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Smartphones and tablets are revolutionizing the

cable industry, enabling everything rom voiceactivated interactive program guides to multiscreen

delivery o subscription video programming.

Mobile devices are even changing the way cable

operators manage their eld technicians. Attendees at

the SCTE Cable Tec Expo last month in Orlando saw

multiple vendors pitching workorce management tools

that rely on tablets. The next generation will have atablet customer management device that can provide

instant inormation on the status o the network. Thatbecomes much more o an application-centric, almost

video game environment, Buckeye Cablevision CTO

Joseph Jensen said at the opening general session.

When cable programmers rst began to experiment

with Web video and mobile video, there was concern

that new distribution outlets could erode ratings or

their TV networks. But as Jim Barthold details in this

eBook, there isnt as much concern these days about

mobile video cannibalizing traditional TV networks.Instead, both programmers and distributors such as

AT&Ts U-verse TV, DirecTV and Comcast are using

tablets and smartphones as second-screen devices

that can keep viewers tuned to linear networks.

Comcast and NBCUniversal demonstrated the power

o second-screen apps during their coverage o the

Summer Olympics in London, using apps built or

Apples iPad and iPhone, and Google Android devices

to deliver companion programming to viewers. Inaddition to letting subscribers access thousands o

hours o live and on-demand Olympic eve

used the apps to send alerts about major

that were about to take place, which help

record Olympics TV ratings in July and A

Verizon, Comcast, DirecTV, AT&T and o

providers have developed some o the m

apps or Google Android and Apple iOS d

allow subscribers to use their mobile pho

as a remote control. With its U-verse EasAT&T is the rst provider introduce a mo

lets subscribers use voice commands to

Thats a eature Google will soon launch

where it is supplying every subscriber tha

Google Fiber TV product with a Nexus 7 t

designed to be used as the primary remo

Adding recommendation engine sotwa

providers such as Digitalsmiths to prograwill make mobile apps rom pay TV distri

programmers even more powerul. Instea

subscribers to browse thousands o avail

and VOD titles, distributors will be able to

content to subscribers based on their view

and let subscribers receive mood-based

Smartphones and tablets will also creat

advertising revenue streams or cable and

aliates, and cable programmers. But asin a story in this eBook, debate over right

limit the amount o available content and

potential rom mobile programming until

and cable networks agree on a business

3Ads Will Eventually

Pay the Way or Free

Multiscreen Service

6Personalizing Multi-Screen

Programming: The How Tos

o Video Recommendations

*Sponsored Content*

7Multiscreen Content

Rights a Twisted Path; but

Theres an End in Sight

10Multiscreen Video

Services: You Dont

Have to Go it Alone

*Sponsored Content*

11For MVPDs, Getting Video

to Multiple Screens Can,

and Must, Happen Now

15Q&A: A Conversation With

Andy Goodman, Director

o Broadband Content

or AT&T U-verse

1You Cant

Out There

Guide V

FierceCable.com

Nov

by Steve Donohueeditor /// Fiercecable

Platinum SPonSorS: Gold SP

futureof

multiscreenprogramming
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Nothing is ree in the pay

TV space; thats why its calledpay TV. So when serviceproviders talk o providing ree

multiscreen video service to

authenticated subscribers,

theyre not talking about giving

away the contentthough

that might be the case right

now--what theyre saying

is that they wont charge

subscribers an extra ee towatch video on screens other

than their televisions.

In the end, what theyre also

saying is they will nd a way

to monetize that service that

likely will break all the ruleso how pay TV operators are

paid.

While they do generatesome advertising revenue,

operators and service

providers generate most

o their revenues rom

subscriptions, said Cathi

Kwon, group product

manager o Adobes Publisher

Advertising Platorm.

The bad thing aboutmultiscreenat least

rom a revenue generation

standpointis that operators

cant charge higher

subscription ees; theyveabout maxed out that money

tree. The good thing about

multiscreen, rom a revenue

generation standpoint, is thatits pretty much a ertile eld

or a new targeted advertising

play.

The technical capability or a

service provider to run their localand regional ads just isnt there yet

on the other screens in the home,

said Jason Malamud, vice presidentand general manager o Verizon

FiOS Media. It will get there and

then it will become a discussion

about business models and whether

those ads are sold in conjunctionwith the linear TV ads or i theres

another model that activates and

monetizes the IP-enabled ads in and

out o the home.

It wont get there ast and the way

it gets there wont be easy, warned

Ed Haslam, senior vice president omarketing or YuMe.

Video advertising in multiscreenis a lot more complicated than

any other kind o advertising. The

player size matters. The bitrate that

youre seeing between the client

and the server matters. The CDN

matters. The cookie inormation

about both the user and the context

is important. Its almost like a littleremote sensor sitting there letting

the ad decisioning engine knowwhat kind o ad to display, what

bitrate it should be streamed at,

what the player size is, whats the

best context or it.

Its obviously something worth

pursuing because a bevy o

vendors, along with organizations

Ads Will Eventually Pay the Wayor Free Multiscreen Serviceby Jim bArtHoLd

like CableLabs, which has

developed the Event Signaling And

Messaging (ESAM) specication,

are working everishly on

technology to make it happen.

ESAM gets the ball rolling with a

specication about how to spliceads into the network so a packager

and encoder can communicate andsubstantiate that an ad is available

or placement. Thats a good start

in the overall space. The problem is

the task is a lot more complex than

sending the ad down to a set-top

box.

