BRING PEOPLE THE CONTENT THEY LOVE - MEET THEMA - BOOTH P-1 D63 - Digital TV Europe
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March/April 2019
BRING PEOPLE
THE CONTENT
THEY LOVE
MEET THEMA - BOOTH P-1 D63
pOFC DTVE MarApr19.indd 1 21/03/2019 12:58
WORLWIDE DISTRIBUTION
Visit us at
MipTV #R7.D5
Sabrina Eleuteri Benedetta Migliore
Europe Area Manager Extra European Distribution
www.rai-com.com sabrina.eleuteri@rai.it benedetta.migliore@rai.it
p09 Rai DTVE MarApr18.indd 1 22/02/2018 13:29
Digital TV Europe
March/April 2019
Contents
10. User experienced
Universal discovery has long been an industry goal, but will the
scale and complexity of content always keep a global solution out
of reach? Adrian Pennington reports.
18. Stealing the stream
Streaming has changed the nature and extent of the revenue threat to video service providers
posed by pirates. Stuart Thomson looks at the state of play.
18
28. Lines of sight 28
Broadcasters are looking to new hybrid delivery technologies to ensure that their services stay
relevant in the digital age. Anna Tobin reports on the latest developments.
32. Bolt from the Blu
Dogan Yalcindag, the founder and CEO of Turkish VOD platform BluTV, discusses the
company’s growth, international expansion plans and its original content strategy.
32
34 ANGA COM 2019: the preview
Peter Charissé, managing director of ANGA COM, talks to Digital TV Europe about the key
themes of this year’s event and the central issues facing the industry.
Regulars
2 This month 4 News digest 40 Technology 43 People 44 Final analysis
Visit us at www.digitaltveurope.com
1
p01 Contents DTVE MarApr19v2st.indd 1 25/03/2019 15:06
This month > Editor’s note Digital TV Europe
March/April 2019
Issue no 344
Published By:
Age of disruption
Informa Tech
Maple House
149 Tottenham Court Road
London W1T 7AD
The OTT TV revolution continues, and its impact is being felt
across all elements of TV, from content creation to the screen
on which that content is viewed.
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5000
In this issue of Digital TV Europe, we look at three different topics that
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7017 4953
underscore the huge changes in TV production, distribution and con-
Website: www.digitaltveurope.net
sumption that are underway.
First, we look at the changing nature of the TV user experience. OTT
Editor Stuart Thomson services such as Netflix have helped transform the expectations of a mass
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5314 of users about how TV services should look and feel and how best to
Email: stuart.thomson@knect365.com search for and consume content. Now mainstream TV operators are in-
creasingly under pressure from their users to provide universal search and discovery – tools
that span not only the walled garden of the pay TV provider’s own services but a broad and
Contributing Editor Andy McDonald ever-expanding range of third-party offerings too. We look at some of the technology challenges
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5293 involved in providing universal discovery and some of the tools being made available that can
Email: andrew.mcdonald@knect365.com help it along.
The growth in popularity of OTT streaming services reflects the wide availability of high-band-
width broadband and the plummeting price of the technology required to get OTT video ser-
Contributors
vices up and running. Those developments have benefited not only legitimate rights-holders
Kate Bulkley, Kaltrina Bylykbashi, Andy Fry,
seeking to deliver services to consumers but those in the business of content theft too. Stream-
Adrian Pennington, Adam Thomas,
ing piracy has exploded over the last couple of years, with many services having a highly pro-
Anna Tobin
fessional sheen.
Also in this issue of Digital TV Europe we look at the extent of the threat to revenue of legiti-
Correspondents mate providers and assess some of the strategies being adopted to combat that threat.
France: Julien Alliot; Germany: Dieter Growth in popularity of streaming services and on-demand consumption has also prompted
Brockmeyer; Italy: Branislav Pekic linear broadcasters to develop their own online portals and to find ways to fruitfully combine
linear and non-linear in a single unified platform. Hence the adoption of standards-based ways
to delivering services such as HbbTV, the rationale of which is to future-proof broadcast.
Commercial Director Patricia Arescy In this issue, we look at recent developments in hybrid delivery including the DVB-I initiative
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5320 and HbbTV OpApp, a new effort to enable service providers to deliver ‘TV as an app’ services.
Email: patricia.arescy@knect365.com Within the streaming world, the subscription video-on-demand model has emerged as the
most popular and potentially lucrative way of monetising content to date. In addition to the
established SVOD giants, numerous regional and niche operators have launched their own of-
Art Director Matthew Humberstone
ferings, with varying degrees of success. Also in this issue, we interview the founder of Turkish
OTT TV platform BluTV , who discusses his company’s model, expansion plans and original
Marketing Executive Abigail Dede
content strategy.
Elsewhere, we look forward to the ANGA COM trade show in Cologne in June and, as al-
Printing Walstead Grange, Cornwall ways, provide a digest of the latest industry news and technology developments. l
To subscribe to this magazine or our
daily email newsletter please visit
digitaltveurope.net/registerhere
© 2019 Informa UK Ltd
All rights reserved
Stuart Thomson, Editor
Reproduction without permission is prohibited
stuart.thomson@knect365.com
Visit us at www.digitaltveurope.com
2
p02 Ed Note DTVE MarApr19v3st.indd 2 25/03/2019 15:07
INNOVATION
AWARDS 2019
Celebrating innovation in video
services and technology
VideoTech
INNOVATION
AWARDS 2019
3 December 2019, London
The VideoTech Innovation Awards from Digital TV Europe and
sister publication TBI – Television Business International celebrate
innovation in video services a nd the technologies that enable them.
The awards honour the achievements of companies and individuals
that bring video content to people worldwide.
The shortlist will be announced in September and
the winners revealed at the gala dinner in London
on 3 December.
