Satellite 2016 - Digital TV Europe

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Digital TV Europe February 2016

Contents 10. The age of ultra As the industry gets to grips with technologies like high dynamic range, it is clear that 4K is just the beginning of the ultra high-definition journey. Andy McDonald looks at the latest developments in the ultra HD space. pOFC DTVE Feb16.indd 1

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14. Up in the air Cheaper high-bandwidth broadband and growth in non-linear viewing has continued to cast doubt on the future of satellite TV, but satellite as a distribution technology has proved surprisingly resilient. Stuart Thomson reports.

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20. The road to Rio The Olympic Games marks a once-in-four-years opportunity for providers of occasional use satellite capacity to make money and innovate. Anna Tobin reports on preparations that are currently underway for Rio.

24. NAB 2016: the preview This year’s NAB Show takes place at the Las Vegas Convention Centre from April 16-21. Digital TV Europe takes a look at some of the products that will be on show.

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Regulars 2 This month 4 News digest 26 Technology 30 People 32 Final analysis

Visit us at www.digitaltveurope.net

p01 Contents DTVE Feb16v4st.indd 1

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This month > Editor’s note

Issue no 323 Published By:


State of satellite

Informa Telecoms & Media 149 Tottenham Court Road London W1T 7AD Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5000 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7017 4953 Website: www.digitaltveurope.net Editor Stuart Thomson Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5314 Email: [email protected] Deputy Editor Andy McDonald Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5293 Email: [email protected] Contributing Editor Stewart Clarke Contributors Kate Bulkley, Andy Fry, Adrian Pennington, Adam Thomas, Anna Tobin, Jesse Whittock Correspondents France: Julien Alliot; Germany: Dieter Brockmeyer; Italy: Branislav Pekic Sales Director Patricia Arescy Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5320 Email: [email protected] Art Director Matthew Humberstone

With

all the noise made about millennials’ viewing habits, non-linear viewing and the diminishing importance of TV, anyone cognisant of the direction of travel of the digital video business might be forgiven for thinking that a technology such as satellite – with its strength firmly rooted the business of one-way broadcast distribution – would be irrelevant by now. While it is true that formerly satellite-only broadcasters have branched out into delivering on-demand and even linear content over broadband, satellite operators have continued to defy the odds and prosper. In this issue of Digital TV Europe, we focus on various ways that the satellite business is continuing to stay relevant. First, we assess the current state of UHD TV – seen as something of a godsend by satellite operators who are banking on this driving the next phase of growth in demand for bandwidth in mature markets – and look at some of the issues currently occupying the minds of those involved in developing UHD services. We look in particular at progress towards UHD-1 Phase 2, which encompasses such picture-enhancing technologies as high dynamic range, higher frame-rates and wider colour gamut as well as simply focusing on higher resolution. Second, we look at how satellite operators are working with DTH pay TV providers and freeto-air broadcasters on ways to future-proof their services against the onslaught of internet-based alternatives. We look at how operators are investing in hybrid delivery architectures to support non-linear services, the challenge posed by multiscreen viewing of both on-demand and live content and attempts by satellite to address this market, and the extent to which CDN-based OTT delivery of niche and other channels poses a longer term threat to DTH. Third, we look at the future of occasional use services, focusing in particular on preparations for the Rio Olympic Games and the infrastructure that is being put in place to enable coverage of the event. We take a look at how transmission of content from live venues is evolving to accommodate the growing number of feeds of events, multiscreen viewing and the overall growth in coverage. Also in this issue, we look at some of the technologies that will be demonstrated at the forthcoming NAB Show in Las Vegas and provide our usual round-up of the top industry news. l

Publisher Tim Banham Printing Wyndeham Grange, West Sussex

SUBSCRIPTION HOTLINE INFORMA GROUP TEL: +44 (0) 207 017 5533

© 2016 Informa UK Ltd All rights reserved Reproduction without permission is prohibited

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Stuart Thomson, Editor [email protected]


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Q&A: Charles Dawes, Rovi Charles Dawes, senior director international marketing, Rovi, talks about the challenges of searching for sports content Sports is a popular content category – what challenges do people face when looking for sports content? Sport is indeed a hugely popular category on TV and in most places it’s a premium part of the entertainment experience. However, when people are looking for sports content the metadata hasn’t been as rich as it is for a TV programme or a movie. The same detailed level of synopsis or cast information isn’t something that has traditionally been provided. For instance, where an episode of a popular soap opera will give you an indication of an ongoing story line, you don’t find the same detail for “El Classico” or your local derby match. This lack of detail means that as companies start to deploy rich search and discovery experiences that include recommendation, the level of metadata needed to drive these systems isn’t readily available and thus sports content isn’t as discoverable as it should be for the casual sports fan. How has the sports viewing experience changed over the last few years? Many technologies have recently become available to customers to help them enjoy their entertainment experience. This includes the DVR and of course the advent of being able to stream content to your mobile device wherever you are. These have changed the way that content including sports is consumed and introduced new problems. For example, when you set a recording for a game but the game runs long too often the DVR stops recording before the game ends. Of course the majority of sports is still consumed live and this is important and in this area we’ve seen people adding interactivity to content to provide a richer and deeper experience.

the most exciting games will be and also understanding in real-time how relevant those games are. We’ll also see the enhancement of recorded sports content by allowing you to see where the exciting moments are so you don’t need to watch through the entire recording. 2016 is a big year for sports with major events including the Olympic Games from Rio. How is Rovi helping customers to build immersive content discovery experiences for these events? Rovi has already launched Rovi Sports that covers over 60,000 events for 80 sports and leagues across 190 countries to allow our customers to start to build these amazing new experiences. Specifically, for this year we’re focussing on the events, sports and athletes included in the Olympics to allow customers to build an emotional connection with their favourite national heroes. Each country has its heroes and Rovi is combining the power of our Knowledge Graph with our local language editorial staff to build out additional information about selected top athletes, linking them to their backstories, premium images and key moments that are discoverable on OTT services. Our services should help to plug those 4 hour blocks of ‘Olympics Content’ with little knowledge of what’s happening in that broadcast block. We’ll be monitoring certain broadcasts and updating our data in real-time to ensure a current view of what’s on, where and the results. For further information email [email protected] or find out more at www.rovicorp.com

What do you think the next innovations are for discovering and consuming content? There’s a lot that can be done to improve the discovery experience. The most important is around the level of detail of the metadata that is available for sports content and how quickly it is updated. This includes having a more detailed event-specific synopsis or for instance treating athletes more like cast and crew members so you can discover and track them across events or programmes and delve deeper into their career highlights. This also gives you the ability to search and track your favourite sports stars across other genres of programming. Another area where we’re going to see innovation is around using technologies such as the Rovi Knowledge Graph to understand how interesting a game or event will be for you on a personal basis. This allows us to highlight where

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19/02/2016 14:58

News > digest


News digest > 4 Vivendi issues warning on future of Canal+ > 5 Vodafone, Liberty Global agree Dutch merger > 6 Discovery aims for 1m OTT subs > 8 NBCU to launch SVoD service

Vivendi issues warning on future of Canal+ as losses mount By Stuart Thomson > Vivendi has said it “cannot on a long term basis continue to finance the losses of Canal+ channels in France”. Posting its financial results for 2015, Vivendi said that the pay TV outfit posted negative EBITA of €264 million last year, an increase in losses of €76 million on 2014. Vivendi said that “this situation threatens the entire Canal+ Group, which employs 8,200 people and is a major player in the financing and development of the movie industry”, in which it invests “close to €800 million” globally. The media giant has madebreaking even by 2018 a priority for its new Canal+ management team, which will involve increasing investment in original and premium content and improving the user experience. As part of the drive to stem losses at the pay TV group, Canal+ has confirmed an exclusive distribution deal with rival pay TV outfit beIN Sports, whereby it will become the exclusive dis-

Belgium CAB > Mobistar launch Mobile service provider Mobistar will launch its TV service on March 1, offering up to 70 channels bundled with 100Mbps internet, after taking advantage of the country’s open cable rules that give third-party operators the

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tributor of beIN Sports channels in France for the next five years. Canal+ said that the agreement would allow the two players to provide their customers with an improved offering at a time when the TV industry is facing the emergence of new global players. It said that the deal would enable Canal+ to present a complete and coherent sport offering and attract a greater number of subscribers. The group said that beIN Sports’ brand would be preserved under the new arrangement and the pair will continue to act independently in relation to bidding for sports rights in the future. Canal+ posted revenues of €5.51 billion, up 1.1% or 0.2% at constant currency, for the year. Revenue from its French pay

TV operation was down 2.1%, while international pay TV revenues were up 7.2%. Operating income was €542 million, down from €618 million. The group had 15.7 million subscriptions globally at the end of 2015, up 400,000 yearon-year, driven by international sales. Individual subscribers numbered 11.2 million, driven by its performance in Africa. Vivendi said that Canal+ now had over two million subscribers across 30 African countries. The group added 25 channels to its offering in Africa last year, following the launch of flagship African entertainment channel A+ in October 2014. Separately, Vivendi said its acquisition of a 26.2% stake in Banijay Zodiak, the new enlarged production company arising from the combination of Banijay Group and Zodiak Media, would be finalised shortly. Vivendi’s production outfit Studiocanal posted a 5.7% incrase in revenues, or 2.3% at constant currency, thanks to the sale of film rights of titles

including Paddington, The Imitation Game and Shaun the Sheep. Vivendi has also announced a public tender offer for the shares of French video games company Gameloft that it does not already own. Vivendi, which passed the 30% threshold of ownership of Gameloft that triggered the move, is offering €6 a share for the company, a premium of 50.4% on its share price before Vivendi’s initially entry in October last year. Gameloft’s management remain strongly opposed to the offer. Vivendi posted revenues of €10.76 billion for the year, up 6.7% or 1.4% at constant currency, with the difference in part due to a positive impact of the appreciation of the dollar and the pound on Universal Music Group. Operating income declined by 4.3% to €1.11 billion, thanks to Canal+’s losses and losses from new initiatives, partly offset by the improved performance of OTT service Watchever, which reached breakeven following the implementation of a transformation plan.

right to offer cable TV services via wholesale agreements. Mobistar will launch the service in six cities initially – Brussels, Louvain, Alost, Mons, Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve and Wavre. The company expects to be able to offer the service nationally by the end of this year. Two offers are available. Mobistar post-paid customers can access the service for €49 a month,

while Mobistar customers with Panther 45 and 60 plans can get the TV offering for €39 a month. The TV offering includes analogue channels already available on cable, a digital UI, about a dozen HD channels, pause-live TV on digital services and the ability to make up to four simultaneous recordings. Mobistar’s announcement followed EC approval of the coun-

try’s plan, drawn up by regulatory umbrella body the CRC, to open up cable to competitive services at regulated prices. The principal Belgian cable operators – Telenet, Voo and Brutele – will now have to open up their analogue and digital cable services for resale by third-party operators, following years of legal appeals that delayed the final decision.


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News > digest


CAB > Acquisition complete Liberty Global-owned Telenet has completed the acquisition of mobile operator BASE Company and the sale of the latter’s 50% stake in VikingCo to Medialaan. The transactions were finalised following approval by the Belgian competition regulator and the EC on January 28 and February 4 respectively. The sale of the stake in VikingCo was a condition set by the EC. The company will now operate as a ‘light’ MVNO on the BASE network. The €1.3 billion deal was financed through a combination of existing cash and cash equivalents, and loans. Last year Telenet signed an agreement with Medialaan to transfer the entire customer base of mobile brand JIM Mobile to it. The two deals will enable Medialaan to become a full MVNO on BASE’s network.

France IPTV > Orange content Orange is to review its content strategy, but will stop short of investing in its own original content, according to CEO Stéphane Richard. Speaking at an analyst presentation after the company released its full-year results for 2015, Richard said that the company’s executive committee has been charged with organising a seminar on future content options. He said that the company’s priority was to “secure the sourcing of critical content” for its customers, including sports rights. However, he added, the company saw its role primarily as a distributor rather than an originator of content, with the exception of its existing French OCS pay TV

channels. However, he said that investing in broadcasting rights for football in Spain had been key to the company’s success in growing its IPTV base in that country. Separately, Richard declined to set a time schedule for Orange’s proposed acquisition of Bouygues Telecom in France. Orange said its discussions with Bouygues “are ongoing and require at least several weeks before any decision is taken”, taking observers by surprise after reports over the weekend that a deal was imminent. Orange reported 7.93 million TV customers at the end of December, up from 7.19 million a year earlier. In France, the company had 6.42 million TV subscribers, up from 6.05 million in 2014. In Spain, Orange grew its TV base to 306,000. In Poland, it reported 787,000 TV customers.

Vodafone, Liberty Global agree Dutch merger By Andy McDonald > Vodafone and Liberty Global have agreed to merge their Dutch operations, forming a 50-50 joint venture that will combine Ziggo’s fibre broadband network with Vodafone’s mobile operations. The firms said that through the deal they will create a unified communications provider in the Netherlands – with complementary strengths across video, broadband, mobile and B2B services.   The deal will bring together Liberty-owned Ziggo’s Horizon TV offering, 200 Mbps nationwide broadband internet and WiFi network, and Vodafone’s 4G mobile network, offering “superior connectivity and entertainment both in and outside the home”. The JV will operate under both the Vodafone and Ziggo brands and create a na-


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tional operator with over 15 million revenue generating units – 4.2 million video, 3.2 million high-speed broadband, 2.6 million fixed-line telephony and 5.3 million mobile customers. Vodafone will make a cash payment to Liberty Global of €1 billion to equalise ownership in the joint venture, with Vodafone Netherlands to be contributed on a debt and cash free basis.   The companies said the total expected synergies from the JV have an estimated net value of approximately €3.5 billion after integration costs.  The deal is expected to close around the end of 2016.