The operators that weredealing with are really considering

delivering to (IP-enabled) devices so

they can track and make a decision

on which ads to serve based on

the device, explained Chris Hock,

senior vice president o product

management at BlackArrow.

Hock is looking at portable and

mobile devices, which, whilemost multiscreen viewing is still

happening in the residence, is

dicult but not impossible. When

a subscriber in Poughkeepsie starts

picking his toenails in Peoria while

watching his iPad, things become

sequentially more dicult.

The ads will surely ollow the

content thats going onto otherscreens in the home and out o

the home (leaving) the question

o the business model around that

advertising. Is it an extension o

local cable ads or something else

or a hybrid o the two? continued

Malamud.

Thats a pretty important pieceor both the advertisers and thecontent owners who, in many

cases, are running the ads along

with their content. Since a majority

o multiscreen content is VoD,

advertisers must be wary about

when their ads will appear and

many have adopted programs that

remove parts o their advertising

load the longer the content sits on

the VoD server.

You wouldnt want to show an

ad or some big movie our weeksater the movie premiered, said

David Helrick, principal consultant

or IBB Consulting. There will

be more value in showing an ad

or something else. Because its

a unicast stream you could know

who the subscriber is, where they

are and what they just watc

and whats in their queue to

next. You could make a mu

intelligent decision o whatright or that subscriber.

It might take a little morebut, in theory that ad shou

worth more to the advertis

Helrick said.

And that, again, means th

the service provider will ne

demonstrate knowledge o

individual end user rather th

While they do generatesome advertising revenue,operators and service

providers generatemost o their revenuesrom subscriptions.

Cathi Kwon, GrouP ProduCtmanaGer of adobeS PubliSher

advertiSinG Platform
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the traditional household thatsreceiving cable content. Thisunderstanding will probably justlean on a progression o technologythats being developed or VoD andDVR recording, such as Nielsen C3ratings. Most MVPDs, i theyrenot working with Nielsen already,are looking in other directions to be

able to quantiy subscriber eyes.Multiscreen, by its verydenition, orces an MVPD tobreak away rom that residentialservice model and drill down to theindividual within that residence.Thats not a bad thing, justdierent.

Tablets and phones are reallypersonal and you can make userproles on a per-use basis, saidArnaud Perrier, vice president osolutions or Envivio. I you h avetwo million users with individualproles you can target content orapps that are on a personal basisand create playlists and deliverthose on a per-user basis or

millions o users.

And MVPDs used to think thatregional ad placement was tough.

The technology is in trials,Perrier insisted. The trick is tobe able to combine campaignmanagement sotware andanalytics to be able to reallyleverage that capability and createthe content in the rst place.

The trick, said Ramin Farassat,vice president o product marketingand business development or

RGB, is to ride on top o the

multiscreen network that theMVPDs are already building.

I you already have a ullytargeted unicast video deliverynetwork to deliver content totablets, smartphones, PCs, etc.,do the same thing with the ad andbuild the ad architecture so you cantruly do ully targeted advertising to

individual devices, he said.O course the technology todo this is not yet deployed. Itstarts with adaptive bit rate adinsertionitsel still nascentand ramps up to ull interactivecognitive ad placement across aplethora o devices.

Were in multiple dierenttrials right now with very largeoperators because they want to beable to prove to themselves andthe advertisers that it is possibleto build this true targeted adarchitecture, Farassat said.

When it starts, it will be airlysimple, he said. Its not going toknow a ton o inormation about

you but it will target to a device ora geographical area.

As time passes, technologyevolves, service providers becomecomortable with the technologyand advertisers becomecomortable that they can makemoney targeting ads that dontblanket the entire country, themultiscreen advertising space willgrow as well.

Not only the ad would changebut a pop-up might come on andlet you press a button and getdirected to a dierent p lace, saidFarassat. All o that is on the tableright now.

The reason is its on the table but

not being consumed is simple.When youre an industry

making $80 billion in advertisingon TV and youre worried aboutpotentially cannibalizing any pieceo that by oering that contentonline with ads or less ads, thatsa dicult decision to make, saidAdobes Kwon. l

The trick is to be ableto combine campaignmanagement sotwareand analytics to be able

to really leverage thatcapability and create thecontent in the frst place.

arnaud Perrier, viCe PreSident

of SolutionS for envivio

recommendations ontheir mobile device ortablet that were rolledout on their set-top box.

To ulll these consumerexpectations, videorecommendations and otheralternatives to the grid need theability to recognize the type odevice a consumer is using andwhat content the consumer hasaccess to on each device.

ShaDow MeTo ensure accurate andconsistent personalized videorecommendations on all o a

consumers devices, a solution mustollow the consumer rom device todevice, tracking and managing theconsumers behavior on his or herset-top box, tablet, mobile device,etc. Additionally, the solution shouldidentiy unique viewing behavioron a mobile device vs. a set-topbox and deliver recommendationsaccordingly.

breaking Down the SiloSTodays Pay-TV solutions bucketlinear content, premium contentand VOD into separate silos. Theideal solution goes beyond simplypersonalizing the experience byremoving the silos around content,

allowing subscribers to receiverecommendations that blend allsources o available content.

By suracing relevant TVshows and movies that were

once hidden in the grid, blerecommendations help subbreak out o the 4- 8 channetypically watch,2 creating adrevenue opportunities or Pproviders.

