march 2015 fiercecable overcoming the 5 biggest …...vindicia cashbox is a comprehensive...

Thank you to our sponsors:

Overcoming the 5 Biggest Challenges to Launching OTT Services

FierceCableAn eBook from the editors ofMarch 2015

share:

2 Editor’s Note

3 Market Disruption is Creating Compelling OTT Pricing Scenarios

6 Sponsored Content: Leverage High-Margin OTT Services with Vindicia Acquisition, Billing and Retention Solutions

7 Encoding Content Lacks Standardization

10 Dynamic Ad Insertion is Ushering in a New Era of Advertising

13 User Guides Get Personal

16 Piracy Remains a Big Threat to OTT Providers

®

mailto:?body=I%20thought%20you%20might%20be%20interested%20in%20this%20eBook:%20http://www.fiercecable.com/offer/ottservices?source=share &subject=FierceCable%20eBook:%20Overcoming the 5 Biggest Challenges to Launching OTT Services

https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?source=webclient&text=Check+out+this+@FierceCable+eBook+on+Overcoming+the+5+Biggest+Challenges+to+Launching+OTT+Services:+http://www.fiercecable.com/offer/ottservices?source=share

http://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http://www.fiercecable.com/offer/ottservices?source=share

https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=http://www.fiercecable.com/offer/ottservices?source=share

http://plus.google.com/share?url=http://www.fiercecable.com/offer/ottservices?source=share

Overcoming the 5 Biggest Challenges to Launching OTT Services // March 2015

Editor’s Note

Market Disruption is Creating Compelling OTT Pricing Scenarios

Sponsored Content: Leverage High-Margin OTT Services with Vindicia Acquisition, Billing and Retention Solutions

Encoding Content Lacks Standardization

Dynamic Ad Insertion is Ushering in a New Era of Advertising

User Guides Get Personal

Piracy Remains a Big Threat to OTT Providers

FierceCableAn eBook from the editors ofshare:

Editor’s Note

By Sue Marek Editor-in-Chief /// FierceCable

It’s been quite a year for over-the-top video services with some of the biggest players including CBS launching a streaming service for $5.99 per month and Dish Network’s Sling TV service making its debut with 12 channels in its basic Best of Live TV package for $20 per month.

These, of course, are just a few examples of the way content companies, Internet players and even traditional pay-TV providers are moving aggressively into the OTT space. The goal is to capture younger consumers who favor viewing their content over IP-based devices rather than paying for pay-TV services.

But there are challenges to the OTT landscape and Dish’s Sling TV is a prime example. While Sling TV is clearly trying to compete with pay-TV providers by offering viewing packages that mimic the pay-TV model, it does lack some of the conveniences that pay-TV subscribers are accustomed too. In particular, the service does not include content from the three big broadcasters – CBS, ABC and NBC. It also only works

on only one device at a time and ordering movies is still a clumsy process that requires the user to order from their desktop.

Awareness is another issue. So far consumer awareness of Sling TV is low. A recent survey by Ipsos MediaCT of nearly 3,000 consumers found that just 11 percent were aware of Sling TV, and 67 percent of those surveyed that were between age 18 and 34 said they weren’t interested in the service.

Of course, awareness and content are just the tipping point. Other technical challenges exist such as encoding the content so it can be smoothly viewed in a variety of devices. And encryption is still an issue because without the secure transmission of content, everyone stands to lose.

In this ebook from FierceCable, we will take an in-depth look at the five biggest challenges to launching an OTT service—from encryption to encoding to dynamic ad insertion, user guides and pricing. Find out what it takes to make a successful OTT service. n







Editor’s Note








Market Disruption is Creating Compelling OTT Pricing Scenarios Balancing content acquisition with a low price point is still a challenge for many OTT services.

By Jason Bovberg

Pay-TV providers aren’t known for offering consumers a great deal of choice or value. Cable and satellite providers offer large packages of channels—amounting to an average of 180—and a typical household might watch 10 percent of those regularly. It’s a landscape of similar price points, same channels and not much differentiation.