Key dates
Entry submission deadline: 14 August
Shortlist announced: 6 September
Gala dinner: 3 December
For further information on entering and for sponsorship opportunities, contact Patricia Arescy
Tel: +44 (0)20 7017 5320 • Email: patricia.arescy@knect365.com
www.videotechinnovationawards.com
pXX VIA19 ad A4.indd 1 28/02/2019 12:52
News > digest Digital TV Europe
March/April 2019
News digest
> 4 Disney finalises 21st Century Fox merger > 5 DAZN to launch advertising
> 6 Canal+ launches new streaming service > 8 RTL sets ambitious SVOD target
Disney finalises 21st Century Fox merger
By Stuart Thomson > channels as a condition for reg- streaming service Disney+ later
ulatory approval of the deal. this year, part of Iger’s strategy
Disney has completed its The media giant is also ac- of reorienting the company with
US$71 billion (€62 billion) quiring US$19.8 billion of cash a set of direct-to-consumer ser-
acquisition of the bulk of and assuming approximately vices that also includes ESPN+
21st Century Fox, paving the US$19.2 billion of Fox debt as and Hulu, in which Disney will
way to create what Disney part of the agreement. now have majority control.
chairman and CEO Bob Iger 21st Century Fox has mean- While Disney+ will be tar-
described as “the preeminent while also completed the spin- geted specifically at a family
global entertainment company, off of the principally linear audience, Hulu will continue to
well positioned to lead in broadcast assets that will com- can party Congressman and for- offer a more adult-focused line-
an incredibly dynamic and prise the new Fox Corporation, mer House of Representatives up of content including series
transformative era.” including Fox News Channel, speaker Paul Ryan to its board, produced by Fox FX and Fox
Disney is acquiring 21st Fox Business Network, Fox working alongside Rupert and Searchlight.
Century Fox’s film production Broadcasting Company, Fox Lachlan Murdoch and Jacques Disney will now be under
businesses Twentieth Century Sports, Fox Television Stations Nasser. pressure to realise cost savings
Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Group, and sports cable net- “We are thrilled to welcome from the merger, with a signif-
Fox 2000 Pictures, Fox Family works FS1, FS2, Fox Deportes our new colleagues to the Fox icant number of redundancies
and Fox Animation; Fox’s tele- and Big Ten Network. board. We look forward to work- expected in the combined com-
vision units Twentieth Century For its part, Fox has named a ing with and being guided by pany’s US workforce.
Fox Television, FX Productions raft of new directors as it begins them as we begin a new chapter, In addition to the elevated cost
and Fox21; pay TV network FX life as a standalone company. steadfastly committed to provid- of financing a deal that came
Networks; National Geographic Fox has named Anne Dias, ing the best in news, sports and about after a ferocious bidding
Partners; Fox Networks Group founder of investment fund entertainment programming,” war with Comcast, Disney also
International; pay TV outfit Aragon Global Holdings, cur- said Lachlan Murdoch of the now has to absorb the cost of in-
Star India; and Fox’s interests rent Formula 1 chief and long- new board members. vesting in its new platforms, in-
in Hulu, Tata Sky and Endemol term Murdoch associate Chase The merger between Dis- cluding foregoing US$150 mil-
Shine Group. Carey, former Telemundo chief ney and Fox’s entertainment lion this year from its decision
Disney will divest 21st Cen- and current media investor Ro- business comes ahead of Dis- to retain rights to content rather
tury Fox’s regional US sports land Hernandez and Republi- ney’s planned launch of its new than license them to Netflix.
the idea of a global agreement IPTV > Free Delta milestone functionalities, despite the high
France covering the distribution of its free- Free has passed the 100,000 overall price. Free launched the box
to-air channels for remuneration in subscriber milestone for its recently in December at a premium price of
IPTV > Altice-Free mediation the same way that the service pro- launched high-end Freebox Delta €49.99 a month, with a cheaper
Altice France has accepted media- vider had concluded agreements box. The company said signing up device, the Freebox One, launched
tion from media regulator the CSA with commercial broadcasters TF1 new customers in such numbers for at the same time. The launch met
in its dispute with service provider and M6. It said that as a result it the device represented a consid- with considerable scepticism in a
Free over carriage terms for its TV would accept the CSA’s proposal of erable success in a market where market characterised by intense
channels, ending for now the threat mediation in the dispute. The move the average entry price for devices price competition. Freebox Delta
that they could be removed from followed a threatened withdrawal of began at less than €10 a month. provides access to Netflix’s basic
the Freebox service. Altice said in channels BFMTV, RMC Découverte, It said that the Freebox Delta offering as part of the subscription
a tweet that it had noted that Free RMC Story, BFM Business and provided value because it combined – a first for Free, which had resisted
was no longer rejecting in principle associated services. a large number of services and integration with Netflix to date.
Visit us at www.digitaltveurope.com
4
p04,06,08 DTVE News Digest MarApr19v4st.indd 4 22/03/2019 21:05
Digital TV Europe News > digest
March/April 2019
in Germany, where Vodafone and contract services now account for
Germany Liberty Global operate non-overlap- 84.3% of all services. The total Events
ping coaxial cable networks; and the number of pay TV contract custom-
CAB > EC to warn Vodafone Czech Republic, where Vodafone is ers increased by 156,000 year-on- NAB Show 2019
The EC is about to issue a warning mainly active as a mobile operator year to exceed five million by the Date: 8 - 11 April
to Vodafone about potentially an- and Liberty in fixed telecoms. end of December, boosted by sales Venue: Las Vegas Convention
ti-competitive effects of its acquisi- of basic packages as well as added Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, US
tion of Liberty Global’s German and value services such as multi-room W: nabshow.com
central European assets, according Poland and OTT TV. Overall, Cyfrowy Polsat
to Reuters. Citing unnamed sources, had 5.7 million contract customers MIPTV
the news service reported that the SAT > Cyfrowy Polsat at the end of the year, up 5.5%, with Date: 8 - 11 April
EC will issue a statement of objec- Cyfrowy Polsat saw its 2018 full- each customer using an average of Venue: Palais des Festivals,
tives including a warning about year results boosted by success 2.5 services. The group’s broadband Cannes, France
its concerns ahead of the June in offering multi-play, with 31.5% internet base remained stable, at W: miptv.com
3 deadline for EU approval. The of the company’s customers now 1.8 million. Mobile customers were
Commission opened an in-depth signed up to multi-play services. up by 413,000 to 7.3 million, again Satellite 2019
investigation into Vodafone’s pro- Cyfrowy Polsat’s multi-play base boosted by multi-play. Cyfrowy Date: 6 - 9 May
posed acquisition of Liberty Global’s increased by 19% or 285,000 year- Polsat’s revenue grew by 10% Venue: Walter E Washington
business in Germany, the Czech on-year to end 2018 with 1.8 million to PLN10.7 billion, while EBITDA Convention Ctr, Washington DC
Republic, Hungary and Romania in multi-play customers, taking a total increased by 7% to PLN3.7 billion. W: 2019.satshow.com
December, citing competition fears. of 5.38 million services, according Polsat’s overall EBITDA for the year
The EC said that its initial market in- to the operator. The number of con- was boosted by its consolidation Video Exchange Asia
vestigation raised concerns that the tract services sold rose by 574,000 of telecom operator Netia in the Date: 7 - 8 May
takeover may reduce competition year-on-year to 14.26 million, and course of the year. Venue: AVANI Riverside Hotel,
Bangkok, Thailand
W: tmt.knect365.com/
DAZN to launch advertising on streaming service video-exchange-asia
By Stuart Thomson > tially work with a select group of ANGA COM
advertisers, including VW, Tipi- Date: 4 - 6 June
Sports streaming operator DAZN co, bwin and Krombacher to in- Venue: Köln Messe, Germany
is to introduce advertising on its troduce brand advertising ahead W: angacom.de
platform as part of a company- of a full rollout later this year.