For example, a subscribenot realize a new James Bois available on-demand unleor she stumbles across it inVOD section. But i this titlerecommended when the sturns on his or her TV or tabTuesday night at 8 P.M., theprovider can increase the c

o a VOD purchase and cappreviously missed revenue.

increaSe arPu, not attWhen content silos are broand consistent personalizedEverywhere video recommare delivered, Pay-TV providcan up-sell and cross-sell thsubscribers, regardless o dAs a result, Pay-TV providelook at a video recommendsolution as a revenue genernot as a hit to their already subscriber margins. l

For more inormation onDigitalsmiths Seamless Disgo to www.digitalsmiths.co

According to The Diusion Group,27% o broadband users own atleast one tablet. Among tabletowners, 40% use their tablets whilewatching TV at least once a day,and 88% use them to watch videocontent online.1

Given the popularity o connecteddevices, Pay-TV providers need toensure they have a personalizedvideo recommendations solutionthat can be leveraged not only onthe set-top box, but also in a TVEverywhere environment.

the Perfect StorMWith more consumers buying

connected devices and downloadingPay-TV providers applications,providers can easily increase thenumber o connected devicesutilizing their services in the homewithout sending technicians out tocomplete the set-up process. Thisdevelopment makes it easier thanever beore or Pay-TV providersto connect with subscribers,creating new opportunities to growengagement and increase revenue.

Deliver a conSiStent viDeorecoMMenDationS exPerienceWith the new opportunities createdby connected devices comesome challenges. Consumers

are going to expect personalizedexperiences since they are usingmore personalized devices.Additionally, consumers will wantthe same high-quality personalized

Personalizing MultiscreenProgramming: The How Toso Video Recommendations

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1. 2012 TDG Research

2. Digitalsmiths White Paper, Q4 2012 Video Discovery Trends Report: Consumer Behavior Across Pay-TV, VOD, OTT an

Next-Gen Features.
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Consumers with multiple

devices capable o receivingand displaying multiplestreams o video content in

multiple locations are being

disappointed these days. As a

rule, when blame is assigned

or this, those with the

content are rst in line or the

whipping.

Generally I nd these

(multiscreen or TVEverywhere) solutions rom

operators very underwhelming

because they over-promise

and under-deliver. They have

a very small percentage o

the total amount o content

thats available in my pay

TV subscription, said Colin

Dixon, senior partner-advisory,with The Diusion Group.

Dixon agreed the situation

isnt nearly as dire within

a connected home where

MVPDs have won hard-

earned battles to distribute

content. Outside the home,

however, is another matter

and thats where the contentproviders are to blame.

The technology can do

way more than many o

the content providers are

comortable with, Dixoncontinued. That has led to a

situation where the content

providers are actually slowing

down their partners, theoperators, rom doing things

that actually their customers

would really like but that the

content providers arent happy

with.Dixons view refects one thats

become popular around the

MVPD space: vendors have builttechnology and operators are willing

to deploy it to deliver multiscreen

content to multiple

devices wherever thosedevices might be but

the content owners are

obstinately standing in

the way.

Its not an exactly

accurate portrayal o a tough space

where operators and contentproviders nd themselves acing

complex deals that dont resembleanything theyve worked out in the

past.

It is still a dicult environment

Multiscreen Content Rights a TwistedPath; but Theres an End in Sightby Jim bArtHoLd

and not surprisingly there is not

a homogenous set o responses

on the part o the programming

community, said Steve Necessary,

vice president o product

development and management or

Cox Communications. Theres

progress being made there. Its notuniorm by any means, but there are

clearly some examples o progress

there.

One o those examplesin

act the boilerplate exampleis

Comcasts overarching agreement

with Disney on a bevy o

multiscreen content uses. That

deal, besides establishing theground rules or other operator-

programming relationships, also

demonstrates how dicult it can

be when content ownersor

at least those with the rights to

contenttry to lease that content tooperators.

It was a really hard deal to do

because this was changing thegame, explained Tom Blaxland,

senior director o video product or

Comcast.

What made it most dicult

was that much o the agreement

stepped onto new ground.

We worked with denitions o

things like what is the Internet,

he said. A lot o the discussionscovered where the industry is

going, where the technology will

end up and i were comortable

where the technology is going to

be. It was really more ethereal

brainstorming sessions rather than

contentious back-and-orth between

two companies.

Contention between programmersand operators, at least on

multiscreen, is not a big issue,

operators say.

Beore we get to intellectual

arm wrestling on it, there are

two things that need to be

considered: technology and the

implementations o the solutions or

any sort o mobility position and theunderlying rights that the licensor

actually holds, said Terry Denson,

vice president o content strategy

and acquisition or Verizon.

On the rst part, the parties

must agree that the content will

be available on multiple screens

as they exist nowlaptops

smartphones, tablets, etc.

as they might exist at some

point so that the assigned r

can automatically allow con

move to new devices and p

when they arrive. Thats toits not nearly as tricky or c

as the second part: assignin

rights in the rst place, bec

not always easy to determi

has what rights to what con

and, in the end, what rights

programmer can legally lice

the operator.

A content provider that pand owns the content is in

best position to actually lice

rights to that content. A co

provider that licenses synd

programming or broadcast

be as strong at the negotiat

as those syndicated license

the syndicators are going to

a piece o the pie rom somso that has to be part o the

agreement. The content pro

that is a content aggregato

as a cable channel, has a recomplex road ahead becau

are rights tracing as ar bac

to payment o the program

actors and other sta throu

syndicators and to the contowners beore all that cont

aggregated on a cable chan

Generally I fnd these (multiscreen or TV Everywhere)solutions rom operators very underwhelming because

they over-promise and under-deliver. They have avery small percentage o the total amount o contentthats available in my pay TV subscription.

