide.

Dennis Guiry, Civolution Gupta, Videoplaza Civolution has appointed ex-General Electric, Videoplaza, a London-based global sell-side ad Microsoft and Technicolor executive Dennis P management platform for video, has named Rags Guiry as senior VP of worldwide sales to lead the Gupta, part of the founding executive team of cloud growth of the company’s global sales. Based in content services provider Brightcove, as chief Civolution’s New York office, Guiry will also commercial officer, to support the company’s growth strengthen the Dutch provider’s presence in North and product development plans. In two further America. Prior to joining Civolution, Guiry managed Technicolor’s appointments, Maria Flores Portillo, formerly a Google executive, has North American sales division. Prior to that, he was a regional assumed the role of VP of new business, while Jonas Flodh has director and client director at Microsoft. become VP, product.

Timothy Morse, Adap.tv Tim Thorstein, Grass Valley Programmatic video advertising company Adap.tv Tim Thorsteinson has become Grass Valley’s new has appointed Timothy R Morse to the newly president and CEO, to lead the company through created position of chief financial officer. Morse joins the next phase of its evolution. Thorsteinson has held from Yahoo!, where he held the executive vice president numerous senior roles in the broadcast technology and CFO positions from June 2009 to October 2012. industry, including president of the Broadcast Prior to Yahoo!, Morse was the CFO of Altera Communications division of Harris. Most recently, he Corporation (and GE Plastics, a unit of General Electric. As CFO of was president and CEO of Enablence Technologies. Alain Andreoli, Adap.tv, Morse will be globally responsible for finance, M&A and who led the acquisition and separation of Grass Valley from human resources. Technicolor, will leave the business at the end of January.

George Kajos, SeaChange Rikard Steiber, MTG SeaChange International has appointed video and Entertainment broadcaster Modern Times Group software engineering veteran George Kajos as has appointed Rikard Steiber to the new role of general manager for its Platform business unit. Kajos executive VP and chief digital officer with effect from 4 will head the product development organisation that February. Steiber joins MTG from Google, where he produces the Adrenalin video platform, the Nitro has worked for six years and most recently as global subscriber experience and other multi-screen software marketing director for Google’s Mobile & Social products. He comes from Motorola, where he was director of Advertising business. The company has also appointed Richard Beeston engineering for video-on-demand products, and will report to CEO as VP of Finance from 11 March and promoted Matthew Hooper to Raghu Rau. the new role of executive VP of group corporate communications.

42 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com D-GSMMWC121087 CLFBPM 204x271-12.ai 1 12年11月9日 下午4:19

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Untitled-1 1 11/13/2012 12:15:23 PM 1004RMG02-12 CSI Awards 2013

Now open for entries! Categories open for entries: Deadline: 15 May 2013

There are 18 coveted Awards up for grabs this year and remember you are welcome to enter multiple categories.

1. Best outside broadcast or playout technology 9. Best content-on-demand solution or service 10. Best interactive TV technology or application 2. Best digital video processing technology 11. Best IPTV technology or service 3. Best cable or fibre contribution/distribution/ transmission solution 12. Best mobile TV technology or service

4. Best satellite contribution/distribution/transmission 13. Best HDTV technology or project solution CSI is delighted to announce that our 11th annual or project’ which is one of the hottest industry 14. Best Web TV technology or service Awards are now open for entries! Established in topics and promises to be around for years to come. 5. Best monitoring or network management solution 2003 the awards are among the most prestigious Also new this year is the ‘Best Contribution to TV 15. Best Ultra HD TV Technology or project - NEW and competitive technology awards in the industry, Accessibility’ award, which aims to recognise 6. Best customer premise technology designed to recognise and reward innovation and developments in subtitling, audio description, text- 16. Best TV Everywhere/multi-screen video excellence in the cable, satellite, broadcast, IPTV, to-speech and all other services and technologies 7. Best workflow/asset management/automation telco, internet/online/OTT video, mobile TV and that help improve the user experience for those solution 17. Best Social TV technology, service or application associated sectors. with disabilities. This year, we are introducing two brand NEW 8. Best content protection technology 18. Best Contribution to TV Accessibility - NEW categories, firstly the ‘Best Ultra HD TV Technology We look forward to receiving your entries!