wide revamp that will see existing The division will be headed NEM
media sales outfit Perform Media by EVP of media Stefano D’An- Date: 10 - 13 June
renamed DAZN Media and the na, who will report to James Venue: Hotel Dubrovnik Palace,
launch of a new ‘amplification mand offering – now called Rushton, chief revenue officer Dubrovnik, Croatia
platform’ called DAZN+. DAZN Player – as part of the at parent outfit DAZN Group. W: neweumarket.com
DAZN plans to introduce new DAZN+ offering. DAZN+ Separately, as the UK’s cur-
sponsorship and advertising on will combine these properties rent Brexit deadline looms, TechXLR8
its streaming platform for the with access to social channels, DAZN has secured a broad- Date: 12 - 13 June
first time as part of the change. influencers, talent, rights and casting licence from German Venue: ExCeL, London, UK
DAZN Media, the new name in-stadia media to offer brands a media regulator Medienanstalt W:tmt.knect365.com/techxlr8/
for Perform, will be responsible “unique data-driven platform to Berlin-Brandenburg (MABB)
for overseeing all global and lo- engage with fans”. that will enable its services in Variety TV Summit Europe
cal commercial opportunities DAZN Player aggregates se- Germany, Austria and Italy and Date: 13 June
for brands across the DAZN lect premium sports content linear hospitality industry of- Venue: Royal Lancaster Hotel,
streaming service and will also from DAZN, rights holders and ferings to continue to function. London, UK
manage commercial inventory news agencies and is distribut- The licences will substitute for W: tmt.knect365.com/
across the group’s sport web- ed across publisher sites includ- DAZN’s current licences with variety-europe/
sites including Goal and Sport- ing Mail Online, MSN, Mundo UK regulator Ofcom. MABB
ing News. Deportivo and La Republica, director Anja Zimmer said that BroadcastAsia
The latter are to be aggre- among many others. she was “delighted that DAZN Date: 18 - 20 June
gated with SPOX and DAZN’s DAZN said that its newly has decided to register with Venue: Suntec, Singapore
rebranded ePlayer video-on-de- renamed media arm would ini- MABB”. W: broadcast-asia.com
Visit us at www.digitaltveurope.com
5
p04,06,08 DTVE News Digest MarApr19v4st.indd 5 22/03/2019 21:05
News > digest Digital TV Europe
March/April 2019
Last year, the operator unveiled a of CHF6.3 billion (€5.6 billion). The
Global Wrap South Africa strategy shift that saw it move away deal will establish Sunrise – which
from DTH satellite pay TV towards is Switzerland’s number two player
Baseball streaming service DTT > Kwesé to launch five free-to-air broadcasting based on in mobile, TV, fixed broadband and
MLB.TV has launched on Econet Media’s new South African its Kwesé Free Sports service and fixed voice behind Swisscom – as
Amazon Prime Video channels venture Kwesé Free TV has received streaming. South African regulator the “leading converged challenger”
in the US, allowing users to a commercial free-to-air broadcast- ICASA, which granted the terrestrial with the scale to drive innovation
watch regular season out-of- ing licence and radio frequency licence, said that the licensing of an and invest in new services. Sunrise
market baseball games live and spectrum licence in the country, additional individual commercial said that the takeover will help it to
on-demand. Prime members giving the broadcaster 55% of the free-to-air television broadcasting provide an enhanced customer ex-
streaming MLB.TV on Fire TV third South African digital-terres- service and related spectrum would perience, particularly in regions not
devices will also have access to trial multiplex frequencies. The stimulate competition and increase within the fibre footprint, as UPC
Prime Video’s X-Ray feature, move will give Econet Media-backed the variety of television broad- has high quality fixed network infra-
which gives fans access to live Kwesé the ability to launch five casting services available to South structure with a roadmap to speeds
in-game stats, team and player free-to-air channels in the country, Africans. of 1Gbps and eventually 10 Gbps via
details and play-by-play infor- including its FTA HD sports service. DOCSIS 3.1 upgrades. Sunrise will
mation while they watch. Grav- The South African operation is 20% pay Liberty Global roughly CHF2.7
itas Ventures, a Red Arrow owned by Econet, with Royal Ba- Switzerland billion (€2.4bn) in cash and will
Studios company, has launched fokeng Holdings owning 45% and take on outstanding senior notes
streaming service Gravitas Mosong Capital owning 35%. Kwesé CAB > Sunrise for UPC and senior secured credit facilities,
Movies. Gravitas Movies is now TV has hitherto offered services Liberty Global has agreed to sell which have a value of roughly CHF
available in the US and will be in 18 African countries, excluding its wholly-owned Swiss operation, 3.7bn (€3.3bn). Liberty Global said
rolled out globally in summer South Africa, where it is headquar- UPC Switzerland, to local operator it will use the proceeds of the sale
2019. Social video ad spend in tered but has not offered a service. Sunrise for a total enterprise value for “general corporate purposes.”
