TV experiencE

The multiSCREEN

TV experiencE

Opportunities & challenges for TV service providers Today, viewers are starting to discover that TV can actually be made to follow them, shifting time, place and device to fit their own desires.

Executive summary The nature of TV viewing - and the viewing audience - around the world is changing fast. Historically, consumers were passive. Glued to the TV set in the corner of their living rooms at a specific time to engage with linear program content. Today, viewers are starting to discover that TV can actually be made to follow them, shifting time, place and device to fit their own desires and not those of the broadcaster. Advances in screen and graphics technologies, combined with the increasing ubiquity of broadband access, has meant that many devices now exist in consumers’ homes, offices, cars, pockets and purses capable of displaying TV pictures. Increasingly, those consumers will also expect to be able to purchase and view TV content in a consistent and seamless manner as they move between these different diverse devices. At the other end of the delivery chain, these changes also create important issues for content producers and owners. With programming no longer being accessed by just one device on a comparatively secure delivery path, how can they rely on their broadcasting partners to ensure that it only reaches those who have paid for it? Delivering that secure, consistent and seamless experience to the end viewer presents a number of technical and commercial challenges both to traditional TV service providers as well as to new entrants to the market from the telecommunications sector. These challenges must be answered if viewers are not to migrate away to OTT providers and other rivals for both the consumer’s attention and the advertiser’s marketing budget. Irrespective of their heritage, TV service providers can deliver a TV experience that spans multiple screens far more efficiently and effectively than one that consumers could create for themselves using multiple video sources. By harnessing their unique strengths and industry insight while exploiting new technology platforms, they can quickly introduce unified Multiscreen TV services to provide better content than rivals; deliver integrated yet secure access to paid-for content across all screen environments; enable the seamless transfer of video sessions between different devices and, when

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appropriate, different users through shared preferences and recommendations; and, crucially, permit centralized account management and common user sign-on facilities. In this last context, it’s important to recognize that true convergence happens inside the customer’s head. Irrespective of what happens in the delivery and access network, the most vital link in the chain is between the customer’s eyes, ears and fingers and the interfaces used to navigate and control the viewing experience. Who controls the interface – to a very large extent – controls the consumer. Broadcasters therefore have a unique opportunity to exploit existing strong brand identities and loyalties in order to dominate a potentially fragmenting audience marketplace. A unified Multiscreen TV service, however, requires an integrated Multiscreen TV solution. This implies that there must also be a common service management and delivery infrastructure for television capable of handling multiple and very different access, display and control environments. At the same time, it must be recognized that each TV service provider will have their own legacy architectures to work alongside or integrate, their own business workflows and partnerships with third-party content owners and advertisers to support, and their own regulatory regimes to comply with. The solution here is to deploy appropriate technologies at appropriate places as budgets and strategies allow, but under a unifying framework based on open standards. Only then can financial and reputational risk be managed effectively and the necessary corporate agility maintained in what is still an uncertain world. This brochure considers the many issues that must be taken into account when creating an optimum strategy for a unified Multiscreen TV service. It looks at how a common control-plane can be used to evolve towards creating a universal management environment, while considering the role of advanced content management, DRM, advertising, user interfaces, and device and service management. The brochure also addresses the Multiscreen TV business model and demonstrates the extent to which consumers want multi-platform experiences.

CONTENTS SECTION 1

› Turning a threat into an opportunity › Changes in THE technologY and THE markets › Defining Multiscreen TV services SECTION 2

› Implementing a unified Multiscreen TV SOLUTION › The benefits of a common management system › DRM and security › Managing subscribers, identities and offers › The User Interface › Preparing video for multiple delivery networks › Effective transformation of video and metadata › Enabling unified cross-platform advertising › Why Multiscreen TV is good for advertisers › Why Multiscreen TV is good for consumers SECTION 3

› Preparing for Multiscreen TV – a checklist

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Section 1

Turning a threat into an opportunity Digital TV has increased channel choice while Digital Video Recorders (DVR) and Video On-demand (VOD) have made it possible to ‘time-shift’ programming so that consumers can watch specific TV programs on demand. TV service providers have started delivering on the promise of ‘what you want, when you want it’ but, for a growing segment of the population, television still needs to become more personal and that includes giving consumers the freedom to watch their favorite content where they want it, as well.

