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However, acquiring sports offerings is prohibitively expensive. Another avenue telcos can take is local and culturally specific programming that targets different ethnic groups. This can also be a powerful tool for attracting and retaining customers and building revenues through specific programming packages.
A key area of new channel development lies in the possibilities offered by international content. We are now seeing true globalization as major brands extend their franchises worldwide. That means that non-local media is also expanding and in just a few years, consumers will want access to any channel on-demand from anywhere around the world. TV is coming without borders, so telcos must include a full international lineup to address the world’s growing multicultural markets – a real differentiator for multichannel providers as telcos will not be limited to the capacity problems of DBS or cable.
Through its World TV platform in the US, service provider GlobeCast already delivers more than 165 international TV and radio brands into America via DTH and cable, and soon IPTV. Other international bouquets exist on various platforms worldwide.
Telcos for the most part, already have the nationwide broadband networks in place to deliver the end signal to the consumer. They are entering the TV business with an all-IP format, which is fast becoming the end-to-end standard for content programmers. This means IP all the way through production, contribution and channel playout. Having an
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Video is a very different animal to what the telcos are used to providing. It is much more sensitive and needs much better monitoring facilities to ensure good service. It also requires a high bandwidth broadband network with sufficient guaranteed throughput to ensure required video quality to each home.
To meet the demand for this high-speed network, telcos, if they haven’t done so
already, will have to spend a significant amount of money on network upgrades.
While Internet surfers will put up with a buffering delay while viewing an Internet clip online, television viewers are not nearly as forgiving!
So to realize a complete IPTV solution that supports the current offering and is future-proof, telcos, like broadcasters, have to form strong partnerships with service providers. Broadcast content management companies like GlobeCast, with the expertise and experience of the broadcast industry and its technology, are an essential part of the IPTV value chain – they are intimately familiar with the broadcasting industry from both sides, programmer and distributor alike – ingesting content in any number of formats, converting it between standards and sending it where it needs to go and in the format it needs to be in. Just like FedEx, GlobeCast acts as a central processing station through which content can be routed, bundled with local advertising and programming and then delivered fast and reliably through its secure network to consumers worldwide.
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end-to-end IP distribution chain, should give IPTV a strong competitive advantage in meeting cable and DBS head on. They will meet these industries’ content stakes and raise them on bundles, customer service and bandwidth.
With a strong focus on content and the end goal of reaching new IPTV audiences, the middle part of the equation can be a difficult variable. Broadcasters know content and telcos know telecom networks, but one crucial factor is missing from the value chain – video transmission services on a national and global level. That’s where broadcast service providers such as GlobeCast come into play.
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With the service provider completing the broadcast equation, channels can focus on content and telcos can focus on service quality and subscriber management. GlobeCast works closely with Maligne TV in France for example, providing the downlink, aggregation, IP encapsulation, MPEG-4 encoding and contribution to the company’s IPTV headend.
Content, as ever, will remain king and being able to deliver it is key to increasing subscriber numbers and revenue. However it is the customer experience – based on the choice of channels, as well as the level of control and interactivity that will attract and retain the audience to make the numbers add up in a meaningful way.
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