Today, however, the marketplace is evolving toward a la carte services. It’s finally providing what Michael Goodman, director of digital media at Strategy Analytics, likes to call a democratization of video. “We have a whole plethora of choices that haven’t existed previously,” he said. “And those choices are creating significant disruptions of existing business models. You have companies like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon creating over-the-top (OTT) video services that are clearly resonating with consumers.”

Subscription numbers for these OTT services are skyrocketing, and programmers are noticing. Today,

programmers don’t need to go through multichannel video providers to reach customers’ homes. All they need is a broadband network—“the defining factor that has led to the democratization of video,” said Goodman. “As a consumer, I have all these other choices, which equals competition. But as a provider, I have to get creative in terms of packaging content in the way the consumer wants it.” More important, the programmer has to offer that content at a compelling price.

A la carte challengesComing to the market now are so-called skinny TV packages such as PlayTV, DISH Network’s Sling TV, as well as direct-to-consumer packages from programmers such as CBS and HBO. These skinny packages are attempts to offer limited selections of channels for a lower price. After all, these providers are facing a reality in which consumers are spoiled by the cheap, content-rich, watch-from-anywhere model of Netflix—a pioneer in the OTT trend.







Editor’s Note








>> Market Disruption is Creating Compelling OTT Pricing Scenarios

But programmers face a significant price/value challenge when they begin to offer a la carte services. Joel Espelien, senior analyst at the Diffusion Group, sums up the challenge: “There’s a strong expectation in the minds of consumers that OTT services are cheaper than traditional pay TV. This makes it very difficult for providers to create anything that tries to directly compete or replace a traditional pay-TV subscription, because the value the consumer is looking for just isn’t there.”

Traditionally, a major revenue stream for programmers is carriage fees: fees that multichannel video providers pay to programmers for the right to carry their programming. If that cost isn’t shared across all subscribers but rather shared only among people who want access to that programming, that cost rises quickly. “People complain about bundles because they don’t have anything to compare it to,” said Goodman. “But when you get into a true a la carte marketplace, all of a sudden that bundle starts looking a lot more attractive.”

According to Glenn Hower, research analyst at Parks Associates, one of the biggest challenges to the a la carte

model will be acquiring programming while maintaining the price point balance. “It’s amazing that DISH is able to offer its Sling TV service for such a low price point, given the challenge of acquiring programming and paying overhead. What they have going in their favor, however, is the fact that they do not have to support a wired broadband network or CPEs with the service since it is streaming. However, programming is not getting any cheaper, and only time will tell if Sling TV will at least sustain itself if not be profitable.”

Pricing strategiesHow do providers adapt to such a reality, in terms of pricing? “It comes down to break-even points,” said Goodman. “They’ll be able to play with price points to a certain extent, but there’s a limit to how much they can do, considering that all-important calculation of acquisition and operational costs vs. revenue.”

Espelien suggests that programmers start with an attractive end user price and work backwards from there to the service. “Sling TV is trying to do this with its $20 price point,” he said. “The content selection at launch is limited as a result, but services are better off starting with aggressive pricing (and building in more value or better content over time) vs. trying to capture a premium price on day one.”

Sports packages such as NBA League Pass have done a good job offering attractive price points and delivering unique value to the user. “NBA league pass is $99 per season for all 30 teams, which is very comparable with Netflix pricing,” Espelien said. “NHL Game Center

“The tricky part will be balancing a potential net loss of subscribers to OTT services while attracting new customers outside the pay-TV system.”

GLENN HOWER, RESEARCH ANALYST AT PARKS ASSOCIATES







Editor’s Note








>> Market Disruption is Creating Compelling OTT Pricing Scenarios

provides a very complete offering for $160 per season, which compares well with a premium channel like HBO.” A key differentiator is that both services provide an array of exclusive content that you can’t get on regular pay-TV at any price.

