Super Screen TV
Opens new Doors 16
Magazine
ACR Gambit Aims
For Programmers
17
September 2011
STRATEGIC INFORMATION FOR THE BROADBAND MARKETPLACE
Source Code >>
Whole-Home DVR, OTT Are Big Draws
First Gateway Services
Move Cable to New Era
SP STRATEGIES >>
BY FRED DAWSON
Pierre Routhier >> 21
Technicolor’s VP for 3D strategy
and product development
discusses some of the major
challenges as well as progress
that’s been made so far in the
push to create a commercially
viable 3DTV service.
The pace of cable opera- tors’ embrace of next- generation home gate- ways and core IP-based
video management capabilities
to distribute a vastly broader
range of content and features to
devices of all descriptions accelerated over the summer with
initial rollouts in North America
and Europe.
Liberty Global president and
CEO Mike Fries for the first
time publicly took UPC’s Hori-
zon Gateway through its paces
in an appearance at the IBC
show in early September, “With
Horizon, we’re reinventing tele-
vision,” Fries told an opening
day audience at the annual event
in Amsterdam. “In essence this
brings together cable and the
Internet platform with an amaz-
ing user interface.”
With trials of the new service
NEW ERA > 32
Michael Fries, president & CEO,
Liberty Global
Networks Move to Lower Cord-Cutting Threat
TVE Support Grows as OTT Gains
BROADBAND CONTENT >>
BY KEN PYLE
Amid mounting pressure from the over-the-top side of the entertainment divide, premium TV service providers can take heart
at how far traditional programmers have come in enabling the
multi-screen services that could
be crucial to keeping subscribers engaged.
Recent developments like
Facebook’s move to make con-
tent sharing a centerpiece of its
user benefits, reported efforts
of Google to gain control of
Hulu and a new Credit Suisse
survey reporting heightened
cord-cutting pressure on service
providers are raising the stakes
for small and large operators
alike as they look for ways to
expand the appeal of TV Every-
where and VOD offerings into
full-scale multi-screen services.
While Credit Suisse found that
only about four percent of pay
TV subscribers in its survey
of 2,075 consumers intended
to drop service within the next
12 months, the findings overall
indicated that up to 20 percent
may do so in the years ahead.
The primary cause for dissatisfaction is subscribers believe
service is too expensive, Credit
Suisse says. Already, about half
of the 500 respondents who said
they regularly access OTT services said they use these as a
substitute for pay TV.
Adding fuel to this fire is the
emergence of connected TVs,
which, according to a new study
from The Diffusion Group, are
starting to draw consumers to
OTT content much more con-
sistently than was the case early
on in the marketing of what are
now dubbed “smart TVs.” The
researchers found that with smart
TVs now operating in 20 percent
of broadband homes, 80 percent
of those owners are using them
to watch OTT content at an aver-
age rate of 4. 8 hours per week.
