The solution should make it easier for television operators to offer hundreds of channels of programming on multiple screens like a tablet computer and smartphone. To date, deployments on multiple screens like the iPad and iPhone largely have been limited to only a fraction of the hundreds of channels that pay TV operators offer.
If a pay TV operator wants to deliver programming to every device owned by a subscriber, the company must compress the content in different resolutions to match the particular device and send the content at various bit rates depending upon the network such as Wi-Fi and 4G LTE, Ericsson’s Simon Frost, Head of TV Marketing for Solution Area TV, told vision2mobile in a telephone interview.
Multiscreen services, Frost said, are proving to be “extremely expensive to operate and manage."
Ericsson contends its solution enables the scalability and cost-effectiveness to meet such challenges, making it more practical for a pay TV operator to offer a full lineup of programming to multiple screens.
It’s no wonder that pay TV operators in the U.S. and abroad are investing resources in delivering television to multiple devices.
An annual study by Ericsson ConsumerLab found that more than 44 percent of respondents reported watching Internet-based on-demand TV more than once a week. The study also found that more than 40 percent of respondents reported using social media like Facebook and Twitter on devices like tablet computers and smartphones while watching the boob tube. For example: a friend watching "The Bachelor" or "American Idol" might comment on her Facebook page through her laptop or tablet computer about someone who was kicked off the show.
“Consumers value social interaction with TV increasingly," Frost said, helping retain demand for traditional television.
However, the Ericsson study found that consumers are spending less these days on scheduled TV and more dough on on-demand content, including Internet-based content, Frost said.