Premium networks such as HBO run the challenge of balancing an affordable price for their service vs. maintaining their pay-TV provider partnerships. “Our data for gauging interest in HBO’s standalone service found that 17 percent of broadband households were interested in purchasing the service for $14.99 per

month,” Hower said. “Given that price point falls in the $10 to $15 per month range that is common for HBO with a pay-TV subscription, HBO might have to be flexible with its pricing. There are a few options they could take, including offering the standalone service for more than $14.99 per month, or perhaps reducing the price for their service with a pay-TV package to compensate for those that may be driven away from pay TV by the standalone service.”

What the future holdsA future of more choice, more options, and more OTT services is inevitable. Expect the market to ultimately offer a mixture of bundled programming and a la carte services—thereby embodying the beauty of choice.

In the meantime, programmers will be intent on keeping the pay-TV system intact, and consumer subscriptions might shift as a result of the availability of OTT services. “The tricky part,” Hower said, “will be balancing a potential net loss of subscribers to OTT services while attracting new customers outside the pay-TV system.” n

“There’s a strong expectation in the minds of consumers that OTT services are cheaper than traditional pay TV. This makes it very difficult for providers to create anything that tries to directly compete or replace a traditional pay-TV subscription.”

MICHAEL GOODMAN, DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL MEDIA AT STRATEGY ANALYTICS







Sponsored Content

In order to thrive in the lucrative OTT market, pay TV operators, cable/satellite providers, and MVPDs must combine compelling content and value with enticing promotions, proactive retention processes, scalability, and continuous improvement.

However, many system operators contemplating a leap into the OTT fray are finding that their traditional billing platforms can’t always support these objectives in a VOD or subscription setting. That’s why more and more successful operators are monetizing their OTT services using proven subscription billing solutions from Vindicia that allow them to:

• Create agile, subscription-based and VOD business models that respond to customer demand.

• Maximize recurring revenue through pricing, packaging, bundling, campaigns and promotions.

• Retain customers longer by implementing frictionless payment strategies that reduce subscriber churn.

• Leverage subscriber analytics to gain knowledge about their customers and understand key trends, thereby enabling faster and improved decision-making.

Vindicia offers two SaaS-based solutions: Vindicia®

CashBox®, a complete subscriber acquisition, billing and retention platform; and Vindicia Select™, a customer retention solution that works with any existing billing system to resolve failed payment transactions. Both of these cloud-based solutions were created from the premise that strategic monetization is critical, not just as an operational necessity for successful OTT service models, but also as a marketing resource that strengthens customer acquisition and retention.

Vindicia CashBoxVindicia CashBox is a comprehensive subscription/recurring billing platform specifically designed for the dynamic subscription business models favored by OTT providers. It features integrated marketing and best practices that boost customer acquisition while optimizing subscriber retention. CashBox lets OTT providers quickly change pricing, introduce new bundles, support SVOD and one-time VOD sales, launch flexible trial entry programs, reach new audiences through coupons or promotion codes, and take full control of their new business models with the help of detailed analytics.

Vindicia SelectFor OTT providers who already have an agile billing system in place, Vindicia Select is an add-on solution that increases OTT subscriber

retention to drive higher revenue and customer lifetime value. Incorporating the proprietary ART Advanced Retention Technology™ system, Vindicia Select heals failed payment transactions, thereby dramatically reducing involuntary churn. The solution allows OTT providers to reduce involuntary churn by about 30% or more, boost revenue by as much as 5%, and increase customer service and customer lifetime value by keeping customers connected to OTT services.