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in September 2013, Amsterdam.

ENTER NOW: www.csimagazine.com/awards

For Sponsorship opportunities contact: For judging or entry enquiries:

Tiro Bestonso, Commercial Manager Goran Nastic, Editor Tel: +44 (0)20 7562 2427 Tel: +44 (0)20 7562 2416 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

page forty four page forty five CSI magazine l Awards CSI magazine l Awards www.csimagazine.com Awards 2013 Awards 2013 www.cable-satellite.com News

news in brief DTV gathers pace in Sub-Sahara

AmberFin’s DPP call to arms Just over a third of homes to 49.0 million million DTT homes by 2018 – AmberFin has embarked on a in Sub-Saharan Africa households, Digital 25.7 million FTA and 8.0 campaign aimed at promoting the received digital TV at TV Research data million pay – up from uptake of the Digital Production the end of last year, shows. 4.6 million Partnership (DPP) application according to Digital TV Kenya, in 2012. specifications for the adoption of Research, which forecasts Tanzania, Uganda There were 7.36 the MXF interchange format by the transition to be and Zambia look set to million pay-DTH the UK broadcast industry. A complete within five years. be the lead markets with subscribers at end- major technology contributor to Some 35% of TV full digital transition expected 2012, with the total the DPP initiative, AmberFin is households, or 14.0 to be complete by end-2015. expected to rise to the first vendor to introduce a million homes, in the Two-thirds of television 11.27 million in 2018. DPP specific media file region took DTV signals homes will take DTT (pay and Of the 9.26 million transcoder and ingest by end-2012, and digital free-to-air combined) in 2018, up pay TV subscribers at workstation. In the UK, some penetration will grow from only 11.7% last year. In total, end-2012, 79% were for 70% of internal transactions to over 95% by 2018 Sub-Saharan Africa will have 33.8 pay-DTH. within companies are file-based, but only10-15% of inter-company media transactions are file-based, according to CTO Bruce Devlin. Tooway simplifies broadband offer The challenge, as has been the case so far, is communicating the Eutelsat’s Tooway satellite Absolute – a first for satellite, Overall, up to 30 million homes in benefits of digital file-based broadband service is claimed Petrie. Customers the footprint of the Ka-Sat satellite operation to broadcasters and introducing new usage subscribing to the L and XL service are still waiting for quality broadband facilities. and pricing options will also be entitled to uncapped connectivity, according to numbers designed to boost uptake. data usage overnight. from Eutelsat. User experience in France New and updated A pre-pay offer in the manner that Tooway was launched around 18 French telco Bouygues Telecom packages, called Tooway rival Avanti Communications offers months ago, delivered via Eutelsat’s is deploying an advanced content S, M, L and XL, are may be an option in the future. Ka-Sat high-throughput satellite that discovery solution that enables being rolled out with a “The main focus for consumer has a total capacity of 90Gbps. The semantic search and browsing by key driver being a more services, and business services to a satellite is also used to provide the mood. The service, based on simplified choice, certain extent, is overcoming the NewsSpotter SNG service and more technology from software vendor according to Steve Petrie, digital divide in the UK and recently in-flight connectivity. Jinni, will be offered in French the UK commercial Europe”, Petrie told CSI. “It’s really Petrie is optimistic that the rollout and includes discovery of both director for Tooway. about offering the broadband have- of Ka-band services will finally help international and local French An entry level 2Mbps nots something that’s comparable to get the message across that satellite TV series and movies. The Jinni downlink/1Mbs uplink what you can get in cities and towns, broadband is a viable means of technology, which features option is being and in some cases even better. We’re catering for unserved and natural language understanding introduced on the back looking to compliment ADSL and underserved markets. “I’ve been very (NLU) capabilities, will be first of customer demand, fibre and bring equivalent services to actively lobbying government, introduced with an integrated Petrie explained. The the countryside and remote areas.” regional bodies, BDUK officials and second screen tablet app. Rival four other packages have An Ofcom report released at the the public sector and word is getting France Telecom, meanwhile, will been consolidated into end of last year which estimates out there. There is a lot of education deploy set-top boxes that allow one speed – 20Mbps there to be some 10% of UK to be done. Satellite has in the past subscribers to use gesture down vs 8Mbs up - with consumer and business connections, been large and expensive but with controls to navigate recommended retail equating to over three million the Ka-sat it has programming. Orange will offer prices ranging from premises, that are unable to receive taken us massive the gesture controls with its new £29.99 to £74.99 speeds of over 2Mbps steps in what can Livebox Play TV set-top, which depending on monthly broadband, and a further be done via comes with a remote control that consumption volumes, 1.3% of postcodes can’t get satellite, which is contains motion sensors, using which range from 10GB any broadband at all. This is mainly now an accepted SmartMotion Server from Movea, to a true unlimited in remote and rural areas although it part of the beginning in February. service called Tooway does affect some suburbs too. broadband mix.”

