THEHIDDEN PRICEOFAPPS ON MULTIPLETV PLATFORMS - St rat egies t o reduce developm ent cost s - Aut hor : Dar ragh O'Br ien VP Media Solut ions ...
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
TH E H ID D EN PRICE O F A PPS
O N M U LTIPLE TV PLATFO RM S
St r at egies t o r edu ce developm en t cost s
& acceler at e t im e t o m ar k et
Au t h or : Dar r agh O'Br ien
VP M edia Solu t ion s, Digisof t .t v
playmigo.com info@playmigo.com
W hy mobile first and not TV first ?
When it comes to publishing an OTT video app on the two
main mobile platforms, there is a well understood cyclical
process that must be adhered to ? design, develop,
publish, update. Those last two steps are the ones that
are usually unexpected or unplanned for when an app is
originally conceived. However, it has now become the
norm to account for these necessary steps.
Fortunately for video publishers, supporting two
platforms is accounted for as a necessary overhead in
order to service the majority of the available market,
Wh y w ou ld m ost
Windows Phone being a 3rd option that only the biggest
pu blish er s ch oose t o
publishers will invest in due to the relatively low market
pr ior it ise a plat f or m
penetration.
t h at h as a low er
in st all base over a
When it comes to the big screen world of Smart TVs,
plat f or m t h at h as
games consoles and media streamers however, we don?t
over 10 t im es t h e
see the same market drivers. i.e. it is not market
in st all base?
penetration of the target platforms that is the deciding
factor on which platforms the video publishers should
invest in deploying to.
If that was the case, then we would see publishers not
making Google Chromecast the streaming platform of
choice ? there are less than 40m Google Chromecasts sold
worldwide compared to over 500m Samsung Smart TVs
There must be other factors at work (and indeed there
are) and that is what we will examine in this whitepaper.
playmigo.com info@playmigo.com
M arket penet rat ion of TV plat forms Let?s look at the market penetration for the various platforms. The following numbers are from Frost & Sullivan Global Smart TV and Streaming Media Devices Markets , Forecast to 2021. Which also assures us that platform fragmentation (which we will discuss later) is expected to still exist for many years to come. On the left are TV platforms and on the right are Streaming Devices, Games consoles are excluded from this comparison. When we combine everything together, including games consoles, an interesting picture emerges - Sm ar t TV plat f or m s accou n t f or 60% m ar k et sh ar e with the other 40% taken up by all the other platforms combined. playmigo.com info@playmigo.com
So why does every publisher flock to Google Chromecast
first? The right and obvious answer is because the
Excerpt from a recent
VideoNuze Article: investment required is minimal.
Native Smart TV apps are Google have developed a system that required no
expensive to build, hard to proprietary TV app development but yet allows mobile
maintain and represent an users to consume content on the big screen via Google's
investment of time and re- Chromecast Built-in technology. This technology is, as the
sources that many content
term states "built in" to various platforms including
providers are unwilling to
Chromecast, Android TV and a number of OEM products
tackle.
that have licensed the technology.
While mobile apps run in a
native operating environ- Google Chromecast limits the functional use case to mere
ment (i.e. iOS/Android), "casting" rather than full interactive user interface on the
there is no common native TV screen, but this appears to be sufficient enough for
operating environment video publishers that they will choose this approach over
among OTT devices. Thus, the more traditional native application development that
content providers that want is required on all the other connected device platforms.
a true OTT strategy must
develop and maintain an
Looking beyond Google's impressive technology,
app for every single plat-
publishers are faced with the prospect of choosing which
form: from Apple TV to
proprietary connected TV platform to focus on for their
Samsung Smart TV, XBox,
Fire TV, and so on. big screen road map.
Geography can often play a part in this decision.
John Luther, SVP of
Product Strategy at JW Apple TV is limited to the domain of the iPhone and that means that
Player only richer markets that have high iPhone penetration should be
considered.
Roku has very high penetration in North America but is not readily
available in some other markets.