Colin dixon, Senior Partner-adviSory, with the diffuSion GrouP

Just about everyone igoing to be inconsisteon the amount o right

they have that are avaacross the platorm.

terry denSon, viCe PreSidof Content StrateGy andaCquiSition for verizon
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Just about ever yone is going tobe inconsistent on the amount orights they have that are availableacross the platorm, Denson said.

Denson pointed to ESPNaDisney-owned propertythat hesaid has done a terric job overthe past ew years quietly securingmobility rights, cross-platorm

rights, TV Everywhere rights oralmost all their content.That makes everyones job a little

easier because theres a clear lineo content ownership that makes iteasier to understand whats beinglicensed, rom whom and howmuch and what kind o paymentwill be made. In this case, ESPNhas aggregated the content rightsand the service provider can pickand choose which, i not all, othose rights it wants to lease.

Even when the parties havesuccessully traversed therights situation there are thenew issues that need to behandled. The payment method or

programming in a single screenworld is easy: per-subscriptionor advertising or both cover thecosts o producing the programsand paying the participantswho make the programming

happen. The advertising modelrequires measurement toquantiy how many have watchedwhat programming so thatreimbursement can be determinedbased on those viewers. Asmultiscreen moves o the singlescreen and into a ragmentedaudience, measurement becomes

trickyas does the denition othe value o the individual vieweras opposed to the household.

The industry at large and Coxin particular are working on someactivities with Nielsen to provide

measurability because that is sokey rom a rates standpoint andan advertising perspective, saidNecessary.

Perhaps the biggest piece o therights puzzle is the least tangible:logic. Both sides must agree whatis logically the right price to payor any given piece o content, to

those who produced that content,to those who acted in the content,and to those who distributed it.

There is progress beingmade on the logic ront which is(understanding) that our customersare paying or the content andpaying the service provider andthe programmer so lets givethem access to the content orthat payment, said Necessary.Its not uniorm by any means butthere are clearly some examples oprogress there.

It is, said Denson, just anotherside road that must be traversedbeore the parties can move backonto the our-lane superhighway o

spending money to get content.The navigation o the maze hasbecome a little more complex butin the end the solution is ar richer,more textured, than it has beenhistorically. In the rights acquisitionworld, weve always workedagainst what we know and thensome best guesses about whatwe consider are the key concerns.Then we manage to get to thosekey concerns in the uture,Denson said.

In short, he said, thats wherethe content rights process is rightnow: understanding the presentand guessing the uture.

The jargon changes but the

complexity o the negotiationdoesnt really change, he said.Whats dierent today versus 10years past is the extensivenesso the rights (and) thats beenpowered by an explosion otechnologies and platorms thatare ar more interesting today thanthey were in the p ast.l

is more to deploying a multiscreenvideo service than adding newencoding hardware, and thetraditional skillsets geared towardmaintaining xed, highly-scalable

and oten proprietary inrastructureneed to be augmented with skillso sotware development anddeployment, among others.

Distributing content usingapplications on a tablet, orexample rather than to aphysical set-top box requiresa dierent approach to securityand scalability. This means thereare ongoing business processesthat need to be implemented,measured and enorced. It is thisoperational complexity that hasoten been under-estimated byservice providers who implementmultiscreen video services.

When considering how to actually

implement the inrastructure tosupport a multiscreen video service,a managed service is oten a goodalternative to doing it yoursel. Bygoing with a managed serviceor the technical developmentand ongoing operations, serviceproviders are ree to ocus on whatthey do best: product development,

marketing and customer seWith a managed service

deployment or multiscreenoerings, service providerswalk into a platorm that habeen deployed a number o

Typically, there will be yearshistory, learning, research adevelopment that providerstake advantage o, without to spend millions on CapExbuilding new teams.

In addition, managed servmitigate risks around ongoioperations:

Multiple, complex Integrapoints are addressed by tmanaged service partner

Future-proof technology amanaged service partner responsibility o keeping udevices, technology and

Services can scale rapidlyhaving to make additionalinvestments

While the implementationmultiscreen video is a compundertaking, service providincrease their chances o snot trying to boil the oceanto a managed service partndevelopment and operationelements o a multiscreen will help service providers the things they do well: secright content, branding, maand customer service. The will be the successul introd

o innovative multiscreen vservices that will scale, conto the bottom line and, mosimportantly, keep subscribejumping to a competitor. l

Going to market with amultiscreen video service is acomplex endeavor. With the rapidadoption o multiscreen-capabledevices ranging rom smartphones

and tablets to connected TVs andgame consoles, service providerscannot aord extended developmentand implementation cycles. Itis increasingly important thatcompanies do not underestimate thecomplexity o the task at hand.

Service providers who are alreadydelivering television content otenbelieve that they can extend outto multiple devices on their own.This can be a serious strategicand tactical error. The sotwareand hardware integration anddeployment involved just tomake sure the content can bedelivered and viewed on connecteddevices requires a capital and

operational investment that is otenunderestimated.There is a broad shit taking place

in the Pay-TV marketplace towardIP-based devices, toward sotwaretaking the place o dedicatedhardware, and toward a more rapidinnovation cycle than has occurred inthe past. These trends mean there

Multiscreen Video Services:You Dont Have to Go it Alone

by Nikki gore, vP mArketiNg, QuickPLAy mediA

Sponsored C

The industry at largeand Cox in particular areworking on some activitieswith Nielsen to providemeasurability because

that is so key rom arates standpoint and anadvertising perspective.