the US will grow 44% between
2019 and 2021 to reach
US$14.89 billion, accounting for Canal+ launches new streaming service
30.4% of total video ad spend,
according to eMarketer. The By Stuart Thomson > L’Amie Prodigieuse and Catastro-
research firm estimates that phe. Launch titles include Dead-
Twitter’s US video ad revenues Canal+ has launched its new ly Class, followed by the latest
will pass US$1 billion in 2021, streaming platform. Canal+ season of Italian crime drama
while Snapchat’s US video ad Séries will be available for Gomorrah.
business will grow 19.9% year- €6.99 a month and will offer Canal+ will offer a number
over-year in 2021, reaching a mix of original series and of recent productions from US
US$727.4 million. Asia Pacific international acquisitions. pay TV service Showtime ex-
video-on-demand subscrip- The service will be available clusively, including Billions and live or on-demand sport, French
tions are set to climb from 221 without an ongoing contract. Smilf, along with FX titles Pose and Hollywood movies a few
million in 2018 to 407 million Subscribers will be able to ac- and What We Do in the Shadows. months after their theatrical
by 2024, according to Digital cess up to four streams simulta- Complete seasons of The Ameri- release, series, documentaries
TV Research. The research neously, with the pay TV outfit cans, Sons of Anarchy and Dexter etc. In total, thousands of hours
firm estimates that China will charging €9.99 for two users will also be available. of programming from the best
account for 289 million SVOD and €11.99 for up to four users. “Canal+ Séries marks a new providers of content, to con-
subscriptions in 2024, with Canal+ said that Canal+ stage in the transformation of sume anywhere, anytime. Ca-
India and Japan providing a Séries will be available via its our offerings started two years nal+ Séries is a new building
further 31 million each. South- MyCanal platform and via OTT, ago. A transformation in terms block that has just been added
east Asian VOD channel iflix with the aim to also distribute it of usage, to better respond to to our digital offering,” said Ca-
has launched a premium sports via paltforms that currently offer new consumer habits. And also nal+ CEO Maxime Saada.
channel on its service in several Canal+ pay TV services. a digital transformation to reach Reports that Canal+ was plan-
Asian markets. The platform Original Canal+ series in the new audiences in France and ning to provide a replacement
has partnered with pan-Asian offering include Engrenages, internationally. This transfor- for its CanalPlay offering, which
sports network ZSports for the Hippocrate, Versailles, Platane, mation will be demonstrated had lost the bulk of its subscrib-
launch of the service, which is Guyane and forthcoming show above all by the MyCanal app, er base in what Saada character-
intended to serve as the home Vernon Subutex. International acclaimed by its users. MyCa- ised as an unequal battle with
of US sports in Asia. acquisitions include Killing Eve, nal is a unique platform with, Netflix, emerged in January.
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6
p04,06,08 DTVE News Digest MarApr19v4st.indd 6 22/03/2019 21:05
2 NEW CATEGORIES
3 INNOVATION AWARDS
5 WINNERS
NOW OPEN FOR
ENTRIES
ENTRY DEADLINE 23 APRIL 2019
Categories
Young Pioneer Award | Social Impact Award | Innovation Awards
show.ibc.org/awards
pXX IBCorg
DTVE MarApr19.indd
Awards Ad - 210mm x 1297mm 3mm bleed.indd 1 16:16
14/03/2019 10:24
News > digest Digital TV Europe
March/April 2019
PROG > EC OKs commitments mitted not to apply these clauses in five years, covering both online and
UK The European Commission has existing film licensing contracts for satellite pay TV services and, where
accepted commitments by Holly- pay TV with any broadcaster in the applicable, SVOD services. The
OTT > Amazon taps BT wood studios not to apply clauses European Economic Area and will no EC accepted similar commitments
Amazon has contracted BT Sport in contracts with Sky that prevent longer put such clauses in any film made by Paramount in 2016.
and football partner Sunset+Vine to EU consumers outside the UK and licensing contracts for pay TV with
produce its English Premier League Ireland from subscribing to Sky’s broadcasters in the EEA. Sky will OTT> BritBox for UK
football coverage when Amazon UK pay TV service to access films also cease to apply existing clauses The BBC and ITV expect to launch
Prime Video begins airing its alloca- via satellite or online. The EC has along these lines and will not sign up their joint SVOD service BritBox in
tion of 20 matches per season. BT made commitments offered by new ones in film licencing contracts the UK in the second half of this
Sport and Sunset+Vine will support Disney, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures, with the Hollywood majors. The year, after agreeing a joint vision
Amazon Prime Video’s production Warner Bros. and Sky legally binding case dates from 2015, when the EC for the service. BritBox is currently
of both studio and live action match- under EU antitrust rules. The con- set out objections to these clauses, available in North America and
day coverage. Amazon’s Premier tract clauses prevented Sky UK from which it said were in breach of EU the UK version of the service will
League deal, signed last July, broke allowing EU consumers outside the antitrust rules and could eliminate offer British content alongside new
the hold of Sky and BT on top-tier UK and Ireland to subscribe to Sky cross-border competition between BritBox originals, commissioned
English football. Under its deal, Am- UK’s pay TV services to access films pay TV providers. The Commission from UK production companies.
azon will air two full fixture rounds via satellite or online. They also re- has now said it is satisfied that the Announcing the launch, the BBC
– the first December midweek round quired NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures commitments offered to address its and ITV said that they are conclud-
and the Boxing Day round – featur- and Warner Bros. to ensure that concerns by the Hollywood studios ing talks and are working on a legal
ing coverage of every team, marking broadcasters other than Sky UK are and Sky at the end of last year are agreement for the service. They
the first time a full round of Premier prevented from making their pay satisfactory. The commitments anticipate other partners joining and
League fixtures will be broadcast TV services available in the UK and made by the two sides will apply will speak to regulators and the wid-
live in the UK. Ireland. The studios have now com- throughout the EEA for the next er industry about their proposals.