About VindiciaVindicia brings enterprise-class innovation to consumer-facing subscription billing to help digital companies acquire and retain more customers by making payments seamless, secure and easy. Vindicia keeps customers connected to the subscription services they love, and companies connected to the subscription revenues they need. Vindicia has processed more than $21 billion globally and generates over $90 million in annual incremental revenue for clients. Clients include TransUnion Interactive, Intuit, IAC, Bloomberg, Vimeo, Next Issue Media and more. Vindicia was recently ranked the number one billing software solution on the market by Business-Software.com, and recognized as a “Top 100 Promising Tech Companies” by CIOReview magazine. For more information visit www.vindicia.com. n

Leverage High-Margin OTT Services with Vindicia Acquisition, Billing and Retention Solutions

http://www.vindicia.com


Editor’s Note








Encoding Content Lacks Standardization Proprietary devices often require proprietary encoding schemes, which creates fragmentation in the market.

By Jim Barthold

There is no single way to encode content for every consumer device. That’s the bad news for vendors. The good news is there is at least some common ground on which to build a foundation.

The speed at which consumer devices are being conceived and deployed requires that software-based encoding be flexible enough to slip into virtualized environments that meld fast-based software development with foundational hardware.

“Every piece of software in the world … has to have an underlying hardware platform, a physical chip … but you can evolve the software in terms of weekly changes to that software,” said Keith Wymbs, chief marketing officer of Elemental Technologies.

The challenge for encoding content for multiple devices—even with flexible software—is that those multiple devices are individually attached to proprietary devices such as Apple iOS, Google Android and

Microsoft Xbox, each of which requires its own encoding system.

MPEG-DASH tries to standardizeAttempts have been made to standardize the whole process with MPEG-DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming for HTTP)--a standard for adaptive streaming over HTTP. DASH has some industry support but is still mired in political and technical issues. Plus those devices that use proprietary encoding are not particularly interested in paying royalties to standardize on schemes that use different encoding.

One way to get the most from MPEG-DASH is to use a spoke approach with DASH in the middle and proprietary encoding schemes branching off. Politically speaking, that will probably be the most amenable to the various players as it enables them to continue to use proprietary systems while benefiting from a standardized foundation.







Editor’s Note








>> Encoding Content Lacks Standarization

“I wouldn’t say that standards are a necessity,” said Steve Reynolds, chief technology officer of Imagine Communications, which like nearly every vendor has developed multiple encoding packages. “Would my life be easier if everybody did it the same way? Sure, but that’s just not where the industry is right now.”

The rapid pace at which new services and devices are developed and deployed has at least one constant: everybody agrees that adaptive bit rate (ABR) technology ensures that content is configured to deliver a reasonable experience on any type of device. A smartphone, doesn’t need the picture quality of a 70-inch TV because it’s unlikely that consumers are going to consume a large amount of video on such a small screen and those that do probably won’t notice the difference. A tablet is more problematic, needing better picture quality than a smartphone but nothing like a giant flat screen. By adapting bit rates for each device, a service provider can apportion bandwidth for the iPhone’s smaller screen that looks as good as a Samsung 70-inch 4K television.

ABR provides a moment of sanity in an insane space because it guarantees a bit rate that meets the needs of each individual screen, especially in an unmanaged delivery space where there is no bandwidth constant. The devices, though, are susceptible to different environments. A 4G LTE experience within a residence might actually offer a better experience than one connected to the residential Wi-Fi network. Since most devices will be connected to some wireless network, it is

important that the ABR scheme recognize the disparities and deliver a signal suitable for that environment.

Reducing complexityAdobe Primetime provides middleware that makes any device a TV of sorts, said Kelash Kumar, director of product management and video solutions at Adobe Primetime. That includes a middleware stack for iOS, Android, Xbox, and TV set-top boxes, such as the ones the company has developed for Comcast. Primetime’s middleware takes a single screen and encrypts it one time, encodes it one time and delivers it to a desktop, iOS, Android, Xbox and set-top box, as well as other platforms still to be developed.

“We think we’re reducing the friction to reach people,” he said.

That friction needs to be reduced, if not eliminated altogether, as service providers seek to create one-to-one relations with customers that include personalized content delivery and, more importantly, targeted advertising across the different platforms.