Changes IN the technology and the markets The ‘Digital Natives’ – the generation that has grown up with broadband Internet and mobile phones – have discovered a wealth of video content that is available on-demand from websites but not on their televisions. They are consuming an increasing amount of video on their mobile phones and other portable media devices. This generation is using the best available screen to watch the programs and movies they enjoy and they are pragmatic about where the content comes from, showing no obvious loyalty to any single video content aggregator. These Digital Natives are leading the way towards a Multiscreen television viewing experience and other consumers, across all demographic groups, are already following. Developments fuelling this trend include: › The increasing reach and penetration of high-speed broadband, boosting download speeds and streaming quality › The migration of computers from the study into the living room, driven by the popularity of laptops and Wi-Fi home networks


› The proliferation of outdoor Wi-Fi hotspots and the uptake of mobile broadband services › Growing volumes of premium content, including long-form content from major broadcasters, being made legally available online Despite a slow initial uptake of mobile video services, people are starting to watch an increasing amount of content on handheld devices. Besides the proliferation of broadcast mobile TV networks, the increasing reach of 3G and 4G cellular networks makes it possible to deliver on-demand video alongside ‘live’ services. The success of smart phones means that there are many more video-capable handsets for consumers to choose from. Thanks to this combination of consumer demand and enabling technologies, people are watching more content in more places. Notable statistics include: › 17 percent growth in total online video streams served in the US [1] › 35 percent increase in online viewing time [2] › 7 percent of broadband users watch online video content every day and users average 44 minutes of video streaming per week [3] › Real-time entertainment traffic accounts for 27 percent of total global Internet traffic, up from 13 percent a year ago [4] › F LO TV viewers (using the US mobile TV service) spend an average of 20 minutes a day watching television on their phones [5] › 7 percent of the content requested from BBC iPlayer is watched on an Apple iPhone or Apple iTouch personal media device. 6 percent of requests are viewed on PS3 games consoles [6] › In the UK, just over half of 18-24 year olds watch TV on-line at least once a week, while six times as many people of all ages as last year watch TV on-line [7] For TV service providers who have built their businesses delivering content to the living room TV, these trends represent a potential threat. They need their customers to watch their linear channels, pay-per-view events, VOD movies, catch-up TV and start-over TV, otherwise they will lose revenues from both a fall in viewers’ subscriptions and in the migration of advertisers to others media. Additionally, if they cannot hold the

attention of viewers, wherever they are and whatever screen they are using, major content and brand owners could exploit the Internet to bypass them entirely, marketing movies and subscription content direct to consumers from their websites. Online video aggregators could hence grow into major competitors. The concern for TV service providers is that each time their customers view content from other sources on other screens, there is a risk these customers will not return, ultimately eroding subscriber numbers and the associated revenues. The TV industry must figure out how to give consumers the more personalized TV experience they want. This means making their favorite content available on the television, online and on mobile video services so it can be consumed virtually anywhere, on a wide variety of popular consumer electronics devices including the PC, laptop, games consoles, portable media players and mobile phones.

Defining Multiscreen TV services Despite these threats, TV service providers are starting from a position of considerable strategic strength and should be confident about their prospects for turning these emerging consumer desires into business opportunities. After all, Multiscreen TV is still, ultimately, television and content is still king. For the time being at least, TV service providers have access to the best, premium content through established relationships with the major content producers and owners, as well as an ability to nurture and expose new talent where they can continue to leverage these relationships across different screen environments. As a further advantage to be exploited, television still remains the screen of choice for the vast majority of consumers today. As a result, TV service providers can use their presence in the home to cross-promote Multiscreen TV services while they develop the rest of their three-screen offering.