RTL sets ambitious SVOD target, rejects Pro7Sat.1 collaboration
By Stuart Thomson > “As our streaming services Habets: focus offering involving ProSieben-
are deeply integrated in our on creating Sat.1 and possibly public broad-
RTL aims to grow the number families of TV channels, these “local caster ZDF and other partners
of paying subscribers to its investments will generate size- streaming would take too much time to
subscription video-on-demand able additional revenue and champions.” set up because negotiations
services to three million and will thus have limited impact between the various parties in-
to grow revenue from video- on our operating profit. Every volved would be complex.
on-demand to €360 million investment in local, exclusive Habets said that RTL also
by 2021, after the number content is an investment for Mocro Maffia, both made exclu- aims to generate more than
of paying subscribers to its the long run, strengthening sively for the service. €500 million from interna-
services passed the one million both our linear TV channels Habets said that the group tional drama productions
mark at the end of last year. and streaming services. In may “increase our ambitions from Fremantle by 2021, add-
CEO Bert Habets said the other words: we will continue in this space” if SVOD growth ing that drama series were
group would focus on creat- to generate very healthy profit exceeds expectations. “also key for the expansion of
ing “local streaming champi- margins,” he said. He rejected collaboration our streaming services”.
ons” as well as strengthening RTL’s paying subscriber with rival ProSiebenSat.1 to The group posted solid full-
content creation. RTL will base, combining TV Now Pre- create a common streaming year 2018 revenue figures that
invest at least an additional mium in Germany and Video- platform. Habets said he was were boosted by its digital of-
€350 million in expanding land in the Netherlands, passed “very confident” that RTL can ferings and its Fremantle pro-
its streaming offerings over the one million mark at the end develop its own offering in a duction unit. Group revenue
the next three years, including of 2018, and the company aims way that delivers growth and was up 2.1% to €6.5 billion.
€300 million to be invested in to triple this within three years. economies of scale, and added RTL posted EBITDA of €1.38
content across all genres. TV Now Premium’s base grew that the group had an ambition billion, down 5.7% as the re-
Habets emphasised that the by 43.5%, while Videoland to have among the top three sult of the one-off sale of the
investment should not have grew by 134.9%, driven by local streaming platforms in each group’s Paris buildings in
a significant impact on RTL’s originals such as Temptation of the markets in which it op- 2017, but up 0.7% on an ad-
bottom line. Island VIPs and crime series erates. He indicated that a joint justed basis.
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p04,06,08 DTVE News Digest MarApr19v4st.indd 8 22/03/2019 21:05A part of
18
to
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JUNE
2019
Connect
The Future
MARINA BAY SANDS Asia’s most established and relevant info –
SINGAPORE communications technology event.
www.CommunicAsia.com
Register Now
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Organised by: Held Concurrently: Join in the conversation:
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p09 CommunicAsia MarApr19.indd 1 21/03/2019 17:53Technology focus > User experience Digital TV Europe
March/April 2019
User experienced
Universal discovery has long been an industry goal, but will the scale and complexity
of content always keep a global solution out of reach? Adrian Pennington reports
Consumers can’t be
expected to
know everything that’s available to them in the
holistic way really solidifies the need for new
technologies such as conversational voice and
personalised recommendation systems,” says
multisource – aka universal – search.”
Such a goal moves beyond basic search.
“Going beyond basic genre and delving into
vast pool of content in the world. They need help Tivo’s senior director, international marketing, dimensions of content such as mood, theme,
and the service that does that best will be well Charles Dawes. Unified discovery is deemed setting and character attributes [means] a new
on its way to success. Since discovery comes in critical if the industry is going to keep on generation of navigation and recommendation
many forms, from accidental to recommended, delivering the content that consumers desire. offerings will suggest the TV shows and
and a million things in-between, the next Dawes says: “Consumers don’t know, and movies most likely to resonate with individual
frontier for broadcasters and operators in this shouldn’t need to know, where the source of viewers,” says Simon Adams, chief product
area is about making sure consumers can their content is. They don’t need to understand officer at Gracenote.
view what they want irrespective of where that terms like linear, DVB, IP, broadcast and OTT Further, cross-media content discovery will
content is coming from. when all they want is to enjoy their favourite enable viewers to find and watch music videos
Unified or universal search and discovery video on demand.” on TV or identify musicians or athletes in
has been an industry aim for a number of Universal search and discovery breaks movies. Gracenote’s datasets and Gracenote
years but the need for it has increased recently down the walls between TV providers making IDs, which enable universal search on
as more and more of us view content from on- content more easily findable and watchable. platforms like Apple TV, Roku and Samsung
demand and streaming sources alongside and Laurent Van Tornhout, vice-president, product could be key to this.
often in preference to linear broadcasting. and marketing at Zappware says the goal is In parallel, short-form and user-generated
“Being able to do this in a simple and “full integration in one UI experience and content is on the rise and equally relevant as
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10
p10-11,14,16 User Experience DTVE MarApr19v2st.indd 10 22/03/2019 20:48Digital TV Europe Technology focus > User experience
March/April 2019
content choices. “Even long-form content is development at You.i TV highlights the relative what advanced recommendation and discovery
being chewed up and spat out as bite-sized poverty of experience for most broadcast systems are already using”, namely more
chunks for the more ‘attention challenged’ sports fans. “Broadcast TV still scores highly machine learning to drive truly individual
viewers,” observes Anthony Smith-Chaigneau, among sports viewers. Yet the discovery UI recommendations based on time of day,
senior director, product marketing, Nagra. found in most pay TV services doesn’t cater location, device, and previous activity.
“Shows and movies have endless amounts of well to that market,” he says. “I would expect If it’s agreed that the system would need to
related video content that are accessible to fans. a huge potential for subscriber stickiness know who the viewer is and understand the
Looking at just the explosion of gaming and and satisfaction for an operator to combine individual’s likes and dislikes, then ‘discovery
the massive online following of Twitch users,
Instagram influencers and Facebook video
content that is competing for one’s time, you
“I am personally worried about the risk of
realise that content discovery solutions of the
future will have to evolve to not only provide over-recommendation: where I’m never
access to alternative content but may be driven offered anything new.”
by it.”