Liberty Global lost a total of 400,000 European video subscribers in 2015, but said that demand for faster broadband speeds, TiVo and Horizon TV services “remained robust”. Announcing its fourth quarter and full year 2015 results, it said that it gained 51,000 revenue generating units (RGUs) for video in Central and Eastern Europe last year. However, this was “more than offset” by weaker trends in its Western European markets. Liberty was hit particularly hard in the Netherlands, with Ziggo losing a total 200,000 video RGUs in the year. Despite this, Liberty said that it migrated 1.5 million of its legacy video subscribers to one of its next generation TV platforms in 2015 – which included increasing its Horizon TV base by 800,000 and growing its TiVo platform in the UK by 350,000.

Events Satellite 2016 Date: 7-10 March Venue: Gaylord National Convention Center, National Harbor, Maryland, US W: www.satshow.com CABSAT Date: 8-10 March Venue: Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai W: www.cabsat.com MIPTV Date: 4-7 April Venue: Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France W: www.miptv.com NAB Show Date: 16-21 April Venue: Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France W: www.miptv.com TV Connect Date: 26-28 April Venue: ExCeL, London, UK W: www.tvconnect.com Internet of Things World Date: 10-12 May Venue: Santa Clara Convention Center, California, US W: www.iotworldevent.com ANGA COM Date: 7-9 June Venue: Köln Messe, Cologne, Germany W: www.angacom.de NEM-New Europe Market Date: 14-16 June Venue: Hotel Dubrovnik Palace, Dubrovnik, Croatia W: www.neweumarket.com Cable Congress Date: 28-30 June Venue: Warsaw, Poland W: www.cablecongress.com

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News > digest

Global Wrap By 2020, mobile video will represent 75% of global mobile data traffic, up from 55% in 2015, according to new research by Cisco. The Cisco Visual Networking Index report claims that mobile video will have the highest growth rate of any mobile application and by 2020, and will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 62% between 2015 and 2020. According to The Diffusion Group (TDG) Within the next 10 years recommendation-based programme guides will ultimately drive 75% of all TV viewing. The research firm’s ‘The Recommendation Revolution – The Future of Recommendation-Driven Guides, 2016-2025’ report said that recommendation-driven guides will flourish in the coming decade, with the usefulness of the grid guide diminishing as TV Everywhere becomes more popular. HBO has experienced its best two-year period of subscriber additions in the past 30 years, with HBO Now a “significant contributor” to its 2.7 million new US customers last year. Announcing its fourth quarter earnings, HBO parent company Time Warner revealed that eight years on from its US launch its standalone over-the-top streaming service, HBO Now, has around 800,000 paying subscribers with “enormous opportunity” ahead. Videogame enthusiasts watched 459,366 years worth of video on Twitch in 2015, according to the games-focused video platform. Twitch said that an average of 1.7 million broadcasters streamed content on the service every month, and that an average 550,000 concurrent viewers tuned in.



SAT > Eutelsat milestone Satellite operator Eutelsat is now broadcasting over 6,000 TV channels via its fleet. It said the milestone reflects strong growth in key markets, continued deployment of pay TV and a diversified offer of free-to-air channels. The company singled out channel growth in the Middle East and Africa and said that one in three of its channels now targets these regions. The operator also said that it now offers more than 2,200 free-to-air channels and plans to introduce new features this year to give channels higher visibility and offer viewers more information on free content. For the six months to December 31, Eutelsat’s revenues and EBITDA each grew 7% year-on-year to €774.4 million and €600.3 million respectively.

OTT > Icon launches

Germany OTT > Magine premium Cloud TV service Magine is now offering premium pay TV channels in Germany for the first time without any requirement to purchase any other content or service. German viewers are able to pay for stand-alone premium content packages for €2.99 per month, without needing to buy other base subscriptions or services. Magine said the packages will include themes such as ‘Kids’, ‘Film’ and ‘Series’ with more to be launched in the coming months. Magine heralded the move as a “revolutionary shift within the European TV landscape”, claiming that Germany was previously one of the most “challenging and competitive” TV markets on the continent.

Endemol Beyond Germany and Viacom International Media Networks Northern Europe have partnered to launch a local version of multiplatform lifestyle channel Icon. The pair and brand partner ASOS have created FLiP, which is a local language version of Icon, which premiered in the UK and US in March 2015 and is now being adapted in 16 more markets. Furthermore, a TV spin-off will air in Germany on Fridays at 22:25 on Nicknight. Digital star Michelle Phan leads Endemol Beyond-owned Icon on the creative front.

CAB > United ups stake German internet service provider United Internet has struck an agreement to acquire a further 15.31% stake in cable operator Tele

Discovery ‘will hit 1m, $100m OTT subs’ by 2017 By Stewart Clarke > Discovery says it will hit one-million direct-to-consumer OTT subscribers by 2017, bringing it US$100 million (e130 million) in extra revenue. Discovery CEO and president, David Zaslav, gave the forecast on an analyst call following Discovery’s full-year results. “We won’t reach a million subs in 2016, but we do have a march to a million and we’re hoping to reach a million by 2017. And a million at US$8 a month would be an incremental US$100 million,” said Zaslav. “If we can get to a million, I think culturally, it could be a tipping point for us. If we can get to a million, why can’t we get to three?” Zaslav said that Discovery’s production model, whereby it invariably owns all of its programming, means it can roll out

Zaslav: one million OTT subscribers would be a tipping point.

D2C and OTT services more cost effectively than others “When you look at the full portfolio of what we’re doing direct-to-consumer and TV everywhere, I think we’re doing more and we’re doing it at lower cost than anyone because we own all of our content,” he said. The Discovery chief said that the breadth of the Discovery portfolio enables it to get better deals with operators, many of whom are currently attempting to squeeze carriage fees. While operators want to reduce what they pay channels, Discovery is pushing for affiliate fee increases. Discovery has recently struck

new deals with nc+ in Poland, and OSN and beIN in the Middle East. “The strength of our portfolio was particularly evident in two recent negotiations, with Telia in Sweden and with Telenor in the Nordics, where we ended up pulling our signal and our drive to obtain strong sub-fee increases,’ he said. “We are taking a much more aggressive stand to fight for the value of our content and to drive meaningfully higher sub-fees. In both instances, after we went dark, we ended up with strong renewals and a very favorable economic result.” Discovery reported a 2% increase in full-year revenues of US$6.4 billion. The US unit was up 6%, but international suffered a 2% reverse, blamed on currency effects. OIBDA was down 4% at US$2.4 billion, with a 15% decline on the international side to blame.


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News > digest


Columbus following its purchase of 9.8% of the company’s issued share capital, potentially making it the operator’s largest shareholder with a 25.11% stake. “Tele Columbus welcomes its new shareholder and looks forward to developing a constructive relationship with United Internet which is beneficial to Tele Columbus, its shareholders and employees,” the company said in a statement. The move will make United Internet, which offers services in Germany under the Versatel brand among others, the largest single shareholder in Tele Columbus, which has consolidated smaller operators Primacom and Pepcom to create a larger-scale operator across Germany. The company’s acquisition of the additional 15.3% stake is subject to approval by the German competition watchdog, the Bundeskartellamt. United Internet said it did not currently intend to take its stake over the 30% thresh-

old that would trigger a mandatory offer to all other shareholders under German law. Nor does it intend to make a voluntary takeover bid.

Italy IPTV > Telecom Italia TV up Telecom Italia increased its TV customer base by 107% last year, with a total of 530,000 TV customers at the end of the year. The figure was boosted by strong uptake of its TIM Sky offering in December, with an additional 18,000 customers taking this package. Total TIM Sky customers stood at 42,000 at the end of the year. In the final quarter, 130,000 of Telecom Italia’s convergent customers opted for a TV service, boosting the numbers. Customers for new premium offerings TIM Sky and TIM Vision Mobile together totalled 155,000 at the year-end, while TIM Vision fixed TV customers num-

bered 375,000. Telecom Italia has said convergence and multimedia entertainment will be at the heart of its strategic plan over the next few years, with a target of 1.5 million converged customers by 2018, and a strengthening of the company’s position in delivering video, music and gaming entertainment services.

Portugal PROG > Football battle Portuguese service provider Meo – the brand used by Altice-owned Portugal Telecom – has pulled Porto Canal, the TV channel of football club FC Porto, from the TV service of rival pay TV operator Nos after they failed to strike an acceptable deal. The pair are engaged in a battle over football rights. Meo secured the rights to FC Porto matches in a deal that also gave it distribution rights to Porto Canal

earlier this year. Nos meanwhile secured the rights to rival clubs Benfica and Sporting – in the case of the former from this season and for the latter from 2017-18 – along with the distribution rights to both teams’ TV channels. Nos accused Meo of failing to present a realistic proposal for the carriage of Porto Canal and said that the failure to strike a deal validated its strategy of seeking to own sports rights. Meo meanwhile accused Nos of failing to respond to its proposal. The Portuguese football championship itself is currently broadcast on the Sport TV channel owned by Nos and Portuguese businessman Joaquin Oliveira, with the exception of Benfica home matches, which are exclusive the Benfica TV channel until the end of the current season. Both FC Porto and Sporting’s matches are set to remain on Sport TV via contracts with Oliveira’s PPTV for the next two seasons.

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News > digest

Qatar IPTV > 4K first for Ooredoo Telecom operator Ooredoo has launched a new TV offering, including what it says is the region’s first commercial 4K TV service. Ooredoo TV, which replaces the existing Mozaic TV offering, includes apps, on-demand services and live TV, delivered via the company’s fibre network and in-home WiFi to multiple screens. The service is available on a self-install basis to the 260,000 homes in the Gulf state that have already been installed with Ooredoo fibre. Ooredoo has also introduced


a ‘collect and go’ service for current Mozaic TV subscribers whereby they can visit one of the company’s retail outlets to collect their new set-top to take home. Ooredoo is offering its packages without an ongoing contract commitment or upfront charges, the company said. Ooredoo is offering four packages: Arabia Extra which includes Arabic channels, Asian Extra with sports, movies and news from across Asia; International Extra, including sport, family, factual and comedy channels from around the world; and Super Extra, combining all three. Ooredoo has tapped Huawei to supply the technology for the service.

UK OTT > Awesome launch DreamWorks-backed YouTube channel AwesomenessTV is now available in the UK. The channel targets a youth and teen demographic and in the US has 3.5 million subs. The ‘schedule’ will see new advice videos uploaded on Mondays, fashion and beauty content on Tuesdays and entertainment clips on Wednesdays. The UK version of Awesomeness will feature YouTube stars including Mazzi Mazz, Harrison Webb and Ebony Day. Awesomeness announced a partnership

with Endemol Beyond at MIPCOM last year and the Endemol Shine Group’s MCN unit will launch Awesomeness in international markets.

PROG > My5 rebrand Viacom-owned UK terrestrial broadcaster Channel 5 has rebranded Demand 5, its video-on-demand service, to My5. The broadcaster has expanded the range of content available to viewers on demand, with a range of My5 exclusives and box sets in addition to the ability to catch up with programmes from across the Channel 5 family of channels – Channel 5, 5Star, 5USA and Spike.

NBCU to launch reality SVoD service hayu in UK, Ireland, Australia By Stuart Thomson > NBCUniversal International is launching a reality-themed direct-to-consumer OTT service called hayu, featuring over 3,000 episodes of its stable of reality shows including Keeping Up with The Kardashians, Made in Chelsea, The Real Housewives and The Millionaire Matchmaker. The service will be launched in the UK, Ireland and Australia in March, with a monthly fee of £3.99 in the UK, €4.99 in Ireland and A$5.99 in Australia. NBCUniversal describes hayu as “the first all-reality service of its kind”, incorporating curated content and integration with social media, with a range of innovative features, including specially made short-form snippets of content that can be shared directly via fans’ social media accounts. The service will link directly to a wide range of third-party news sites with relevant content such as OK! and MailOnline. Users will also be able to directly access the social media feeds of stars of the shows they follow.


MacLellan: hayu will be a pure direct-to-consumer offering.

Most content will debut on the service on the same day as it premiers in the US, with over 500 episodes added each year. hayu will be headed up by Hendrik McDermott, currently NBCUniversal’s senior vice-president, branded on-demand, and the company has hired Phebe Hunnicutt, digital director of Elle at Hearst Magazines UK, to take charge of editorial and look after hayu’s overall look and feel. NBCUniversal chairman Kevin MacLellan told Digital TV Europe that the service in its current form will be a pure direct-to-consumer offering. “We have been totally upfront with our distribution partners from the start, talking about how we can use this service to promote the reality content they have on air,” he said.

MacLellan said that only “a small proportion” of the reality content that NBCUniversal produces each year is currently distributed in the three territories in which it is launching hayu. “There are multiple networks that we run seven days a week in the US. There is a lot of that content that people are pirating online, so we know they want to see it but don’t know where to get it. My hope is that this service will take that reality content and get people more interested by allowing them to watch more episodes and watch seasons from the beginning… and that will help drive people to the linear services as well,” said MacLellan. According to MacLellan, there are “about 50 shows” on the service that have never been seen in the UK. He pointed out that a number of shows only became popular several seasons in, with people not having been able to see the first seasons of shows until now. He said NBCUniversal had been able to find windows for the vast majority of the content aired on linear channels.

Some content aired by third parties had been re-licensed, including UK shows such as Made in Chelsea, aired by Channel 4, where hayu will make available catalogue episodes. MacLellan admitted that some existing distribution partners were “nervous” about the initiative but said that there was “less nervousness because we went to them from the beginning [rather] than if we had just launched it without talking to them…our key partners in these markets have know about this for months.” He said that he had not set any subscriber targets for hayu. “I’m really not as focused – certainly at the beginning – on how many subscribers there are but on how people are engaging with it. My feeling is we can change it in real time and make it more appealing. In a year’s time I will start to look at what the numbers should be,” he said. MacLellan said that NBCUniversal had decided to focus on English-language markets to start with, avoiding the need for dubbing.


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Technology focus > UHD TV


The age of ultra As the industry gets to grips with technologies like high dynamic range, it is clear that 4K is just the beginning of the ultra HD journey. Andy McDonald looks at the latest developments in the UHD space.

