MUMBAI: Pay TV providers are preparing to offer viewers premium video on demand (VoD) offerings.
Premium VoD is one of a handful of new services, along with advanced advertising and catch-up TV services, which will drive 20 per cent growth in the worldwide market for VoD equipment, from $493 million in 2010 to $591 million in 2016.
While expensive, the total cost of premium VoD is designed to be less than that of theater tickets and a babysitter. Some customers may prefer the flexibility to stay at home while watching more recent content. For the time, however, this offering is expected to add some marginal revenue for content owners and operators without significantly altering the content revenue equations.
Pay TV providers have integrated extra security into premium VoD in order to protect content from illegal activity. Premium VoD requires close cooperation of VoD server and content protection vendors.
In the case of DirecTV’s premium VoD launch, Home Premiere, SeaChange worked to integrate watermarking technology by Civolution to help persuade Hollywood to release premium content to video on demand (VoD) platforms.
Operators are also implementing advanced advertising solutions to help justify upgrades to their VoD equipment. Comcast recently announced they are using dynamic pre-roll and post-roll ads for VoD content in selected markets, with a full rollout expected by 2012.