Simon Leadlay, You.i TV
Value of universal search
traditional sports video broadcasting with applications’ would have to be redesigned.
Universal search should allow the viewer to a plethora of on-demand and OTT sports Smith-Chaigneau says: “All of the streaming
fully understand where a particular piece of entertainment news, stats, team information, video services are currently obviously
content is, how much it costs and whether and replays of past games and special events. inadequate in coping with the sheer volume
they have access to it with their existing setup. Sports fans are finding some of this rich of content available. Everything seems to be
Yet the current trajectory of content silos experience via direct-to-consumer platforms a Netflix clone. The technologies driving the
“make global search and discovery difficult”, by their favourite leagues, but very few have a content like recommendation engines will also
says Smith-Chaigneau. “Having a source- similar offering available from their operator. have to be redesigned to be more sophisticated.
and service-agnostic way to remove those There’s a lot of room for improvement here.” Even how we ‘think of content’ will have to
ambiguous groupings addresses the real pain According to Leadlay, the best kind evolve for us to come up with the right solution
point that needs to be addressed. There is no of discovery systems should be quietly for the future TV watcher.”
Google for TV in the mainstream although knowledgeable, unobtrusive, and yet always Recommendations made to an individual
many are trying to be this.” recommending something. “At the same time, could be increased in relevance by adding
If there were, the value of intuitive navigation I am personally worried about the risk of over- profiling input from other online sources. This
and universal discovery, which is already “sky recommendation: where I’m never offered can happen “provided that the back-office of
high” says Adams, “would go even higher”. anything new, fresh, or out of my comfort different online systems can feed each other
“User-centricity would bring added value zone,” he says. “I think it’s important to strike technically as well as from an opt-in point of
for the telecom operator as the content the right balance between seeing familiar and view by the end-user,” points out Van Tornhout.
aggregator for all sources of content,” agrees new content.” “In terms of personalisation you’d need to
Van Tornhout. “For the consumer, the value is Leadley suggests that the next frontier is bring the most relevant content and content
that, done right, their experience is simpler and likely to see “increased commoditisation of suggestions based on profiling, context and
seamless – meaning they spend more time
enjoying content rather than searching for it.”
Unified search and discovery could bring
the operator “a wealth of new opportunities”,
says Dawes, that are built around a foundation
of having a connected, engaged consumer
who doesn’t need to go ‘off platform’ for their
content. Dawes continues: “Operators have
long known that giving access to all the content
the consumers desire via their remote – aka
their ‘brand in the hand’ – is key for their
business and helping consumers understand
the value they bring.”
Simon Leadlay, director, pay TV business
Nagra’s multiscreen offering (opposite) and
TiVo voice results (right).
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11
p10-11,14,16 User Experience DTVE MarApr19v2st.indd 11 22/03/2019 20:48• Power your next-gen video platform with Android TV.
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p12 TiVo MarApr19.indd 1 22/03/2019 09:17Sponsored content
Mikolaj Zapala, Senior Director – Strategic Accounts at TiVo
Android TV comes of age...
The Android TV Revolution
There is no doubt that Android TV ™ has come of age in the Pay TV space in
the last 12 months. Once a platform that operators looked at with a large
dose of wariness, the changes that Google has made to enable operators
to use the underlying power of the Android ecosystem whilst still retaining
their own unique characteristics via the Operator Tier has meant that right
across the globe Android TV is now becoming a key platform for operators
to consider when they are rolling out new services.
So much so that when Rethink Research published their report ‘How
Android TV finally won the set top wars’ in 2018 they forecast that there
will be over 99 million devices globally by 2022. We’ve also seen in the
2019 Digital TV Europe Industry Survey that industry respondents are TiVo launches CubiTV for Android TV utilising the built in Google
excited by Android TV Operator Tier. The greatest benefit was seen as to Assistant for voice search
the access to content that the Google Play store gives, with some 24%
of respondents rating that access as excellent, and 42% rating it as good. compelling, multi-function television service to their subscribers. TiVo
Android TV Operator Tier was also highly rated for enabling operators to has a proven track record with its CubiTV product line which has been
get services up and running quickly, where 22% rated it excellent and 39% deployed to over 10 million devices worldwide.
rated it good, and for ease of use, where 21% rated in excellent and 40% We give operators the ability to control costs with a STB-agnostic
rated it good. architecture and with a modular approach that allows them to add
features as they grow, including upgrading to TiVo’s Personalized Content
Why CubiTV ™ for Android TV is needed? Discovery Platform.
Using CubiTV for Android TV allows the operator benefit from a modern,
At TiVo we’re embracing Android TV head on right across our user immersive user experience to deliver a unified discovery experience that
experience product portfolio to enable our customers to leverage the taps into the power of Google Assistant search functionality. The product
flexibility that comes with the platform. In a world where the lines between also leverages TiVo’s experience with enabling core OTT services like
linear and OTT are increasingly blurred – so much so that many consumers Netflix and others. In 2013 TiVo enabled Virgin Media to become the first
don’t need or want to know the difference – Android TV gives us another pay- TV operator to embrace Netflix as an integrated part of their user
platform for operators to deliver a unified experience to their subscribers. experience on the Virgin Media TiVo platform.
But just launching an Android TV client on a set-top box isn’t the end CubiTV for Android TV has quick, easy and versatile deployment options
of the story. There are many areas of integration that companies need that leverage our CubiTV DVB stack and pre-existing conditional access
to consider when they are looking to launch a service. Integrations with and STB integrations. Additionally, operators can leverage the Android TV
your back-end components, network DVR, Video on Demand as well ecosystem to enrich customer experience with the vast availability of OTT
as enabling key OTT services like Netflix require a partner who has the content, apps and games, and further innovations like Google Assistant
experience to keep your deployment on track and budget. on TV and IoT integrations.
