p02-4,6-7 IPTV@IBC08 Overview v4 25/7/08 12:12 Page 6
IPTV@IBC08 > Overview Cable & Satellite Europe
It remains the case that many IPTV players have pliers present at IBC include Viaccess (IBC Stand 1.A51),
focused on creating what are essentially copies of cable which recently acquired Israel-based Orca Interactive
TV services, perhaps with VOD and a more up-to-date (IBC Stand 2.B40), Dreampark (IBC Stand 5.A21),
user interface. The promise of advanced IP services – Tandberg Television (IBC Stand 1.D61), ANT (IBC Stand
home networking of video or convergence applications IP154), and Espial (IBC Stand 4.C89), which recently
such as the merging of telecom and video services – for acquired Kasenna. There are also moves ongoing to cre-
the most part remains unfulfilled. One reason is that ate standards-based middlewares. Korean Telekom (KT)
operators face a difficult job just getting TV services up the largest telecom operator in Korea is operating an
and running on an IP network – they underestimate the IPTV service based on the DVB GEM IPTV Specification.
difficulties at their peril – and the other is that the interest With around 700,000 current subscribers it has estimat-
of consumers in these other applications – particularly on ed that it will reach more than one million by the end of
the ‘convergence’ side – remains a matter of guesswork. 2008. The IPTV service, Mega TV uses Alticast’s (IBC
Mueller-Schubert says that operators should start by Stand 1.C40) GEM IPTV middleware on hybrid terrestri-
getting basic TV services up and running first – “best in al/IPTV set-tops. Alticast argues that the current IPTV
class digital TV systems with fast channel-change, great middleware environment remains extremely fragment-
picture quality and great content”. This, he says, is what ed, and that marrying services such as digital-terrestrial
pulls in new customers. “We talk about fancy functional- and IPTV means that software becomes ever more
ity but marketing it is a hard job – so we recommend to important. The company argues that having a single
new customers to start right and add new functionality GEM middleware for terrestrial and IPTV services in the
over time,” he says. Some operators are beginning to same box means much reduced engineering time, avoid-
experiment, says Mueller-Schubert. Overall, he says, ing a software/hardware resource war in the product.
Microsoft Mediaroom now accounts for just over one mil- This, it says, has drastically reduced the cost of the prod-
lion subscribers worldwide, with about 50% in Europe uct for KT. Other operators such as LG Dacom have fol-
and the bulk of the remainder in North America (where lowed suit. All interactive service solutions on satellite and
Microsoft’s key client is AT&T). cable platforms in Korea are based on MHP/OCAP (GEM
Alcatel-Lucent remains a key player in the middleware core middleware-based) and KT selected the GEM mid-
business, despite its partnership with Microsoft, whose dleware solution after having completed a strategic mar-
system it promotes to new customers. The company’s ket study of trends and future requirements.
MiViewTV platform, developed by Lucent with IH Kim, executive vice-president of Alticast says, “We
Telefónica, is used by the operator in Europe and Latin are convinced that the GEM based middleware approach
America, and is likely to be adopted by Telecom Italia, is the way to break out of the market fragmentation issue
migrating to the platform from Alcatel-Lucent’s legacy of IPTV and lead to interactive convergence. It is robust,
OMP product. White says that one of the concerns of scalable, and applicable to all the various platforms which
operators is to drive up VOD usage. The company is cur- will enable IPTV operators to offer convergence, deliver-
rently working on a recommendation engine based on ing the most attractive application services with various
consumer preferences to help in this area. In parallel it is types of business models and revenue generating
working on a platform through which operators can pro- streams.” KT expects to have five to seven million IPTV
mote VOD, for example with tailored special offers. White subscribers in Korea by 2012.
says operators are also taking a close interest in targeted
advertising, although scale remains a hurdle.
Other operators use a range of homegrown and off-the- Making money
shelf middleware solutions. Other IPTV middleware sup-
Despite the success of some IPTV operators in building a
large customer base, as mentioned earlier there is little
sign yet of anyone making real money from the service.
“The hard fact is that it’s still seen as a value-added serv-
ice that’s needed for churn reduction,” says Riker at Arris.
“But there’s got to be more to it than that.” For Riker, the
application that will help operators build a business from
IPTV is targeted advertising. “From a technology stand-
point Arris is well positioned to plan the infrastructure
Orange’s user side of things but the real next step and opportunity that
interface (right); a we believe is present is on the advertising side,” he says.
Swisscom engineer The concept of targeted advertising is that the advertis-
installs Bluewin TV er will be willing to pay more to deliver ads to people who
(far right). are most likely to buy the product. However, operators will
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