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In addition, standalone web and mobile services have proved difficult to monetize for new entrants in the video business, but TV service providers already have established revenue streams and are well placed to position and bundle Multiscreen TV as part of a wider subscription service. TV service providers are therefore clearly capable of dominating this emerging marketplace, placing themselves once again at the center of the increasingly complex, multimedia-rich lives that their customers are adopting. They can harness their unique strengths to define in practical terms what Multiscreen TV means and, in particular, by setting the highest possible entry standards in quality of content and user experience, they can also block out new competitors before they get a foothold in the market. Their overall strategy should be to create a much more holistic, unified service experience based on the consumer insight, commercial partnerships and technology integration strengths that only a TV service provider can deliver. The defining characteristics of such Multiscreen TV service should include: › Easy access to content. Consumers must be free to watch television wherever they want on the best or most convenient screen available to them, whether at home, in the office or when traveling. Service providers must deliver on the vision of ‘Anytime, Anywhere, Any Device’, making all technical complexity – including rights management – transparent to customers. › An extension of the home TV service. Multiscreen TV should be about far more than just making popular television and movies available in different places. It must give people access to the content that is most important to them – the content they own. Consumers should be able to enjoy their home subscription services - including DVR, PVR, nPVR and catch-up when they are not at home and their home TV service provider is best placed to deliver this capability. › A unified television environment. Users should have access to a common service but from different screens. Their activities on one screen should be known, understood and interpreted to take account of behavior on others. For example, automatic


recommendations should take into account behavior on every platform, while preferences and bookmarks should be readily shareable. Advertising would be even more relevant - and therefore more valuable to advertisers - if targeting is based upon what people watch across all three screens. Users should be able to find content on the PC but watch it on television, and should be able to pause a video session on their TV or laptop and resume it on their mobile or vice versa. The user interface and program guides must all also act as familiar faces, behaving in consistent ways across all parts of the TV service. › A streamlined customer experience. Consumers should be able to access their favorite content on their preferred screens using only a single service provider. This means that they only have to pay once for content they can then watch in multiple locations and can enjoy the convenience of a single bill for all their video usage. It should also be possible to manage account preferences centrally, including parental control and credit levels, and have them applied everywhere without tedious repetition. All family members would benefit from a single point of authentication and a common user ID that gives them near-instant access to video services across all screens without having to go through onerous log-in procedures. There is only one way to make Multiscreen TV affordable and to provide the integrated, seamless entertainment experience that consumers will come to expect. That involves creating a unified solution for the management and delivery of video services across all screens, removing the barriers that separate technological silos and harnessing common resources, processes, features and functions in ways appropriate for each individual TV service provider.

Section 2

Implementing a unified Multiscreen TV solution The business model for Multiscreen TV can be built upon the following direct and indirect revenue opportunities: › Subscription to the extended TV service on additional screens. There is evidence that consumers will pay for high quality content they can access anywhere [8] › Increased pay-per-view revenues, driven by the fact that people will have more opportunities to interact with the service and make ad hoc purchases on the spur of the moment › Advertising, especially targeted advertising, can be grown. Given that consumers generally have a finite budget for multimedia services, advertising will play an important role in funding content on additional screens › Applications and widgets, including application stores supporting those from third party developers. The popularity of such applications on smart phones will generate demand for similar products in the TV environment – along with a need to support consistency and interworking across the multiple platforms

metadata management, DRM, device management, offer management and content asset management. Duplicating these functions for each video service and platform is inefficient and it prevents the integration needed to provide seamless Multiscreen entertainment. Service providers must therefore instead look towards growing a single system that can be responsible eventually for delivering content to all screens – one that is both platform agnostic and network agnostic. It needs to be flexible, extensible and centrally accessible. While unifying the way services that are managed physically, it must also be sensitive to the organizational realities within each individual TV service provider. Traditionally, one group might be responsible for managing VOD on television and another responsible for managing ondemand services to the web and mobile. Any solution must recognize these legacy frameworks and, for the time being at least, be able to provide a supporting and coordinating role between them, sharing assets, functions and management tools across the different departments while minimizing total operational and capital costs.

