p02-4,6-7 IPTV@IBC08 Overview v4 25/7/08 12:12 Page 3
Cable & Satellite Europe IPTV@IBC08 > Overview
EMEA, APAC service provider group/principal engineer, “IPTV has to go to the next level,” says Sue White, mar-
Cisco Systems (IBC Stand 1.D71). “Overall, from a growth keting director at Alcatel-Lucent’s (IBC Stand 12P.C20)
point of view, IPTV is doing well.” Wojciech Doganowski, fixed-access division. White says that many operators are
vice-president, IPTV business unit at set-top maker ADB starting to develop a multi-screen strategy and in many
(IBC Stand 4.B48) agrees. “Last year IPTV was a quarter cases are looking to build applications around fixed-
of our business,” he says. Doganowski expects the next mobile convergence. “This is where IPTV can go a long
two years to produce much the same pattern. way,” she says. While operators have already experiment-
But while take-up is accelerating, it has yet to reach the ed with services such as caller ID on the TV screen and
level where IPTV could truly be called a mass-market booking DVR recordings via mobile phones, IMS-based
service. It also remains the case that the majority of telcos interworking of the fixed and mobile platforms can
are competing with each other and with established pay- enable a range of new applications, including, for exam-
TV players on price, often bundling IPTV more or less as ple, enabling video calls to be made via the TV.
a ‘free’ add-on in a triple-play bundle. IPTV providers have Bruno Duarte, strategy director at France Telecom-
been more concerned about taking market share than owned Orange UK, recently told a seminar organised by
increasing revenue. While the logic of the strategy is clear, French research group IDATE that he believed that it
it leaves open the question of how telcos can drive up would be important for mobile network operators to con-
ARPU in the future. If customers are already used to a trol fixed-line assets as well. “When we look at networks,
low price for a triple-play bundle, and the bulk of potential to some extent we are in a situation where we have issues
premium pay-TV customers are already accounted for by in terms of backhaul capacity,” said Duarte. “The way a
established pay-TV players with strong exclusive content wireless network works means we have reached a condi-
offerings, what can telcos do to brake the downward pres- tion where being a mobile network doesn’t work in the
sure on price and try to make a profit from the service? long term; we need to upload some traffic to fixed net-
A number of ideas are beginning to emerge. How suc- works.” Mobile networks needed to also become ISPs, he
cessful they will be commercially remains to be seen, but said. “We believe in convergence,” he said. “You must be
they are set to be a major focus at this year’s IBC. Some of a mobile and fixed operator to cope.”
the areas that technology companies are focusing on are It is certainly true that IPTV operators are looking to
targeted advertising (both linear and video-on-demand), make use of whatever technology platforms are at their
multi-screen distribution of content (both the delivery of disposal to deliver services more efficiently. In European
TV services to multiple TVs in the home and the delivery markets this often means piggy-backing on the availabili-
of a range of media, including pay-TV, to different devices ty of free-to-air broadcast channels delivered over a digital-
such as PCs and mobile phones over IP connections) and terrestrial network. Telefónica has done this in Spain, and
integration of the TV experience into home networks that BT Vision in the UK relies entirely on the Freeview digi-
are supported and managed by the network operator. tal-terrestrial platform for the delivery of linear channels.
“There has been a shift in business models recently,”
says ADB’s Doganowski, pointing to France
Convergence Telecom/Orange’s strategy of going off-network to
expand its footprint. Doganowski believes operators will
Operators are looking to convergence within a wider look to deliver their content over a variety of distribution
strategic context. They are in many cases no longer networks, including the open internet. “IPTV will
restricted to a single physical infrastructure. Some are become more like internet TV,” he says. Smaller
mixing and matching networks to maximise reach, while providers will form revenue-sharing agreements with
others are focusing on the future convergence of fixed and existing ISPs to reach subscribers. The use of peer-to-peer
mobile applications. technology and advanced forward error correction tech-
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