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The Online Reporter

Issue 975 April 8-14, 2016

The Business of Internet TV, Broadband, Home Networks and UHD (4K/8K) Plus Lies, Damn Lies and Industry Statistics

Arris-Made G.hn Powerline Adapters Show up at HOME NETWORKING Bell Canada Brocade Dives into the Wi-Fi Market by Acquiring Ruckus Samsung Leads the TV Market Wireless Verizon Completes Sale of More Landline Footprint to HomeGrid Forum Prez to Talk about Guaranteed Frontier Interoperability & Speeds at CTA Event Vodafone Eyes Acquiring Wireline Service Provider in India SET- & NET-TOP BOXES DISRUPTIONS AirTies to Offer Future-Proof STB in the States Smart Home Market Still Wobbly “4K and HDR: A Match Made in Heaven, or Rival Technologies?” VR/AR France’s TF1 Live Streams ‘World’s First’ VR Football WIRELESS BROADBAND Match Microsoft’s Build Is Silent on Smartphones; Got Scarcely a Mention 4K/UHD/HDR FCC Chairman: Netflix Did Not Violate FCC’s Net Neutrality Denon’s New Receivers Have 4K+HDR+HDMI 2.0a+HDCP Rules 2.2+Dolby Atmos Sprint Offers Unlimited Data to Its Subscribers to Amazon 4K Is No Longer Enough Prime for $11/month OTT LIES, DAMN LIES & STATISTICS NFL Deal Crowns Twitter the Newest Global Video Internet TV Will Account for 38% of Viewing Time by 2025 Broadcaster Bell Canada’s Broadband Speeds YouTube Expanding Empire into Live Streaming Space 4K Sets Will Be in 23.8% of World’s Residences This Year Facebook Will Let Users Browse Live Streams like TV – 53m Sets Channels Average Viewers Age Yahoo Adds MLB to Its Growing Coffer of Live Sports 3m French Viewers Watch Internet TV Daily UK’s Channel 4 Now Offering Live TV on Android Apps Viewers Worldwide Turn to Mobile Screens as TV TV Channels Going OTT on AIS Platforms Replacements BROADBAND BEAT Connected TV Usage Grows 66% in One Year AT&T’s Dual Broadband Strategy YouTube Channel Subscribers Growing Rapidly Rivals Are Emerging to BT’s ‘Fiber’ Network DIGIGRAMS Misleading Broadband Marketing Leads FCC to Propose Wowza Goes into the Lion’s Den at NAB Nutrition-like Labels Xiaomi Goes into Lion’s Den to Sell Its 4K TV Sets - South Korea Marvell’s Board Fires CEO and President

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Arris-Made G.hn Powerline Arris-made powerline adapters with G.hn chips have shown up in Canada with Adapters Show up at Bell a Bell Canada (BC) label. They are an optional powerline network adapter for use Canada with Bell Canada’s 4K whole home DVR that also supports HDR. Bell Canada’s sales support and a usually reliable source in Canada have confirmed that Bell Canada’s pass through powerline adapter, made by Arris but branded BC, has Marvell’s G.hn chips. It’s intended to work with BC’s new VIP5662W IPTV receiver/DVR for 4K, also made by Arris. It can support up to five remote receivers for connecting TVs in other rooms. The remote receivers support Wi-Fi and are Canadian $7 each per month. The VIP5662W has four Wi-Fi antennas and a Blue- tooth antenna. It also has Broadcom’s 7252 system-on-a-chip and a Toshiba hard drive that holds up to 150 hours of 4K content or 320 hours of HD content.

Bell Canada’s New Arris-made G.hn Powerline Adapter

Bell Canada said that it had previously offered HomePlug powerline adapters. It also offers coax adapters that have HPNA technology, many in adapters made by Motorola, which Arris acquired. That could make BC a candidate to use G.hn adapters that can support both G.hn and HPNA, where it is already installed, and G.hn where it is not.

Bell Canada’s New 4K/HDR Whole Home DVR

See: http://www.bell.ca/Fibe-TV/Promotions/4K-Receiver Bell’s 4K Whole Home PVR is available to BC’s Fibe TV customers in To- ronto, Montréal, Ottawa and Québec City for Canadian$599 (US$455). It is also

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available to Bell Aliant FibreOP TV subscribers in the Atlantic region of Cana- da, much of which is so far east of Maine that it lays in the Atlantic time zone. BC’s G.hn powerline adapter is so new that the people to whom we talked, at least initially, said there was no such product. After doing some research at our request, they confirmed what we were looking at on BC’s Web page. They could not, however, tell us how much BC is selling the adapter for but said that when we went to a BC retail store, someone there would give us the price. What we do know is that it is what is called a pass-through adapter, which means that it has an electrical socket so that consumers don’t lose one of their highly-valued electrical outlets.

“It is what is called a pass- through adapter, which means that it has an electrical socket so that consumers don’t lose one of their highly-valued electrical outlets.”

Bell Canada’s G.hn Adapter Is a Pass-Through Device

See: http://support.bell.ca/fibe_tv/receivers/ bluetooth_slim_remote.how_to_move_your_4k_whole_home_pvr_with Because Bell Canada is the purveyor and because the market is for 4K TVs and content, we reckon that Bell Canada has ordered many thousands of the powerline adapters in anticipation of a) 4K becoming the dominant TV resolution, especially now that 4K sets are as inexpensive as HD sets were two years ago, and b) BC’s desire to deliver picture-perfect, flicker free 4K TV. Arris and Marvell may have been handed some nice orders considering that at the end of 2015 BC had 3.4 million broadband subscribers and more than 2.7 million pay TV subscribers.

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How Many 4K Whole Home DVRs Would You Order? And How Many Powerline Adapters Would You Order? And at What Ramp up Rate? If You Had: Broadband Subscribers 3.4 million

Pay TV Subscribers 2.7 Million - of which 1.18 million are high-end Fibe TV subscribers

And Were Increasing Each by 3% to 4% a Year

Bell Canada is proud of its 4K pay TV offerings and wants glowing reports from the very beginning of the 4K service. In February, BC said: “Bell’s TV leadership extends to 4K” “As Canada’s largest TV provider and number 1 multimedia company, Bell continues to set the pace in Canadian television. With the January 20 Toronto Raptors vs. Boston Celtics NBA game, TSN became the first broadcaster to produce a live 4K Ultra HD broadcast in North America. Bell TV also an- “The first broadcaster to nounced in January the availability of the Fibe 4K Whole Home PVR for Fibe produce a live 4K Ultra TV customers in Toronto, Montréal, Ottawa and Québec City. Far superior to HD broadcast in North basic cable 4K set top boxes lacking recording and other PVR capabilities, the America.” Fibe 4K Whole Home PVR is also ready for the next step in broadcasting: high dynamic range (HDR). In February, Bell will extend availability of the 4K Whole Home PVR to Bell Fibe TV customers in Ontario and Québec and Bell Aliant FibreOP TV customers in Atlantic Canada.” (The highlights are The Online Reporter’s, not BC’s)

The Significance There are several significant points about BC’s decision to purchase quantities of G.hn powerline adapters: 1. As would be expected from an incumbent telco, BC does a very thorough job of testing in the labs and in the field. Reportedly the tests were very extensive and thorough – and involved comparison tests against stiff competition such as MoCA 2.0 with bonding and HomePlug AV2 with MIMO. 2. BC, like many other cablecos and telcos, probably realizes that the Wi-Fi networks in most homes are not ready for even one stream of 4K. Be- cause BC wants to sell its 4K pay TV service, it wanted to make sure that subscribers got the very best, flicker free 4K picture. 3. The BC order for G.hn adapters is, to the best of our knowledge, the very

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first one in the world – other than in Korea and Portugal where they are being used to extend broadband. 4. Other telcos will see what BC is doing and, given BC’s reputation, will seriously investigate G.hn gear – if they haven’t already started testing it. We suspect that other major telcos may be on the verge of selecting G.hn as their home network wireline standard – in fact some may have but not yet publicly announced. The next step after adapters would be for G.hn to be built into the router/gateway/whole home DVR rather that forcing subscribers to install adapters. In that way every home’s electrical wires would become a powerline network. And that in turn would mean that makers of CE gear could build it into their products so that when the user plugs a TV set into an electrical outlet, it would immediately be on the Net. 5. The win at Bell Canada gives some credence to the HomeGrid Forum’s claim that G.hn is a “carrier class” home network technology. But, one win is only one win. Let’s see what the future holds. HomeGrid needs a couple of more wins to prove that G.hn is a “world class” technology. 6. Lastly, 4K is here big time as The Online Reporter has been predicting since Samsung started lowering the prices of its 4K TV sets in the spring “The win at Bell Canada of 2014. And 4K is already having an impact on the need for more band- gives some credence to width for both broadband and home networks. Service providers realize the HomeGrid Forum’s that and are upping the performance of their broadband and home net- claim that G.hn is a work products. You never, ever see an announcement about a new broad- ‘carrier class’ home net- band or home network product or service that doesn’t list 4K as a driving work technology” force. And HDR, which BC’s 4K DVR also supports, is the next big thing in TV. Although HDR does not need as much additional bandwidth as 4K does, its startling picture quality will prompt people to buy a 4K TV set that does need more bandwidth for watching OTT services, the main source for 4K content for several years to come. But where are the Arris-brand G.hn adapters for retailers that we heard about last summer and again at CES in January? Since then Actiontec has started shipping MoCA 2.0 to 11ac Wi-Fi adapters that use Quantenna’s very impres- sive 4x4 11ac Wi-Fi chips. The Actiontec MoCA-to-Wi-Fi extenders tested the best of any Wi-Fi extenders that we tested in a 2,400 square-foot standalone home and in a 1,500 square-foot apartment with 15-inch thick adobe walls and solid wooden doors. We are still not able to get similar G.hn coax-to-Wi-Fi adapters for testing but surely they will come if G.hn’s coax version is as good as G.hn backers say it is.