Steve neCeSSary, viCe PreSident

of ProduCt develoPment

and manaGement forCox CommuniCationS


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Thanks to over-the-top

(OTT) video providers likeNetfix, Hulu, Crackle andprobably dozens o other

companies, video is now

commonly seen on devices

other than televisions.

Starting with PCs and

laptops and moving quickly

to smartphones and tablets,

a moving picture is expected

to be part o any broadbandconnection.

For MVPDs, this means

breaking away rom the

traditional linear TV model and

adopting a multiscreen approach toreach and retain consumers who,

some believe, are already leaving

the old.

Weve concluded that its very

important, said Steve Necessary,

vice president o video productdevelopment and management

at Cox Communications. In

broad terms, its probably not

the determinant (o whether a

subscriber will stay with an MVPD

or fee to OTT) but it clearly is one

o those capabilities that i you

dont have it, it certainly

works against you.

Consumer

expectations havebeen ueled by OTT

purveyors and device

makers who have put

content on screens o all sizes and

connectivity via multiple devicesinto their hands. The MVPD vendor

space now has the challenge to

make that video appear across

whatever operating system andwhatever screen those viewers

might present and make it happen

on behal o their service provider

customers.

Some Android users have been

unhappy with the lag between an

application built or Apples iOS and

Android and theyre not totally out o

line, even though there was a goodreason to reach or Apple rst.

iPad was the poster child and

remains the poster child or tablets,

said Necessary. Android remains

a little more ragmented rom a

sotware perspective; all Android

devices are not created equally

when it comes to sot ware.

Doesnt really matter. People arebuying more Android devices

smartphones more than tabletsso

vendors have to be ready to deliver

the content to both operating

systems.

There is an evolution o devices

For MVPDs, Getting Video to MultipleScreens Can, and Must, Happen Nowby Jim bArtHoLd

that t the uses consumers want

and there is an evolution o the

sotware that has to happen to

enable it, said Nate Williams,senior director and head o product

marketing or Motorola Mobilitys

Sotware and Services group.

The Motorola platorm takes that

into account with a little prejudice in

the direction o tablets.

About 37 percent o olks are

saying theyre watching TV outside

the home on a mobile device:60 percent are doing laptops; 30

percent are doing it on tablets,

Williams said.

Colin Dixon, senior partner-

advisory, or The Diusion Group

Research (TDG) has been trackingthis space and ound similar trends.

Forty percent o tablet users

report using them while watchingTV programs at least once a day,

he said. These things are getting

used a lot by consumers and the

majority o them are watching video

on them.So how does the video get rom

the MVPDs broadband pipe to the

portable/mobile device? MVPDs

start in the home where ater some

hard-ought battles theyve won the

rights to distribute their content to

multiple screens.

Theres a triad o olks that can

empower this or consumers, saidWilliams. Theres the technology

providers like Motorola that have

sotware and hardware to acilitate

the experience, such as the

AnyPlay solution Moto recently

launched with Comcast. The

second stakeholders

are the content owners and

the studio system that looks atopportunities to monetize the

content. Then theres the third party

which are service providers.

How and where the service

providers deliver the content is the

biggest question market right now

or multiscreen service.

Some o them are lookin

hybrid home gateway wher

leverage the existing QAM

video distribution architectuand transorm those signals

delivery to multiscreen dev

the home, said Brian Cappe

CTO o Sigma Systems.

Thats OK as long as you

o TV Everywhere is only in

house, he said.

There is an evolution devices that ft the useconsumers want and

there is an evolution othe sotware that hashappen to enable it.

nate williamS, Senior dire

and head of ProduCt mar

for motorola mobilitySSoftware and ServiCeS Gr

iPad was the poster child

and remains the posterchild or tablets.

Steve neCeSSary, viCe

PreSident of video ProduCt

develoPment and manaGement

at Cox CommuniCationS


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With the competition lurkingoutside the house, though,operators cant just oermultiscreen on home networks;they must provide a way orsubscribers to get to content whentheyre not at home.

For Sigma, that means puttingthe content into the cloud and

letting the network handlemultiple digital rights management(DRM) streams and use adaptivestreaming to break the contentstreams up or transit beorereconguring them or viewing onthe consumer device.

MVPDs must adopt a newmindset and, in some instances,abandon what they currentlybelieve about delivering contentacross their networks.

They think because o thelegacy inrastructure o theirtelevision business that they canjust add on mobile and they realizevery quickly you cant just add onmobile; there are so many variables

and distinct elements you have toconsider when youre delivering toany kind o external device otherthan a television, said Nikki Gore,vice president o marketing atQuickplay.

Quickplays answer starts withthe content.

We can run it right rom thevery beginning all the way throughtranscoding, content management,publish it and distribute it right tothe device, including doing workon the user interace and theapplication thats actually workingon the device, she said. Weapply the metadata and everythingelse that needs to be on that

content and then push it all theway through so that it comes outon the device ormatted specicallyor that device, ormatted or Wi-Fior the data network, an iPhone oran Android, or a tablet or a smartTV or whatever the device is.