That’s why we’re launching CubiTV for Android TV across EMEA, Latin CubiTV for Android is the modular, cost-effective, easy to deploy, pre-
America and the markets across Asia and the Pacific. As part of TiVo’s integrated solution that enables operators to seamlessly begin their journey
Next-Gen Platform and TiVo’s CubiTV Solutions, CubiTV for Android TV with Android TV Operator Tier and leverage the ecosystem benefits.
sits alongside CubiTV for Linux, CubiTV for Mobile and CubiTV SDK to
give operators a full choice of options when deciding how to deliver a Android TV is a trademark of Google LLC
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13
p13 TiVo Opinion DTVE MarApr19.indd 13 05/04/2019 14:48Technology focus > User experience Digital TV Europe
March/April 2019
device used at that moment by that user. The
service would also need to aggregate different Curated or algorithm-based discovery?
content sources to be able to bring the ‘fat tail’
as well as the ‘long-tail.’” While the sophistication of algorithms will only than ever before,” Dawes claims.
Vendors began embracing the need for get better, editorial or curated discovery will It is the vast amount of legacy content in
universal discovery across the consumer retain a role in the creation of a ‘more human- addition to new content that presents the
electronics and operator spaces a while ago. led’ approach to any service. real challenge of scale to manual processes.
Tivo, for example, lays claim to being the first “One of the drawbacks of early “By leveraging both human editors and ML,
user experience provider to integrate Netflix recommendation systems that just relied on we’re able to create datasets with the breadth
into an operator when it helped Virgin Media techniques such as collaborative filtering was to cover existing and new content and the
launch the streamer in 2013. that they would drive you further and further depth to describe that content with increasing
“For operators there was a need to bring down an ever-narrowing set of content choices,” specificity,” says Simon Adams, chief product
unified discovery to their platforms even before says Tivo’s senior director of international officer at Gracenote. “This is critical to positive
the current trend of adding in multiple video user experiences.”
content sources,” says Dawes. “Tivo now “We know that there’s a need to go beyond
integrates multiple video sources into a single Dawes: TiVo editorial and algorithmic recommendations,
experience that is led by the content rather than blends editorioal using AI to better predict not just the type of
the service the content comes from. When a and algorithmic content, but getting to why we ultimately watch
consumer searches for their favourite show recommendations. what we do,” says Anthony Smith-Chaigneau,
they are presented with the show first and senior director, product marketing, Nagra.
where to get it from second.” There will be a blend and balance of the
Gracenote’s global video data offering is two recommendation forms. For example,
built on a unified data schema “that provides marketing, Charles Dawes. “There was no says Laurent Van Tornhout, VP, product and
a consistent and standardised format for facility for companies to promote content that marketing, Zappware the first three items could
all international data,” says Adams. The was important to them commercially or for the be editorial, related to a trending topic, and the
Nielsen-owned firm is also developing the system to understand the difference between rest of the suggested items on the ‘bookshelf’
next generation of descriptive metadata and a customer needing to watch something they could be algorithm-based.
images in its Advanced Discovery suite. like right now or them looking to broaden their Nagra’s Smith-Chaigneau says: “I will never
“These solutions help providers deploy all-new content horizons.” TiVo says its Personalised forget talking to an Uber driver about his TV
personalised recommendation capabilities, Content Discovery platform has the ability to consumption and he said that after about six
visually rich guides and even voice-driven blend not only editorial and algorithmically- months of using a particular OTT service he
experiences,” he explains. based recommendations and predictions but went home after a shift and realised how boring
also include new recommendation paradigms and same-same his TV viewing had become. The
such as sponsored discovery – where paid machine had led him down a silo of similarity
AI and metadata building placements are served to the right, receptive and he was bored with what was on offer to him.
blocks consumer. “This will deliver a superior He wanted a reset-button so that he could flush
experience that enables more video viewing out the system and start all over.”
The second phase of unified discovery will
make greater use of metadata powered by
machine learning tools. “Metadata is absolutely an innate understanding of how individuals posters and actors. But the constantly changing
critical when you are delivering a compelling personally consume content. social commentary and related media content
discovery experience,” Dawes says. “It is no “Access to a wider range of metadata that is also becoming an important facet to the
longer good enough to have the simple time, allows users to pivot from content to content primary video. There will also be frame and
title and channel that some EPGs deliver. is essential to providing a rich expansive scene content tagging for age appropriate
Today’s discovery systems, especially those experience,” says Nagra’s Smith-Chaigneau. viewing which all highlights the importance of
which are voice driven, need to have a high- “However, if you look at Netflix, it puts metadata.”
quality baseline of information about each tremendous effort into creating its own Enabling anything from poster quality,
piece of content.” metadata and manipulating it accordingly. size and colour to clear and well-crafted
Tivo refer to this as the ‘Metadata iceberg’ For example, it has shown that different users information that ensures any and all platforms
where a small amount of visible data is are drawn to different types of movie posters. can present it for viewers to effortlessly discover
underpinned by a huge amount of non-visible Users on the Netflix platform see different and consume is an increasingly complex task
information. Sitting on top of the metadata is a movie posters based on their previous viewing but metadata is foundational.
personalised recommendation platform. This habits, whether they have binge watched, and “As the world of content merges there are
goes above and beyond a simple rules-based other parameters discovered by the system. now exceptional foreign titles found in the
recommendation system into a system that can There is also the concept of dynamic mix so there are language issues to overcome,
be personalised based on time, day, context and metadata which goes beyond static images of translation, subtitling and a whole swathe of
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14
p10-11,14,16 User Experience DTVE MarApr19v2st.indd 14 22/03/2019 20:48Discover how a great User Experience will
turn your viewers into consumers.
Check our reference cases and solutions on zappware.com
pXX Zappware DTVE Jan19.indd 1 06/02/2019 10:08Technology focus > User experience Digital TV Europe
March/April 2019
Zappware’s Nexx 4.0 UI promises
personalised content on any screen.
from personalised to promotional, curated,
edited, serendipitous, trending and logical
recommendations. It has incorporated
cognitive search and voice options and now it is
incorporating AI in the background.
