11.12.12 fiercecable ebook
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7/30/2019 11.12.12 FierceCable eBook
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1 August 2012
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
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