The whole process starts with determining how to encode content from multiple proprietary sources for multiple devices without the consumer noticing a difference. A video stream encoded in MPEG-DASH could—and should—be delivered to a consumer with a cable set-top box, an Apple iPad and an Android smartphone, whichever the consumer is choosing to access content.







Editor’s Note








>> Encoding Content Lacks Standarization

“You have managed end point devices and you have unmanaged end point devices,” Reynolds said. “When I say managed I mean a set-top box you would get from your cable provider vs. an unmanaged device like your iPhone or you tablet. It’s part of the complexity.”

Driving competitionIt’s also part of a dynamic that might seem to be stifling the growth of unmanaged services from OTT providers

but, in fact, is actually devouring the differences to drive competition and make the consumer experience even better.

“We’re able to work through the problems of fragmentation and we love the innovation that’s been happening on the devices,” Kumar said. “I’d love to see that carry on for the next five years at least before this becomes unmanageable.” n







Editor’s Note








Dynamic Ad Insertion is Ushering in a New Era of Advertising Ad buyers are hungry to reach new audiences and DIA tools are primed to help them.

By Jason Bovberg

The TV provider of the future is going to need to provide personalized video content to consumers at any time and on any device. On the other side of the equation, providers will also need to help programmers generate revenues and grow the amount of content they distribute on a given service, as well as support cross-platform reach and measurement for the $200 billion global TV advertising industry.

“From a technology perspective, operators will need a unified way to execute advertising across viewing platforms that includes dynamic ad insertion (DAI) and leveraging audience data,” said Chris Hock, senior vice president, business development & strategic partnerships at Black Arrow. “Older technologies such as DVR will be replaced by network-based DVR and eventually all content will just be available for viewing at any time both on the traditional TV and on IP-based devices.”

Many operators understand this situation and are upgrading their current infrastructure to support such

use cases. In fact, many of the large North American operators already have deployed DIA.

ChallengesThe evolution of DAI in OTT services begins with cable video-on-demand (VOD), said Chris Pizzurro, head of product, sales and marketing at Canoe. “The VOD service provided by cable operators has proven that consumers love the idea of getting their top networks and their top programs on their schedule. Advertisers like it, too.”

The power of cable VOD is its scale; it’s an opportunity that’s large enough for both networks and advertisers to mutually benefit. “To date,” said Pizzurro, “the Canoe national platform targets ‘traditional’ network TV audiences because the ad inventory can be bought and sold easily at scale this way.” But what about the new, a la carte reality of OTT services? “In order to have an audience to carve up in specific ways,” Pizzurro said,







Editor’s Note








>> Dynamic Ad Insertion is Ushering in a New Era of Advertising

“you first need an audience to carve. To date, OTT ad services don’t have enough scale for even a traditional buy, let alone for targeting smaller, specific audiences. So it’s not really a technology issue as it is a scale issue.”

Content providers are therefore tasked with finding a way to integrate their VOD ad strategy across both OTT and set-top box formats into a multi-platform VOD service that can be effectively monetized. For some providers, the subscription model is the way forward. According to Jonathan Weitz, partner at IBB Consulting, “It’s important to ensure that viewers accessing content and ads get a high-quality experience across the range of smartphones, tablets, and devices for live and on-demand content. That includes easy-to-use subscriber authentication for the best user experience.” There are growing opportunities for the industry to benefit from solutions that leverage subscriber profile and consumption data to enhance ad relevancy and dynamic addressable ads in a way that is consistent with privacy needs.

Measurement is key. Providers need to identify consumer behaviors according to device, platform, content type, demographics, geographical regions, and so on—in the interest of understanding audiences and targeting them appropriately. “Content owners will also want to be able to utilize enhanced cross-device ad delivery to ensure optimized management of frequency and sequencing of ads across devices,” Weitz added.

“The technical challenges involved with DAI for specific audiences are actually being addressed by deployments

happening today,” Hock said. “The biggest challenges that remain are on the business side. Measurement of cross-platform buys needs to be agreed upon by the players in the industry. At that point, the market will be able to fully adopt the technology that is already rolled out.”