An Interesting Personal PS There’s a big market for powerline and coax adapters and Wi-Fi extenders, very big, but it’s going to take some innovative market to exploit it. That’s be-

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cause most consumers only think about Wi-Fi.

We own two identical models of Samsung 4K TVs that we bought six months apart in 2014. It’s notable that by the time we bought the second one, it was one-third ($500) less expensive, which shows how rapidly the prices of 4K sets were going down, down, down.

In the Louisiana home the Samsung set uses Cox’s pay TV service, as well as an antenna on the roof, and the remote receivers are connected by Ethernet wiring. In the Arizona apartment, with thick adobe walls and thick wooden doors, the Samsung is connected to DirecTV, which most people acknowledge has the best picture quality of any pay TV service. But, and it’s a big “but,” all of the DirecTV receivers, including the one that connects to the Samsung 4K set, are connected by Wi-Fi. When the picture from DirecTV is good, it is great, much better than the identical model TV that is connected to Cox. However, when the DirecTV picture is bad, it is fuzzy, often wavers and occasionally flickers. The one difference between the two locations is that one is Wi-Fi and one is wireline. Other users have found the same. This YouTube video compares the difference between powerline extenders, probably HomePlug, and a Wi-Fi repeater. The powerline adapters are about twice as fast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrUTmT-l4RU https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=yvwXMFuYBIM&ebc=ANyPxKo65ABXEL8xIQjQ2CpqJfc3A2UbUHups8 PvJGBe1M_a1tOP9ciRGHLE6JPtJ4xwzCTlzRnPCo5uGRiy7kDSd7WvyzHaT Q&nohtml5=False What would help users a lot would be if telcos made public some of their test results. They could do it anonymously if they need to keep their name out of the

matter. Return to headlines

Samsung Leads the TV Why is Samsung the world’s number one maker of TV sets? you ask. Great Market sets are one answer. Samsung puts a lot of emphasis on the screen’s brightness and works to have that brightness show in retailers’ show rooms. That is one of the reasons that Samsung is so interested to adding HDR capability to its 4K sets. It was the first company to buy The Online Reporter’s new report on HDR – “4K and HDR: A Match Made in Heaven or Rival Technologies?” – in less than 4 hours after we announced it. Pricing is another factor. Samsung led the way in reducing the prices of its 4K sets in the summer of 2014. Others such as LG and, in the States, Vizio have

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followed. In fact, Vizio may have the edge currently in prices of its 4K sets with HDR – even though Vizio’s seta do not fully meet the standards that the UHD Alliance has set for qualifying for its its UHD Premium. Samsung has stayed at the very least abreast of the field in smart TV features. It uses its own Tizen operating systems so it can easily make changes in features. In its newest TVs Vizio has opted to use Google Cast, formerly known as Chromecast, for its TVs smarts – and even includes an Android tablet for using as a remote control. LG decided to use Roku’s smart TV platform as have several others. It is significant that smart TVs have now eliminated most viewers having to use the “input” button on the remote to access other sources of content. With Samsung, users press one button on the remote to get access to all the TV’s apps.

Samsung tells its story effectively and often. According to Haymarket Me- dia’s brandrepublic.com, in March Samsung was the most advertised brand in the UK - 2,486 minutes of advertising – over 41 hours – 238% increase compared to February, 3,525 spots.

BTW, last month in the UK BT was the most advertised brand by airtime. Return to headlines

Verizon Completes Sale of Verizon has completed its sale of landline assets, operations and businesses More Landline Footprint to in California, Florida and Texas to Frontier Communications, which will Frontier about double in size. The assets include broadband, pay TV, telephony and a significant all-fiber FiOS network. More than half of Frontier’s newly acquired footprint is FiOS. It gives Frontier more than 1 million additional pay TV, up from about 500,000 and more than 2 million additional broadband subscribers over and above the 2.5 million it already had. It roughly doubles the number of Frontier’s telephony subscribers. Frontier is expected to build new all-fiber networks. Frontier president and CEO Daniel McCarthy has talked about his plan to expand TV and broadband service to new residences. The sale is valued at about $10.5 billion. The sale points to Verizon’s two strengths: cellular and all-fiber. Verizon’s landline operations are all now in contiguous northeast markets. Verizon has said that the money it receives will be used to pay down debt. About 9,400 Verizon employees will now work for Frontier. The sale of some of its landline footprint also leads to the belief that Verizon a) does not intend to spend any more time or money in the difficult and expensive job of building new fiber networks, b) wants to be a major national wireless

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company, c) does not plan to upgrade its remaining copperwire networks to G.fast or any other copperwire technology and d) believes that its 4G and 5G wireless networks will become a major source of consumers’ broadband access – that 4G and 5G can provide all the bandwidth that consumers need, both sta- tionary and mobile. Return to headlines

Vodafone Eyes Acquiring In India Vodafone is taking the opposite approach of Verizon. Vodafone is Wireline Service Provider in acquiring a wireline service provider. India This appeared in Wireless Watch.

It is not just in Europe that Vodafone is building up its wireline assets, as its mobile-only model, once its jewel, becomes an albatross in the era of quad play. The company is also reported to be targeting fixed networks in India, where it is said to have agreed to pay $60.4 million to acquire TRG Capital’s You Broad- band, which owns 3,000 kilometers (1,800 miles) of fiber and 6,000 kilometers (3,600 miles) of last mile infrastructure in 12 cities, including the important market of Mumbai.. This would enable Vodafone to put together fixed broadband multi-play packages to extend its customer reach and boost its ARPU, though in a country where fixed-line penetration is low and expensive, this will not have the same impact on market share as in Europe. But there will be other advantages, such as more control over fiber for its mobile backhaul and enterprise services. You Broadband currently offers a range of tariffs, from $23 a month for 4 Mbps and 50 GB of data, to $314 for a year’s worth of 100 Mbps broadband with a 3TB cap. These prices are expensive for most Indian consumers, and it would be interesting to see whether Vodafone can leverage its fixed/mobile base, and its plans to invest more in Wi-Fi, to lower broadband fees as part of bundles, and so have a disruptive effect on a home broadband market which needs it badly. The acquisition would also help relieve pressure on Vodafone’s backhaul network as 3G usage grows and 4G starts to expand – though the biggest challenge for Indian MNOs, in offering bigger mobile data packages and fending off forthcoming new entrant Reliance Jio, is shortage of spectrum rather than transport capacity. Again, if Vodafone could make fixed access more affordable, it could have the opportunity to carry a higher percentage of India’s Internet traffic – most of which goes over mobile links – and to offload some data, which is currently wireless, to a fixed home system. According to the Economic Times, Vodafone has applied to India’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board for approval for the deal.

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DISRUPTIONS

Smart Home Market Still For many consumers, there isn’t enough proof in the market that the smart Wobbly home is worth their time and money. The biggest brand in the space, Google’s Nest, has failed to convince the market that it is anything more than a fancy thermostat, and it is far from the only vendor selling a connected thermostat. Amazon’s Echo has been something of a surprise hit, and Apple has so far declined to push a smart home platform. Pay TV operators and broadband service providers seem best-placed to adopt a smarthome platform and sell it as a service (SHaaS), as way of reducing churn inside their customer base. For consumers, this bundled offering will be quite attractive, given that the cost of a DIY smart home platform is still quite high. Even the more comprehensive platforms like the Samsung-owned SmartThings is a long way from price parity with the non-smart counterparts of its portfolio – so we are a long way from the point where smart home products gain penetration simply by virtue of the natural product replacement cycle. This is excerpted from Wireless Watch. Return to headlines

VR/AR

France’s TF1 Live Streams France broadcaster TF1 held a private demo last week for what it claims to be ‘World’s First’ VR Football a world’s first: a live football (soccer) match, captured in UHD and 360-degree Match video, streamed in real time to a party of viewers wearing virtual reality (VR) headsets.

TF1 partnered with Viaccecss-Orca, Harmonic, and a slew of 360-video technology specialists to produce and deliver the Web broadcast in 360 degree virtual reality. The broadcast delivered “a premium 360-degree television experience for the emerging VR environment.” “At the event, our audience experienced an actual stadium ambiance, feeling immersed in the game,” said Alain Nochimowski, EVP of innovation at Viac- cess-Orca. “We are shaping the future of television and paving the way to the ultimate immersion quality and viewer engagement experience.” Return to headlines

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4K/UHD/HDR

4K indicates resolution in terms of pixels per screen. HDR indicates the quality of the pixels, which increases color range and contrast. UHD, as defined by the UHD Alliance, indicates that equipment and content is 4K or 8K resolution, be in HDR 10 (which Dolby Vision also provides), have total immersive (3D ) audio, have wide color gamut and be compatible with HDMI 2.0a/HDCP 2.2 inputs.