MVPDs who already have theirown content delivery network

(CDN) and content managementsystem can tap Quickplay or back-end and encoding support.

However the content ismassaged and delivered, theprocess is complexeven or a

company like Ericsson that cutits teeth in the mobile space.Ericssons multiscreen middlewareproduct line delivers content rom a

central acility to multiple devices,dealing with the content catalog,the user interace and managingthe authentication perspective.

One o our areas o strengthis being a dominant mobile playerand having solutions weve builtor mobile platorms or years,said Ken Durand, head o content

solutions or Ericsson Solution AreaMedia.Even so, delivering to devices

running on iOS, Android, Microsotand even RIM is no piece o cake.

The good news is themultiscreen market is beginningto coalesce a bit in terms o thelargest percentage o the marketaround either iOS or Android,Durand said. Thats the ocus orgetting things started and gettingthings launched.

And, no doubt about it, thingshave to get started and launched.I the MVPDs dont know that,content suppliers whove beenworking with the same vendors

to get their material together ormultiscreen plays do.Elemental Technologies, a video

processing sotware company

that last year won a very

large deal with Comcast

started by ocusing on

content programmers and

helping HBO develop anddeliver HBO Go. It also

has worked with ESPN,

Disney, Fox, and Viacom,

among others, said Keith

Wymbs, vice president o

marketing.

Elementals piece o

the market ocuses on

preparing and deliveringthe content rom the

MVPD to the end user

device.

The primary proposition

that we have is really

one o solving the sheer

volume o content that you

need to produce to get to

every device and everyplayer, Wymbs said. As

this market has exploded

since the launch o theoriginal iPad, it literally

broke the existing core

inrastructure or creating

the content in the rst place. It was

a very specic problem that we

looked to solve.Elemental settled on adaptive

streaming as a way to eciently

deliver the content across

broadband networks. That though,was complicated by a ragmented

standards space where there was

no one clear route to the end.

Wymbs said that the industry is

coalescing around MPEG-Dash as

a way to use common encryption

ormats to create metadata.

Even with the problems and

complexity, one point rang outover and over: the MVPD uture

depends on how service providers

handle this space and erode anyinclinations any generation o

subscribers might have to cut the

cord.

Even then, MVPDs ace either a

major threat or an opportunity in a

new generation o cord nevers,said Matt Lieberman, director

in PricewaterhouseCooper

entertainment, media and

communications practice.

I theyre able to connec

to the Internet and get the

o the content through low

or ad-supported (OTT) serv

those people dont ever be

subscribers, he said. Its occurring yet but as we con

to see those types o demo

changes occurring, that cou

an impact on subscriptions

And that, o course, is wha matter o table stakes to

a multiscreen play, said Cox

Necessary. Well always w

on the best screen we haveto but the interesting reality

there are a lot o pretty darn

secondary screens these d

They think because o thelegacy inrastructure o their

television business that theycan just add on mobile and

they realize very quickly youcant just add on mobile;

there are so many variables

and distinct elements youhave to consider when

youre delivering to anykind o external deviceother than a television.

niKKi Gore, viCe PreSident of

marKetinG at quiCKPlay

As this market has explodedsince the launch o theoriginal iPad, it literallybroke the existing coreinrastructure or creating

the content in the frst place.It was a very specifc problemthat we looked to solve.

Keith wymbS, viCe PreSident

of marKetinG at elemental

teChnoloGieS


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available screen. There are cases

where a TV isnt available or youmay want to watch something

on the go and were working on

how to bring more video to the

laptop, the mobile phone, iPad and

certainly other devices in the uture.

Thats the multiscreen or classic

TV Everywhere concept. Secondscreen is nding supplemental

content to what is happening in themain video o a program or movie.

Weve seen plenty o evidence that

customers are watching TV with

tablets or laptops and might wonder

who that actor is. With second

screen can pull up IMDb and get

that inormation. Were trying to

integrate some o that unctionality,

particularly in our tablet application,you can nd more inormation about

an actor or there are easy hooks

into social experiences like

Facebook or Twitter.

fC: AT&T is closely tied to iPhone

and iPad. What do you do about

Android and other non-iOS

systems?

aG: We are absolutely ocused on

Android as well as iOS devices and

not only Android but also the new

Windows 8 platorm as well. We are

looking at multiple OS environmentsacross mobile devices and other

devices. There are times where the

release o a given Android app or a

Windows app might slightly lag the

iOS application release but by no

means does that mean were not

equally ocused on Android.

fC: OK, so you mentioned three

operating systems right thereiOS,

Android and Windows. Doesnt that

make you a little crazy?

aG: It does. It denitely adds

complexity to the issue. iOS is

a consistent operating system

environment across diere

categories. There are challe

with Android because there

dierent favors o Android

some dierent mobile phon

This leads us to sometimesgo a little more slowly in ne

device categories where th

environment isnt quite as slike IP-connected TVs wher

are a lot o operating system

its not a consistent develop

environment. That may be d

the industry a bit in deployi

on IP-connected TVs.

fC:No service provider is a

so youre obviously not oe

multiscreen service withou

way o paying back the inve

The obvious rst place to g

fcC:Wheresmultiscreen going now that

its pretty much accepted that

consumers want to watch

content on more than just their

television sets?

a G: Things aremoving ast. Weve gotten

beyond the trial stage and or

the most part the industry istrying to move orward with

this as a core part o the TV

experience. There are still

technical challenges, still rights

challenges ahead o us, but

the concepts are alling into

place and as an industry were

optimistic about this going

orward.

fC:O them all, whats your

biggest challenge?

aG: Making sure that our

customers know this issomething thats available to

them or ree with their TV

subscription.

fC:Once they understandthat, how are your customers

reacting?