For

many industry insiders, 4K barely scratches the surface of what is possible with ultra high-definition. The market is pushing towards newer technologies like high dynamic range (HDR), higher frame rates (HFR) and wider colour gamut (WCG). However, despite the Consumer Electronics Show at the start of the year heralding a number of developments in this space, standards are yet to catch up. The latest device unveilings at Las Vegas this year saw the introduction of lower-cost 4K TV models from the likes of LG, Samsung, and Sony, and across the board HDR now

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features in the latest models of ultra HD sets from all the major TV manufacturers. On the content side, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced at CES that his company would introduce high dynamic range content “later this year” – at the same time as he revealed Netflix’s snap launch in 130 new countries. The move sees Netflix follow Amazon’s lead as the next major over-thetop content player to throw its weight behind HDR, after its rival announced last year the launch of HDR content for its Amazon Prime Instant Video platform. At CES the UHD Alliance – a trade

association of film studios, consumer electronics manufacturers, content distributors and technology companies – also unveiled a consumer-facing logo to identify devices, content and services capable of delivering a “premium” Ultra HD experience. The organisation, which counts LG, Netflix, Samsung and Walt Disney Studios among its members, said it has begun licensing its new ‘Ultra HD Premium’ logo and certifying devices and services. Yet, despite all this momentum, standards are still in a state of development with a number of standards bodies and


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All LG’s 2016 OLED TV models have Ultra HD recognition from the UHD Alliance.

organisations jostling to put their stamp on what is now widely perceived as the future of video. As it stands, ultra HD video that features HDR alongside other nextgeneration enhancements is still years away from launching on the open market.

A phased approach In November 2015 the DVB steering board approved commercial requirements for UHD-1 Phase 2 – a move that will see the industry go beyond the 2160p, or 4K, high spatial resolution in UHD-1 Phase 1 and opens the door for features including high dynamic range, high frame rate and next generation audio. David Wood is chairman of the DVB Commercial Module–UHD TV group that prepared the commercial requirements for the DVB UHD TV systems and is also a consultant on technology and innovation for the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in Geneva, Switzerland. He believes that the Phase 2 requirements that were agreed will “probably be the mainstay of UHD-1 broadcasting in the decades to come.” “Any of them [the new technologies] on their own would add at least a quality grade to the viewing experience given critical content that makes use of them and a TV set that can use them, and so collectively the Phase 2 images will have a large ‘wow’ factor,” says Wood. As an international organisation that partners with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC) and the EBU to develop digital TV standards, Wood says that the only way for the DVB to meet the needs of its members is to prepare UHD specifications in phases. These are linked to the features and timescales requested by the different groups it represents. Phase 1 allowed members to begin 4K UHD services in 2014/15, while Phase 2 is designed to let DVB members start offering HDR from 2017, and HDR combined with HFR from 2019. “The new wider colour gamut has been agreed for some time [in] BT. 2020 and could


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even be included in a Phase 1 service,” says Wood, referring to existing recommendations by the Radiocommunication Sector of the ITU that are known as BT.2020. “The HFR technical specification may be available in 2016, at the same time as the HDR specification, but using it will need much higher speed consumer decoders that will take some time to develop. This is why Phase 2 is seen as having two dates for services. The first, called Conformance Point A, from 2017 for HDR Phase 2, and the second, Conformance Point B, from 2019 for HDR and HFR Phase 2. The difference is because of the time it will take to develop the HFR decoders,” he says. According to the DVB, there are a number of potential technologies for the HDR system that will be examined by the DVB Technical Module, but it’s too early to say what will be

“ISG CCM will facilitate the smooth transition between today’s television standards and tomorrow’s high dynamic range and wider colour gamut standards by defining a solution able to offer backwards compatibility with today’s displays whilst also providing the full quality for the next generation,” explains ETSI's ISG CCM chairman, David Holliday. “The requirement is to provide the highest quality HDR/WCG for a new generation of televisions whilst not compromising the quality of the legacy signal for today’s displays. This is onerous and requires analysis to develop an optimal solution.” Though ETSI's internal committee discussions are confidential, the group aims to create a technology solution that makes sure that legacy and HDR/WCG content is “preserved and propagated through the

“UHD-1 Phase 2 will probably be the mainstay of UHD-1 broadcasting in the decades to come.” David Wood, DVB

the outcome. The same situation applies to next generation audio. Wood claims that HFR will take longer as decoding chips are more complex to develop. “HFR will need double the uncompressed bitrate of conventional frame rates, and thus the processing and storage requirements will be much greater than conventional frame rates,” he says.

Device support A month after the DVB approved requirements for UHD-1 Phase 2, ETSI’s new Industry Specification Group (ISG) on intelligent Compound Content Management (CCM) met for a kick-off meeting at ETSI’s facility in Sophia Antipolis, France. The meeting was to begin work on a standardised solution to define a “scalable and flexible” decoding system for new and existing consumer electronics devices – ranging from Ultra HD televisions to smartphones – with this work supporting the DVB’s Phase 2 commercial requirements.

appropriate interfaces” – covering a much wider range of displays and devices than those targeted by the DVB specifications. “The ETSI ISG CCM work is limited to consumer devices and not the whole ecosystem. However, members of the ISG have been active in proposing and demonstrating solutions for multiple content genres across the entire ecosystem,” says Holliday. He claims that achieving an “optimal solution” requires in-depth knowledge of both the human visual system and creative processes for movie and TV content production. The ETSI is a non-profit organisation that counts more than 800 member organisations form around the world, while the founding members of the CCM group include companies such as BT, Dolby Laboratories, STMicroelectronics and Telefónica. Highlighting the international credentials of the group, Holliday notes that both Samsung Research and Sony Europe have also joined the founders to create the CCM specification. While ETSI aims to create the solution by the end of August 2016, Holliday says it is

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working in conjunction with a host of other organisations – including the DVB, ITU-R, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), the International Organisation for Standardisation-Moving Picture Experts Group (ISO-MPEG), the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) and the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA).

Certifying UHD Another organisation now working in this space is the Ultra HD Alliance (UHDA), which formed at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2015 with mission to foster the Ultra HD ecosystem and promote the benefits of ultra HD entertainment technology. The powerful coalition of 35 companies has now introduced its ‘Ultra HD Premium’ logo and established several authorised test centres for device manufacturers. President and board chairman of the UHD Alliance, Hanno Basse, who is also chief technology officer at 20th Century Fox Film Corp, explains: “The main focus of the UHDA has been to create a quality standard for content and devices for the next generation of audio-visual entertainment – including aspects like UHD resolution, high dynamic range, wide colour gamut etc. At CES, we announced the completion of a set of technical specifications that describe the


requirements for this new quality standard. We’ve also established a logo programme – the ‘Ultra HD Premium’ logo – that is backed by a certification programme. Three manufacturers had devices certified by the time of the show and we continue to field requests from other CE companies who would like to get their products certified. We expect there to be close to a hundred motion picture and other titles available by the end of the year.” Basse says that it is important for the content industry to understand the capabilities and performance of the display devices, in order to generate content that is optimised for them. He also claims that, to his knowledge, the UHDA is “the first crossindustry group to set a quality standard for content and devices”. LG is one of the three manufacturers to announce ‘Ultra HD Premium’-certified devices, alongside Samsung and Panasonic – all of which, it should be noted, are UHDA member companies. Dawn Stockell, head of brand for LG Electronics UK describes the Ultra HD Premium standard as important, as it highlights that LG is working co-operatively with the industry. She says that the UHD Alliance recognises that OLED and LCD are fundamentally different and has two considerations for both brightness and darkness, “endorsing that OLED is a prime platform for viewing HDR”. All 2016 OLED TV models from LG

feature the Ultra HD recognition from the UHD Alliance, meeting standards set for resolution, high dynamic range, peak luminance, black levels, wide colour gamut and audio quality, according to Stockell. The LG TV line-up supports HDR formats such as HDR10 and Dolby Vision, has 10-bit panel and 10-bit processing power, and ColourPrime Pro technology. They also support the next-generation BT.2020 broadcast and distribution standard. Like many industry watchers, Stockell claims that HDR – and its greater ratios of contrast between light and dark – offers the next level in picture quality. She also says that partnerships with organisations such as Netflix mean customers are able to access premium 4K content and that Amazon Instant Video is “the first provider delivering HDR content on LG OLED 4K TVs.”

Streaming leads the way A more recent entrant to the UHD TV space is Roku. The first TV sets powered by the streaming device maker’s software launched in autumn 2014 in the US and then in Canada in 2015. At CES this year, Roku said that the first 4K UHD Roku TVs will be available to buy this spring. Meanwhile, a total of nearly 60 Roku TV models are expected to be introduced by its manufacturing partners this year. “We announced at last year's CES that we had a 4K reference platform that we were working with partners on. This year, one of our announcements was we will be shipping in March this year 4K TVs with TCL,” says Roku senior vice president and general manager of OEM, Chas Smith. The move is Roku's latest commitment to 4K. The firm's Roku 4 streaming box, which launched stateside at the end of last year, already supports the format, while Roku has also created a 4K Spotlight channel to highlight 4K content from a variety of different providers on its platform. Like many other players in this space, the next step for Roku is HDR. Earlier this year it released the Roku TV HDR reference design for TV partners to incorporate high dynamic range technology into future 4K UHD Roku The Ultra HD Alliance launched its Ultra HD Premium logo at CES in January.

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Netflix is due to launch HDR content on its service later this year.

TV models. Smith says that this design will support both HDR10 and Dolby Vision. "We haven’t a date for delivering that as yet, but again we see HDR in its various forms as being critical for that consumer experience," he says. Even though Roku says that broadband speeds of between 10 and 15 Mbps are currently required to receive a full 4K picture, Smith says he believes that the “vast majority of 4K content will be consumed via streaming” as it is “much easier to deploy”. “It requires that you have a 4K TV but it doesn’t require any infrastructure changes. As long as your internet bandwidth is good enough – which it is I would say for many, many households – then it’s plug-and-play,” says Smith. “That’s not always the case when it comes to broadcast infrastructure, or if you’re looking at disk-based solutions, that’s certainly not the case either. We really do believe that streaming is going to be front and centre when it comes to 4K content.” Paolo Pescatore, director, multiplay and media at research firm CCS Insight, agrees. He predicts that “up until 2018 most people’s first experience of 4K TV services will come from web and telecom players, not traditional broadcasters”. “We are bullish generally with 4K and HDR and given that none of the traditional broadcasters have yet to support it due to cost, there’s a huge opportunity, particularly for telecom providers, to not only get behind it, but also push people to sign up to premium multiply bundles that include fibre broadband,” says Pescatore.

The Netflix effect Netflix is a web player that is already betting on streamed 4K, and, from later this year, is due to add HDR content. The SVoD operator launched its first 4K content with its original drama House of Cards back in 2014 and last year claimed more than 300 hours of 4K, UHD content. “We will probably double this number in 2016. We are the world leader, by far,” claims Netflix's manager, corporate communications for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Yann Lafargue. The majority of Netflix's 4K catalogue


p10-13 UHDTV Feb16v4st.indd 13

is from its Netflix Originals. Today almost all of the firm's new productions are made in 4K, except for the children’s content. However, Lafargue says that ultimately it is the director’s creative decision whether or not to use the technology. Later this year the firm plans to “progressively roll-out some titles in HDR”, such as its original series Marco Polo and even though Lafargue says the recommended connection speeds for ultra HD (4K) quality is 20 to 25 Mbps, he says Netflix is seeing a "strong increase in the amount of 4K/UHD plans in our product mix”. “The reason we’re excited about this [UHD] at Netflix has everything to do with how the internet is changing the delivery of TV. Traditionally, people have associated the internet with lousy video quality. It was only about 10 years ago that YouTube launched. People got used to postage stamp sized video that buffered. We’ve come a long way,” says Lafargue. “Today the best quality video only comes to you via the internet and Netflix is leaning forward here because we want to demonstrate that we can deliver the best quality video. Linear TV doesn’t have the willingness to invest massively in those new technologies – just look how much time was needed to simply upgrade to HD quality. It is not even available anywhere yet.” Though online content providers have arguably stolen a march on their broadcast operator rivals when it comes to 4K, the first linear UHD channels are now also starting to come through. While BT Sport in the UK opted for an IP-delivery model for its dedicated 4K channel, BT Sport Ultra HD, satellite is increasingly proving another route to market.

At the end of 2015, satellite operator Eutelsat said its fleet broadcast a total of 6,000 channels, of which 757 are HD and three are ultra HD. These first commercial UHD channels are pay TV channel provider SPI International's FunBox 4K station and two stations from Russian pay TV operator Tricolor – Insight UHD and Tricolor UHD. Eutelsat's director of marketing innovation, Michel Chabrol, believes that as UHD starts to take hold there will initially be a minimum of one channel per pay TV bouquet in countries with high competition, followed by “additional channels, thematic channels, and channels which are mixed between live retransmissions and playout”. He says that broadcasts of live sports and concerts would be a “very good Trojan horse for Ultra HD”, to get it into homes. Looking ahead, Wood from the DVB explains that “most technical opinion today is that the HDR, in the right conditions, will add at least as much of a quality increment as UHD-1 increased resolution.” The UHD Alliance’s Basse agrees that “the increase in resolution from HD to UltraHD in and of itself is not a sufficient quality differentiator.” However, as LG’s Stockell points out that “having a range of content providers for UHD is essential for ensuring uptake from consumers.” As far as the DVB is concerned, full ultra HD, with all the bells and whistles, will take until 2019 to achieve. But with impatience from device makers to define, brand and sell ultra HD hardware to the masses, and a host of groups and organisations working on standards, there looks likely to be many more variants of ‘UHD’ in the interim. l

13 19/02/2016 17:27

Satellite focus > DTH strategies


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Headline here

Up in the air Cheaper high-bandwidth broadband and growth in non-linear viewing has continued to cast doubt on the future of satellite TV, but satellite as a distribution technology has proved surprisingly resilient. Stuart Thomson reports.

