Asia-Pacific Broadcasting (APB) BroadcastAsia2016 Show Daily - Day 1 | Page 16

16 BROADCASTASIA2016 SHOWDAILY 16 31 May 2016 Seizing the opportunities of OTT BY JOE KHODEIR Broadcasters are no longer simply broadcasters. No longer can they deliver one or a handful of channels, with a format decision as simple as SD or HD. Today, the expectation is that content will be available to computers and mobiles, across a range of delivery systems. That content will be streamed live, and it will be packaged and offered as video-on-demand (VoD), as a free catch-up service or maybe as a paid-for or subscription archive. All that is a given. Today, the key challenges facing broadcasters are, first, how to deliver all this content at scale; and, second, how to pay for it. Looking at the delivery challenge first, it is clear that scale is the real issue. According to Parks Associates, an estimated 1.6 billion people worldwide watch online video, with probably a billion of those watching on mobile devices. Video traffic to mobiles is set to grow at 55% a year until 2020, according to McKinsey. All these receiving devices have different requirements. There are four different versions of the Android operating system with more than 10% market penetration at the moment. While there is a long-term aspiration for delivery to move to MPEG-DASH, at the moment HLS is still widely used, which means that Smooth Streaming also has to be supported for those devices, which do not want to use an Apple proprietary standard. Inside the streaming format, there are different codecs, bitrates, screen resolutions and encryption systems. Clearly, the idea that there can be dedicated broadcast hardware to create all of these outputs is crazy. The only way that this can be achieved is through software devices, and preferably virtualised or cloud devices, which can be spooled up and down as necessary. That provides the capacity, even in peaks, along with resilience through rapid replacement of failed processes. A unified software delivery platform also offers a solution to the second challenge: how to pay for the service. Advertising remains the best source of revenue, but that advertising has to be tailored to the platform and the consumer — ideally down to the individual. The anytime, anywhere nature of today’s video consumption experience makes this a difficult proposition. For the most part, the television advertising 2016 is shaping up to be the year where the media world finally gets a grasp on the monetisation of content, no matter where or when it is consu med. Respondents to an Imagine Communications survey cited the migration from a linear to an omniplatform ad management approach as being a top competitive priority within their organisation. world has been unable to keep up with the migration of eyeballs to alternative viewing platforms and non-linear content distribution models. The good news is that 2016 is shaping up to be the year when the media world finally gets a grasp on the monetisation of content, no matter where or when it is consumed. The omni-platform environment, which encompasses linear television, on-demand, DVR, multi-screen, radio and digital, demands that media companies look towards integrated solutions that place and monetise ads across multiple video consumption environments. Nearly three-quarters of respondents to Imagine Communications’ Focus Forward 2016 survey cited the migration from a linear to an omni-platform ad management approach as being a top competitive priority within their organisation. An omni-platform approach was also seen as key to maximising the efficiency and reducing the errors linked to ad management and as a way to enable media companies to maximise the value of their inventory, therefore generating new revenue. Stepping away from a linear model is also expected to help broadcasters provide more value to advertisers and agencies. ❑ Joe Khodeir is senior vice-president AsiaPacific, Imagine Communications (booth 5B3-03). Digital Solutions Delivered PCCW Global’s media experts draw on longstanding industry experience gained over more than 12 years within the PCCW-HKT Groups. We are a quad play operator who help others to monetise their content and to build profitable media businesses. Our MediaFlex platform delivers source to screen solutions across OTT, IPTV and Multiscreen video ecosystems. Your Global Media Partner Visit us on stand 4C6-03 and discover our MediaFlex professional services and platform solutions. Contact us Email: [email protected] Broadcast_Asia_1_20160428.indd 1 5/05/2016 10:18 AM