With all-IP transport, AT&T U-verse was probably a little ahead o

the curve when it came to blending video content across multiple

screens besides the television so it seemed like a really good

idea to have a discussion with Andy Goodman, AT&Ts director obroadband content to probe where the service provider has been

and where its going in the multiscreen space.it has become a sound

complement in areas where it has not built out its ber network yet.

aG: We see about 1.7 monthly

unique users on U-verse.com today

and considering the size o U-verse

which is at about 4.25 million were

seeing pretty good adoption among

our customers. A lot o that is driven

not solely by the video but by usingU-verse.com as a way to enhance

the U-verse experience as a whole.

You can watch video but you can

also program your DVR and nd

out more about the service and

upgrade your service. Putting all o

those activities in one place is what

creates a sticky experience and

enhances the value o the televisionservice.

fC: Isnt the end game to let people

watch video on any screenand

the other things are peripheral?

aG: We want to make the U-verse

experience possible wherever and

whenever the customer wants to

watch it with VOD and increasingly

with live content as well on anyscreen. At the same time, we want

to take advantage o the qualities

that best benet individual screens.

For example a tablet may oer a

deeper experience around the video

than you can nd on television

whether thats nding more

inormation about a show, browsingphotos, social activity, things weve

ound that the customers like to

do sometimes while watching

TV with a second screen. There

are elements that work better on

certain devices but we see the

core video experience as consistent

across all devices.

fC: You touched on a somewhat

conusing topic: second screen

versus multiscreen. How do you

view these two dierent but related

opportunities?

aG: To one extent multiscreen is

about watching a show on the best

Q&A:A Conversation With AndyGoodman, Director o BroadbandContent or AT&T U-verse

There are still technical

challenges, still rightschallenges ahead o us,but the concepts arealling into place and as anindustry were optimisticabout this going orward.

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An age-old lesson thatcable operators grudginglylearned when Bruce

Springsteen crooned about

57 channels and nothing

on is coming back with

a vengeance in the era o

multiscreen video. You cant

just put a ton o content on

your TV or smartphone or

tablet or PC or whateverconnected device youre using

without giving viewers a way

to know what it is, where it is,

and how to access it on any

device theyre using.

Even in the traditional world

o multichannel TV there maybe 400, 500 programming

channels available toindividuals and the reality is

that most households have

around eight TV channels

in total that they watch.

They dont know whats out

there, Richard Dowling, vice

president o product services

or ThinkAnalytics said.

To help solve that veryrudimentary situation, MVPDs

implement a search and

recommendation engine that

automatically remembers

what viewers watch andmakes recommendations

based on that viewing history.

In a multi-channel

environment its a must-have, said Dowling.

And in a multiscreen

environment its even more

important

than that

i thatspossible.

Multiscreen

does make

things easier

or search

and recommendation engines towinnow down the choices and

target the right consumers because

the targets arent groups o viewersin a household, theyre individuals

connected with an IP-connected

device like a smartphone, tablet, PC

or even gaming platorm.

We bring a platorm that

incorporates personalized

recommendations, very obvious,

intuitive search, said BenWeinberger, CEO/co-ounder o

Digitalsmiths. There are a lot o

ways that you can discover content

so we try to bring a holistic platorm

so that as all that content explodes

across all these devices the

consumer experience is elevated to

where the content is truly nding

the consumer, the consumer isnt

getting rustrated.

Easier said than doneand not

even that easily said. Its tough

enough to deliver recommendations

to a user sitting in ront o a TV

You Cant Just Put VideoOut There; You Have toGuide Viewers to itby Jim bArtHoLd

where the platorms characteristics

are known. Service providers now

want their vendors to deliver guides

that recommend content not only

to the TV users but based on what

the users are watching, when

theyre watching and, importantlyor the uture o advertising, where

theyre watching. That means therecommendation, like the content

itsel, must run across a multitude

o platorms that range rom iOS to

Android to set-top boxes to Web-

based or IP-based devices and be

viewable on a variety o screens

that are inevitably smaller than a TVbut generallynot alwaysbigger

than a smartphone.

Its also imperative to search out

the content and recommend it in a

timely ashion because the period

o time it takes the consumer to

nd the right piece to watch has

an aect downstream with not

only how much content they watch

but how sequentially they watchthe content, said Nate Williams,

senior director and head o product

marketing or the sotware and

services group at Motorola Mobility.

For Dish Network, which is more

o a downstream service provider,

recommendation is a challenge

because a TV is a social devicethat has no idea whos watching it

and cant recommend a show thats

meaningul to the audience when

it doesnt have a history o whos

watching, said Vivek Khemka, vice

president o product management.

Whenever possible, Dish would

like to take recommendations othe primary big screen and pushthem onto a second screenbe

that a mobile device, laptop or

some other IP-connected piece o

equipmentwhere the individual

user can be identied and targeted.

Recommendation, Khemka

said, is denitely something were

interested in, something that were

pursuing and something tha

immediate.

Its that tough.

Vendors like ThinkAnalyti

and Digitalsmiths, though, h

accepted the challenge and

are building applications tha

begin by understanding tha

content will be running acroa multiscreen environment

proceed to organize individ

recommendations to be sp

across multiple platorms.