In a world

where OTT TV providers are setting the agenda, there is a growing sense that linear TV is on the way out and on-demand and multiscreen is the future of video. This has been fuelled by the likes of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who has argued that broadcasters will become internet networks as the traditional TV industry goes the way of the fixed-line phone business. According to Hastings the time will come when the concept of a scheduled linear broadcast will seem quaint and alien. The death of broadcast would also imply the demise of infrastructure providers that support it, such as satellite. For the satellite industry, the long term prospects for the video business rest on overcoming or offsetting two key challenges. The first of these is the falling price of terrestrial bandwidth, which over time could

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make it more viable for content providers – beginning with those targeting relatively small niche audiences – to distribute linear channels over terrestrial fixed or even wireless networks, including delivering direct to their consumers as OTT services.

The bandwidth battle The second is the expectation over time that people will consume video in a multiplicity of different ways, viewing most content ondemand, and on devices such as tablets and smartphones. In this case, not only does satellite lose the key advantage of its one-tomany capability, but it also faces the challenge of delivering video to an untethered tablet rather than a TV plugged into a set-top box.

The question of how competitive satellite is likely to be with fixed terrestrial networks has been much discussed over the past few years, with little consensus over projections. While the cost of terrestrial distribution has fallen and bandwidth has increased, making networks ‘video-ready’ with high reliability has proved complex. Satellite technology has also moved on, with new modulation technologies and ongoing improvements in video compression – including the availability of the H.265/HEVC format – helping to keep satellite relevant. Satellite also benefits from its ability to distribute content to an infinite number of end points. “The one-to-many strength of satellite still beats other infrastructures, especially to rural areas where DTH has historically been strong,” says Ole Ledang, divisional director


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Telenor’s latest satellite Thor 7, equipped with an HTS payload, takes off from Kourou.

of broadcast services at Telenor Satellite. “Our main task it to make sure our DTH customers succeed in the marketplace. The challenge for DTH operators is to create the best possible user experience for customers in competition with OTT and the likes of Netflix.” For Ledang, the competitiveness of satellite versus CDN-based distribution of content can’t be determined by a fixed formula. The development of technology means the relative costs associated with each are changing constantly. He points to evolving modulation technologies that improve the efficiency with which satellite can deliver video content and other data, meaning that satellite can continue to compete with terrestrial delivery costs. While some niche channels may switch to broadband, the advantages of doing so only apply “up to a certain limit”, he says. Satellite operators are adopting a range of ways to ensure that they stay competitive, including, in Telenor’s case, the sharing of capacity across multiple services. “In addition to providing turn-key solutions to our DTH customers – including OTT services and advanced monitoring – we are actively promoting and facilitating channel sharing,” says Ledang. “On our path to ensure that we do what we can in order to make our customers successful in their marketplace, establishing cost-effective solutions is extremely important. The ultimate position is that the DTH operators on [Telenor’s prime slot at] 1° West share all content which is common – by including simulcrypt on the services. We do provide such services for UPC and Canal Digital today, and UPC also shares content with other 1° West distributors.” The result of channel-sharing, he says, is that “the DTH operators reduce their transmission cost, hence are able to spend a larger portion of their budget on exclusive content – which I think will be increasingly important going forward.” Satellite operator Eutelsat’s vice-president of global sales and commercial development, Christophe Limmer, meanwhile says that satellite will remain the leading video infrastructure in emerging markets in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and “even parts of eastern Europe”. Limmer said that OTT services – even high-profile ones – still suffer from certain weaknesses vis-à-vis broadcast channels,


p14-16,18 DTH Strategy Feb16v4st.indd 15

including network reach and quality, with sufficient bandwidth simply not available in some markets. “We do have changes in consumer behaviour. We have fast growing consumption on other screens. OTT services now play an important role but these services also have weaknesses. One is network reach and quality,” he says, pointing out that only one household in 10 in South Africa is capable of receiving Netflix streams. There is also a cost advantage that comes with scale. “With growing numbers of users you also have growing distribution costs, whereas satellite is always the same price,” says Limmer. Limmer believes the advent of bandwidthhungry UHD TV will give a boost to satellite, which can deliver it more efficiently than terrestrial networks and with more consistent quality. “We will lose some channels that will go down the OTT route but the growth we will have in terms of new formats like UHD will compensate for the relatively low number of channels that we will lose,” he says. Spacecom, another satellite operator with a strong presence in emerging markets, also holds that satellite still has multiple opportunities for growth. “Satellite operators will continue to be the backbone for DTH providers. Viewers are continuing to watch TV and to take advantage of other DTH services. As long as quality and bandwidth are best on satellite, satellite will continue its major role with DTH operators,” says a confident Doron Elinav, vice-president, market development at the Israel-based satellite operator. “Satellite technology has an advantage whenever content needs to broadcast to millions of viewers and, for that reason, we are confident that satellite TV will continue to serve as the mainstream for the delivery of TV services.” Elinav says that satellite can add new services – such as UHD TV – more rapidly and efficiently than cable and other terrestrial infrastructures. “We expect to see satellite at the forefront of these upgrade cycles that occur every few years in the future as well,” he says. For Elinav, the multicast advantage of satellite over rival network types is “huge, especially in less developed regions, or regions of low population density”, while multichannel platforms in prime satellite orbital locations “make the advantage of satellite for TV even more pronounced”. Peter Ostapiuk, vice-president, media product management at Intelsat, agrees,

pointing out that “in many areas broadband connectivity won’t be sufficient in the near term to support effective streaming”. Ostapiuk, like Elinav, believes that new services such as UHD TV – as well as ongoing migration to HD – will benefit satellite. In addition to broadband in many regions not being up to the job of supporting streaming, consumers look to existing – primarily satellite-based – pay TV players for the “convenience of one platform”, he says. Ostapiuk admits that in some emerging markets – notably Africa – mobile could offer a significant alternative to DTH. However, satellite will still be the most efficient way of transporting video to cellular towers, he adds. David Crawford, managing director of satellite and media at broadcast services provider Arqiva, agrees that prospects for linear satellite TV vary between regions. One key concern, he says, is the need to get better data on how media is consumed, which is feeding not only into how money is made from services but how the content is paid for. Overall, he admits there is a slow movement of channels to OTT delivery as high-speed broadband becomes available more widely. Improvements in the efficiency and ability of satellite to deliver better bandwidth are not as rapid as is the case with terrestrial networks. Nevertheless, he says, “satellite has a big advantage in broadcasting to many viewers”. At the end of the day, for niche-interest channels, whether to go with OTT or stick with satellite depends on “how big is their niche”, he says.

On-demand Growth in non-linear viewing has led satellite broadcasters and TV operators – whether pay TV or free – to look to hybrid delivery to satisfy the expectations of their customers, for example by developing services based on the HbbTV standard or a proprietary system. Eutelsat has been involved in a number of projects to combine multiscreen ondemand services with satellite broadcasting. It has worked with French free-to-air satellite platform Fransat to deliver on-demand services to Fransat users. The Fransat Connect platform makes use of the HbbTV standard to provide access to the catch-up services of the channels on the platform. Limmer says that Eutelsat is also looking to deliver push VoD services using the HbbTV standard.

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Ledang says that Telenor Satellite has made an effort to stay competitive with terrestrial networks, encoding content received at its facility and re-encoding it in “whatever format” customers want for delivery over CDNs as well as satellite. For most satellite TV customers, hybrid delivery seems to work well. UK free-to-view satellite platform Freesat has seen strong takeup of its Freetime offering, which includes


powerful. It may be that broadcasters can’t afford to deliver content over satellite, and we welcome channels being delivered over IP,” he says. Nevertheless, channel providers – for now at least – have focused on reaching the large potential base of satellite viewers rather for a one-off cost. “People get more eyeballs on satellite,” says Huntingdon. “If everyone connected their TV to the internet then the cost might well be the same or cheaper on OTT as

“With growing numbers of [OTT] users you also have growing distribution costs, whereas satellite is always the same price.” Christophe Limmer, Eutelsat

access to a range of broadband-delivered ondemand apps via a tightly integrated user experience. For Matthew Huntingdon, chief technology officer at Freesat, there is relatively little difference between providing hybrid services for satellite as for digital-terrestrial TV – exemplified by the fact that the Irish broadcaster RTÉ is using the platform to supply its forthcoming Saorview Connect service. “That proposition with RTÉ is one we are taking around globally to operators to propose to them, so they can move from being a pure linear broadcaster to offering a hybrid play where they are putting together on-demand services with broadcast services,” says Huntingdon. “At the end of the day, an app on our service or an HbbTV app does not care whether the delivery mechanism for linear TV is terrestrial, satellite or cable. Obviously the set-tops are not the same but today’s modular hardware means that swapping out tuners is not much effort. We are mainly talking to satellite operators but that is partly because we are a satellite operator and have relationships with other satellite operators. It doesn’t mean that the opportunity is not equally valid for terrestrial operators.” For Huntingdon, the key value of what Freesat offers is its EPG and user experience, backed by effective management of metadata and editorialised recommendations. Content providers could theoretically deliver linear services over broadband to connected boxes and those channels could appear in the EPG. “The most effective way to find content is via the EPG listing. That listing is very


on satellite, but that‘s not the case today. You reach a bigger niche market by broadcasting than by delivering over OTT.” This preference is reinforced, says Huntingdon, by the fact that most viewers still prefer to watch content on the largest screen available to them – generally the one in the living room attached to a set-top box. “Our research and research by the BBC and others has shown is that people watch TV on the biggest screen available to them at the time they are watching,” he says. “One thing that has challenged that is that BBC iPlayer is mostly used on mobile devices now, but the really interesting thing is that at Christmas there was a change where the biggest chunk of viewing of iPlayer was on connected TV devices like game consoles or operator devices.” He suggests that this change could be driven by a growing awareness that the BBC’s popular catch-up service can be accessed via the TV.

of satellite-delivered linear and on-demand content to IP-native screens. Canaletto Live enables the deliver of live broadcast streams to multiple devices, while content can also be pushed to hard drive-enabled devices, enabling the delivery of VoD services without a permanent terrestrial return. An Android app is under development that can be integrated with existing mobile apps provided by broadcasters. The live linear product sends IP-native channels to mobile screens with guaranteed QoS, according to Limmer. “It is comparable with terrestrial delivery,” he says. The ondemand push functionality “allows you to have on-demand content irrespective of whether you are connected to the internet”, with content received via satellite multicast and then distributed as IP streams around the consumer’s premises. Return-channel commands and audience data are sent via terrestrial networks. ‘We are testing this with selected broadcast customers and we are working with them to find a suitable business,” says Limmer. Eutelsat has also developed satellite-only solutions to enable the delivery of nonlinear content to residential and commercial customers. The operator’s Smart LNB initiative was designed to create a next-generation singleblock LNB that could deliver a return path via satellite, enabling consumers to access push VoD, pay-per-view, social TV features, HbbTV apps and multiscreen viewing without the need for a terrestrial connection. Smart LNB currently requires a separate indoor unit (IDU) that connects the LNB of the dish with devices, but Eutelsat is also working on an integrated

Satellite-only solutions While on-demand and multiscreen services are typically delivered via a terrestrial broadband connection to complement the satellitedelivered broadcast channels, Eutelsat and others are also working on satellite-based solutions to deliver content to multiple devices via the satellite set-top box. Eutelsat’s Project Canaletto is designed to enable the delivery Eutelsat’s Smart LNB solution enables satellite-only delivery of on-demand services.


19/02/2016 19:25

Expect More. AMOS Satellites.

AMOS - 6 Coming in 2016

More Coverage. More Throughput. More Services. Across the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Asia. Spacecom’s AMOS satellite constellation, consisting of AMOS-2 and AMOS-3 co-located at 4°W and AMOS-4 at 65°E, provides high-quality broadcast and communications services across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Meet us at

SATELLITE 2016 March 8-10, 2016 National Harbor, MD, USA Booth #1601

With the upcoming launch of AMOS-6, Spacecom is expanding its coverage over Europe and Africa. The result: greater capacity, high-throughput Ka multibeam capabilities and affordable end-to-end satellite services. Spacecom. Expect More.

www.amos-spacecom.com p17 Spacecom Feb16.indd 1

16/02/2016 15:56


set-top version. “The advantage of the Smart LNB is, on one hand, you have a permanent exchange [between the operator] and the way the consumer watches TV. A lot of [our] customers want to use it for audience measurement purposes. It simplifies payment for VoD purposes,” says Limmer. One of the great points about the smart LNB is that it delivers a unified experience – via satellite. On top of these initiatives, Eutelsat has also teamed up with its main rival, Luxembourgbased SES, to work on what the pair have dubbed the Future Video Initiative, which is designed to combine satellite and IP technology. “Not only are the satellite operators aligned but the telecom operators are too. If they want to provide the best user experience, they also have to use satellite as part of the chain to ensure that what they have an offer is always available and can be received by the whole population,” says Limmer. Intelsat’s Ostapiuk also believes that two-way satellite technologies have a significant future, not only for interactive TV applications but to deliver content to a range of destinations, including cell towers, WiFi kiosks and small businesses. “For interactivity, I think transactional VoD delivered over two-way satellite can be done – the cost of two-way satellite has decreased. A lot of those set-top boxes also have technology that allows a return path over wireless or wired broadband as well – I think those technologies are really relevant and will drive applications like push-VoD,” he says. Intelsat is in the process of building a fleet of high-throughput satellites – dubbed EPIC NG – which are primarily intended to target broadband and mobility markets rather than TV. However, Ostapiuk says that the current satellite replacement cycle will enable frequency re-use via targeted spot-beams. This, he says, will “allow us to optimise the payloads and design the beams used for DTH operators”. He says that this will enable Intelsat to “design payloads specifically for our customers and for interactive two-way IP” services. Not everyone is convinced by the power of satellite-only delivery of non-linear applications. “I’m not positive about pure satellite solutions. They take away one-to-many, and removing the main benefit of satellites,” says Telenor’s Ledang. “To create one-to-one or one-to-a- few links in competition, say with LTE, the satellite capacity will be too expensive and the end user



equipment will be challenged to genuinely provide two-way communications.” Arqiva’s Crawford also strikes a note of mild scepticism, pointing out that the Sat>IP technology developed by SES has yet to be adopted by high-profile customers with advanced multiscreen services such as Sky, which recently launched its next generation Sky Q service. In addition to delivering their own ondemand and multiscreen video services, larger pay TV operators are looking to deliver a full suite of multiplay services, bundling internet and phone access in with TV. It is possible for satellite to provide a comprehensive multi-play offering, with operators delivering data via satellite as well as TV. Because of the costs of satellite-delivered