› Reaching customers across all platforms with consistent branding – something that strengthens all parts of the TV service › P romotions and cross-promotions, which will boost the uptake of additional services and guide users towards direct revenue generating services. A simple example is offering a free ring tone for a mobile if someone buys VOD on television › Increased customer loyalty. Subscribers will spend longer watching content delivered from the TV service provider, making them less likely to churn › Customer acquisition. A unified Multiscreen TV service will provide a richer entertainment experience and will be easier to use, hastening the arrival of a mass market for Multiscreen TV Today, the majority of TV service providers generally use different platforms to service TV, web and mobile users, each providing distinct functional needs and each set in their own technology and management silos. These functions include content workflow automation,

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The benefits of a common management system Unified Multiscreen TV is best achieved through an open-systems approach that links the various delivery systems together using a shared intelligent controlplane. Most TV service providers already have a VOD control-plane that supports on-demand video to the set-top box and the most efficient approach is to extend this so that it also provides control for the new service environment. Typical features of an on-demand control-plane include asset ingest, play list support, conditional access support, catalog generation, content propagation, VOD service management, session management, resource management and billing. The on-demand control-plane needs to work closely with the Content Management System (CMS), which provides a range of content ingest, processing and distribution functions. In the typical television environment of today, the on-demand content is delivered to the VOD server and, once requested by a set-top box, the video is fed into the managed television network. In the case of cable TV, this means MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 AVC compressed video is delivered over an HFC network using MPEG-2 transport streams. To deliver content to PCs, laptops and mobile devices, TV service providers need to introduce IP Streaming Media Servers that can stream IP-based video over managed or unmanaged IP networks. It is essential that TV service providers adopt an open-systems approach to the existing VOD control-plane. If they already have this, each component is interchangeable by carefully choosing its interfaces. This means you can keep everything in the system constant except for the component that is swapped. This modularity has already been successfully incorporated into television-only VOD systems and has allowed platform operators to replace outdated video servers with newer systems as technology evolves. This has resulted in higher VOD performance and capacity at lower costs without changing the service layer. This same modularity and flexibility allows a TV service provider to now change the type of media server


managed by the on-demand control-plane, or add new ones. For example, they can swap a ‘traditional’ video server that only supports delivery of MPEG-2 transport streams to the set-top box for one that supports multiple formats such as HTTP or RTMP for IP delivery to PCs and mobiles. The common control-plane should be able to re-use asset management and session management functions for all platforms and manage content provisioning, transcoding and delivery across all screens and across all on-demand titles. Within a single system it needs to provide the following common touch points: › A single point of authentication. Each user and device must be authenticated before an asset can be delivered. This is needed to authenticate the subscriber and also to ensure that the device itself is registered and does not present a copy-protection threat › Shared purchasing and billing information, including purchase history. Each purchase must be authorized against the subscriber’s account and billed accordingly › Shared subscriber preferences, account profiles and settings. Information that needs to be available across all screens includes bookmarks and consumer opt-in or opt-out preferences for advertising › Shared recommendations and consumer ratings of previously viewed content › Coordinated service and promotions management. Services and promotions must be tailored for delivery across the different platforms In addition, the common control-plane must be extended to also support device-awareness. This starts with catalog generation, since only assets that can be actually consumed by a device should ever be offered to it. The alternative is to have a very busy help desk as customers complain about either being unable to receive the content advertised or, worse, billed for content that they could not view. The next step is to ensure that when an asset is requested by a device, the correct one is played, from the appropriate media server over the correct network. The Multiscreen TV management system must also understand the display capabilities of each device in terms of the user interface. Then service providers can make the best use of the resources available to create the best possible experience on each screen, including consistent service branding and general ‘look-and-feel’.

Once the same common control-plane is managing content across all platforms, service providers can support seamless session-shifting, enabling viewers to move from one device to another while maintaining continuity of the viewing experience. To achieve this, the delivery system must understand the state and context of what is being viewed on all devices on the subscriber account. Service providers will be able to set business rules about concurrent access, perhaps limiting how many screens can access the same content, depending on subscription packages purchased. The common control-plane will be able to process ‘transfer’ requests from the current device to the second device by pausing the video session and enabling resumption at precisely the same point. The system will have the intelligence to know when parallel sessions are required, because, for example, one family member wants to continue viewing on a mobile while others are still watching on television.