Denon’s New Receivers Have Denon’s new low-cost S-series receivers/surround sound systems offer cur- 4K+HDR+HDMI 2.0a+HDCP rent 4K support as well as next generation Ultra HD for video content and TVs. 2.2+Dolby Atmos The $479 AVR-S720W and the $579 AVR-S920W have full-speed 18 Mbps HDMI 2.0a and HDCP 2.2 copy-protection technology on all HDMI inputs and outputs. Both have 7.2-channel with Dolby Atmos object-based surround sound and both can be upgraded via downloaded firmware in August to DTS:X object- based surround. And, yes, even stereos/receivers get downloads these days – as long as they are connected to the Net. Their list of features are long: Bluetooth, dual-band Wi-Fi, DLNA 1.5 networking, Airplay, Internet Radio, Pandora, Spotify Connect, SiriusXM, and high-resolution audio streaming of DSD (2.8/5.6MHz), FLAC, ALAC, AIFF and WAV files. Return to headlines

4K Is No Longer Enough “For 2016 it’s no longer enough for a premium TV to just carry a native 4K/ UHD resolution and a fancy smart TV system. It also needs to support the new High Dynamic Range picture format that introduces far more brightness and color range to images than the old picture formats we’ve been lumbering along with for decades.” - John Archer in Forbes magazine. To that he might have added immersive audio and wide color gamut, in short all the functions defined by the UHD Alliance as necessary to meet its UltraHD Premium (UHDP) standard. See: http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnarcher/2016/04/06/sony-xbr-65x930d- 65xd9305-xd9305-x930d-4k-hdr-tv-review/#f8bd19c11442 Archer also asks where’s Sony’s Ultra HD Premium badge? He says, “Sony also claims that the 65X930D [the Sony 4K TV he’s reviewing] meets the color and contrast criteria laid out by the Ultra HD Premium recommendations. Which raises an interesting question: why has Sony shunned the Ultra HD Pre- mium logo in favor of its own internal ‘4K HDR’ promise of quality? Especial-

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ly when Sony is a member of the Ultra HD Alliance that actually came up with the Ultra HD Premium recommendations? Return to headlines

OTT

NFL Deal Crowns Twitter the In an unexpected end to the battle over the digital streaming rights for the Newest Global Video coming season of the NFL’s Thursday Night Football Twitter has officially Broadcaster won, becoming the NFL’s exclusive live OTT partner. It beat out the likes of Verizon, Amazon, Yahoo and Facebook to secure the streaming rights. -No Pay TV Subscription or TV Set Needed This is Twitter’s first venture into streaming live sports. Many speculated -Periscope to Offer Exclusive Verizon would win the deal, as it already offers live Sunday night NFL games Game Coverage to its mobile subs and on its mobile OTT service Go90. Instead, the NFL has taken a gamble with Twitter. The decline of the traditional linear TV model is occurring faster than the broadcasting deals, and the NFL is looking for ways to bring its immensely popular content into the brave new world of Internet TV. “There is a massive amount of NFL-related conversation happening on Twit- ter during our games and tapping into that audience, in addition to our viewers on broadcast and cable, will ensure Thursday Night Football is seen on an un- precedented number of platforms this season,” said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Twitter will stream 10 NFL Thursday Night Football games over the course of the 2016-2017 season. The games will be available worldwide and free of charge across all of its platforms, including mobile phones, tablets, desktop computers and connected TV sets. And there’s no need for a pay TV subscription in order to view the featured NFL games. Any Twitter user will have access to the full games live online which is a huge disruptor for the pay TV industry and its crowning jewel, live professional sports. It will also utilize its live streaming platform Periscope to air pre- and post-game coverage of the games which includes team and player stats, interviews and commentary, an opportunity to bolster another branch of Twitter’s business. The deal with Twitter rounds out the NFL’s “tri-cast” distribution model so broadcasts of the games will air on CBS and NBC, simulcast on the NFL Net- work and stream digitally via Twitter. Other websites will also have the abil- ity to embed Twitter’s live stream which gives the NFL a digital reach that expands past the 66 million Americans and 800 million global users Twitter has reported.

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NFL Cuts Twitter a Deal Twitter paid out around $10 million for the deal according a Bloomberg, cit- ing a source familiar with the matter. Neither the NFL nor Twitter have confirmed the price paid for the digital rights. “We did not take the highest bidder on the table,” said Brian Rolapp, NFL’s EVP of media. “The platform is built around live events already. We want to see how they use the unique platform, and syndicated tweets all over the Inter- net is going to be interesting.”

Bloomberg reported that for the broadcasting rights to the same games CBS and NBC each reportedly paid $45 million a game for five games each. Not to mention last year Yahoo reportedly paid $20 million to be the first to live stream a single NFL game. Thursday Night Football doesn’t draw in viewers like Sunday and Monday Night Football does but the NFL is the most-watched sport in the US and even Thursday games drew in 17 million viewers last season. “The platform is built For Twitter the main downfall of the deal is that it won’t generate much reve- around live events al- nue for the company. WOW. That is very interesting. CBS and NBC will have ready. We want to see most of the advertising rights for the games. Twitter has only been granted the how they use the unique rights to sell 20 of 70 in-game advertisements during the football matches, so platform, and syndicated the result is a lower price for less revenue opportunities. tweets all over the Inter- net is going to be Is Twitter the Right Match? interesting.” Twitter has publicly indicated that live streaming is one of its top priorities in 2016 so winning the NFL streaming deal is beneficial to the company that has reported a stagnant amount of users for the past two quarters. Streaming Thurs- day night NFL games will expand both its content offering and its reach as many people, such as international NFL fans, will turn to Twitter’s free live stream for coverage of the game. Twitter has a great reach internationally, reporting around 80% of its user base is international, meaning the majority of its users are not American. Surely there are plenty of non-American NFL fans but there is a question of if there are enough on Twitter to bring in large viewing numbers? The NFL is also working to generate international interest for NFL games. Its deal to stream one game during the last NFL season on Yahoo yielded satisfy- ing results for the NFL as about one third of viewers that streamed the game were outside of the US. By increasing the demand for NFL coverage in international markets it will be able to sell rights to NFL games to new broadcasters, adding a branch to its revenue stream. One of the larger issues with Twitter gaining the NFL streaming rights is the

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or YouTube account and then begin live streaming from a mobile device that runs an iOS or Android operating system. Users can view videos live within the YouTube Connect app or videos will be savable for viewing later in the app. The app will also include features like a feed with the latest videos posted by friends or channels that the user subscribes to on YouTube. In addition, chat and tagging features will be included according to Venture Beat’s unnamed source. Google has not confirmed a live streaming app or any details yet so nothing is set in stone.

YouTube Has Lots to Offer Live Streaming If YouTube Connect is a reality it could be a threat to Facebook Live, Snap- chat or Periscope which are currently dominating the live streaming scene. YouTube the most well-established Internet video platforms in the world. Its reach spreads across various apps including the traditional YouTube app, YouTube Gaming, YouTube Music, YouTube Kids, YouTube Capture and YouTube Creator Studio. “If YouTube Connect is a The YouTube Connect app would increase its reach to seven apps, plus there reality it could be a threat is the YouTube Red subscription service and nearly all of these apps and ser- to Facebook Live, Snap- vices cater specifically to delivering video. chat or Periscope which are currently dominating YouTube has a massive community of users generating content for the site, the live streaming scene.” many of which have reached Internet fame from the popularity of their content on YouTube. A live streaming app is a natural addition to YouTube’s slew of video offerings and it has a large population of dedicated users that could easily jump into live streaming. YouTube Connect can enable YouTubers running channels and producing videos for a dedicated following to live stream as a way of connecting and interacting with fans plus live streaming is an easy, fast and uncensored way of creating more video content The majority of YouTube’s services are already ad-supported and more and more brands are turning to live streaming for advertising opportunities to reach new demographics. Chances are YouTube has the infrastructure in place to launch a live streaming app. It offers a live streaming feature on the YouTube Gaming app so users can view streams from popular gamers and publishers. Needless to say YouTube is well versed in online video so a live streaming app that has experience in the business is expected from the company. An app specifically catering to live video services from the top video platform is expected to run flawlessly, users won’t stick to something if they are plagued by problems while using it; maybe YouTube has taken this long to join the live streaming space because it is perfecting the Connect service to get it right on the first try so users continuously watch and produce live streaming video content.