46 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com ConferenceAd.indd 1 15/02/2013 16:59:16 Q&A Q&A Keeping one step ahead

Goran Nastic speaks to Dr Leonardo Chiariglione, who was recently awarded the prestigious Faraday Medal from the IET in recognition of his pioneering contribution to MPEG, about the technology’s future in a period of unprecedented change in the industry.

GN: Can you tell me a other. In development and due for ratification in GN: How can ultra HD avoid some of the mistakes little bit about yourself Geneva on 25 January is the latest video made by 3D? and your background? compression standard, called high efficiency LC: The story is complex but it’s clear that a few LC: My background is in video coding (HEVC). The industry is eagerly years back the industry saw the opportunity to sell electronic engineering, waiting for it to be formerly approved because you more devices and a new experience so they and I received a PhD will be able to squeeze at least twice the content rushed to introduce 3D functionality. But the from the Tokyo as with MPEG-4 using the same bandwidth. This point is that today you need glasses which are an University of Electric will create new opportunities such as ultra HD. obstacle to broad diffusion of equipment. What Engineering. I was at We are also working on a standard for 3D TV we are doing is something that will be more Telecom Italia for many because if you don’t have the technology set right exploitable when there will be new display years and while there it’s very unlikely you will succeed. So MPEG will technologies that don’t require glasses. It’s a

Dr Chiariglione, MPEG co-founder started the MPEG do its share of the work by developing very complex technology but it’s coming of age and initiative that, well, has changed the world powerful ways of compressing video scenes so you it won’t force users to change their habits. [laughs]. will be able to navigate the 3D scenes and I think MPEG by its nature has to anticipate synthesise views at the receiver side. We have a the future. GN: Can you tell me a little more about the MPEG large number of people working on this as it’s a Group and how it came about? real challenge on the technical front. GN: Is there anything that particularly excites LC: That was in the late 1980s when digital Another standard is called MPEG Media taking place at the moment? technologies were ready for a mass market. There Transport (MT), which is about proving the LC: Almost every day you find fascinating news had been two or three decades of researching technology so that the service provider can exploit so it’s very hard to express a preference! digital video and audio and it was about time to the second screen better than is possible today get standards so that a market could be created and create user experiences around it. It will be GN: Finally, is there anything you’d like to see and facilitated. That was the main driver for me to another year before we conclude the work. happen or change within the industry? establish the MPEG Group. We developed Others involve a standard form of creating user LC: Yes, it’s less selfishness making decisions that standards for CDs, MP3, DAB, mobile video, file profiles and information preservation so that it is impact the future of the market. 3D is a case in formats for multimedia... the list goes on. stored and archived in a way that it can be re-used point in fact. The industry rushed too early just to in 50 years’ time regardless of technology be first in deploying 3D cameras and displays but GN: What keeps you occupied at the moment? transformation. by doing that in an uncoordinated fashion and LC: I have a start-up company that is engaged in with some level of incompatibility they have an idea that has been inspired by my work in GN: What kind of work are you doing around maybe not killed but certainly delayed its success. MPEG, essentially an alternative to current DASH, which is a hot topic? This is one example but my recommendation services on the Web where you upload the LC: The technology is very powerful and doesn’t would be just rely more on standards because this content and it is no longer yours. The system, require any infrastructure change. The issue is way you can refine the technology and better which can be found at wim.tv, enables users to how you overcome the viscosity of some understand what the user needs. When you upload content but to remain the owners of that entrenched technologies. Everyone use their own introduce a service or product you will be more content, we take the revenue share. technology and if the industry converges to confident it will be for the benefit of yourself and DASH the multi-device situation will become also the industry at large. GN: And what can we expect from the MPEG much simpler. Some potential difficulty does exist Group going forward? however between the protocols below DASH, Those interested in keeping up with the latest LC: We are about 500 people meeting every three which have to be made compatible as part of the MPEG standards and upcoming work can go to months and producing standards one after the whole stack. the official website at mpeg.chiariglione.org

