IBC — One buzzword likely to emerge at IBC this week in The Netherlands is “multiscreen." Multiscreen is becoming somewhat synonymous with TV on your iPhone and iPad.
But are pay TV operators around the world ready to deliver hundreds of channels of programming on multiple devices? And do consumers really care about all the hype?
“I think we see all of the enablers are pretty much there," said Ericsson’s Simon Frost, head of TV Marketing for Solution Area TV, in a telephone interview with vision2mobile. “Ultimately, it’s got to be [consumers] want[ing] it and we see they do. The ability to have devices consumers really want to own and really want content on is also there."
Frost indicated that the bandwidth (through such networks as 4G LTE) and the technology like compression hardware and middleware to integrate screens is becoming available to support such multiscreen services.
“I think all the points on the … map are all there" to support multiscreen services, Frost said. “I can’t see why we can’t be talking about the next one to two years not the next four to five years [when] we have a lot more video on a lot more devices."
Steve Christian, vice president of Marketing with Verimatrix, a company that specializes in securing and enhancing revenue for multiscreen digital TV services, said technological challenges like the ability to deliver streams over wireless networks and protect those streams have been solved over the last few years.
The “fundamental barriers" have been eliminated, Christian told v2m, but integrating services on multiple screens remains a challenge.
“The integration challenges are business-related rather than technical," Christian explained. “Operators are now in the process of determining how to blend OTT/multiscreen services into their traditional TV offerings. As this market matures, we are now seeing OTT services look very similar to big-screen TV services – which include a mix of live and on-demand content."
Still, pay TV operators haven’t solved all the technological challenges, including in connection with delivering live streaming.