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mobile-centric nature of the business. Twitter reported that 80% of its usage is now done on mobile devices. Typically sporting event viewing is done on the largest screen in the house, the TV screen. Multiple issues plague the mobile- nature of Twitter. Interest in viewing a game that lasts three or more hours on a time smartphone screen seems like it may dwindle rather quickly for viewers that have another viewing option. Those in the States with access to NBC, CBS or the NFL Network may quickly opt for an easier way to view, for Twitter viewing on a connected TV device would be ideal but really it will battle TV broadcasters for every viewer that hasn’t cut the cord. Consumers viewing on mobile phones must also worry about the effect streaming an entire NFL game will have on their mobile data allowances if Wi-Fi is una- vailable to them. Anyone with only mobile data and data caps will have a difficult time rationalizing live streaming the equivalent of two full-length films. Twitter will certainly gain eyeballs live streaming NFL games but it is doubt- ful that it will capture and retain the same eyeballs for the entirety of a game. Viewers will tune in and out of Twitter’s live stream of the game at their own convenience; some people may want to watch the first half and then quit watching, others might tune in after half time and some may turn on the live stream see the score then opt out of watching the game all together. Of course people could start watching the Twitter stream of a game then decide to start viewing the live stream on a larger screen. But retaining mobile viewers is a mountain Twitter will have to climb and it is likely Twitter will be the main second- screen companion for the Thursday Night Football games. Without looking at the details that will go into making the venture a successful one for Twitter, the deal makes sense and Twitter could be a great fit for live streaming NFL Thursday night games. The NFL is looking to improve its digital offerings and build out an international NFL audience and Twitter has the platform and user base needed to meet those goals. Return to headlines

YouTube Expanding Empire In the video app landscape Google’s YouTube is a titan. Its absence from the Into Live Streaming Space live streaming space for the past year has allowed for a few major competitors, - The Market is Becoming Twitter’s Periscope, Snapchat and Facebook to gain major traction in the mar- Crowded By Competition ket. But reports from Venture Beat of a new live streaming app from YouTube called YouTube Connect could mean a major disruptor is headed to the live - But Users Could Quickly Take to Service From Popular streaming market and there may not be a better competitor suited to take on the Video Platform current “giants” of live streaming. A source close to the matter gave insight into a possible YouTube Connect live streaming app divulging that the functionality is similar to the other competitors in the space. The app will allow users to log in using an existing Google

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The Competitors Have a Head Start YouTube Connect is late on the scene and it will be met by a few notable competitors that have been dominant in the space recently. Snapchat has become a major force in the live streaming market having 100 million daily users and generating 7 billion video views daily. Gen Z and Mil- lennial users have taken to Snapchat so much that the app can reach 41% of consumers between 18 and 34. Snapchat just released an update that allows its users to make Wi-Fi video and audio calls in the app, expanding its functionality even further. It is also partner- ing up with popular brands, most recently the WWE, to produce and distribute Live Stories from WWE events throughout the year such as WrestleMania for Snapchat users. The deal allows for the WWE to reach Snapchat’s young demographic and drive subscriptions to its WWE Network online service. In return Snapchat is able to bring new content and coverage of WWE events to its users and WWE fans. “Periscope has reported Twitter’s Periscope has reported that in its first year it has delivered 200 mil- that in its first year it has lion live streams and that users are viewing one million hours’ worth of live delivered 200 mil-lion live streams every single day. And now that Twitter has secured the streaming rights streams and that users to the NFL’s Thursday Night Football Periscope will gain even more attention are viewing one million as it delivers pre- and post-game coverage of the football games. hours’ worth of live Facebook Live, the company’s live streaming feature has become its video streams every single day.” division’s top priority. Facebook is working on bolstering its Live initiative by recruiting celebrities and media companies to create exclusive Live content for Facebook. It recently teamed up with TV’s E! Network to launch a live daily news and gossip talk show for Facebook Live. Facebook is also utilizing the dynamic nature of the social media site so it can bolster its own business while acting as a business partner to the various media partners and celebrities it publicizes. The “Today” show on NBC is now a premiere media partner of Facebook. The set now features a Facebook Live video-streaming booth so hosts and guests on the show are encouraged to live stream for audiences of the show’s Facebook page as a way of extending its digital reach. In the meantime the venture also means digital, exclusive celebrity content accessible only through Facebook. Despite various competitors YouTube has the potential to steal some of the market share as live streaming is still a growing trend. People are still adapting to mobile live streaming and a YouTube Connect platform could boost live streaming adoption given its large existing user base and strong brand reception across the world. Just over a year ago Meerkat was the first big name in live streaming apps, now things look a whole lot different. Meerkat is pivoting away

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from the live streaming model and everyone else is shifting towards it, no single player in the live streaming market has pulled ahead in the business but with YouTube entering the space it is anyone’s game. Return to headlines Facebook Will Let Users Facebook continues to pursue its social video network ambitions to take on Browse Live Streams like TV YouTube, Periscope and Snapchat with new features to its fledgling Live plat- Channels form. Facebook is rolling out more updates to its mobile app to promote its live broadcast features. The most important update announced this week: A new live -With New Discovery and Engagement Tools video tab that’ll help Facebook’s users find and browse live broadcasts as they are occurring and after the fact. -Will ‘Tweens’ Ever Watch TV Again? The goal is to facilitate more discovery among live events as they are occurring. This will drive viewership and engagement during live video streams, it’ll help selfie-streamers become full-on public broadcasters, and most importantly, it’ll turn the Facebook app into another new destination for users to explore when looking for something to watch – especially those younger users who are glued to their smartphones and are less inclined to turn on the TV set. “Discover live video that the world is talking about, live video from the friends and creators that matter most to you, and live video on topics you’re interested in,” said Fidji Simo, product management director at Facebook, in a blog post. “From that place, you can also search live and non-live videos, and choose to go live yourself.” Facebook will also roll out a map feature that lets users see where live event broadcasts are occurring around the world. Facebook says its “Live Map” offers “a visual way to explore public live broadcasts.” “People in more than 60 countries can now share live video, and we’ve been inspired by all the different global broadcasts,” Simo said. “The Facebook Live Map gives you a window into what’s happening in the world right now.” And friends can now invite other Facebook friends to watch a specific live event. Facebook is also enabling new communities to utilize its live broadcast features. It announced a new feature that’ll give its groups and events pages the option to live stream. The “Live Group” feature allows users to broadcast video to other members of the group – and to only those members. Similarly, the live video feature for events lets users live stream video, ostensibly from the even itself, to share with those who can’t make it. Facebook insists its live streaming video feature is helping people connect in new ways, though these two new updates arguably expand Facebook’s role and potential in business-related communication and networking, such holding group meetings across remote offices, or broadcasting special concerts, or hold-

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ing a Q&A session between a celebrity and his or her Facebook followers. Facebook is also quickly expanding to territories formerly held by Periscope and Snapchat, even Skype. It has introduced a live reaction feature that lets broadcasters see followers’ reactions in real time, something akin to the large hearts followers can send on Periscope. Facebook said it’s also working on live filters, enabling users to apply more production creativity to their live videos, just like Snapchat does. Facebook is actively looking to take market share from Periscope, Snapchat, YouTube and Twitch in the realm of live Web broadcasts. Facebook is pushing its new live features by paying a select group of content creators – specifically news outlets – for creating live video content using its platform. That’ll help ensure Facebooks live content is a cut above the sea of selfie streams that have inundated the Web over the last year, and it’ll give mobile users another reason to keep their eyes on the smartphone screen. Return to headlines

Yahoo Adds MLB to Its Yahoo and Major League Baseball (MLB) have teamed up to stream full Growing Coffer of Live Sports live baseball games to Internet users for free for the 2016 season. MLB deal joins similar streaming deals with NHL, PGA and NBA over the last year. Yahoo will stream one baseball game per day for the remainder of the regular season, totaling 180 MLB games – but the live streams will only be available to viewers outside the games’ markets. Return to headlines

UK’s Channel 4 Now Offering UK broadcaster Channel 4 has added live streams of its linear TV channels to Live TV on Android Apps its mobile app for Android devices. Android users will now be able to stream live programming on their mobile devices using the All 4 app, in addition to on- demand libraries of content. iOS users have been able to stream live TV on their mobile phones since last year. Return to headlines

TV Channels Going OTT on AIS, a Thai mobile operator with nearly 40 million mobile subscribers has AIS Platforms brought five new TV channels to its Playbox OTT service and Play mobile app. As a promotion of the launch all of the channels will be available for a three- month trial period. The children’s channels, Toonami and Boomerang will be included in the AIS mobile subscription for all subscribers while Warner TV, World Heritage Channel and HLN will require an additional fee for access. Return to headlines

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BROADBAND BEAT

AT&T’s Dual Broadband AT&T’s broadband strategy is becoming visible. It will build all-fiber net- Strategy works to standalone residential phones, especially in areas where Google Fiber is already or is planning to operate. AT&T will probably install fiber to MDUs and use distribution points to connect residents and offices over existing copperwires with G.fast broadband technology. The “probably” is because AT&T has not yet a) tested G.fast in the field and b) has not committed to G.fast. Return to headlines

Rivals Are Emerging to BT’s The UK’s Gigaclear, which builds fiber networks in villages in rural areas, ‘Fiber’ Network has a fundraising campaign that is backed by Neil Woodford and Prudential’s Infracapital infrastructure group. About £24 million has been raised so far. Gi- gaclear plans to build 130 all-fiber networks, each covering one or two villages by the end of 2016. Gigaclear has direct rivals. CityFibre recently acquired a national fiber network from KCom for £90 million and raised £180 million to build a network that will cover about 20% of the UK. Virgin Media, the UK’s main cableco, is investing £3 billion to extend its network to two-thirds of the UK.

BT Is Not the UK’s Only Fiber Network Gigaclear Plans to build about 130 fiber networks in rural villages CityFibre Plans to cover about 20% of UK and has already bought KCom Virgin Media Spending £3 billion to cover about two-thirds of UK

Gigaclear CEO Matthew Hare said the time is right for the emergence of broadband providers that can challenge BT’s dominant network, which provides about 80% of the UK’s broadband connections through its own retail operations and, by government mandated fixed prices, also through resellers that also use BT’s network. Ofcom, the UK’s telecoms regulatory agency, is encouraging competition to BT by BT rivals to use BT’s ducts and poles to build their own networks. Hare said, “The political environment is very favorable. The government now recog- nizes the need for an ultrafast future.” CityFibre CEO Greg Mesch said CityFibre would be one of the biggest users of BTs ducts and poles and is already working with BT on their first trial. Mesch thinks that this can reduce the costs of building all-fiber networks by 25– 30%.