Some advertisers in the industry have already started investing in this type of advanced TV advertising, but mass rollout will happen when early adopters experiences successes. In the meantime, providers and audiences alike need to be wary of fraud, Pizzurro said. “OTT is an open architecture, like digital, so it’s open to the same sort of fraud/bots we see in digital. Cable VOD doesn’t have this issue because it’s a closed system.”

Today’s Tool SetsAn effective DAI tool might be described as a decision engine that communicates with the VOD system, inserting targeted advertisements into the streaming content based on predetermined rules. A powerful

“The biggest challenges that remain are on the business side. Measurement of cross-platform buys needs to be agreed upon by the players in the industry.”

CHRIS HOCK, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS AT BLACK ARROW







Editor’s Note








>> Dynamic Ad Insertion is Ushering in a New Era of Advertising

tool set would also include strong metadata-input functionality, as well as the aforementioned compatibility with multiple video platforms.

According to Hock, the DAI tool sets on the market are very mature. “There has been a huge improvement of the usage of these tools from where we were even a year ago. At Black Arrow, we saw a 450 percent increase in DAI VOD impressions from 2013 to 2014 and are

now seeing 1 billion impressions per month in the United States alone. Now that we’re rolling that same technology out to OTT devices, we expect that this exponential growth will continue.”

“Many digital tech companies are adapting their tools for OTT,” Pizzurro said. “That’s a good start. However, there’s forecasting, planning, stewardship, and reporting that goes on in TV, and many of these companies are naïve simply because they’re specific to TV. So, tools are only part of it. You have to know what the tools need to do.”

DAI in VOD and OTT is ushering in a new era of sophisticated advertising. The industry is still in flux, and most providers are still gauging what will add value to both the buy and sell side of the market, but the technology that enables that is already in place at most major operators. Ad buyers are increasingly eager to reach these difficult-to-target audiences, and today’s DAI tools are primed to helped them do so. n

“It’s important to ensure that viewers accessing content and ads get a high-quality experience across the range of smartphones, tablets, and devices for live and on-demand content.”

JONATHAN WEITZ, PARTNER AT IBB CONSULTING







Editor’s Note








User Guides Get Personal The traditional program guide is no longer compelling as consumers expect a more personalized experience.

By Jim Barthold

IP-streamed OTT content has made the traditional program guide about as relevant as TV program listings in the daily newspaper.

“The most important elements are moving from a program grid to a personalized view of content that learns your favorite sports, teams, shows and perhaps even your political leanings,” said Sam Rosen, practice director at ABI Research.

Having established that the old way is gone, multiple companies are presenting their own new ways of topping the gold standard approach pioneered by Netflix.

Netflix is the gold standard“Netflix knows customer behavior data in a way that almost none of the content providers have a clue about,” said Gene Hoffman, chairman and CEO of Vindicia.

Not only is personalization key, but so is responsiveness. “The guide is the Web. A good Website is responsive to being run on a desktop or being run on an iPad or a

cellphone,” Hoffman said. “That’s exactly what OTT has made us do because the use case drives more toward the mobile device.”

That means understanding a consumer who has relegated the desktop or laptop computer to a work-centric device, not an entertainment gateway. In addition, in requires building an experience for that new screen.

“You want to think like consumers who might have an iPhone or an Android phone or an iOS Pad and a Samsung TV,” said Gilles BianRosa, vice president and general manager of Rovi’s Fan TV. “Ultimately you want to think about a discovery guide as a cross-platform service.”

Before any guide reaches that point, the service provider must first determine the niche it will fill: on-demand or subscription.

A subscription is paid up front so a subscriber can use the guide to select any authorized content without worrying about a per-view cost. The other model, favored by many







Editor’s Note








>> User Guides Get Personal

OTT program providers, is an a la carte menu of content options from which the consumer can pick and choose and pay for on a one-time basis.

“I think we’re still in the Stone Age of what OTT television infrastructure looks like, how to figure out what to watch next, all those things,” Hoffman said.