Growth story Generally, satellite operators believe growth from pure video distribution will continue. Telenor Satellite’s Ledang says that the number of channels will continue to expand, with pan-regional feeds splitting into territoryspecific feeds to build better advertising revenues, while broadcasters will also look to deliver an ever-greater number of feeds from high-profile events such as the Olympics. Eutelsat’s Limmer points out that satellite is still growing at a time when cable TV has stalled. He believes that UHD video will mean many broadcasters and content providers will have no choice but to turn to satellite. “Doing 4K on a terrestrial network is challenging, and

“As long as quality and bandwidth are best on satellite, satellite will continue its major role with DTH operators.” Doron Elinav, Spacecom

broadband, this is very much seen as a niche offering and has been regarded primarily as a small-business focused service for areas with poor terrestrial connectivity. However, Spacecom’s Elinav at least is quite bullish about its prospects. While admitting that satellite broadband is currently a “niche play”, he says that cheaper satellite data via high-throughput satellites will enable operators “to provide a gapfilling solution”, leading to a growing market for satellite in this sphere. In regions with poor or non-existent terrestrial infrastructure, he says, high-speed internet to non-urban areas is very likely to be “first via satellite”. In some markets, he says, HTS platforms could also be used to deliver a wide range of TV services. “HTS opens up new markets for the satellite industry and enables integration of linear and non-linear services by DTH to its customers,” he says. “Spacecom is making its entry to the HTS world with Amos-6, which has highthroughput beams over Africa and Europe. We expect to have additional HTS payloads in the future, and integrating broadband services for non-linear content with broadcast services for linear content is one path to enabling a futureproof satellite delivered TV service, regardless of which path it will take.”

when it comes to delivering a huge number of channels, satellite will remain the most relevant infrastructure,” he says. For Ostapiuk, Intelsat is looking to DTH to expand its overall business, with that increase coming from a mix of organic growth in platforms, growth driven by technology changes such as HEVC, the emergence of new business models, growth in supplementary services such as push-VoD delivered over the satellite link, and greater use of satellite by broadcasters for disaster recovery. “What I see in the market in terms of channel growth is not the numbers going up but HD and UHD picking up steam. We see strong signs of premium UHD content picking up. Internationally in addition to UHD, there is still a significant room for growth with HD channels. There are also significant efforts to regionalise premium content, moving from pan-regional feeds to country-specific feeds,” he says. The operators’ optimism seems, up until now, to be borne out by the facts. Talk about non-linear viewing and the appeal of internet delivery may be based in fact, but it is also true that, for much of the planet, watching linear TV remains a major leisure activity. l


19/02/2016 19:25

Q&A: Torkel Thoresen, Telenor Satellite Torkel Thoresen, chief technologist, broadcast systems, Telenor Satellite talks about UHD TV, the future of DTH and more. What are your current expectations for the DTH market at 1° West and where will growth come from for the next couple of years? Telenor Satellite operates in two regions: the Nordics and CEE, reaching nearly 18 million households. The Nordics are more or less a mature market waiting for a full MPEG-4 migration and development of UHD/4K. Some countries in the CEE are in development with further potential for growth, both in HD, more TV channels, households and STB technology linked to broadband connection. In both markets there is potential for consolidation between existing DTH operators. What impact do you think UHD TV will have on the broadcast industry over the next few years and what role is satellite likely to play? UHD is a challenging matter; there are standards to agree on, material to be produced, functional business models for the pay-TV operators to be accepted, and end user equipment – both STBs and TV sets to be developed and purchased. However, we believe there will be a demand for higher quality combined with the increased screen size. We are particularly anticipating the phase 2 version of Ultra HD with support for HDR (High Dynamic Range) and HFR (High Frame Rate). UHD will also bring forward a new encoding scheme (HEVC) and probably a new modulation (DVB-S2X). These will increase the efficiency of transmission, enabling more services per transponder. Satellite operators have always worked closely with DTH operators in order to utilize the advantage of satellite efficiency. How can satellite operators support the development of non-linear and multiscreen TV and do you think growth in non-linear video consumption and OTT presents a threat to satellite? Telenor Satellite firmly stands by its strategy to play an active part in both linear and OTT delivery chains. Our success is based on the success of our customers and being a turnkey provider of all services for the pay-TV DTH operators on 1° West is very important for us. The growth in non-linear media consumption is certainly a threat to all existing business models. The key question is whether the total media consumption is stable, or increasing, and what market share the pay-TV operators are able to gain. It has a lot to do with intelligent STBs, high quality, and flexibility in ways of consuming the content (i.e. increasingly clever content agreements). Maybe the industry will see a trend where fewer TV channel will run as linear services via satellite, but there will be development towards higher quality, premium content via ordinary linear TV means of distribution. The future has certainly not been decided yet, and the satellite industry, as all parts of the value chain – must develop their business proposal to support the market going forward.

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What innovations are in the pipeline that can help satellite deliver video services with maximum efficiency and compete effectively with terrestrial networks? It is difficult to discuss the innovations without pointing out the relation between the encoding/modulation/other standards for transmission, and the functionality of the STBs in the end-user market. In general, cost per Mbps needs to come down in order to compete. i.e. cost launches and Ku (and Ka) satellite pay-loads must be reduced. At the other end of the market, the DTH pay-TV operators must be innovative and forward-leaning in finding technical solutions and business models beyond what they have today. I am confident that the major benefit of satellite transmission – one-to-many – will continue to prevail – particularly in markets where “many” are many. At Telenor Satellite, we closely monitor the technological development in particular for OTT playout services, efficient ways of producing linear live TV, satellite pay-load design, launch-efficiency and frequency utilisation. How significant do you think the market will be for high throughput satellites like THOR 7 and what are likely to be the main applications? Our focus areas for the HTS Ka-band payload of THOR 7 will be mobility and enterprise broadband connectivity. Looking at the maritime mobility market – as an example – there has been little change in recent years. HTS satellites such as THOR 7 will change that by permitting smaller antennas and higher bit-rates, while lowering the cost of communications for end users. This is the underlying real benefit of HTS and frequency re-use. We also agree with recent market studies indicating that mobility markets may undergo significant change in coming years as passenger transportation segments such as aero and maritime start to roll out broadband connectivity to passengers. We see no reason why the behaviour of the end user should be any different being on-board a ferry or a cruise ship than being on the mainland. It is about the availability, flexibility, pricing and ease-of-use. What other applications and services are you going to focus on over the coming few years? In the short/medium term our focus areas are to ensure a continued strong position in the Nordic DTH linear and OTT market, to grow the 1° West position in the main DTH markets in CEE – and to successfully develop the Ka (and still very importantly the Ku) – markets with mobile off-shore solutions. For more information please contact: Torkel Thoresen, chief technologist, broadcast systems, [email protected] Ole Ledang, director broadcasting division, [email protected] Visit the company’s website at www.telenorsat.com

18/02/2016 15:55

Satellite focus > Occasional use


The Olympic Games marks a once-in-four-years opportunity for providers of occasional use satellite capacity to make money and innovate. Anna Tobin reports on preparations for Rio.

The road to Rio

All over

the world, occasional use (OU) satellite operators are getting ready for Brazil. The 2016 Olympic Games opens in Rio De Janeiro on August 5, and transmitting a growing, and increasingly tailored, set of sound and images out across the globe poses a huge logistical challenge to all those involved in the OU supply and delivery chain. Reaching around 3.6 billion viewers worldwide, the 2012 London Olympics was the most watched event in TV history, trumping most individual national broadcasters’ previous ratings records. With multiscreen viewing and interactive preferences still growing, the 2016 Summer Olympics are expected to outperform these figures. The 2014 Football World Cup in Brazil provided a good practice run for OU operators preparing for the Olympics, many of whom are using the same satellites, but they had only just packed up from this campaign before beginning the

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preparations for these Games. Eighteen months is the preparation time that Intelsat sets for major live events, according to Peter Ostapiuk, Intelsat’s head of media product services and management. “A major live event, such as the Rio Olympics, requires advanced and precise planning to ensure media customers have the reliable OU capacity they need to deliver exciting live content to viewers,” he says. “We work closely with customers to gather their requirements and then work internally with our capacity managers to identify capacity to successfully support media customers’ coverage plans.” The test period involves rigorous trailing of systems and solutions and assessing which infrastructures need to be expanded, according to Marc Logez, Globecast’s head of marketing, global contribution. “Modern events are, in many ways, as much about complex logistics as they are about technological solutions. Our customers’ demands can change right

up to the last minute and we pride ourselves on finding innovative solutions to meet their needs – often quite late in the process. This is a core part of the value that we bring,” he says. In order to be able to offer such a rapid response service, OU operators need to be able to second-guess every possible request. They need to cope with mixed delivery to satellite and terrestrial networks and to be technically agnostic in the delivery of upstream and downstream services. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, says Intelast’s Ostapiuk. “Intelsat works closely with each individual customer to ensure customised bandwidth assignment for optimised efficiency and performance. We offer flexible short-term OU leases ranging from traditional short bookings for one hour, to leases for several weeks or a month,” he says. “Intelsat has also implemented ScheduALL Connector so customers can easily and efficiently secure OU capacity. During major sports events,


19/02/2016 17:25



such as the Olympics, customers need to be able to efficiently manage fluctuating bandwidth demands, while continuing to provide the high-quality, reliable content their viewers demand. The ScheduALL Connector interface allows media customers to easily view Intelsat’s available capacity, quickly match it to their needs and reserve it directly from within their own system.” It’s also important to remember that the

advantage of being able to switch on service almost immediately,” says Lamb.

Advances since 2012 Technology and consumers’ expectations of it have moved on, even in the few years since the London Olympics in 2012. There will be even more simultaneous feeds coming out

“Intelsat works closely with each individual customer to ensure customised bandwidth assignment for optimised efficiency and performance.” Peter Ostapiuk, Intelsat

Olympics is now so much more than ‘the Games’ itself. OU services will need to be in place in the long run up to the Games too, as the world’s media taps into any, even spuriously, related story. There will be food, travel and culture programming planned that will be filmed and transmitted from in and around Rio leading up to and during the Games. OU operators have to be ready to break stories from the city and its environs too. The Zika virus outbreak, for example, is already proving to be a major side story in this context. “It’s not just about the primary broadcasters and rights’ holders view of the world,” says Richard Lamb, senior director of OU operations at satellite operator SES. “From our experiences from such big global events, we have found that viewers and our customers have evolved from just looking at the Games themselves, to the more human stories around either the venue or the players. There is a lot more content emanating from the athletes arriving at the airport, the training grounds, etc. There is a lot more focus on the country itself; the Zika virus is a perfect example of how a story can become even more important, because of the Olympics.” It may not necessarily be the rights-holders looking to tell these stories. For news and entertainment broadcasters, this is where the immediacy of OU satellite technology comes into its own. “Satellite has a ubiquitous

of the Games, more multiple camera angles available and different replay and highlights options. All of this drives bandwidth needs. Consequently, more operators will be migrating from MPEG-4/H.264 compression to High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). “We’ve seen improvements in video encoding – MPEG2, MPEG4 – and we’re now looking at HEVC encoding, which is effectively the next generation. We expect to see an element of this in use at Rio,” says Lamb. “There are improvements in modulation as well, with new standards of DVB-S2x. All of these new techniques, ultra HD, HEVC encoding and higher order modulation will be a part of the Rio Olympics. There is a distinction, however,

between what’s being captured locally, what’s being filmed and archived and what’s actually transmitted terrestrially by fibre and what’s transmitted by satellite.” How much of this actually gets transmitted live over satellite or fibre will be up to the broadcasters. Live content over IP will be another big development to watch for, says Logez at Globecast. “IP-based offerings are developing fast. Live-over-IP will be the next transition, but this will happen in a step-bystep evolution with a hybrid approach, because SDI is a mature technology that is available at a very reasonable price. Nevertheless, several issues still need to be addressed and solved, such as: type of connectivity at the venue, latency, security; and, recruiting new talent with IT specialised know-how,” he says. It’s not just the transmission technology that has moved forward in the last four years. The way people consume media has altered drastically too, with viewers wanting more content delivered to multiple devices. This has fed into increased demand for IP-based solutions. To thrive, satellite operators have to play a part in delivering this, says Ostapiuk at Intelast. “To meet customers’ needs as the media landscape rapidly changes, Intelsat is expanding its media services with IntelsatOne Prism, a multimedia networking platform and portfolio of managed services that allows customers to easily upgrade a legacy satellitebased network to a next-generation, automated hybrid satellite and terrestrial converged IP network. IntelsatOne Prism accommodates legacy and digital or multiscreen media

SES gears up for the Rio Olympics (opposite), while Globecast vans (right) wil provide support for live broadcasts.


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and optimises network efficiency. It enables programmers to simplify operations with easy management of satellite and fibre capacity,” he says. “IntelsatOne Prism is ideal for the coverage of a special event like the Olympics, during which media customers benefit from automated-access voice, video and data links via two-way connectivity.”

