At Endavo Media we’ve been talking about “enhanced OTT” and the value telcos bring to that subject. That’s why I think the article “Broadband ready to become a serious TV platform“ at VideoNet.com is a worthwhile read.
The article by John Moulding is a good, quick education on what’s happening (and/or will be) at the network level with video/content delivery.
While no doubt it can be confusing talking about OTT, IPTV, hybrid and enhanced OTT, it’s imperative the marketplace know the difference. This article suggests managed (“enhanced”) OTT is quickly becoming a reality as HD, long-form video must be pushed deep into the edge, to get as close to users as possible, in order to deliver satisfactory quality of service/experience to consumers. If users are going to pay for it, and if it’s going to be delivered to the TV, QoS/QoE is a requirement. And who’s closest to the consumer? That’s easy, telco and cable “last mile” broadband networks.
For telcos to manage incoming content from multiple sources and apply any level of QoS (even if just being the “deepest edge”), they’ll need media asset management (MAM) middleware to centralize delivery operations into existing network (especially if going multiplatform). And even if a telco wants to leverage an installed IPTV system (for actual managed QoS), there still needs to be MAM middleware to aggregate and connect content not coming directly into the IPTV head end via linear streams over satellite or IP-based delivery.
There are many different types of content that telcos will want to pull together for OTT and managed OTT services – traditional broadcast, local, international, “direct to web”, user generated video, etc. A key business advantage to offering video services to subscribers isn’t only being able to support these varied content sources, but also that they can be combined into countless packages using a variety of pay services like subscriptions, rentals and pay per view (and changed as needed to respond to consumer demand).
So, for telcos to take full advantage of these advances in content delivery technologies, they need a solution that allows for the creation, delivery and management of “premium video services” using incoming content libraries/inventory/channels to offer the programming of a video services provider – and MAM middleware to connect into their existing subscriber services systems like billing, customer care and overall service delivery to fully own the customer relationship.
That's how I see it. What’s your take?
Paul D Hamm
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