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IPTV/OTT: 'The Doomsday Scenario'
IPTV is the phrase on almost everyone’s lips at this year’s IBC broadcasting show in Amsterdam. The technology is maturing, and spreading into all aspects of TV. But how do operators cope with Over The Top traffic from bandwidth-hungry web-sites like YouTube and MySpace?
Rapid TV News’ has just held one of its regular ‘Round Table’ discussion forums looking at all aspects of the IPTV sector, and Over The Top content quickly came up in the conversation. “Frankly I’m not sure the industry fully understands these yet,” says Simon Cothliff, set-top supplier ADB’s New Business Development manager. “One hundred and forty billion downloads a year is a potential problem. The question is what might they (the operators) do with this? There are obviously two options. One is that the operators embrace it and they try and work with those services. The other option, sometimes called the Doomsday Scenario, is that content simply becomes ubiquitous and is available everywhere.”
Cothliff reminded the panel that even YouTube struggles to monetise its own services. “The other point to remember is that TV is still essentially television. No one wants to be spamming their customers with all sorts of click-throughs by integrating internet stuff too much. The service has to remain TV centric. I think the reality is that services like YouTube will become part of a ‘me too’ proposition. I think these types of services will be integrated into the core IPTV proposition but we have to be extremely careful as to how it is managed while bearing in mind that operators are being forced to offer increasingly onerous bandwidth volumes. It’s all very well expecting BT or Deutsche Telekom to fibre the whole of the country but they must also be given a chance to earn some cash from their investment.”
IPTV is the phrase on almost everyone’s lips at this year’s IBC broadcasting show in Amsterdam. The technology is maturing, and spreading into all aspects of TV. But how do operators cope with Over The Top traffic from bandwidth-hungry web-sites like YouTube and MySpace?
Rapid TV News’ has just held one of its regular ‘Round Table’ discussion forums looking at all aspects of the IPTV sector, and Over The Top content quickly came up in the conversation. “Frankly I’m not sure the industry fully understands these yet,” says Simon Cothliff, set-top supplier ADB’s New Business Development manager. “One hundred and forty billion downloads a year is a potential problem. The question is what might they (the operators) do with this? There are obviously two options. One is that the operators embrace it and they try and work with those services. The other option, sometimes called the Doomsday Scenario, is that content simply becomes ubiquitous and is available everywhere.”
Cothliff reminded the panel that even YouTube struggles to monetise its own services. “The other point to remember is that TV is still essentially television. No one wants to be spamming their customers with all sorts of click-throughs by integrating internet stuff too much. The service has to remain TV centric. I think the reality is that services like YouTube will become part of a ‘me too’ proposition. I think these types of services will be integrated into the core IPTV proposition but we have to be extremely careful as to how it is managed while bearing in mind that operators are being forced to offer increasingly onerous bandwidth volumes. It’s all very well expecting BT or Deutsche Telekom to fibre the whole of the country but they must also be given a chance to earn some cash from their investment.”
