Finding Success in the New TV World
Jennifer Baisch / December 11, 2014
Are we disrupted yet? Recent movements from the industry’s biggest content providers, distributors and even the FCC, signal a definitive shift into high gear in this long quest for premium content on all devices.
TVs on the BlinkWhile some industry analysts assume that the market incumbents will not find a profitable balance between their current pay TV model and the new world of Over The Top (OTT) distribution, I think there’s a green field opportunity for any provider, incumbents and new entrants, to create new models and experiences that will delight viewers. The key will be a provider’s ability to rapidly iterate and experiment to find the right balance of the core ingredients in a new offering.
As the live linear television workflow switches over to an all-IP workflow, from content acquisition all the way to end viewer analytics, content owners and distributors gain the ability to rapidly design, deploy, test and tweak to arrive at new models that deliver the best experience for the viewer and the best return for the provider.
This end–to-end IP environment is much more agile than the closed, traditional broadcast world, enabling faster modification to the business rules underlying new services. While any number of features will be a part of these new services, there are four main components that content providers will play with to find the best outcome:
1. Content– Content owners will now have a higher degree of control and flexibility in how much and what type of content they’ll offer as part of a service or individual subscriber package. Access to all content, access to some, live versus on demand, bundled or unbundled, all of these content combos will have to be tested.
2. Windowing - Simulcast, day and date, delayed access, limited binge windows or trial periods are more options OTT services can fine tune to drive viewer behavior and value. Loss leaders (free trialing) and premium-priced early access for super fans will be used in combination for different business goals, either growing audience sizes, improving content discoverability, or driving up ARPU (average revenue per user).
3. Advertising– While the specific ad models for OTT are evolving, the importance of advertising in the value of the service is clear. As more live linear channels launch online creating a traditional sit-back television experience, the more we will see advertising as part of that experience. The gap between monetizable online video viewing and the ad dollars allocated to it will not last as every year more advertisers discover the big value in OTT advertising.
4. Price– While the simple Netflix pricing model has its advantages, I think there are many other untested models with the potential to align pricing with an individual viewer’s value of the content. It will be interesting to see if Amazon moves forward with a free, ad-supported service. Content distributors and owners alike will have to determine how to segment the market to find the price points that bring in new customers without cannibalizing their current base.
iStreamPlanet and Level 3 are working together to create global, end-to-end, live IP video delivery solutions that enable the rapid deployment of these complex live linear workflows so that our media customers can move quickly into the next phase of live linear channels with the flexibility to experiment with different models, technologies, and experiences.
Using software and cloud-based services opens up OTT innovation because it’s so much easier to integrate various components of the workflow. Now we can pass metadata along with the content that enables new business rules such as communicating with ad decisioning servers for targeted ad insertion and audience tracking. IP networks enable the acquisition and delivery of multiscreen content around the globe, breaking through regional barriers, creating a new global, connected audience.
Perhaps most importantly, with a move to cloud services and an all IP workflow, content providers will get real-time customer feedback, changing the traditional live linear workflow into a loop that is continuously delivering content, gathering feedback, iterating and improving in ways that benefit both the end viewer and the service provider.
While no one knows the exact recipe for success, we do know that companies that embrace agile cloud and software technology will get services to market more quickly, and rapidly iterate on their services to keep viewers happy, and that will make all the difference in this new world of TV everywhere.
http://blog.level3.com/content-delivery/findi...-tv-world/
Jennifer Baisch / December 11, 2014
Are we disrupted yet? Recent movements from the industry’s biggest content providers, distributors and even the FCC, signal a definitive shift into high gear in this long quest for premium content on all devices.
TVs on the BlinkWhile some industry analysts assume that the market incumbents will not find a profitable balance between their current pay TV model and the new world of Over The Top (OTT) distribution, I think there’s a green field opportunity for any provider, incumbents and new entrants, to create new models and experiences that will delight viewers. The key will be a provider’s ability to rapidly iterate and experiment to find the right balance of the core ingredients in a new offering.
As the live linear television workflow switches over to an all-IP workflow, from content acquisition all the way to end viewer analytics, content owners and distributors gain the ability to rapidly design, deploy, test and tweak to arrive at new models that deliver the best experience for the viewer and the best return for the provider.
This end–to-end IP environment is much more agile than the closed, traditional broadcast world, enabling faster modification to the business rules underlying new services. While any number of features will be a part of these new services, there are four main components that content providers will play with to find the best outcome:
1. Content– Content owners will now have a higher degree of control and flexibility in how much and what type of content they’ll offer as part of a service or individual subscriber package. Access to all content, access to some, live versus on demand, bundled or unbundled, all of these content combos will have to be tested.
2. Windowing - Simulcast, day and date, delayed access, limited binge windows or trial periods are more options OTT services can fine tune to drive viewer behavior and value. Loss leaders (free trialing) and premium-priced early access for super fans will be used in combination for different business goals, either growing audience sizes, improving content discoverability, or driving up ARPU (average revenue per user).
3. Advertising– While the specific ad models for OTT are evolving, the importance of advertising in the value of the service is clear. As more live linear channels launch online creating a traditional sit-back television experience, the more we will see advertising as part of that experience. The gap between monetizable online video viewing and the ad dollars allocated to it will not last as every year more advertisers discover the big value in OTT advertising.
4. Price– While the simple Netflix pricing model has its advantages, I think there are many other untested models with the potential to align pricing with an individual viewer’s value of the content. It will be interesting to see if Amazon moves forward with a free, ad-supported service. Content distributors and owners alike will have to determine how to segment the market to find the price points that bring in new customers without cannibalizing their current base.
iStreamPlanet and Level 3 are working together to create global, end-to-end, live IP video delivery solutions that enable the rapid deployment of these complex live linear workflows so that our media customers can move quickly into the next phase of live linear channels with the flexibility to experiment with different models, technologies, and experiences.
Using software and cloud-based services opens up OTT innovation because it’s so much easier to integrate various components of the workflow. Now we can pass metadata along with the content that enables new business rules such as communicating with ad decisioning servers for targeted ad insertion and audience tracking. IP networks enable the acquisition and delivery of multiscreen content around the globe, breaking through regional barriers, creating a new global, connected audience.
Perhaps most importantly, with a move to cloud services and an all IP workflow, content providers will get real-time customer feedback, changing the traditional live linear workflow into a loop that is continuously delivering content, gathering feedback, iterating and improving in ways that benefit both the end viewer and the service provider.
While no one knows the exact recipe for success, we do know that companies that embrace agile cloud and software technology will get services to market more quickly, and rapidly iterate on their services to keep viewers happy, and that will make all the difference in this new world of TV everywhere.
http://blog.level3.com/content-delivery/findi...-tv-world/