48 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com Events diary 2013

Date Name Location Website

February 25-28 Mobile World Congress Barcelona www.mobileworldcongress.com

February 25-27 Smart Energy Summit Texas www.parksassociates.com/events

February 26-28 BVE London http://www.bvexpo.com/

March 5-7 Cable Congress London www.cablecongress.com

March 11-13 DVB World Madrid www.dvbworld.org

March 12-14 CABSAT Dubai www.cabsat.com/

March 18-19 Social Media World Forum London http://www.socialmedia-forum.com/

March 18-21 Satellite 2013 Washington DC http://www.satellitetoday.com/satellite2013/

March 19-21 TV Connect London http://www.tvconnectevent.com/

March 21-23 CCBN Beijing www.ccbn.tv

April 6-11 NAB Las Vegas www.nabshow.com

April 8-11 MIP TV Cannes http://www.miptv.com/

April 16-17 PEVE Entertainment London http://www.screendigest.com/events/peve

April 25-26 FTDigital Media London www.ft-live.com

May 21-22 Social TV World Summit London http://socialtvworldsummit.com/

May 22-23 Connected TV World Summit London http://www.connectedtvsummit.com/

May 2 DTG Summit London www.dtg.org.uk/dtg/summit.php

June 4-6 ANGA Com Cologne http://www.angacom.de

June 13 CSI Home Gateways Summit London www.csimagazine.com/conference

June 18-21 BroadcastAsia Singapore www.broadcast-asia.com

September 12-17 IBC Amsterdam www.ibc.org

September 18-20 SCTE Cable-Tec Expo Orlando http://expo.scte.org

September 19-20 CTAM Europe Barcelona http://www.ctameurope.com/Event/86

October 1-3 CDN World Summit London http://cdnworldsummit.com/June 12-13 CDN

December TBC TV accessibility London www.csimagazine.com/conference

www.csimagazine.com January-February 2013 49 Business To advertise contact Tiro Bestonso +44 (0)20 7562 2427 Directory [email protected]

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NDS, now part of Cisco, creates the technologies and applications that enable pay-TV operators to securely deliver digital content to TV STBs (set-top boxes), DVRs (digital video recorders), PCs, mobiles and other multimedia devices. Over 90 of the world’s leading pay-TV platforms rely on NDS solutions to protect and enhance their business.

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ADB designs, manufactures and deploys solutions to distribute pay-TV and multimedia services to the connected home, for all types of networks, providing an amazing user experience.

ADB believes in a future where multi-media content will come from multiple sources and seamlessly move between multiple screens and devices, at the user’s preference. The Company has delivered over 30 million consumer premise devices to a global customer base. ADB’s innovations and software expertise have been recognized by numerous industry awards. Advanced Digital Broadcast S.A. Avenue de Tournay 7, CH-1292 Chambesy, Geneva, Switzerland Tel: +41 22 799 0799 Fax: +41 22 799 0790 Web: www.adbglobal.com Business To advertise contact Tiro Bestonso +44 (0)20 7562 2427 Directory [email protected]

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50 January-February 2013 www.csimagazine.com www.csimagazine.com January-February 2013 51 Your Key to the Best Video Neighborhoods

Unlock the full potential for your content. When it comes to reaching new audiences, there’s no better partner than Intelsat. Our exclusive Video Neighborhoods and MCPC platforms launch your channels on the dedicated media satellites that are most in demand among top international programmers worldwide. Intelsat has leading neighborhoods service in every region, for a truly global solution. You’ll cost-effectively increase your visibility among cable systems and DTH platforms while reaching the greatest number of homes.

Meet with Intelsat during CABSAT 2013 at Hall 1, Stand C1-10.

Visit www.intelsat.com or contact us at [email protected] for details.

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