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This brings up once again BT’s incorrect definition of what a fiber network is. BT calls it a fiber network when it installs fiber to a cabinet in a neighborhood and uses existing copperwires to connect the cabinet to residences. By that definition, about 90% of the homes in the UK have access to a fiber network. BT is testing a new copperwire technology called G.fast that currently has speeds up to 300-400 Mbps, depending on the length of the copperwire. G.fast backers say it could ultimately provide speeds up to the magical gigabyte speed. BT should describe its network not by what some type of wire its network uses but by the actual speeds that homes can get.

Return to headlines

Misleading Broadband It’s a shame when businesses abuse their power in such a way as to force Marketing Leads FCC to the government to take steps to regulate their businesses – but it happens Propose Nutrition-like Labels frequently. The FCC receives more than 2,000 complaints each year about surprise fees in consumers’ broadband service bills, which considering American’s reluc- tance to make the effort to complain formally, probably means there are 10-12 times as many. The FCC this week said it has recommended new “labels” for broadband services that will help consumers know what they are signing up for in prices, performance levels and data caps. The “labels” look like the very useful nutrition labels that the Food and Drug Agency (FDA) makes food makers put on their products. The FCC’s “labels” are a recommendation for now by continued misleading advertising by broadband services will ultimately force the FCC to make them mandatory. The FCC said the broadband labels could be displayed at the point of sale for equipment that needs a broadband connection such as PCs, smartphones and tablets. FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said, “These labels provide consumers clarity about the broadband service they are purchasing, not only helping them to make more informed choices, but also preventing surprises when the first bill arrives.”

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“Fixed broadband.”

Wireline Broadband “Nutrition” Label

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“Mobile broadband.”

Mobile Broadband “Nutrition” Label

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The Wall Street Journal reported that people in the broadband industry do not expect the labels to have much impact, in part because, they said, the industry already discloses the information of the labels – albeit in different formats. That is the kind of attitude that will force the FCC to ramp up the labels from volun- tary to mandatory. Publicly the industry showed a different attitude. The cablecos’ lobbying arm, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, said, “In today’s competitive marketplace, cable Internet providers are committed to providing consumers with accessible and relevant information about broadband services,” then added that it appreciated “this contribution by the FCC to offer consumers that same information in a format [food labels] they are familiar with.” Last year the FCC enacted net neutrality rules that require broadband providers to treat all Internet traffic the same – so as to prevent it from imposing caps on a third-party OTT service but not for its own OTT service. Those rules require broadband service providers to be transparent about pricing and service information and make it available to consumers in a clear and easy-to-find way. Return to headlines

HOME NETWORKING

Brocade Dives into the Wi-Fi Network equipment maker Brocade Communications, which competes Market by Acquiring Ruckus against the giant Cisco and others, will acquire Wi-Fi equipment maker Ruckus Wireless Wireless for about $1.2 billion to expand its Wi-Fi offerings. Ruckus makes - Deal May Attract Other heavy-duty, super-charged Wi-Fi gear that is used in public places such as air- Suitors – Like Cisco, Juniper, ports and by corporates. Brocade CEO Lloyd Carney said the acquisition is be- HPE, Nokia, Ericsson ing made to compete against other network equipment makers that also offer Wi -Fi gear. It shows the importance of Wi-Fi, not just as home network for connecting smartphones, but also to corporates, retailers and operators of public areas. Ruckus CEO Selena Lo will continue to lead the Ruckus organization and report directly to Carney. The deal is expected to close in Q3 2016. The deal to acquire Ruckus Wireless, a highly thought and maker of industrial -strength Wi-Fi gear, may appeal to other makers of network gear – Cisco, Nokia, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, CommScope, Juniper Networks, IBM and Ericsson come immediately to mind – companies that want to get a leg up on one of Wi-Fi’s fastest growing sectors. The prospects to buy Ruckus’ carrier- grade Wi-Fi gear include every shopping center, every major retailer, every eat- ery, every airport or public transportation depot, stadiums, every office com- plex, every factory, every public park and many others. With the recent major

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improvements to Wi-Fi technology, most of them will also be candidates to upgrade their Wi-Fi gear every few years. Telcos, cablecos and others, such as Google, that want to sell their Wi-Fi services commercially will be candidates to buy Ruckus’s Wi-Fi gear and other network equipment in large quantities. The CEOs of each company lauded the joint strengths and opportunities of the combined companies. Ruckus’ Lo said, “We operate in adjacent segments of the larger networking market with a number of common customers for our complementary products, and have a successful track record of working together.” Brocade’s Carney said, “This strategic combination will position us to expand our addressable market and technology leadership with Ruckus’ fast-growing wireless LAN products, and supports our vision to deliver market-leading new IP solutions that enable the network to become a platform for innovation. We believe that combining our portfolios will provide significant benefits to our customers and will enable us to accelerate our growth and value creation.” That is unless a bigger fish has a different idea and decides it wants to gobble up Ruckus Wireless! Return to headlines

HomeGrid Forum Prez to Talk We’d rather see new reports of wins at service providers and makers of net- about Guaranteed work equipment. Interoperability & Speeds at The HomeGrid Forum (HGF) president Donna Yasay will be at the CTA CTA Event Technology & Standards Forum in San Diego this week to discuss how best to develop industry standards and shape the future of consumer technology. HomeGrid Forum is the industry group set up to achieve these objectives for G.hn and all its members are developing G.hn technologies. Yasay will speak about how G.hn devices certified by HomeGrid Forum offer significant improvements to customers such as: - Guaranteed interoperability between products that have G.hn chipsets from different G.hn chipmakers - Guaranteed speeds between different devices Yasay said most standards bodies do not address those matters. Yasay said, “Our goal is to bring the benefits of the carrier influence on G.hn to the retail market.” The Forum said that with US shipments of 4K TV sets having reached four million by the end of 2015, more than 200% up on the previous year according to the Consumer Electronics Association, the need for cohesive industry

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standards for wireless video delivery is strong. Yasay said, “G.hn has become the backbone technology that allows reliable, high-speed video delivery throughout the home, coupled with the convenience of consumer-friendly wireless attachment.” She added, “G.hn was originally targeted at the carrier market where consistent, reliable performance is key. Our goal now is to bring the benefits of this carrier influence to the retail market. We are very pleased to be attending CTA for the first time and I am excited to give my report on the excellent work HomeGrid Forum has been doing on G.hn technology. HomeGrid Forum certification will ensure high quality video and wireless communications for the consumer technology sector.”

Change of Strategy? It sounds as if HomeGrid Forum members have reduced their expectations of landing deals with multiple service providers, a market where MoCA’s coax technology is king except for many telcos who have increasingly looked like they are planning to use Wi-Fi to stream TV channels from a whole home DVR to multiple TVs around the home. Instead it appears that HGF members have decided to focus on the retail market where HomePlug powerline dominates. However, we haven’t seen much G.hn activity there although G.hn can enable network adapters to use either the home’s coax or powerline wires. As we have repeatedly reported, homes increasingly have a Wi-Fi problem – caused by more mobile devices and more video streams, especially 4K streams. The Wi-Fi problem could be fixed in many cases by newer, better Wi-Fi routers but it’s likely that over 50% of standalone homes that are larger than 1,500 square feet will need one or more wireline-to-Wi-Fi adapters. Powerline adapters are the easiest to use because every room, even the bathroom, in every home has an AC outlet. G.hn adapters can do that. They can also use the coax outlet in homes that have a telco’s pay TV service. So, what’s the holdup? Return to headlines

SET- & NET-TOP BOXES

AirTies to Offer Future-Proof Turkey-based AirTies, already a successful STB maker in many parts of the STB in the States world, now has its sights set on North America. It has an AirTies 7405 IP video set-top that it has been selling to European cablecos as a future proof IPTV/ OTT solution that it may soon start offering in the States, as shown by a recent FCC test report. The STB supports HEVC and has a Zigbee chip from Green Peak Technologies. AirTies got its first US order from Sioux Falls, SD-based Midcontinent Communications for the AirTies 4920 box.

Return to headlines

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If you are in the TV or broadband business, please consider these points:

- HDR is supposed to make a bigger improvement to a TV set’s picture quality than 4K.

- Content producers are reportedly more receptive to using HDR than they were to 4K.

- HDR could also improve the video quality of the bandwidth limited cellular and wireline pay TV services.

- No one in the digital media industry can afford to risk not being up-to- date on HDR and its implications.

- That’s is the purpose of the Rider Research report “4K and HDR: A Match Made in Heaven, or Rival Technologies?” Here’s an excerpt: While the TV set makers have declared 4K resolution to be the next major improvement in TV displays, the content producers have proclaimed high dynamic range (HDR) as the next major image technology to be developed – eclipsing 4K UHD resolutions as a better picture enhancer, and giving viewers the most realistic picture that’s ever been available in the home. When added together, 4K resolution and HDR-mastered content gives the viewer the most realistic picture that’s ever been seen inside the home. There are three ways to make a better picture: more pixels, which gives the image greater spatial resolution; faster pixels, meaning more pictures per unit of time, which helps with motion blur on the screen; and more colorful pixels, meaning darks blacks, brighter whites, and more subtlety in the range of colors available. That’s when HDR enters the scene. HDR is a technology that ad- dresses the amount of contrast in a picture, though the term now is often used to lump together a suite of enhanced picture features, including wide color gamut, 10-bit color depth, and screen brightness, all which come together to develop “better pixels” that, when displayed on a 4K TV set, deliver a truly next generation experience. HDR is being heralded as the next major evolution in television viewing, the most significant upgrade in image quality since making the switch from black-and-white to color TV. And HDR, when combined with a sharp 4K image resolution, delivers an impactful visual punch to the viewer, making the images on the screen appear more realistic and life-like than we’ve ever seen on the living room TV set.