Vindicia favors a subscription model that lets the subscriber decide what type of programming is appropriate. A subscriber with children, for instance, could limit daytime content to children then open the evenings to adults.

It’s more important to make content choices available in ways that are easy for consumers to access and then leverage those viewing choices to make future recommendations, Hoffman said.

Combining Pay-TV and OTT AioTV has developed a grid that caters to an interactive experience. On the surface is general information about the content such as title and when it’s being aired; beneath

is information about how to access that content on-demand or even at other viewing times.

“Now the consumer can have a set of recommended, related content that’s video-on-demand that can be accessed played one after the other and feel very much like a linear channel,” said Mike Earle, CEO of AioTV. “But it’s still a big playlist of VOD.”

AioTV wants to help pay-TV service providers migrate to all-IP delivery without abandoning millions of installed set-top boxes. It hopes to accomplish that goal by installing a pass-through device that captures and disseminates streamed and linear content and delivers it to a set-top box where it’s all part of a program guide.

“Some of those channels may be an HLS stream; the channel below is passing through a legacy set-top and the channel below might be built from VOD assets or an over-the-air tuner,” Earle said. “For the consumer it just looks like a bunch of channels. They don’t have to know that the plumbing to deliver those channels is different.”

That model seems a bit TV-centric in an era when the television is one screen among many, but Earle said AioTV’s back office cloud will also select, distribute and appropriately configure for smartphones, tablets and whatever other screen individual consumers are using.

Catering to all viewers The other thing about the new user experience program guide is the potential for a generation gap. Older viewers

“The most important elements are moving from a program grid to a personalized view of content that learns your favorite sports, teams, shows and perhaps even your political leanings.”

SAM ROSEN, PRACTICE DIRECTOR AT ABI RESEARCH







Editor’s Note








>> User Guides Get Personal

are painted as couch potatoes happy to lean back and watch linear programming. Younger viewers lean forward and demand what they want on whatever screen they happen to be holding at the time.

But not everyone agrees with that premise. Smartphones and tablets have leveled the generational field, BianRosa said, leaving the new user guide with the burden of presenting that content to satisfy any viewer. That means concentrating on the content not the guide or device app.

“The difference between Fan TV and a traditional guide is the focus,” BianRosa said. “The way we designed it is content-centric. The first thing that you see when you turn it on is the actual show; it’s showing you programs.”

That content-centric focus, he said, lets the user choose the device on which the programming will be consumed and either view that content, store it for later viewing or, in the case of a smartphone, transfer it to a bigger screen tablet or television.

“We at Fan TV think we have re-invented the way that people discover entertainment,” he said.

Of course every guide developer thinks it has re-invented—or is re-inventing—the way people discover entertainment. Equally important, however, is how that content is presented and accessed.

“There’s a user experience and there’s user interaction,” Earle said. “There’s how you make things look on the screen and how the consumer is presented data that’s meaningful that they can engage with.” n

“For the consumer it just looks like a bunch of channels. They don’t have to know that the plumbing to deliver those channels is different.”

MIKE EARLE, CEO OF AIOTV







Editor’s Note








Piracy Remains a Big Threat to OTT Providers Digital rights management is often used as an encryption method but that can be a big challenge because many devices support different DRM profiles.

By Jim Barthold

OTT providers are still a big target for piracy. And while there are some encryption standards for content, there are also many challenges. The vast number of devices available for OTT content delivery – from smartphones to tablets to smart TVs—makes encryption difficult and sometimes cumbersome for consumers.

“I look at content protection this way--you could put enough padlocks on a bike so that not even the most determined thief could steal that bike but it would totally ruin the enjoyment of riding it because you’d be carrying around so many locks you wouldn’t get very far,” said Ian Trow, senior director of emerging technologies and strategy at Harmonic.