Added fibre While fibre’s bandwidth capability is impressive and it is playing a growing role in content transmission, it is unlikely to ever make satellite transmission redundant,


because fixed networks can’t get to those hardto-reach places that satellite can. Olympic competitions, such as open-water swimming, cycling and triathlons increasingly take place in remote areas of the host country and OU will always hold the fort here. Nevertheless, fibre is still eating into a chunk of the traditional OU business and many companies have decided that the only way to stop it eroding profits is to make fibre a big part of their own portfolios. “With regards to worldwide live broadcasting, satellite remains the most viable solution in the majority of cases,” says Logez at Globecast. “Satellite also offers a perfect backup for optical fibre links, especially in the case of highly sensitive video feeds. This is

The Olympics in 4K: driving momentum UHD/4K, a bandwidth-hungry innovation that could be a boon for satellite, was trialled by a number of operators at the London Olympics and then again at the Football World Cup in 2014, but it was essentially in a trial phase and it’s not yet clear whether it will have a stronger presence than this in Rio. “Live UHD/4K trials are being carried out by many broadcasters in association with Globecast and there will definitely be UHD/4K at the Olympics. To date, however, we’re not sure to what degree 4K will feature in Rio,” admits Marc Logez, Globecast’s head of marketing, global contribution. “Any discussion about ultra-high resolutions transmission eventually turns to the question of compression, and this is where HEVC comes in. Based on the experience Globecast has developed on 4K transmission, satellite is today the most convenient solution for UHD/4K live broadcast to multiple broadcasters.” While 4K is yet to move out of test phase, Rio is nevertheless likely to be its greatest test yet, says Richard Lamb, senior director of OU Operations at satellite operator SES. “We expect all of the cameras, a lot of the capture of the Olympics to be in 4K or ultra HD. We have newer technologies within ultra HD, higher definition, higher colour gamut and higher frame rates. I suspect all of these will form an element, at least in the capture locally,” he says. Since the London Olympics there have been impressive advances in the UHD-friendly HEVC compression technology, which is slowly helping to fuel more widespread adoption of 4K, says Peter Ostapiuk, Intelsat’s head of

22 p20-22 Occ Use Feb16v4st.indd 22

media product services and management. “While the Rio Olympics are not expected to be broadcast in 4K UHD TV, sports, along with movies, are expected to drive 4K UHD TV momentum, making this Summer’s Olympics an ideal event for continuing to test 4K UHD

Lamb: Rio will be likely be 4K’s greatest test yet.

TV filming and distribution. Intelsat and its ecosystem partners have conducted 4K UHD TV transmissions demonstrations of various applications and standards since 2013, proving satellites currently in orbit are able to costefficiently deliver high-quality 4K UHD TV content,” he says. Even as 4K remains in a trial phase, 8K or Super High Vision is being tested too, says Lamb at SES. “It’s fairly specific to one customer and one country, but the Japanese are continuing to trial 8K,” he says. NHK is reported to be working on filming in 8K at Rio, but its only real worth as a product will be as excellent archive footage of the Games. One of the biggest challenges for 4K is that, outside a few early adopting Asian territories, consumer uptake has so far been disappointing. So while the technology exists to film in 4K and even 8K, the demand just isn’t there yet.

largely because of the lack of a single point of failure between satellite and fibre. Realistically, satellite and fibre cannot really be compared as their usage is very different. They are both part of Globecast’s core business, but also key factors in pushing beyond new frontiers – from a technological or geographical perspective.” Looking beyond the Olympics, industry participants expect OU to continue to play a primary role in transmitting live events, with a gradual move to more off-site production. “Remote production is now a tried and tested means of covering major live events, or those spread across multiple venues, allowing broadcasters to make cost and manpower savings by centralising the bulk of the production process,” says Logez at Globecast. Globecast’s managed service offering lets clients avoid complex logistics exercise, while the expansion of global IP networks lets the company explore new solutions for main and back up contribution solutions, he adds. Smaller businesses may also start utilising OU more in the future. In time for the Games, Intelsat launched its first high-throughput next-generation EpicNG satellite, Intelsat 29e, located at 310° East, at the end of January. This is designed to attract smaller businesses as it requires smaller terminals. “Intelsat 29e’s Ku-band spot capacity will be used to support contribution at the Summer Games, enabling customers to gather content from the venues and transport it back to their facilities,” says Ostapiuk. “Intelsat EpicNG delivers increased Megabits per Megahertz, providing customers the high performance they demand, as well as better economics, as they can simply access high-power Intelsat EpicNG capacity with smaller, solar-powered terminals.” Most of the developments in OU technology, especially the movement to IP, are driven by the demand for greater and greater interactivity, says Lamb at SES. “OU [providers] are gearing up to deliver more virtual reality content and more content for mobile devices. And more people watching the content on lots of different devices drives bandwidth [demand], and that bandwidth ultimately ends up on satellite. Even if it’s about mobile phone via WiFi or cellular technologies, ultimately you will see GSM back-hauling on satellites. There will be large amounts of data going via satellite to provide temporary increases in bandwidth. All of this has a positive effect on the business,” he says. For satellite, it looks like a win-win situation. l


19/02/2016 17:25

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26/01/2016 09:48

NAB 2016 > Preview


NAB 2016: the preview This year’s NAB Show takes place at the Las Vegas Convention Centre from April 1621. Digital TV Europe takes a look at some of the products that will be on show. Artel Video Systems STAND N4512 WHAT’S NEW? DigiLink Media Transport Platform and Fiberlink fiber-optic transmission products WHAT DO THEY DO? Artel will highlight IP-based solutions and 4K/UHD solutions at the show. The company will demonstrate the latest IP- and hybrid IP/ SDI-based capabilities in its DigiLink Media Transport Platform. This is an integrated, modular solution for transporting broadcast-quality media including 3G/HD/SD-SDI and ASI plus Ethernet traffic over IP, direct fibre, and managed optical networks. Artel offers a range of 3500 series Fiberlink products to support 4K/UHD at up to 60fps one way. Artel also provides lower-cost versions that support 4K/UHD at up to 30fps on either a unidirectional or bidirectional basis. All 3500 series Fiberlink products are SMPTE-compliant, equalised, and reclocked, according to the company. Artel says its Fiberlink line supports nearly every type of video, audio, and data signal, suitable for broadcast or corporate studios, OB vans, auditoriums, stadiums and theaters, transportation hubs, and more. CONTACT www.artel.com

Interra Systems STAND SU7105 WHAT’S NEW? Orion OTT; Orion Real-Time Monitoring and Video Analysis; Baton; Baton+ QC and Data Analysis; Vega

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Media Analysers WHAT DO THEY DO? Quality assurance specialist Interra Systems will introduce Orion OTT, a software-based OTT solution for real-time monitoring of adaptive bitrate content for multiscreen service delivery over unmanaged networks. In addition to monitoring the integrity of ABR content, Orion OTT also measures network performance in an OTT environment. Interra Systems will also showcase its Orion real-time content monitoring system with multi-processor architecture support. Now available on Linux, Orion provides the industry with a monitoring solution that runs on standard industry hardware. The latest version offers improved usability, superior monitoring and

setup capabilities, optimised alerts, and reporting functionalities, according to the company. In addition, it provides SCTE-35 verification with time-accurate thumbnails around splice points, closed caption and text service monitoring with logging and display of captions frame-by-frame, encoder boundary point monitoring, and IGMP monitoring for network troubleshooting. Orion supports virtualisation and QoE evaluation. Interra Systems will also showcase Baton 7.0, the latest version of its QC solution for file-based SD, HD, and mixed workflows. The Baton 7.0 user interface now features a revamped functionality across smart folders, manual scheduling, test plans, reports, and more. Significant architectural changes have also been

made to Baton 7.0 to enhance the overall throughput of the system, according to Interra Systems. The Baton 7.0 system offers comprehensive video/audio quality checks, including new support for text detection (including language) and recognition of burnt-in subtitles, audio language detection, detection of new audio quality noises, as well as support for the latest loudness ITU-R BS.1770 specification. In addition, Baton 7.0 supports new image formats like TIFF/Targa, enhanced closed captions, and updates to DPP/ARD_ZDF compliance support. The latest Baton+ QC and data analysis system will be on display at the 2016 NAB Show. Baton+ features enhanced workflow QC capabilities, including the ability for users to define workflows repre-

Globecast highlights media services STAND SU10706CM

Globecast is exhibiting in the Connected Media arena at NAB 2016 and will be highlighting its playout and media management services. Globecast opened its new Media Centre in Los Angeles in 2015 offering fully managed playout services as well as media preparation and VoD logistics service. It also provides a point of pres-

ence for the company’s global coverage. Globecast will highlight Media Factory, which leverages the company’s expertise in handling both linear and on-demand services through playout and overthe-top solutions. The company will showcase localisation capabilities, from handling local channel branding through advertising management, compliance work, rights management services, to content selling tools and analytics for online video services. On the distribution side, Globecast late last year launched a new platform on the AMC-11 satellite. As a result, prospective and current clients can benefit from what the company describes as the most powerful orbital posi-

tion in the Americas for distribution to cable headends. The satellite already hosts over 70 major tier-1 American channels. Sports channel Gol TV, a 24/7 network dedicated to soccer and an existing customer, is the first to have taken the opportunity to transition their HD feed onto Globecast’s new platform. As well as Gol TV, Globecast has signed additional contracts with companies including Revenue Frontier. Globecast will also highlight its support for VoD, with the ability to assemble VoD content packages with the relevant metadata, languages, graphics, subtitles and promos in the technical formats. CONTACT www.globecast.com


19/02/2016 19:43

NAB 2016 > Preview


senting the stages through which media content flows in a facility. Interra Systems will also demonstrate the full Vega product suite at the 2016 NAB Show. Recent updates to the Vega family include support for Windows 10, the latest HEVC HM reference code, HEVC interlaced streams, VP9 streams (4:2:2, 4:4:4), PCAP streams, Dolby AC-4 audio, and AVS Plus video. Vega is Interra Systems’ media analysis platform for standards compliance, debug, and interoperability of encoded streams. CONTACT www.interrasystems.com

Suitcase TV STAND: SL5826

WHAT’S NEW? MediaStor Standalone Storage and Archiving Platform; Iphrame Vision Remote Centralised Production System WHAT DO THEY DO? Suitcase TV’s storage platform MediaStor is now available as a standalone product. Demonstrated for the first time at NAB, MediaStor now includes support for archiving to spinning disk using new SMR disk technology combined with MAID architectures. This provides a low-cost, low-power, fast access storage solution, according to the company. The new MediaStor Archive enclosure provides up to 128TB of usable storage in a 1RU enclosed with an idle power consumption of only 10W. Additional enclosures can be easily added as storage requirements increase. In addition to managing storage, every MediaStor server can offer resources to perform media related tasks. MediaStor is built upon Microsoft Windows, which Suitcase TV says simplifies integrations


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with third-party processing and file transfer software. The Iphrame Vision Remote is part of the iphrame suite: a range of software-based solutions enabling combined SDI and IP-based operations. The solution facilitates the centralised production of outside broadcasts and other live events and enables personnel to operate the system from virtually any location where there is an internet connection, according to the company. Suitcase TV is also highlighting its support for the Advanced Media Workflow Associations’ (AMWA) NMI project. Launched as a long-term initiative to support the industry's move towards IP-based systems, NMI brings together broadcasters that share a vision to adopt IP infrastructures and industry suppliers who wish to provide interoperability. CONTACT www.suitcasetv.com

Triveni Digital STAND SU15402

WHAT’S NEW? Broadcast Data Management Platform; Channel Sharing Support for GuideBuilder 5; StreamScope EM-50 WHAT DO THEY DO? Triveni Digital will demonstrate its new broadcast data management and quality assurance platforms, which extend its current market-share-leading GuideBuilder and StreamScope product lines in a unified architecture. Triveni Digital says its approach will enable broadcasters to make a seamless migration to ATSC 3.0 to start deploying the standard’s new features and services, while still supporting the current broadcast infrastructure for the duration of the expected transition phase. The

new Broadcast Data Management Platform will, according to the company, enable broadcasters to manage and deliver the elements that support service enhancements offered by ATSC 3.0 including advanced service guides, local ads, emergency alerts, interactive media, addressable content, and delivery of large-volume content. A key element of the platform is Triveni Digital's new GuideBuilder XM signaling system, which offers signaling and announcement functionality per ATSC 3.0, along with support for legacy standards such as ATSC 1.0 PSIP and DVB-SI. Triveni Digital will hold a technology demonstration to showcase key components of the overall architecture and implementation of the Broadcast Data Management Platform, highlighting integration with systems from other vendors. The system includes the GuideBuilder XM signaling system, Dyme (Dynamic Media Engine), ACE (Addressable Content Engine), and SkyScraper XM for hybrid content distribution. StreamScope XM is Triveni Digital's system for quality assurance in ATSC 3.0. Early versions of StreamScope XM will be shown and discussed. Triveni Digital will demonstrate channel sharing capabilities for its GuideBuilder 5 metadata generation and management system. Using the GuideBuilder platform, broadcasters can unify and manage Programme and System Information Protocol (PSIP) metadata for channels to retain channel branding, service guide information, and maintain FCC compliance. Triveni Digital will also use the show to launch the StreamScope EM-50 enterprise-wide management system. In combination with StreamScope RM-50, the system proactively detects, isolates, and resolves problems that degrade video services, and allows system-wide compliance auditing for key requirements, such as CALM and Closed-Captioning. CONTACT www.trivenidigital.com

Volicon STAND SU6521

WHAT’S NEW? Share Application Enhancements; Observer OTT; Multiviewer Path Monitoring WHAT DO THEY DO? The Share application for Volicon's Observer Media Intelligence Platform helps broadcasters repurpose and deliver content to viewers via new channels, whether for on-air broadcast or digital and social media platforms. Accelerating the clipping and distribution of content in the appropriate format, Share is available on-premise and in the cloud, providing browser-based access to media captured by the Observer platform as well as graphical tools that make it possible to create content.  Volicon will showcase integration with the As-Run Log (ARL) to enable users to remove ads and generate long-form VoD assets. Volicon's Observer OTT provides networks and broadcasters with a solution for logging and monitoring OTT services that stream content to computers, tablets, and smartphones. Volicon will demonstrate how Observer OTT ingests content from each point in the OTT pipeline – including a variety of mobile devices – to provide a look at how consumers experience streamed content and to speed isolation and resolution of quality issues for content viewed on various devices. Volicon's Multiviewer option for the Observer Media Intelligence Platform unites the platform's recording capability with multiviewer functionality to give users access to live or recorded programmes, complemented by frame-accurate data. CONTACT www.volicon.comw

