MUMBAI: As viewers‘ consumption habits evolve and content is served and consumed on a variety of devices via different methods and networks, technology must adapt to the variety of content delivery systems, and provide targeted and scalable solutions to protect valuable digital assets.
A meaningful multi-screen strategy allows the end user to use any device to select or order content, and then watch or record on any other device authorised by the service providers anywhere without having to think about the network, the platform, or other considerations.
These remarks were made at the BroadcastAsia 2011 International conference by Viaccess EVP Strategy and Communication Noureddine Hamdane. He made a presentation on ‘Solutions for Digital Pay Television and Secured Content Distribution‘.
He warned though that opening up the accessibility to premium content on additional platform can be a deterring factor for content owners and service providers. In order to form a successful three screen service, service providers must take into account these key drivers to succeed:
Provisioning of these services through variety of networks, using unicast and broadcast modes, and leveraging conventional broadcast (DVB-S over satellite or DVB-T terrestrial) and IP networks (fixed
over DSL or mobile) as part of a hybrid model.
Launching innovative new business models such as where users can buy a video on their TV set, start to watch it at home and resume viewing on their mobile or tablet while on the go. Note: This requires seamless cross-device right management solutions.
Providing intuitive, personalized tools for content discovery, allowing end users to discover what‘s on TV while on the go with their mobile and have it record their IPTV service for later viewing,.
Providing well targeted content recommendations that build on historical aggregated fixed and mobile content consumption, and implement social network based recommendation.
Demonstrating to content owners that content distributed will remain secure and no revenue is lost with conditional access and global digital rights management over the three-screen.
Hamdane also noted that delivering premium content to multi screens enables operators to differentiate and address the latest content usage trends, thereby providing them with an extended market reach and new revenue opportunities. In order to succeed despite the piracy threats, some essential technology requirements include an easy service set-up, unified and rich user experience across all the devices, influenced by adaptive streaming protocols, intuitive GUI, and most importantly, a content security solution capable of managing content sharing with controlled and uncontrolled devices to get content owners approval to share premium content on the various devices and platforms.