“We blend all of these together and try to
create a simple and refined way of presenting
these in visual form so the consumer feels they
are being well served. From a product design
standpoint, the necessity to have a connected
platform and flexibility across platforms is the
most interesting tool. We have to think of our
products holistically and as complementary
parts of an ecosystem. We have to leverage
more distributed tools and standardised
cultural aspects that also need to be taken into queries like ‘What’s the film with Peggy from development libraries,” says Smith-Chaigneau.
consideration,” observes Smith-Chaigneau. EastEnders and Kenneth Williams?’. It should In general, it’s difficult for the UI or UX
Artificial intelligence and machine learning ‘know’ you implied ‘for me’ and give you a to be the entertainment brand by itself. The
are increasingly playing a greater and greater set of personalised results from across your experience is reliant on the content and usually
role in automatically building out content entertainment choices that isn’t limited by it is those content brands which are seen as the
metadata, be it from assessing and assigning linear TV.” entertainment brands by consumers.
a confidence level when information is initially The user interface, of course, shouldn’t be However, you could argue, as Dawes does,
imported, through to keeping tabs on how the the destination for the user; that should be the that ‘TiVo Experience 4’ is one of the few
importance of relationships between different video content. However, as Leadlay underlines, entertainment experience brands that exists
pieces of content changes over time. a great user interface can make the process in its own right. “As an established consumer
“AI-assisted metadata will soon become the of finding and watching that content truly platform in the US, with a loyal customer
norm,” says Smith-Chaigneau. “AI can afford satisfying, “and we all know that a poor user base, TiVo has won multiple awards and been
more depth to metadata services where it interface leads to frustration and failure.” featured in popular culture on many occasions.
could, for example, compare the synopses of Ideally, the simpler the UI, the better. It Consumers choose TiVo for its extensive
two titles and identify differences that could should be intuitive, get you to where you want functionality, continued innovation and ability
then aid or automate editorial management of to go in the least number of clicks and to all to get your key entertainment choices in one
those pieces of content.” intents and purpose be transparent to the place, be they linear or streaming services like
With more and more user data points user. Arguably no-one has yet alighted on the Netflix,” he says.
available and with much more sophisticated absolutely right design mix. Zappware’s Van Tornhout agrees that if the
methods of interrogating it, “we have to evolve ergonomics are right “and if relevant enough
past simple usage-based recommendations for the end-user as a gateway to discover all the
toward hyper-personalisation,” Smith- UI as entertainment brand relevant content across content sources” then
Chaigneau says. He suggests leveraging the UI could become an entertainment brand.
social indicators and ML to better understand “It is sometimes hard to break the mould of “The UI should be grandma-proof as well as
what drives users to content “especially as the consumers’ TV UI habits – removing the EPG millennial-proof.”
experience crosses over into more and more proved to be wrong for some platforms who It’s arguable too that some of the latest OTT
personal devices, with unique behaviours.” soon added it back to the mix,” says Smith- services view the UI as an integral part of their
On top of all this, there’s a clear trend toward Chaigneau. “Not having channel numbers package and branding. Disney will surely
a voice-based discovery model. The sheer also proved to be a no-no for one European look to create such a UI as its brand is already
scale of available content renders the tools of platform which had to rapidly add them back synonymous with entertainment, as opposed
the linear world, such as a grid or tree-based in because a lot of viewers had become used to to a service provider that delivers multiple
content catalogues, insufficient going forward. that form of navigating. We have tried 3D UIs entertainment brands in a single UI.
“Voice input frees you from the limitations and other fancy tricks but, just like PowerPoint, “Just as Google became the brand of internet
of single character entry and allows you to all the fancy fonts and animations simply search, there is definitely an opportunity to
discover content in the way you think about interfere with the objective of getting the be the face of content discovery,” says Smith-
content,” remarks Dawes. “The system should message across.” Chaigneau. “There is a magical blend of form
be able to respond to simply saying ‘What’s The industry has experimented with and function that, when applied to obvious
on TV tonight?’ and put together complex many different discovery mechanisms pain points, can become ubiquitous.” l
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16
p10-11,14,16 User Experience DTVE MarApr19v2st.indd 16 22/03/2019 20:48DIGITAL. DIRECT. DISCOVERABLE.
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p17 NABShow MarApr19.indd 1 21/03/2019 17:54Technology focus > Content Security Digital TV Europe
March/April 2019
Stealing the stream
Streaming has changed the nature and extent of the revenue threat to video service
providers posed by pirates. Stuart Thomson looks at the state of play.
Piracy has always been a central
hazard for the pay TV
business, and finding reliable ways to secure
providers that have paid for content rights.
Content security provider Irdeto identified
5,100 illegal streams during last year’s
these creative new business models are being
used to attack services.”
Peterka points out that the economics of
the service has been a necessary investment for Champions League knockout stages, including building pirate infrastructure for streaming
operators since the industry’s foundation. 2,093 distributed via social media channels have changed radically. Whereas formerly the
The threat posed by piracy was already such as Periscope, Facebook and Twitch. cost of professional compression equipment
significant when content was delivered Irdeto’s Piracy Trends Report also cited data and the lack of available means to deliver
exclusively via closed broadcast platforms. from the company’s web analytics partner that content to large numbers of concurrent users
Then the arrival of IP-based delivery raised estimated there was an average of 74 million presented an insurmountable barrier to entry,
additional worries. However, the advent of total global visits per month, and an average “all of that has changed”, he says. “Pirates now
internet streaming as a mainstream method of 21 million unique visits per month, to the have access to the same technology that owners
of delivering and consuming all kinds of video, top 10 live streaming linking sites in Q1 last are using to distribute their content, and that
up to and including premium 4K UHD series year. The US, UK and Germany were the top means a much larger attack vector.”
and live premium sports, has over the last few countries in terms of users of illegal site links. Simon Trudelle, senior director of product
years transformed both the nature and extent “The shift is huge,” says Petr Peterka, chief marketing at content security provider and
of the threat and the methods used by pay TV technology officer of content security specialist TV technology outfit Nagra, agrees that the
providers and content rightsholders to fight it. Verimatrix. “All of the technologies that we take switch to streaming is “the core thing that is
There is a broad consensus that streaming advantage of to enable streaming and direct-to- changing the industry”, although he also notes
piracy has now overtaken all other forms of consumer OTT services with a wide coverage that control word piracy and the sale of devices
threat to the revenue of legitimate service of devices, and all the techniques to enable on the black market is “still an issue in markets
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18
p18-19,22,24 Content Security DTVE MarApr19v2st.indd 18 22/03/2019 20:19You can also read