Conditional access encryptionThe traditional way of protecting content was via a hardened hardware-based Conditional Access (CA) encryption that requires an end device to decrypt it and thus was very popular with content providers. CA is the preferred method for many traditional Pay-TV

providers. Although the Pay-TV crowd is anxious to move to more software-based IP delivery, most still have millions of set-top boxes in the field.

IP-based OTT, however, is a different beast. OTT is “all about a piece of software running embedded in the client that has to exchange keys with a server either in the cloud or an operator’s network to be able to decrypt that content,” said Arnaud Perrier, vice president of strategy and corporate development at Envivio.

Live programming, particularly high level sporting events shown over OTT networks, is often a bigger concern for piracy than movies. However, that phenomenon will likely change when high-quality 4K/UHD content is more prolific because 4K is considered more secure.

There is a standard at the top of the encryption pile: the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 128 encryption algorithm.







Editor’s Note








>> Piracy Remains a Big Threat to OTT Providers

“There are a couple small variants but that’s an algorithm that’s pretty future-proof in terms of brute force attacks to decrypt content or decrypt messages,” said Steve Christian, vice president of marketing at Verimatrix. “Pretty much all streaming content today is using the same AES encryption algorithm. It’s applied in slightly different ways to different formats of streaming content, but all the content is using that format.”

DRM’s inherent challengesDigital Rights Management (DRM) is often the encryption method of choice. And that’s where the biggest headache starts for vendors that need to deliver content to an increasing number of devices.

“The big challenge with respect to OTT devices—including connected TVs, game consoles, smart set-top boxes, tablets and smartphones—is that each device comes with its own supported DRM profile(s),”

said Sam Rosen, practice director covering OTT & Multiscreen Video Devices for ABI Research.

OTT providers must handle DRM profiles from Microsoft Xbox, Google, Apple and Adobe, as well as content providers such as Sony that stream their own services.

“This multiple rights domain creates unique challenges for service integration and management,” Rosen said.

Companies like Envivio must interface with multiple vendors and their multiple technologies.

“We have to work with Apple on the FairPlay DRM spec for Apple TV; we have to work with Microsoft on the PlayReady technology; and we have to work with Google on their technology,” Perrier said.

No common standardAlthough having one encryption standard would alleviate some of the hurdles, most vendors are resigned to the fact that standardizing isn’t likely anytime soon.

“It would make our lives easier if there was one common encryption standard, it just hasn’t been the case,” Perrier said. “The DRM industry is very unique, very guarded and it’s always been that way. The CA industry for traditional pay TV has always been very siloed with technologies from Motorola/General Instrument, NDS which is now Cisco and Macrovision.

“ I look at content protection this way--you could put enough padlocks on a bike so that not even the most determined thief could steal that bike but it would totally ruin the enjoyment of riding it because you’d be carrying around so many locks you wouldn’t get very far.”

IAN TROW, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES AND STRATEGY AT HARMONIC.







Editor’s Note








DRM is OK with us; it’s just more demand for our software to deal with all that stuff.”

However, Perrier believes that the fragmentation of the DRM schemes actually helps OTT players because those with competing delivery systems must innovate to keep consumers on their platforms.

“I don’t think it has slowed down the pace at which OTT deployments are accelerating,” Perrier said.

If DRM aims to keep the pirates off-balance, other safety measures such as watermarking and fingerprinting of content, provide even more obstacles. Called passive security, these embedded traceable codes let content

owners trace the source of the hack by tracking down the perpetrator and attacking with cease and desist orders as well as other legal methods.

Passive security will become more commonplace as advanced video delivery systems such as 4K/UHD make content more enticing for content pirates.

“Any time you try to offer a more premium service the price goes up and the value of somebody trying to hack into that service goes up,” Christian said. “You have to pay more attention to the mechanisms which are being used for handling encryption keys and for handling content distribution. It’s a new set of requirements.” n

>> Piracy Remains a Big Threat to OTT Providers






march 2015 fiercecable overcoming the 5 biggest …...vindicia cashbox is a comprehensive...

Documents