DRM and security Content copyright and protection issues are at the top of the agenda for both content owners and distributors these days, while new legislation is appearing around the world to make service providers responsible for enforcing online copyright by blocking persistent offenders from using broadband services. Resolving these issues in the these early days of Multiscreen TV requires serious attention as at present there is no one DRM protection system currently applicable to all potential platforms, each sector having essentially gone its own way using a mix of vendor proprietary and open industry approaches. For home networking and cable and satellite service providers there is shift towards using DLNA and DTCP-IP to support pay-TV DMA, although some TV manufacturers are also integrating these technologies into their products. A number of mixed hardware/ software solutions are already in use in the IPTV applications, while in the mobile sector CA/DRM strategies are currently largely limited to encryption during transmission. In the longer term however, the Marlin initiative shows great promise and is currently supported by over 30 vendors, using secure Web Services standards to simplify the increasing interconnectedness of devices and content sources and the sharing of content between these.

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Managing subscribers, identities and offers Digital identity management is an increasingly important concern with huge personal, social and commercial implications for the future. Historically, neither broadcasters nor the telecommunications industry needed to address these issues as services were tied to a physical piece of equipment located in a specific place. The promiscuity of the new service environment – driven in the telecoms sector by mobile communications – has led to a reappraisal of how best to implement these systems for subscriber management and then exploit them to use as a business tool for proactive marketing. IMS, in particular, demonstrates its mobile heritage by increasing the richness of information that can be held about subscribers, while federated identity strategies that allow secure single sign-on to multiple services and information sources are also well advanced. This federated approach is of particular relevance to the Multiscreen TV environment where there will be a continued need for some time for the different legacy delivery silos to interoperate together.

The user interface Before the viewer can even consume their requested content they have to interact with the service provider’s front end to be able to navigate their way through what will be an ever more complex and diverse range of offerings. Each display device has its own particular set of graphical user interface (GUI) and ergonomic factors to consider, in addition to the brand values and service offers that each individual TV service provider will also wish to communicate through its portals and menus. It’s important here that the look and feel of the GUI is separated from the underlying business logic that actually manages the services involved. Just as with the opening up of the platform to third party application developers, so too does this area require the availability of powerful SDKs and open APIs to give designers the maximum freedom in their activities without requiring expensive reengineering elsewhere.


Preparing video for multiple delivery networks Having established common management of different platforms through an extended VOD common controlplane, TV service providers must prepare assets for each network and device. The on-demand video assets must be created and provisioned in multiple formats and then the appropriate format must be delivered according to the device type. There are a number of steps that must be considered: › The asset is received, typically in MPEG-2 format as a VOD package › That asset is then transcoded into other formats and resolutions for the additional devices being supported. This will typically be MPEG-4 AVC at various resolutions and in various container formats › The asset is distributed to the various media servers, over satellite or terrestrial networks, and placed into the on-demand catalog of available assets › Catalogs are generated for each device type and delivered to the navigation client for each device in the appropriate format The increasing popularity of live content on web and mobile means offline transcoding, where stored video is transformed from one codec to another then stored in the new format. Given the low costs of memory, the need for real-time transcoding where video is transformed at the same speed that it is received and subsequently played out should be minimal. Service providers should, however, avoid using ratechanging algorithms for real-time transcoding and instead completely decode the digital video (including audio) into baseband, transform the video and audio (e.g. frame size, frame rate, graphic overlays, filters, etc.) and then re-encode the content using the target codecs. This approach is more bandwidth efficient, more flexible and maintains the high picture quality consumers are starting to expect on PCs, laptops and handheld devices. Automated techniques are emerging to help the broadcaster repurpose content for different screen formats while still ensuring that the most relevant content remains central in the vision field.

Effective transformation of video and metadata Multiscreen TV should not be introduced in isolation from set-top box on-demand services. It is no coincidence that recent developments in content management make it easier to expand traditional VOD libraries and cope with higher usage rates while simultaneously streamlining the entire content processing cycle for multi-device delivery. The latest generation of CMSs feature a fundamental change in approach from traditional asset management. For the first time, the management and processing of content has been decoupled from the management and processing of metadata about that content, while content management itself has also become centralized. Amongst other things, this makes it easy to remedy errors or change pricing on titles without re-delivering video content and gives non-technical managers far greater control over marketing, including the scheduling, pricing and positioning of the on-demand titles. The benefit of this will become apparent very quickly when more titles are being made available (including shortform video and clips) at different prices (on television, web and mobile) with different availability windows and promotions and the complexity of setting appropriate tariffs begins to grow almost exponentially with each new addition to the catalog. Multiscreen TV requires a CMS that enables service providers to manage any metadata format and any content type. A key requirement is to manage content from multiple sources (content providers) arriving with different metadata. There are multiple metadata standards and it is quite possible that proprietary metadata solutions have been used that are specific to a single content supplier. The more places content arrives from, the greater variety that service providers will confront, so the CMS must be capable of extrapolating the metadata from many different files and transform it into the formats that each TV service provider uses. Moreover, using multiple content providers increases the need for automated validation/verification functions. Without it, content volumes can’t scale as providers have to manually police each piece of incoming content. To provide the rich search and discovery capabilities consumers want, video content actually needs more