25 19/02/2016 19:43

Technology > in focus


Technology in focus Infrastructure equipment and product news for digital media distribution

In Brief

CableLabs hails multi-Gb DOCSIS development

Digital UK opens up Freeview Play specification

Cable technology standards body CableLabs has begun work on a new technology initiative to support symmetrical multi-Gigabit services. CableLabs used February’s winter conference in Orlando to unveil plans for a ‘Full Duplex’ DOCSIS technology, tapping techniques currently used by wireless networks to combine upstream and downstream bandwidth in place of a dedicated upstream channel. In a blog post, Belal Hamzeh, vice-president wireless, research and development and Dan Rice, senior vice-president, research and development at CableLabs, said that the technology could deliver up to 10Gbps of symmetrical bandwidth on 1GHz HFC network, with the potential for even higher performance by using spectrum above 1GHz. The pair outlined how the technology could double the capacity available for upstream traffic by simultaneously using the same spectrum, unlike current technologies such as frequency division duplexing – currently used by DOCSIS – and time-division duplexing, used by WiFi and G.Fast networks. “In frequency division duplexing, upstream and downstream – or uplink and downlink in the terms of the wireless world – traffic operates separately in dedicated parts of the spectrum. In current DOCSIS network deployments, the lower part of the spectrum is dedicated for upstream traffic and the upper part of the spectrum is dedicated for downstream traffic,” said the pair. “In time division duplexing, the

Digital UK has published the technical specification for connected TV service Freeview Play, opening it up to broadcasters, platforms and equipment manufacturers. The specification, which details the technologies required to design and implement Freeview Play TVs and boxes, was previously only available via formal registration. Digital UK, a non-profit organisation that supports the UK’s terrestrial TV service and led the technical development of Freeview Play, said that the move to open up the document follows “strong interest” in Freeview play from UK manufacturers and international markets since its launch in October 2015.

Streamer shipments to reach 60m The global market for media streaming devices and over-thetop (OTT) boxes is expected to approach 60 million shipments in 2019, according to Futuresource Consulting. The research firm said that the worldwide ‘digital media adaptor’ market, which offers a low cost alternative to native smart TV functionality, will grow strongly in the coming years. Last year, Fututresource said that Google’s Chromecast accounted for almost 30% share of the market by volume, with Amazon’s Fire TV making “noticeable gains” in this space.

26 p26-29 DTVE Tech Feb16v4st.indd 26

Hamzeh: the technology could double upstream traffic capacity.

upstream and downstream traffic share the same spectrum, but take turns in using the spectrum, similar to how WiFi, or DSL, operate. In Full Duplex communication, the upstream and downstream traffic use the same spectrum at the same time, doubling the efficiency of spectrum use. A DOCSIS 3.1 Full Duplex network provides the peak speeds and flexibility of time division duplex solutions, but one-ups both time division duplex and frequency division duplex with double the capacity.” Hamzeh and Rice said that, by using a combination of passive HFC networks and DOCSIS 3.1-based self-interference cancellation and intelligent scheduling, CableLabs had built a solution that proved the technology was viable. The pair said that a Full Duplex network would support backwards compatibility and co-existence with previous generations of DOCSIS deployments. They said that that CableLabs would engage with members and vendors to validate the technology over the next few months, potentially transitioning to an R&D project afterwards. Separately, CableLabs and Cisco have teamed up to unveil a new open-source software project to drive forward the Remote PHY

architecture for cable. Remote PHY is a modular cable headend architecture that converts the IP signal to RF closer to the edge of the network by distributing edgeQAM functionality rather than performing this at a central headend facility. It is seen as one of the emerging set of tools, associated with the advanced data-over-cable spec DOCSIS 3.1, that will enable cable operators to ensure that their networks are up to the job of delivering ultra high-speed services to compete with FTTH. The CableLabs/Cisco initiative, labeled OpenRPD, was originally developed by Cisco and contributed to the open source environment hosted at CableLabs. The RPD is a physical layer converter commonly located in an optical node of the cable network. This open source software will reside in the Remote PHY Device and will be available to cable operators and RPD vendors around the world, according to Cisco. The software is designed to help further interoperability efforts and promote virtualisation techniques to speed time to market with new services, according to the company, enabling legacy optical node vendors to build Remote PHY nodes “More and more of the telecommunications infrastructure is running on open source platforms. CableLabs has a history of contributing to and hosting open source projects. The OpenRPD project helps launch CableLabs increased focus on open source projects for the cable industry,” said Ralph Brown, CTO, CableLabs.


19/02/2016 19:14



FCC outlines plans to ‘unlock the box’

In Brief

US regulator the FCC has approved plans that will allow software, device, and other solutions to compete with the set-top boxes in a bid to “tear down anti-competitive barriers.” The Federal Communications Commission said the proposal offers a framework to “unlock the box”, giving more choices to the “99% of US pay TV subscribers” that currently lease set-top boxes from their cable and satellite operators. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) will give device manufacturers and app developers the information they need to develop new technologies – be that hardware or software based offerings. The FCC said that the move will address “the many ways consumers access their subscription video programming today” and a lack of competition that has meant “few choices and high prices for consumers”. The FCC’s proposal recom-

Big deals boost Kudelski

mends that pay TV providers should be required to deliver three core streams of information: what programming is available, such as channel listings and video-on-demand lineups; what a device is allowed to do with content, such as recording; and the programmes themselves. The FCC’s plans were met with opposition from the Future of Television Coalition – an organisation that was set up to oppose “unnecessary technology mandates” that it claims threaten market-based innovation in the TV space. The coalition, which counts companies like US pay TV operators Dish and Cablevision and set-top box maker Arris, described the FCC’s proposal as “flawed”, “costly” and “destructive”. “The rules under consideration will drive up consumer costs, hurt programmers (and most especially small and diversity programming), and blow a gaping hole in congressional protections for our TV privacy – all for an unneces-

Wheeler: The proposal is about providing consumer choice.

sary government giveaway to Big Tech. In short, this rule does not make sense,” said The Future of TV Coalition in a statement. However, the FCC claimed that lack of competition means that currently the average American household spends US$231 (e208) per year set-top box rental fees. It also claimed that since 1994 the cost of cable set-top boxes has risen 185% while the cost of computers, televisions, and mobile phones has dropped by 90%. The FCC outlined its plan last month, with FCC chairman Tom Wheeler commenting at the time that “the proposal is about one thing: consumer choice. Consumers should have options created by competition.”

DOCSIS 3.1 base to reach nine million Nine million broadband customers will be using DOCSIS 3.1 equipment by 2017, according to ABI Research. ABI Research said that the advanced cable broadband technology had achieved good traction in Europe, with operators in the US also showing interest. According to the research group, the nine million DOCSIS 3.1 customers in 2017 will represent just over 1% of total fixed broadband subscriptions worldwide. Demand for gigabit services will be spurred by growing demand for broadband content and services including higher-resolution video and higher quality of service. “Technology vendors like


p26-29 DTVE Tech Feb16v4st.indd 27

Sagemcom, Technicolor and Teleste Corporation already have commercial DOCSIS 3.1 solutions available in the market, which has seen strong response in the Western European region. The DOCSIS 3.1-ready products and solutions are able to achieve 1.2GHz bandwidth, and some, like those from Teleste, started shipping in 2014. Meanwhile, operators in the United States are showing interest, with cable players like Comcast, Cox and Midcontinent to launch their DOCSIS 3.1 networks in 2016 and 2017,” said Michael Inouye, principal analyst at ABI Research. “European operators like Altice, TDC and Telenet likewise made inroads into preparing their

networks for the launch of DOCSIS 3.1 in 2016. Ultimately, in instances in which corporations and homes already installed cable, it is more economical to upgrade cable services than make the switch to fibre, which gives DOCSIS 3.1 a definite advantage in the market space,” said Sam Rosen, managing director and vice-president at ABI Research. “Thinking ahead, enhanced deployments of ultra-broadband networks could pave the way for cable operators to migrate to a pure IPTV over DOCSIS network, abandoning legacy broadcast QAM technology. However, no major operator is publically investigating that approach.”

Extensions of agreements with big pay TV groups including Liberty Global, Altice and Dish Network, and strong growth in emerging pay TV markets, helped push TV technology group Kudelski’s revenues and profits up significantly last year. Kudelski reported revenues of CHF950.8 million (€863 million) for the year, up 7.2% , or 11.1% at constant currency. Operating income was up 32.7% to CHF81.2 million, while net income was up 47.7% to CHF49.3 million. The company said it expected revenues of around CHF1 billion for 2016 and operating income of between CHF75 million and CHF90 million.

Qvest to resell Ooyala OTT video specialist Ooyala has teamed up with broadcast and media infrastructure provider Qvest Media, allowing the latter to resell Ooyala’s products in the EMEA region. Customers can now purchase Ooyala’s entire range of products from Qvest Media, including the new Ooyala IQ data and analysis platform.

Arris earnings boost Arris reported better than expected fourth quarter earnings thanks to stronger sales of its CCAP-capable E6000 converged edge router and the full-year impact of R&D tax credits. Announcing its Q4 and full year 2015 results, Arris said that net income attributable to Arris group was US$30.0 million or US$0.20 per-diluted share, while revenues came in at US$1.10 billion. “We closed the Pace acquisition on January 4 and have made substantial progress on our integration activities,” said Arris CEO, Bob Stanzione.

27 19/02/2016 19:15



In Brief

GS Group unveils Ultra HD set-top box

Intertrust adopts NexGuard

Russia’s GS Group has unveiled what it claims is the country’s first TV set-top box to support 4K, ultra high-definition TV. The General Satellite-branded GS A230 box comes with two integrated DVB-S/DVB-S2 tuners, a WiFi modem, an internal 1TB hard disk and supports 4K video playback on Ultra HD TV sets. It also has the new standard HDMI 2.0 multimedia interface needed to watch Ultra HD TV using a wired connection to a UHD TV-set, and comes with two USB connectors for media playback from external sources. “The launch of such a complex

DRM consortium Intertrust Technologies has added session-based video watermarking from technology provider Civolution’s NexGuard unit to its ExpressPlay DRM service. NexGuard watermarking technology allows copyright holders to identify the source of unauthorised distribution, including after a movie leaves the encrypted digital domain of a DRM system, according to Civolution.

Kyivstar tapping Vidmind Ukrainian mobile and fixed-line service provider Kyivstar is using Vidmind to supply the platform for its recently-launched OTT TV service. Vidmind and Modern Times Group-owned Viasat Ukraine together won the tender to supply the service, which went live in November, to Kyivstar. The Ukrainian operator has now rolled out its OTT offering across Ukraine, following initial availability in Krivoy Rog and Zhytomyr.

WISI launches new headend German cable technology provider WISI has launched a new compact headend product. The OH 16 SC is described by the company as a transmodulator capable of receiving 16 DVB-S/ S2 transponders and converting them into 16 QAM TV channels. The compact headend comes in a 1 RU 19” box with dimensions of 440mm x 44mm x 260mm and can be installed in a rack or cabinet or directly on the wall. The OH 16 SC is best suited for small CATV networks, medium-sized residences, high-rise buildings, recreational facilities, hospitals and hotels.

28 p26-29 DTVE Tech Feb16v4st.indd 28

and advanced product as the GS A230 UHD set-top box, completely developed and produced in Russia, demonstrates how competitive Russian producers are in the global market,” said Andrew Bezrukov, director for strategic marketing, GS Group. The GS A230 set-top box will be available to buy at the end of the first quarter of 2016 through

retailers that sell General Satellite consumer electronics, and was first displayed to the public at the CSTB Telecom and Media international exhibition and forum in Moscow last week. Russia’s leading satellite TV provider Tricolor TV – which GS group typically supplies equipment for – already offers Ultra HD channels to its subscribers.

SCTE US and UK to ‘address brand confusion’ The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE US) and the Society for Broadband Professionals (SCTE UK) have signed a memorandum of understanding, designed to “address brand confusion”. The pact will address the two SCTE brands and lay the foundations for developing a longer-term relationship between the two technical education organisations and their affiliated brands, accord-

Thornton: eliminating confusion is the first step towards collaboration. ing to the two societies. Together, the organisations said they plan to increase the quality of training outcomes for the benefit of the cable broadband

community worldwide. “Our two societies share a common goal of improving engineering standards and skills throughout our industry. Eliminating confusion between our brands is the first step towards global collaboration that can help the industry to maintain – and even increase – its competitive edge,” said Michael Thornton, president, Society for Broadband Professionals.

Technicolor leaves HEVC Advance patent pool Technicolor has left the HEVC Advance patent pool, deciding instead to license its HEVC IP portfolio directly to device manufacturers. The company, which was a founding member and important contributor to the independent licensing administrator, said that it believes licensing direct to partners will “accelerate adoption of the standard” and that it now plans to license its patents to device makers, rather than content

streaming companies. “HEVC is today the best video compression technology to meet industry needs, such as the shift towards next generation video formats like UHD and HDR. As a leading developer and proponent of HEVC technology, Technicolor strongly believes that the rapid and widespread adoption of a unified technology is the best outcome for the industry and for Technicolor,” it said in a statement.

HEVC Advance said that its patent list has been updated to remove the 12 Technicolor patents previously included. This list now includes 371 patents and will “continue to expand rapidly,” according to the body. “Since their acquisition of Cisco’s set-top box business and their recent changes in management, it appears that bilateral licensing would be a better fit for Technicolor’s current business dynamics,” said HEVC Advance.