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HDR is the latest image technology used to make an image look more life-like. Video standards bodies such as the CTA (formerly CEA), SMPTE, ITU and UHD Alliance have all begun incorporating HDR into their video standards. Pat Griffis, executive director of technology strategy at Dolby Labs, said, “Our ultimate goal is to represent reality, like looking out a window. Getting closer and closer to reality that we see with our eyes every day is one of the technical challenges we’ve been working on. We’ve made a lot of improvements.” “Mark Stockfisch, CTO of video test equipment manufacturer Quantum Data, said, “Some people were saying, ‘I can’t really see the difference between HDTV and UHDTV.’ It seemed like there needed to be something else there to help it. With HDR, you turn the contrast way up, you turn the light level way up, so you can watch ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ and get a sun tan.” The report explores UHD’s latest must-see imaging technologies that are used to deliver the next evolution of TV, including HDR and wide color gamut. It looks at definitions and specifications across the major industry bodies and serves as an overview of the relevant content producers and device makers that are now incorporating UHD HDR into their products and releases. The Table of Contents: Chapter 1: 4K and HDR: A Match Made in Heaven Chapter 2: HDR Standards and Solutions Chapter 3: Content and Delivery Chapter 4: UHD HDR Devices and TV Sets Chapter 5: Next Up: Broadcast in HDR To order: 1) please download and return this for and e-mail to [email protected] or 2) Order through our PayPal payment processing link (you don’t need to be a member, all major credit cards accepted – please follow the steps – it will give you a prompt enabling payment by credit card): For more information and to receive extracts, email [email protected] or [email protected]

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WIRELESS BROADBAND

Microsoft’s Build Is Silent on Windows Phone’s biggest contribution to the hi-tech industry will be a prov- Smartphones; Got Scarcely a ing ground for some of the more distinctive features of Windows 10, such as the Mention user interface and the Cortana virtual assistant. But you wouldn’t have known - Bots Are the New Mobile that from Microsoft’s Build developer event this week, at which its mobile op- Focus erating system, and indeed smartphones in general, got scarcely a mention. - Mobile Market Remains a It is fair enough for Microsoft to concentrate its initial W10 efforts, as Win- Black Hole dows chief Terry Myerson explained, on its more established developer com- - Ballmer’s Tactic of Buying munities outside the mobile world where it has consistently failed to get estab- Nokia to Create Integrated lished. But that does raise question marks over its whole mobile strategy, at a Hardware/OS Products Was time when more and more computing and media activity takes place on small a Disaster screens. CEO Satya Nadella is not doing his company any favors by avoiding the issue. When he first took the reins, his ‘cloud first, mobile first’ mantra seemed clear – increasingly the mobile element would not be about Microsoft devices, or even Windows, but about delivering Microsoft services to all kinds of handheld platforms from the cloud. That eminently logical strategy has been muddied in the execution. This has been partly because of the presence of the former Nokia devices business, an aberration in Microsoft terms, but one which Nadella has not had the courage to kill completely. It has also been because of the need to create at least a chance for W10 to succeed on mobile devices and apps. If it does not, it will have no chance of ubiquity – dominating PCs and failing on handsets was not a major problem a decade ago, but now the small screen is the primary one, an OS either needs to span smartphones as well as PCs and TVs, or it will become a niche system (in W10’s case for a dwindling base of PCs, and for tablets and Xbox).

Niche Does Not Work for Microsoft’s Business Model Niche does not work for Microsoft’s business model, or at least, it consigns Windows, and all the billions which have gone into making W10 a credible platform, to a “one among many” status. Microsoft has faced a stark choice for years – forget Windows and become a cloud provider to multiple Oss (probably Nadella’s instinct, but still a painful wrench with the company’s roots), or have a last attempt to have a ubiquitous OS again. That looked bleak with Windows 8, but more hopeful with W10, at least in terms of the unlooked-for creativity which has attended it, from its new features (browser, Cortana, multi-platform tools and so on) to its flexible licensing terms (increased open source usage, no fees on smaller devices – surely eventually leading to a free OS everywhere). But the mobile market remains a black hole. W10 is making progress on tab-

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lets but not smartphones, and former CEO Steve Ballmer’s tactic of buying Nokia to create integrated hardware/OS products was a disaster. Xbox – whose app store will be fully unified with that of Windows this year, Microsoft announced at Build – is the only successful integrated offering, but it launched into a market with just a few rivals, all closed platforms, not a seething mass of gadgets, most of them running an open OS. Yet the lack of attention to the mobile implementation of W10 at Build raised the fear that, for all its advantages, the new OS will fail to become universal because of continuing issues on smartphones. Microsoft will have to fall back on the “jam tomorrow” approach which has bedeviled its mobile efforts since the first days of PocketPC at the start of the century. This has relied on sitting out the current round of mobile platforms in the hope of stealing a march on rivals in the next generation. So Nadella’s most eye-catching message at Build “Nadella succeeded in in- 2016 was to redefine the mobile market around bots. Subliminally, Microsoft spiring Build attendees seemed to be saying they had missed smartphones, but there would be several with the vision that the new waves of devices which would require operating systems, connectivity, next mobile genera-tion apps and cloud services for the first time, and here the playing field might be will be about AI, and Mi- more level. That is an argument that everyone is using, hoping to pre-empt An- crosoft will gain mobile droid and iOS in cars, smart TVs, wearables and home appliances. Microsoft is relevance by taking a going a step further by focusing on the generation after that – the AI-enabled lead there, harnessing fu- connected device, notably the bot. ture evolutions of key Bots: a Step Ahead technologies like Cortana, backed by its increasingly Despite the fiasco of Microsoft’s foul-mouthed teenage bot Tay, Nadella suc- sophisticated machine ceeded in inspiring Build attendees with the vision that the next mobile genera- learning engine.” tion will be about AI, and Microsoft will gain mobile relevance by taking a lead there, harnessing future evolutions of key technologies like Cortana, backed by its increasingly sophisticated machine learning engine. Nadella outlined how bots and machine learning will create a new “distributed computing fabric,” with the bots acting as “the new applications for every business and every service,” living within other services and carrying out tasks such as delivering goods, as instructed by Cortana. All Microsoft’s big rivals are working on bot platforms and AI engines, but Nadella claims his firm is a step ahead in equip- ping today’s developers with practical tools. Microsoft unveiled a new bot framework that includes access to 22 APIs for enabling key elements of bots such as visual processing, speech recognition, knowledge base and search capabilities, and other forms of machine learning – all, of course, powered by the Azure cloud. The firm’s first bot platform will be Skype, which will become more productive by harnessing the enhanced Cortana Intelligence Suite, com- municating with semi-smart bots. There are two problems with this thinking. One is that, logically, these bot

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platforms will address any embedded device and OS that a user may have, which does not help Windows. The second is that “jam tomorrow” still means “never jam today.” There will be a long wait for wearables, let alone bots, to have the mass of installed base, and the importance in people’s daily activities, that smartphones currently have. Smartphone growth may be slowing, but as with the PC, maturity takes a very long time to turn into irrelevance. Device and chipmakers eye high growth segments, but Oss and developers require installed base for their power – and that takes years to build. Other mobile form factors will appear to re-energize the smartphone, and if W10 is not well established on the handset, it will be at a disadvantage in pene- trating the supply chains of those emerging products. For the foreseeable future, its progress on tablets, which despite their large screens are tightly tied to the mobile device ecosystem, will be a more powerful lever than being a technical “We’re fully committed to frontrunner in bots. that four-inch screen. Microsoft Not Giving up on Windows 10 There will be a time for it to be our focus, but right Myerson insists Microsoft is not giving up on mobile W10. He told The now it’s part of the family Verge: “We’re fully committed to that four-inch screen. There will be a time for but it’s not the core of it to be our focus, but right now it’s part of the family but it’s not the core of where I hope to generate where I hope to generate developer interest over the next year … For our plat- developer interest over form it’s the wrong place for us to lead.” the next year … For our He added: “If you wanted to reach a lot of phone customers, Windows Phone plat-form it’s the wrong isn’t the way to do it. If you want to reach a lot of Windows customers, then this place for us to lead.” is the largest installed base of 9-30 inch screens. If you wanted to do new and exciting things, then the Xbox and HoloLens [Microsoft’s VR headset] are the places to have a discussion.” It seems unlikely this situation is going to change, with mobile W10 squeezed between the comfort zones of PCs and tablets, and the emerging opportunities in media devices, virtual reality and bots. At least Nadella has credible fallback options, though perhaps he should be more open about discussing them. Cloud services, increasingly AI-enabled, delivered to any number of operating systems and devices, is a tough road because of the presence of Amazon, Facebook and Google, but Microsoft has key strengths. And it is already reaching out to other platforms – with its purchase of the Xamarin multiplatform developer framework; with the release of key apps like mobile Office on iOS before Windows; with the port of Cortana to Linux and the collaboration with Android system Cyanogen; with other moves to support Linux Oss within W10. At Build, Microsoft announced that it will support Ubuntu and the Bash com- mand line inside W10, the latest move in Nadella’s overall strategy, as outlined