metadata as well as more complex metadata. This data about content will continue to feed into the television Electronic Program Guide (EPG), but must also be designed to be able to interact with more sophisticated browsers and search engines in an online search environment. The emphasis is therefore on flexibility – the CMS must not be limited in what kinds of metadata it can handle. Like video transcoding, it should be viewed as an essential part of the video transformation process. The diversity of content sources, metadata formats and file formats will also present a major challenge for the workflow of video processing. There is no uniformity in how content appears on arrival, while the video processing that follows, including normalization, validation and transcoding, is typically customized to each TV service provider using different specifications. This problem is amplified if service providers are using different transcoders for different types of video transformation, depending on the target screen for the content. It is important that a framework is in place that enables the TV service provider to manage the complexity surrounding video ingest, processing and distribution. The workflow solution needs to be flexible enough to allow any workflow pattern to be automated and to minimize manual operator input. It must also be adaptable to cope with the many changes demanded of it. Only an enterprise class workflow management system can rise to the challenge by providing a sufficiently scalable, and reliable solution. With increasing volumes of content, a need to manage that content across multiple screens and aggregate usage and reporting information, a centralized workflow management system must also be capable of helping TV service providers cope with the increased complexity of rights management. Serious commercial and legal issues to do with availability windows, territorial rights, multilingual captioning or children’s TV must be manageable in both linear and on-demand contexts across multiple platforms for a growing number of items of content. Respecting rights and being able to accurately report on content usage is vital in securing the best content, safeguarding revenue and developing trusted relationships with content owners and advertisers.

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Enabling unified crossplatform advertising A unified Multiscreen TV solution must take into consideration the advertising opportunities presented by three-screen content delivery and the extent to which advertising can be used to fund the provision of new services. The CMS needs to provide a mechanism for managing advertising content as well as marketing campaigns to promote specific titles or genres across different platforms. The on-demand common controlplane, extended to manage mobile and online content provision, should be able to interface in turn with a range of different advertising management systems. Thanks to the work of the SCTE Digital Video Subcommittee, a modular approach to advanced advertising is already possible for cable operators, with interfaces and architecture specified in the SCTE 130 standard. CableLabs (the organization responsible for developing important cable industry standards like DOCSIS) is developing advanced advertising specifications to extend this capability to a common platform. There is nothing in these standards that limits the type of device, network, protocol, format, or conditional access system, so they can be directly applied to Multiscreen TV deployments.

While portal-based advertising is obviously the simplest to implement across multiple screens, TV service providers also need to consider additional requirements if they are to fully exploit the possibilities open to them. These include: › Providing on-demand advertising across multiple platforms › Supporting advanced advertising - including interactive advertising - for linear television › Supporting targeted ad insertion, including dynamic advert insertion › Removing manual processes for the production and management of advertising › Ensuring compatibility with all major VOD streaming servers - including IP Streaming Media Servers › Having an open, flexible architecture that supports popular industry interfaces to simplify the integration of applications and devices