TCL are massive in Asia but not so big in Europe
And so the geographical argument adds to the confusion.
playmigo.com info@playmigo.com
Let 's t alk about TV app fragment at ion So, what is the problem with TV app development? First of all, you must adopt and learn a proprietary language for a given platform and resource that effort. That is a large ask for anyone that has already put significant investment into iOS and Android skill sets. Now you have to hire Tizen developers? Roku BrightScript Developers? C++ developers for Games Consoles? The list goes on... Let's look at how fragmented the TV platform ecosystem is compared to the mobile world where there are only two serious contenders. 2. LOCK DOW N CONTENT 3. UPDATE AND SHARE This ecosystem of multiple development environments and ongoing fragmentation due to regression and platform evolution means that the following effects weigh heavily on any decision to engage with these platforms: - Increased Time-to-Market - Increased Development Cost - Low development/adoption of TV apps by publishers In fact it is the polar opposite of development and adoption in the mobile app world. playmigo.com info@playmigo.com
Wait ing in line... Multiplatform support in itself is not actually a major hurdle as those skills can be outsourced quite easily. It is a problem that is well understood in the software industry and indeed there are many products and services that address this very problem available today. There are great companies that can write once and convert to all the various platforms and there are other service companies that already have stock template apps developed for each platform and they are ready to go once the client provides branding and catalog content. However, another major hurdle comes in the form of the operational effort involved in navigating the waters of the diverse array of commercial, legal and submission procedures for the various TV app stores. Lets take a quick glimpse at two of the more popular platforms (Samsung and LG) and their publishing procedures. Further complications come when you have invested in supporting one of these platforms and the vendor decides that they are going to make some serious changes to the platform, the publisher will need to react and keep up to date on this platform. This becomes a logistical headache if you are doing the same regression for many platforms. playmigo.com info@playmigo.com
In Summary The duopoly of iOS and Android has actually been a benefit to publishers as they have very well defined efforts to address as many mobile users as possible, the same cannot be said for TV platforms. Playm igo is a new solution for publishers and development agencies that sets out to redress this imbalance and allow services to reach more TV platforms than ever before with out the traditional investment overheads. Playm igo includes everything developers need to add multiscreen casting support to their mobile apps for more TV platforms than ever before. M obile SDK Playmigo provides all the tools and documentation you need to deliver your service to any connected device. No need to develop apps for multiple TV and speaker platforms. Simply embed Playmigo code in your existing mobile apps and you are done. Un iver sal Receiver The Universal Receiver for connected devices is continuously updated and maintained by Playmigo. You don't have to worry about TV app store submissions for connected devices ever again. Con f igu r at ion Dash boar d Supporting multiple connected devices on your service couldn't be easier. Upload your brand logos and you are done. playmigo.com info@playmigo.com
About Playmigo
Playmigo is the most efficient way for developers of mobile apps to deliver video and
audio services to hundreds of millions of home devices in a way never before possible.
Playmigo can help developers to:
- Reduce costs by eliminating the cost of developing expensive TV apps for multiple platforms.
- Save time by supporting every platform from day one. No need to stagger platform enhancements
over time.
- Ease maintenance by letting Playmigo manage all evolutionary updates, vendor upgrades and
new releases so you don't have to react when vendors make changes.
- Enhance your customer experience by giving them a chance to experience your service in the best
way possible.
Playmigo includes everything developers need to add multiscreen device support to their
mobile apps including an easy to use mobile SDK, Universal Receiver and a self service
Configuration Dashboard.
More info can be found at https://playmigo.com
About t he aut hor
As Media Solutions and Product Strategy Advisor in Digisoft.tv, Dar r agh O'Br ien combines a
technical background and passion for digital media with a client-centric focus.
During his 11 years servicing the media industry, Darragh
has gained invaluable insights into what shapes the digital
tv industry with an ambition to ensure that Digisoft.tv can
pioneer and deliver the right products into an innovative
and evolving market.
Prior to joining Digisoft.tv in 2006, Darragh worked in the
software services industry for 6 years delivering enterprise
solutions to e-Government and multi-national
pharmaceuticals. Darragh holds a B.Sc. in Computer
Applications from Cork Institute of Technology.
playmigo.com info@playmigo.comYou can also read