A recommendation will s

There are a lot o waysthat you can discovercontent so we try to bringa holistic platorm so thatas all that content explodesacross all these devices

the consumer experienceis elevated to where thecontent is truly fnding theconsumer, the consumerisnt getting rustrated.

ben weinberGer, Ceo/Co-founder of diGitalSmithS

TV is a social device thathas no idea whos watchingit and cant recommend ashow thats meaningul to theaudience when it doesnt havea history o whos watching,

viveK KhemKa, viCe PreSident

of ProduCt manaGementat diSh networK

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money would be advertising butthat seems like that might be atough nut to crack.aG: Advertising is an opportunity.Its part o every agreement thatwe look at or TV Everywhere. Weare always very conscious o theadvertising dollars that may besmall today but as this experiencegrows in the uture, we expectthat the advertising will grow alongwith it. AT&T views the advertisingmodel or TV Everywhere as anextension o the advertising modelor television, including the aliateavails that exist on TV. There aretechnical challenges with theadvertising environment today--were all waiting or measurementto catch up--but at the same timethere are opportunities wherethe advertising becomes a richeropportunity in TV Everywhere thanin traditional television as we lookat things like dynamic ad insertion.

fC:Factually, TV Everywhere isnot everywhere because you justdont deliver a ull bundle o youravailable content everywhere. Howdo you bulk up your content so thatit actually becomes U-verse TVEverywhere?aG: Every renewal that AT&T hasdone or U-verse over the last two

years has included elements oTV Everywhere and a multiscreenapproach to content. Every dealthat we do when it comes up isgoing to have digital elements toit. We will also look at doing sideagreements outside our renewingcycle. Were now well beyondthe trial phase where we arelooking at TV Everywhere termsor multiplatorm distribution,multiplatorm advertising andbusiness rules that run or theduration o our renewal terms.

fC:It would seem sports andnews would pave the way orlive contentat least as ar asconsumer demand is concerned.

Where do you stand on gettingmore sports rights?aG: I anticipate that well carrysome live sports in the next ewquarters. The initial push or livewas around the 24-hour news andsports networks but were seeingthat expand in some cases to someo the entertainment and nonction

outlets as well.

fC: Finally, AT&T is not alone inputting content onto multiscreens.Most programmers have theirown Web pages and their own TVEverywhere-like programs. Is that aproblem or you?aG: As long as its tied to theMVPD subscription, were ullyopen to supporting an experiencewhere an AT&T U-verse customerhas a choice. Theres an experiencethat a customer can getchatrooms, non-video content, etc.that a consumer can get roma networks site and it doesntnecessarily make sense or us tobuild this into our environment.

Theres also a very strong role orthe MVPD to create an aggregatedexperience so customers knowthat they can go to one place andwatch all their shows. Thats wherewe push U-verse.com, U-versemobile, U-verse Tablets andother apps that may be comingin the uture. l

Advertising is anopportunity. Its part oevery agreement that welook at or TV Everywhere.

We are always very

conscious o the advertisingdollars that may be small

today but as this experiencegrows in the uture, weexpect that the advertisingwill grow along with it.

nn f pa 16 nn f pa 18

with the household account and

be personalized to an individual

subscriber on an individual devicei thats what that individual wants.

We can go to the next level

and set up the accounts that

they have and let them create

another individual account,said Weinberger, noting that

Digitalsmiths purposely stay away

rom all PIIs (personal identiying

inormation) because we dontneed the personal inormation

to be able to give a really good

recommendation.

What everyone needs is an idea

o what device is in play.

The time it works best is when

you have the ull interactivity, said

Dowling.

Perhaps, though, the bestway to gure out what shows to

recommend is to have deep enough

pockets that allow you to go beyondthe engines themselves and do

it the old-ashioned waywith a

bevy o people. Few can do this

like Comcast, which has a ully

staed editorial board that does

nothing more than watch televisionand decide whats good, and then

recommends programming to the

right subscribers.

I wouldnt call what we do a

recommendation engine, said

Tom Blaxland, senior director o

video product or Co mcast. A

recommendation is generally a

computer algorithm that goes inand looks at what youve watched

in the past and recommends whatyou might like. We have that, but

weve ound that actually having

an editorial team o humans

who are TV experts who watch

the shows recommend what

movies and shows to watch greatly

outperorms a recommendation

algorithm engine.

O course, i youre not the

worlds top MVPD you might not

have the luxury o putting aside

a chunk o sta just to watch TV

and decide whats good. In thatcase, search and recommendation

engines such as those being

developed by ThinkAnalytics,

Digitalsmiths and others will go a

long way to stopping any uture rock

star rom opining about thousands

o channels on dozens o deviceswith no idea whats on.

You do it one time with one

engine, said Dowling. Ou

has been designed rom th

up or multichannel, whethe

a box or a table device or a

phone or on the Web or whthe device is thats connect

Once its implemented, the

that are available are the sa

terms o the things that des

them and the users are the

similar and the other parts

pushing out to the other ch

the engine is designed corrstart with, it should be a vepiece o work to add pieces

A recommendation is generally a computer algorithmthat goes in and looks at what youve watched in the pand recommends what you might like. We have that,but weve ound that actually having an editorial team ohumans who are TV experts who watch the shows recommend what movies and shows to watch greatlyoutperorms a recommendation algorithm engine.

tom blaxland, Senior direCtor of video ProduCt for ComCaSt