19/02/2016 19:15



Teleste and Samsung target hospitality market

In Brief

Finland-based cable and telco equipment provider Teleste has struck a deal with Samsung to target the hospitality market. The joint Telest-Samsung offering will use Teleste’s DOCSIS Access Hub, the DAH100, and Samsung’s DOCSIS HE694 HTV televisions to bring high-speed, broadband-level internet access to guest rooms over existing coaxial cabling, according to Teleste. The solution provides highspeed internet to each guest room and allows guests to use applications and various interactive services on their in-room smart TVs. In addition, the solution enables guests to connect their own

Orange invests in VR firm

personal smartphones and tablets to the internet through the smart television’s wireless access point. Teleste’s DAH100 extends the IP network to more than 250 guest rooms simultaneously over existing in-house coaxial cabling. Within each room, an internet access point is provided via the embedded cable modem in the Samsung DOCSIS HE694 HTV television set. By consolidating IP-based services into the existing coaxial network rather than implementing new cabling, Teleste claims that hotel operators can reduce connectivity expenses by up to 80%. “Traditionally, hospitality indus-

RTÉ taps Freesat for Saorview Irish public broadcaster RTÉ has partnered with UK-based Freesat to develop a new connected TV service for Ireland’s free digital television platform Saorview. Saorview Connect will let viewers access a range of on-demand content as well as TV channels from a new set-top box that will have “a range of additional features”. These include content recommendations, programme title search, enhanced recording capabilities, and a new Saorview remote control. Combined with a forthcoming Saorview mobile application, Saorview Connect viewers will be able to record programmes remotely. “Saorview has come a long way since digital switchover just a few years ago: it is now the largest television platform in Ireland,” said RTÉ director general, Noel Curran.“Saorview Connect will offer viewers a richer experience and, by connecting a Saorview Connect box to broadband, viewers will be able to access a


p26-29 DTVE Tech Feb16v4st.indd 29

wider range of content. We are pleased to be partnering with Freesat, who have successfully run their connected service in the UK for the last three years. We hope to achieve the same success with Saorview Connect.” Saorview Connect will be based on Metaphor, Freesat’s cloud-based connected TV guide that was launched in 2015 and is based on Freesat’s connected Freetime platform. Freesat managing director Alistair Thom said: “Through Metaphor, we have been able to take our experience of operating a successful integrated television service to help other platforms integrate their own broadband services. We are delighted that Irish viewers will be able to enjoy our technology through Saorview Connect.”

try service providers have built separate networks for delivering cable TV and IP-based services, such as guest Internet access, OTT and video-on-demand. This has, in many cases, made it considerably slower and more costly for them to accommodate full IP service delivery,” said Jonathan Rigby, director of hospitality and AV solutions for Teleste Corporation. “In cooperation with Samsung Electronics, we are delighted to offer the Hospitality industry a solution that makes it quick and cost-efficient to invest in premium-quality IP service delivery by utilising existing coaxial infrastructures.”

Ericsson predicts mobile video growth Accumulated mobile data traffic for video will climb dramatically from 50 ExaBytes for the period 2010-15 to an estimated 1,000 ExaBytes between 2016 and 2021, according to Ericsson. In the Mobile World Congress edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report, the company said that in 2015 alone, net-added mobile data traffic was 20 ExaBytes, half of which consisted of video traffic. “The additional video traffic in 2015 is comparable to approximately three full length movies per smartphone subscription,” said Ericsson. According to the report, key drivers of mobile video traffic include uptake of video on-demand services like HBO and Netflix, and strong growth of video streaming driven by content providers like YouTube, which in many mobile networks today accounts for 50–70% of video traffic.

Orange’s investment arm Orange Digital Ventures has take a stake in a video-hosting specialist for virtual reality services. Orange Digital Ventures is investing in Wevr, a supplier of a video hosting platform for VR programming, designed to enable content creators to distribute and make money from their VR experiences. Content hosted by Wevr will be produced by Hollywood and independent film studio as well as Wevr itself, which has also developed a VR engine designed to facilitate the creation of immersive videos. The company has already raised over €25 million from investors including HTC, Samsung, Jerry Jang’s AME Cloud Ventures and Digital Garage.

Service provider boost for Cisco Cisco’s service provider video business saw revenues rise by 37% in the company’s fiscal second quarter, driven by sales in China. The figures excluded the consumer premises business unit that Cisco sold to Technicolor, which was completed in November. Speaking to analysts after the company reported its results, CEO Charles Robbins said that the service provider video team had “done a great job of evolving that portfolio” and building new solutions. “Our strategy after divesting the video CPE business was to really focus on a cloud-based delivery model, and that is occurring,” he said. Overall Cisco’s service provider arm, which grew by 5%, outperformed its enterprise sales, which fell by 2%, its commercial sales arm, which grew by 4%, and its public sector activity, which was flat.

29 19/02/2016 19:15

People > Places


On the move Bruce Tuchman is leaving US cable group AMC after five years running its international channels operation. Tuchman is president of AMC Global and Sundance Channel Global, and one of the best-known execs in the international channels business, having built AMC’s global channels operation and done the same for US studio MGM prior to that. Ed Carroll, AMC Networks’ COO, is expected to assume his duties, with a like-forlike replacement not anticipated. The departing executive told AMC colleagues about his exit from the US-listed business in a memo. He said he will take a “brief but welcome pause in criss-crossing the world so relentlessly” postAMC. “This will allow me to focus on moving towards some exciting, yet different endeavours and priorities,” he added. Kudelski Group-owned content security company Conax has named Daniel Johansson as executive vice-president and head for global sales. He previously held a number of executive management roles with companies including Cisco, Tandberg and Avaya. RR Media has upped board member Ayal Shiran to the position of chairman, replacing Shlomo Shamir. Shiran first joined RR Media’s board of directors in 2014, and is a general partner of technology growth fund Viola Private Equity. Shamir, who has overseen RR Media since 2011 will remain a member of the board.

30 p30 People DTVE Feb16v4st.indd 38

TV industry veteran Sir Peter Bazalgette will become nonexecutive chairman of ITV from early May, succeeding Archie Norman who is stepping down after six years. Bazalgette has been a non-executive director since June 2013. James Murdoch is to return to Sky as chairman in a move that many believe could presage a renewed attempt by 21st Century Fox to consolidate the pay TV giant. Current chairman Nicholas Ferguson will step down at the end of April after 12 years on the board. Martin Gilbert has been appointed as deputy chairman, with Andrew Sukawaty taking over his former role as Sky’s senior independent director. Sweden’s Bonnier Broadcasting, parent company of TV4 Group and C More, has named Philip Lindqvist as chief strategy officer. He previously led business control and strategy within Bonnier, having joined the company from a role in management consultancy with Boston Consulting Group. Bonnier is also recruiting a new chief digital officer to work on TV4 and C More’s digital services, with a focus on creating a coherent user experience. Philippe Dauman has been named executive chairman, chairman, president and CEO of US media giant Viacom. He replaces 92-year-old Sumner Redstone as chairman, with the latter becoming emeritus chairman. Redstone also resigned his chairman post at CBS

Corp, with CEO Les Moonves nominated to replace him. French OTT service Molotov has appointed Jean-Pierre Paoli to help lead its international expansion efforts. Paoli was formerly director of international development at TF1 and has also served as director of international development for Canal+ and director general of Eurosport international. Subscription video-on-demand movie service Mubi has named former Fox International Channels and Liberty Global executive Roberto Soto as chief operating officer. Soto was previously SVP at Fox International Channels leading commercial strategy for its pay TV channels in Latin America and then in Europe and Africa. Rani Raad has been promoted to the new role of president, CNN International commercial, from EVP and chief commercial officer. Turner reorganised commercial activity at CNN International in 2013 under Raad’s leadership. As well as CNN, Raad runs Turner’s kids and entertainment channels in Turkey and the Middle East. Cable and telecom investor Altice has named Nora Melhli as head of original creation and nonlinear content, including Zive, the subscription video-on-demand service that is currently available via French operator SFR. Mehli is the former head of drama at production company Shine France and CEO of Endemol Fiction.

Altice-owned French service provider SFR has named Michel Paulin as its new CEO. Paulin was previously chief executive at Morocco’s second largest telecom operator, Méditel. He also previously served as CEO at French operator Neuf Cegetel, which was later absorbed into SFR. Slovenia-based teleport operator STN has named Anver Anderson as its new general manager. Anderson, who previously ran his own consultancy business, will be responsible for implementing ongoing and new initiatives including global sales, marketing outreach and team development. Satellite operator Intelsat has named Jacques Kerrest as executive vice-president and chief financial officer, reporting to CEO Stephen Spengler. Kerrest joins Intelsat from DPC Data, where he was president. His CV also includes a stint as CFO at UK cable operator Virgin Media. Ilse Howling is stepping down as Digital UK’s managing director of connected TV, with chief operating officer Alex Pumfrey also to leave the UK digitalterrestrial TV organisation at the end of February. Digital UK has also appointed connected TV delivery director James Jackson as technology director, and broadcast director Kate Macefield as programme director for 700MHz clearance. Please email contributions to: [email protected]


19/02/2016 19:23

INDUSTRY SURVEY 2016 OT T TV

January/February 2016

OTT

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What are the prospects for the pay TV business? How important is the TV experience as a differentiating factor? How do new OTT entrants impact on the pay TV industry? How big a part does Ultra HD play in operators’ and broadcasters’ plans? How important is TV everywhere delivery to operators and other content providers? What is the potential of big data?

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p31 DTVE Industry Survey Feb16.indd 1

19/02/2016 16:03

Final analysis > Kate Bulkley


“Given that Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries says that Europe is becoming a quad-play market where bundling TV, broadband, telephone and mobile is fundamental for growth, the Dutch merger is likely to be a precursor of similar deals to come.”

Millennial blues OK

I’m going to admit something personal to you all – I’m not a millennial. And, guess what? Neither are most of the bigwigs in the cable and satellite industry. Maybe this is the reason why it has taken until early 2016 for a company as large as Liberty Global to get a handle on what these young ’uns are getting up to on their mobile devices. We’ve known that TV – or maybe we should always just call it ‘video’ from now on – viewing has been changing for the last few years, and that’s about how long John Malone’s company has been doing a takeover-come-merger dance with Vodafone. The largest cable operator outside the US and the world’s biggest mobile operator have been looking at ways to join together for their mutual benefit at the speed of two giant oil tankers slowly altering course. Meanwhile, those millennials have been sprinting all over the place. I loved a recent Enders Analysis report that said consumers in their 20s change platform 27 times per hour, implying that millennials are shifting from YouTube to Facebook to Instagram to Spotify to Snapchat to WhatsApp at almost one platform every two minutes. Talk about attention deficit disorder. How do you make them stay, and if you are Twitter, Facebook or any of the digital giants, how do you make them pay? Mobile is a big part of the answer. Mobile advertising now represents a whopping 80% of all Facebook advertising and was the principal driver behind the stronger profit margins that were reported by the social media giant for the last quarter of 2015. Facebook gets much better pricing for ads on smartphones because these appear inside users’ newsfeeds, where Facebook can charge more.

32 p32 Final Analysis DTVE Feb16v4st.indd 32

So hallelujah that last month Liberty Global and Vodafone finally agreed to embrace, albeit in a limited way, by agreeing to merge their Dutch assets into a €19 billion mobile-and-cable operator, leveraging each other’s assets to create a true quad-play giant. Given that Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries says that Europe is becoming a quad-play market where bundling TV, broadband, telephone and mobile is fundamental for growth, the Dutch merger is likely to be a precursor of similar deals to come. Who knows, given the pace at which the cable industry works, where the video-on-mobile market will be by the time the pair finally join forces in fully functioning completeness, but you can bet it won’t be less significant. Global mobile data traffic rose 65% in Q4 of 2015 compared to the same period the year before, according to Ericsson, and a big portion of that is mobile video. Liberty Global wants to tackle cord-cutting. The company lost 400,000 video subscribers in 2015 across its operations. It’s not alone in this, nor in its strategy to address the problem. Elsewhere, Vodafone has invested in cable. In the UK fixed-line giant BT spent £12 billion (e15 billion) on the purchase of mobile operator EE last month. Other consolidation moves are also in the works, although they are provoking concern among European regulators that fewer communications companies will mean higher prices for consumers. However, it’s not just cable and telecom operators that are trying to get to grips with the millennials and lure them back to their platforms. Pay TV operator Sky will launch a virtual mobile network in the UK some time this year. I can’t imagine that its sister operations in Germany and Italy won’t follow suit.

And don’t forget the likes of Netflix and what it might do. A recent report by analyst group IHS says the integration of this OTT service on pay TV platforms is proving to have a “net positive” effect on subscriber numbers. But if the kids watch Netflix more and more on their mobile devices, how’s that going to work in the future? Basically, the millennials are different to anything the media business has ever seen, and understanding them is taking quite a long time. Perhaps Liberty Global’s Dutch merger with Vodafone could be a tipping point for a wave of consolidation that will ultimately help both pay TV platforms and mobile platforms capture the kids, but then again perhaps it all comes back to that old phrase “content is king”. Last October, Liberty Global took a US$10 million (e9 million) stake in the UK’s Bigballs Media, the parent company of Copa90, a YouTube fan-focused football channel, while in the US, AT&T recently penned a deal with US multichannel online video network Fullscreen. These deals are about finding content that is mobile-friendly and works across platforms. Maybe Liberty Global’s affection for Bigballs will serve as a template. Among Bigballs’ original content is a comedy drama made in conjunction with Working Title TV called You, Me and the Apocalypse. It aired on Sky and NBC and it’s about what you would do if you had only 34 days to live. Isn’t this the kind of show that is a win-win for everyone including the millennials? It might even help avoid the cord-cutting apocalypse. l Kate Bulkley is a broadcaster and writer specialising in media and telecommunications. [email protected]


01/03/2016 18:13

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