Broadband Communities

NOV-DEC 2013

BROADBAND COMMUNITIES is the leading source of information on digital and broadband technologies for buildings and communities. Our editorial aims to accelerate the deployment of Fiber-To-The-Home and Fiber-To-The-Premises.

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BROADBAND APPS Seeing Double: Multiscreen Video Trends New technologies help operators improve the multiscreen experience, lower costs and tap new revenue streams. By Masha Zager / Broadband Communities T o compete with over-the-top video providers and retain subscribers, many pay-TV operators now make their video services available via the Internet on PCs and mobile devices. Subscribers have welcomed these services. ABI Research estimates that nearly one-third of U.S. telco TV households access multiscreen services, often called TV Everywhere; the percentage of cable users is nearly as high. TV Everywhere started up slowly because of technology hurdles and because operators have had to wait for their long-term rights contracts with content providers to come up for renewal. However, the technology is becoming more sophisticated, and, according to ABI analyst Michael Inouye, "in many respects the technology is in place to increasingly ofer wider-reaching TVE services." He adds, "Securing the rights to broader content distribution is the primary remaining hurdle." Still, the amount of multiscreen content continues to grow. Some oferings now include live TV (the holy grail of Internet video) and outside-the-home viewing rights. With the rapid evolution of technology, consumer behavior and content rights, the TV Everywhere landscape is constantly shifting. Earlier this year, BroadBand Communities surveyed three technology vendors about their perspectives on new developments. MobiTV: Identifying Individual Viewers MobiTV's managed TV Everywhere services deliver live and on-demand television, downloadable video and related media content to mobile devices, tablets and personal computers. Te company launched a decade ago with a consumer subscription service for video downloaded to mobile phones, then shifted its emphasis to serving operators rather than consumers. Cedric Fernandes, the chief technology ofcer, says MobiTV foresaw the eventual merging of wired and wireless TV and began developing a TV Everywhere ofering as early as 2006. It has already completed the frst phase of NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013 | the rollout of Deutsche Telekom's Entertain2Go streaming service and is now working on another large multiscreen IPTV implementation. Tablet computers are driving the demand for multiscreen services, Fernandes says, because consumers especially enjoy watching video on tablets. In addition, wireless networks – both Wi-Fi and cellular – have improved to the point where watching video on a mobile device can be a comfortable experience. At the same time, over-the-top video has changed users' perceptions of acceptable video quality in the same way that cellphones' convenience changed users' notions of acceptable voice quality. www.broadbandcommunities.com | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | 119

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