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in a corporate memo last year – to “build best-in-class platforms and productivi- ty services … and harmonize the interests of end users, developers and IT better than any competing ecosystem or platform.” Bash, which is standard on OS X and several Linux distributions, will now run on Windows 10 natively without virtualization or containers, alongside Windows scripts. This will make it easier for developers to create multiplatform, multiscreen apps and reflects the fact that Ubuntu is the most popular Linux variant on Azure. Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu organization Canonical and a long-time Microsoft challenger, said: “The native availability of a full Ubuntu environment on Windows, without virtualization or emulation, is a milestone that defies convention.” This was, for many developers, the highlight of this year’s Build, and it is all about allowing W10 to live in a multi-OS world. In mobile, that is more likely to mean a Windows-free world – but at least, with these new moves from native Bash to bots, Microsoft is building itself a credible survival plan in that world. This appeared in Wireless Watch. Return to headlines

FCC Chairman: Netflix Did FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Netflix did not violate the FCC’s network Not Violate FCC’s Net neutrality rules by slowing its video to the subscribers of some wireless carriers, Neutrality Rules specifically AT&T and Verizon. Asked about the matter after the FCC’s March 31 public meeting, Wheeler said, “It is outside of our jurisdiction. It is not an open Internet issue, what they are doing. I am going to leave it at that.” Wheeler did say the FCC will continue to examine cellular services’ data caps, which is why Netflix said it throttled the video streams to subscribers to Verizon and AT&T rather than force them to unknowingly paying more each month. Wheeler said, “We have been looking at zero rating caps. I don’t know whether it means more closely following Netflix’s admission. It is not a new topic for us. That’s for sure.” He said the FCC examinations of data caps are still underway. Return to headlines

Sprint Offers Unlimited Data There is more than one way to get around data caps, which the FCC is deter- to Its Subscribers to Amazon mined to abolish, and the workarounds are free market driven. Prime for $11/month For $11 a month, existing and new Sprint subscribers can get unlimited use of their data plans to stream Amazon Prime video and music content plus receive two-day shipping on many items they purchase from Amazon. Also included is Amazon’s Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, unlimited photo storage and early access to Amazon discounted Lightning Deals. And they get a month-

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to-month deal. Amazon Prime membership is available directly from Amazon for $99 a year. Jeff Blackburn, SVP at Amazon business development, said, “We know customers love shopping on their mobile devices and having access to entertainment at their fingertips while on the go or at home—so we’re excited to team up with Sprint to introduce this special Prime offer. With the convenience of Ama- zon Prime, Sprint customers can enjoy popular movies and TV shows, including award-winning Amazon Originals like ‘Mozart in the Jungle,’ ‘Transparent’ and ‘Tumble Leaf,’ and access to more than a thousand Prime Playlists or Sta- tions with Prime Music.” Sprint CEO said, “Amazon Prime is another example of the innovative options that Sprint delivers every day to its customers. With this monthly add-on, Sprint customers will have great flexibility and will have the opportunity to easily access Amazon’s full entertainment package on America’s fastest LTE network.” Return to headlines

LIES, DAMN LIES & STATISTICS

Internet TV Will Account for A decade ago The Online Reporter raised the specter (to pay TV service and 38% of Viewing Time by 2025 broadcasters) that broadband had the potential to replace legacy TV viewing. The advent of DVRs, TV Everywhere and pay TV’s VoD offerings have only - Twitter’s Deal to Stream NFL Games May Accelerate delayed the inevitable. Broadband delivered videos the Net is better than linear Move to Internet TV TV in every way – such as watch anywhere, at any time and on any device. For some time it was thought that pay and broadcast TV would always hold a mo- - Linear TV Drops to 53% of nopoly on live performances such as sports, news and weather. Led by Peri- Viewing Time by 2025 scope, that illusion has been shattered and Facebook, Google, Twitter and others are giving thought to the crown jewels of live TV – professional football/ soccer games in North America and Europe.

The Diffusion Group (TDG) has produced what it calls a “groundbreaking study” that details continuing shift from legacy TV to broadband video sources over the next decade. It said broadband video will grow from 17% of total viewing minutes in 2015 to 38% by 2025, up 81%, while legacy TV will decline from 80% of total viewing minutes to 53%, down 34%. Joel Espelien, a TDG senior analyst and author of the report, “The Future of TV Viewing, 2016-2025,” said, “Professionally-produced, TV-quality video is now accessible from a widening array of sources and services, in virtually any

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context, and on multiple devices. Though [pay TV] operators and [TV] networks are now aware of these trends, few have any idea what they mean for the future of TV viewing – that is, the extent to and rate at which they will redefine the viewing mix in the next decade.”

“There are few, if any, serious efforts to quan-tify how these trends will impact video viewing time Espelien also said, “We are now squarely in the era of quantum media, a fu- over the next decade.” ture TDG first described in 2006 and forecast would come to pass by 2015. And while its influence is now undeniable – simply look at the number of public data points for cross-platform viewing – there are few, if any, serious efforts to quan- tify how these trends will impact video viewing time over the next decade.” The report offers a detailed analysis of and forecasts for video viewing during the next decade, by source (legacy TV, TV Everywhere, and broadband video), by service (broadcast TV, tier-1 and tier 2 pay-TV, TV Everywhere, “Big Four” SVOD, direct-to-consumer SVOD, direct-to-consumer AVOD), by device (smart TV, PC, tablet, smartphone, game console, dedicated streaming device), and by age cohort.

Millennials Changing the Way Sports Teams Interact with Fans The Online Reporter thinks TDG’s forecast is right from a trend standpoint but that the percentage of linear TV viewing is overstated. Once the “live” bar- rier is broken, especially for live sports, the floodgates will open for broadband delivered TV. It’s only the “legacy contracts” for content that legacy TV owns that is holding the floodwaters back. Many of those content owners, such a major sports leagues, are now realizing that keeping their content off broadband, especially mobile broadband, is holding back the growth of their sports by reducing the number of possible viewers. Those two trends – live streaming of major sports events and legacy TV’s

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loss of long term content contracts – are evidenced this week by Twitter obtain- ing the global rights to stream 10 of the National Football League’s Thursday night games for which it paid about $10 million. The games that Twitter will stream will also be broadcast by NBC and CBS, which are available for free from local TV stations – plus simulcast on pay TV’s NFL Network. The NFL emphasized that the 10 games will be available on free broadcast TV, pay TV and the Net (often referred to as Internet TV or broadband TV). Because of pressure from Congress and the FCC, the NFL is quite sensitive to offering games that are not universally available – although it does with games on ESPN that are only available to pay TV subscribers. The NFL’s move has a profit motive. Adding an Internet TV service such as Twitter as one of its distributors is an effort by the NFL to make its games and its advertisers’ ads available to a wider audience – and to attract more millennials as fans so as to avoid American baseball’s decline in popularity compared to American football. “If you want a sobering experience, walk around a college dorm. They don’t have TVs anymore. They graduate from college, and they replicate their dorm experience in a rental apartment. They’re not signing up for cable,” said Ted Leonsis, the owner of the Washington DC professional basketball and hockey teams on Fox Business News channel. He said Millennials are changing the way sports teams interact with fans when asked to comment on the deal Twitter has with the NFL to stream 10 Thursday Night Football games this fall. He said he believes sports remain the biggest draw for live audiences, but younger consumers are looking for more ways to watch. Return to headlines

In researching Bell Canada for a story on its new G.hn powerline adapters, we Bell Canada’s Broadband came across BC’s broadband offerings, which are quite interesting. Here are the Speeds rates and speeds BC offers in Toronto. Speed Monthly rate in C$ in US$ Up to 15 Mbps $64.95 $50 Up to 25 Mbps $69.95 $53 Up to 50 Mbps $79.95 $61 Up to 150 Mbps $89.95 $69 Up to 300 Mbps $99.95 $76 Up to 940 Mbps $149.95 * Plans include installation, Wi-Fi, McAfee Security and eMail. There are data caps but unlimited usage is available for C$10 more per month. See: http://www.bell.ca/Bell_Internet/Internet_access

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The Loonie

And, yes, the Canadian dollar, the Loonie, which was once worth more than the US dollar is worth significantly less that the US dollar, which helps Canadi- an exporters but hurts Canadians that like to purchase in the States. Return to headlines

4K Sets Will Be in 23.8% of We don’t hear much these days from the so-called “experts” that were very World’s Residences This Year vocal 4K naysayers, do we. They were unable to see what was obvious to 4K – 53m Sets believers: -Where Did All Those 4K - The prices of 4K TVs were going to drop enormously to mass market levels. Naysaying ‘Experts’ Go? - 4K content would come quickly – although almost entirely from OTT ser- -‘Norm’ Size May Be as Large vices rather than traditional linear TV sources. There’s now even a 4K-only as 65-inches OTT service! - Upconversion of 1080p and lesser resolutions to near 4K quality is built into every popular 4K set. - When people watch TV, they want the best video quality available – and today that’s 4K. And so, as a result and despite the many naysayers’ wrong predictions, almost a quarter of the world’s population will own a 4K TV set by the end of 2016, according to Trendforce. Specifically it predicted that 23.8% of TV households around the world will own a 4K set by the end of the year, up from 13.7% in 2015. It said 4K TVs that are 50-inches and larger have become more desirable for both first-time buyers and families looking to replace their older TV sets, as well as with those wanting to upgrade to 4K. It predicts that global shipments of 4K TVs will total around 53 million sets this year. Chinese consumers, who can select from a plethora of low-cost 4K sets, are

