CAN BROADCAST THRIVE IN THE DIGITAL DOMAIN?
The evolution of connected TVs:
Beginning of a new saga
for broadcasters?
“... Where the aliens
may be as realistic as
an unseen landscape
ahead.”
BY AMITABH KUMAR
T
he evolution of the connected TVs
and their enhancing capabilities
have been increasingly evident to
any industry watcher over the past five
years. However, it took an announcement
by the US Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) in Jan 2017 to bring
the truth home. The FCC abandoned its
previous proposal to ask cable companies
to open their set-top boxes (STBs) to
Internet companies such as Google and
Amazon so that they could push their
content to TVs. The FCC reasoning was
simple — the days of the STB were over.
In the words of the FCC chairman: “We
must embrace the technology of the future
rather than cling to the hardware of the
past. I don’t believe the American people
want more set-top boxes in their homes.”
The evolution of connected TVs, along
with their ecosystem of smart devices
including smartphones and Internet of
Things (IoT) capabilities with intelligent
voice assist, over-the-top (OTT) and
media search, have now progressed way
beyond the original vision of the TV sets
being related to only television. What it
has enabled onboard is a number of so
called “outliers” offering video, music or
social media TV apps to the mainstream.
These OTT and media applications now
have the same prominence as the so called
“mainstream television”, a title which TV
companies continue to believe they are
entitled to retain.
In another theatre of operations, in
October this year, the 3GPP, a standards
body for mobile applications, revealed
startling progress on the new standards
of “television delivery” possible via
mobile networks, via 3GPP releases 15
and 16, more often referred to as 5G. It
did not help traditional broadcasters to
realise that the 5G releases include virtual
reality from day 1. The capability to create
spaces by rendering of images and sound,
and their mapping over mobile or wired
networks to Dynamic and Adaptive HTTP
Streaming (DASH) are now a part of the
first release.
For the first time, it was evident that
the delivery networks and the end-devices
— Amitabh Kumar
Director, Corporate, Zee Network
& an APB Panellist
could become more capable of displaying
a traditional manner,
myriad types of content, which the
are a practical way of
“broadcasters” of traditional TV” had not
multicasting content
been producing, at least so far.
without overloading the
To the dismay of those broadcasters to
Internet networks. With ATSC 3.0 stations
whom these (5G) launches looked distant,
already operational in the US, the next
in September this year, T-Mobile started
frontier of integration with mobile is not far
to detail its “In-home 5G goals”, setting it
behind.
up in direct competition with the Goliaths
Traditional “broadcasters” are quickly
of the cable TV industry — Comcast and
ramping up their capabilities as they see
Charter. In his statement to the FCC,
the new ecosystems evolving. New forms
the chairman of T-Mobile, said: “New
of targeted and immersive broadcasting
T-Mobile will also enable consumers to
are moving from being buzzwords to being
use their mobile services as a substitute
standards on production sets. But with a
for in-home broadband”.
diverse range of providers of content, a new
In the same month, Telefonica also
saga may be beginning for broadcasters as
demonstrated a new immersive real-time
they cope to come to grips with a rapidly
video experience around the ninth stage of
evolving landscape where the “traditional”
the “Vuelta a Espana” cycling race as part
may only be fighting a losing battle against
of its 5G Technology Cities Initiative.
an enemy yet unseen.
In yet a third theatre of operations,
It is the beginning of an epic saga —
NexGenTV, based on implementations
where the aliens may be as realistic as an
of ATSC 3.0 standard, has been
unseen landscape ahead, and traditional
gaining momentum with respect to the
revenue models will tend to become ever
possibilities of direct to mobile IP delivery.
more elusive.
These transmissions, being “broadcast” in
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An
Supplement
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