Why Multiscreen TV is good for advertisers When choosing their advertising support system, TV service providers should consider why the advertising industry wants Multiscreen television. They want better targeting as more relevant adverts solicit a better response, and better reporting to support their sales case. But most of all, advertisers want to reach consumers wherever they are so they can counteract the impact of linear TV audience fragmentation. Integrated Media Measurement Inc (IMMI), a provider of consumer behavior and audience exposure data, has released data showing that television, online and mobile gave a combined 88 percent reach among their panelists on a given day. They found that only 10 percent of panelists relied only on TV for their media consumption. Other studies by Nielsen have shown that people using TV and the Internet consumed 30 percent more news than those who only viewed news on TV. It seems that when it comes to Multiscreen advertising, the whole really is greater than the sum of its parts. Studies by IMMI have demonstrated that Multiscreen advertising leads to a significant increase in the


percentage of consumers exposed to ads who actually purchase the product being advertised. While their data showed that Multiscreen advertising leads to greater reach and greater exposure to a campaign, IMMI also concluded that the impact on conversion and getting consumers to engage in the target behavior is potentially a more important benefit. TV service providers are especially well placed to meet advertiser needs. They can help advertisers identify and target specific audiences by age, sex, region and other demographic factors and deliver a relevant advert to them whatever screen they are watching. Using ad orchestration technology, a service provider can dramatically streamline the process of planning and buying advertising inventory across multiple screens. For example, in the mobile industry it already enables agencies and advertisers to buy advertising positions around video, mobile web/WAP and SMS using web-based software access. It is much easier and cheaper for an advertiser to deal with a single service provider who can deliver their messages to multiple screens than a multitude of different entities. A TV service provider can also give advertisers the ability to manage unified advertising campaigns that run across different platforms simultaneously. Media buyers can enjoy a single view of each consumer, helping them track when someone has watched a message, whether it was on-demand or ‘live’, which type of screen they were watching, and whether somebody linked from a traditional 30 second advert to a long-form infomercial, for example. With this information, media buyers can manage the exposure their target audience has to specific adverts – ensuring someone sees the advert six times in total, for example, but avoiding any waste.

Why Multiscreen TV is good for consumers Even more important than the benefits to advertisers are the benefits a unified Multiscreen TV solution provides to consumers. To conclude, these are: › Access to content everywhere on all types of popular video display device › Access to subscription services including personal recordings › Better navigation, made possible by harnessing PC and mobile interactivity to find content that can be pushed to any device, including the TV › Better quality content because content owners and major brand advertisers want to work with trusted partners › More relevant content because preferences and viewing history can be drawn from all platforms to help consumers find the content they want › More user-friendly than using multiple content aggregators across different platforms, thanks to centralized account management and single sign-on › All video services across all platforms can be paid for via a single bill › Seamless session shifting from one device to another

As major advertising clients themselves, TV service providers can take advantage of their own multi-platform advertising capabilities to promote their own services, devices, content or special event-based programming like sport. Personalized subscriber information such as viewing history and purchase interests can be used for cross-promotions and upselling. Where appropriate, this information can be used for addressable advertising.

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Section 3

TV service providers should move quickly to deliver the multi-platform TV experience consumers want

Preparing for Multiscreen TV – a checklist TV service providers should move quickly to deliver the Multiscreen TV experience consumers want. If they have not done so already, the following actions are recommended: › Acknowledge the unstoppable trend towards Multiscreen viewing › Recognize the value of a unified Multiscreen TV service to consumers and advertisers › U nderstand the importance of implementing a unified Multiscreen TV solution › Ensure on-demand, content management and advertising solutions are future-proofed for Multiscreen TV › Introduce a common control-plane to seamlessly interconnect platform-specific technology and organizational silos › Re-use and share common management and delivery infrastructure across all platforms

References [1] Nielsen, December 2009 [2] Nielsen A2/M2™ Three Screen report Q3 2009 [3] Nielsen study for CTAM [4] Sandvine, October 2009 [5] MediaFLO USA, January 2009 [6] BBC iStats, October 2009 [7] YouGov Report, May 2010 [8] UK consumers are paying up to £6 per month for a Sky Mobile TV content package (like News & Sports) on one of four UK phone networks. AT&T provides 12 popular TV channels for $9.99 per month

Ericsson provides award-winning TV solutions and services that enable global media companies and operators (cable, satellite, telco and terrestrial) to deliver TV content, either directly to consumers or for professional digital video content exchange. With a broad suite of open, standards-based products, Ericsson offers the highest quality solutions for Digital TV, HDTV, VOD, IPTV, Mobile TV, connected home, content management and advanced advertising, based on industry leading technology and a strong heritage in television.

www.ericsson.com/televisionary

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