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leading the world’s 4K charge. Trendforce said Chinese setmakers such as Xia- omi and LeEco (née LeTV), are using the Net to sell 4K sets by selling high performance 4K sets that are economically priced and multi-functional. One thing that has emerged is that 65-inch sets have become more affordable in Chi- na. LeEco, in which CE maker TCL has made an investment, is using TCL’s expertise to help expand into other countries. For its part, Xiaomi will shortly begin selling two of its 4K TV sets in South Korea, the home of the world’s two largest makers of TV sets. Which raises the question: will the 4K momentum that’s occurring in China knock Samsung out of its position as world’s largest maker of TV set? Two years ago The Online Reporter predicted that 55-inch sets would become “As LCD TVs get larger in the norm for 4K sets, up from the norm of 42-inch sizes in 1080p HD sets. size, panel manufacturers That’s because the same size viewing room can see a larger 4K TV better at a in the upstream of the closer range than the same size HD set. The norm for 4K may be larger than we supply chain will capital- thought, perhaps as much as 65-inches. ize on this trend and ex- Trendforce predicts that the market share of LCD TVs that are 50-inches and pand the size of their pan- larger from 15 largest makers of LCD TVs will be 19.4% in 2016 – and that el products to increase will become the major battleground for setmakers, causing them to lower the the consumption of panel prices of TV set that are 50-inches and larger. capacity. Furthermore, In- 4K resolution is driving the sales of large-size LCD TVs. Ricky Lin, research ternet brands in China are manager for WitsView (which Trendforce owns), said, “As LCD TVs get larger offering large-size LCD in size, panel manufacturers in the upstream of the supply chain will capitalize TVs with high cost- on this trend and expand the size of their panel products to increase the con- performance ratios. sumption of panel capacity. Furthermore, Internet brands in China are offering These products have been large-size LCD TVs with high cost-performance ratios. These products have well-received by domestic been well-received by domestic consumers.” consumers.” WitsView predicted that as 4K video content improves and becomes more available, North America is likely to join China as another fiercely contested market for competing LCD TV brands. It leaves unanswered the question of whether that surge in North America will carry Chinese setmakers to the top in market share in North America.

A Personal PS We have been considering buying a new 4K set – a 65-inch model to replace the Samsung 55-inch set that will be two years old in June. The reason is that we want one that has HDR, immersive audio and wide color gamut – the UHD Alliance’s full Ultra HD Premium. We’ve been waiting for their prices to become “mass market,” which we think is below $1,500. Those prices are not here, yet. When we pull the trigger, it’ll probably be for a 65-inch set, which we think we can squeeze into the space that we have. It is interesting how 4K can motivate consumers to buy larger TVs than the 1080p sets they have.

Return to headlines

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Average Viewers Age: Fans of traditional professional sports are aging. Major League Baseball - 53 NFL - 47 National Basketball Association - 37

Compare that to the average age of Internet apps such as Facebook. Return to headlines 3m French Viewers Watch Three million French viewers aged 15 and up now watch Internet TV daily, Internet TV Daily according to a study from Médiamétrie. It found these viewers average one hour 40 minutes per day on PCs and mobile viewing devices. Most Internet video viewing occurs on PCs, though tablet viewing saw a 36% increase in term of view time over last year, according to the study. Younger viewers watch more Internet TV than other age groups. Eleven per- cent of viewers in the 15-24 demo watch Internet TV daily, the study said. Overall, eight out of 10 French viewers watch traditional linear TV daily. Return to headlines

Viewers Worldwide Turn to Viewers around the world are increasingly turning to their smaller personal Mobile Screens as TV viewing screens to watch video content, according to Eurodata TV Worldwide Replacements research. Two trends are driving this shift: increase penetration of mobile devices, and increasing access to premium video content online. Daily linear TV viewing averaged three hours 15 minutes globally among viewers in 2015, down three minutes over 2014’s averages. But time-shifted viewing increased 15 minutes per day on average across the world during the same period, according to the study. “The theme of this new TV season will be diversification: diversification of distribution, of technology, of content and creative centers,” said Sahar Baghery, head of global research and content strategy at Eurodata TV World- wide. “We now order our TV à la carte and from a vast menu!” Return to headlines

Connected TV Usage Grows Data from Nielsen’s Q4 2015 Total Viewing Report has found that viewing 66% in One Year on connected TV devices has grown 66% year-over-year in Q4 2015 to an average of one hour and 27 minutes per week and young viewers’ usage had the biggest increase. The report found that viewers ages 11 to 17 now watch over an hour of connected TV a week in Q4 2015 as opposed to 30 minutes a week during the same time frame last year. Meanwhile this same demographic of youngsters are watching 15% less line-

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ar TV year-over-year and 9% less time-shifted TV via DVR. On the other hand, older demographics are viewing more time-shifted TV year-over-year as DVR usage by viewers over 65 increased 15% year-over-year to four hours and nine minutes per week. Those 50 to 64 and over 65 together increased linear viewing time by 1.3% but linear viewing still dropped overall in Q4 by 2.5%. Overall there is still a strong trend of young viewers moving away from all traditional TV viewing both linear and time-shifted and the changing landscape of TV viewing is evidence that the change looks to be permanent. Return to headlines

YouTube Channel According to data from analytics site VidStatsx YouTube now has 2,000 Subscribers Growing Rapidly channels with over one million subscribers. Although most consider view time as more indicative of success in the digital video space the amount of channels with over a million subscribers shows just how much YouTube has grown since its start in 2005 and how rapidly online video has grown just in the past year. In 2010 YouTube had just five channels surpassing the one million subscriber mark, in 2012 there were 68 channels meeting the milestone, in 2014 the figure climbed to 594 and in just the past year over 850 channels have earned over one million subscribers. The rapid growth of “YouTube Millionaires” this year shows that Internet video has become a huge part of the overall video landscape and that viewing habits are changing rapidly just as the video landscape is.

Return to headlines

DIGIGRAMS

Wowza Goes into the Lion’s Wowza Media Systems, which calls itself “the leader in streaming software Den at NAB and cloud services that simplify high-quality video and audio streaming for or- ganizations worldwide,” is going in to the lions’ den by exhibiting at NAB 2016. Live streaming is the direct competitor to broadcast TV – although TV stations and networks could use live streaming to supplement their linear broadcasts. One of Wowza’s strengths, it says, is “live broadcasting made easy,” the difference is that its technology allows video streams to be sent over the Net to any Internet connected device, whether a smartphone or TV set. Return to headlines

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Xiaomi Goes into Lion’s Den Here’s another case of going into the lion’s den – a Chinese set maker going to Sell Its 4K TV Sets - South in to South Korea to sell TV sets. Xiaomi, the Chinese CE maker that has shak- Korea en up the Asian markets, has a new 4K TV that uses Samsung’s 4K curved panels. KomaTrade, the South Korean distributor of Xiaomi products says it will start selling Xiaomi’s 70-inch 4K MiTV3, and the 65-inch curved MiTV3S in Korea. Pricing and availability details are not yet announced but here’s bet- ting its prices will be very competitive to Samsung’s and LG’s. A perfect example of “taking coals to Newcastle!” Return to headlines

Marvell’s Board Fires CEO The board of Marvell Technology has terminated the company’s CEO Sehat and President Sutardja and its president Weili Dai, the husband-and-wife team that founded and ran the company for twenty years. They did not resign as some earlier reports suggested. Marvell is perhaps the major maker of G.hn chips and a major maker of Wi-Fi chips. In March Marvell said that an internal investigation had uncovered accounting issues. Sutardja remains the board chairman and Dai will stay on the board. The board has assigned management responsibilities to a new six-member office of the CEO, which will be led by EVPs Maya Strelar-Migotti and Pantelis Alexopoulos until a permanent CEO is appointed. Return to headlines

The Internet TV Reporter is published weekly by: Rider Research, which also publishes The Online Reporter; 14513 Cottage Oak Ave., Baton Rouge, LA 70810 USA; 225-571-6548;www.riderresearch.com Send questions and comments about articles to: Charles Hall ([email protected]), Baton Rouge, LA 225-571-6548 North America Subscriptions: ([email protected]) 225-571-6548; Europe, Asia, Pacific, Middle East and Africa subscriptions: Simon Thompson ([email protected]), Buckingham, UK +44 (0) 1 280 820 560 Reporter: Kendra Chamberlain, ([email protected]) Contributing Reporter: Brittany Demmon ([email protected]) Production: Michael Kearns, ([email protected]) Subscription price: $995 / €870 e-mail single reader. Non-cancellable. Available at quantity discounts to groups, departments and companies. ©Copyright 2016, Rider Research Inc. It is illegal to reproduce, copy, photocopy, forward, e-mail, publish, broadcast, post on an Internet/Intranet site, fax, rewrite, store in a retrieval system or otherwise distribute this publication or any article in whole or in part by any means, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of Rider Research