Before discussing the future of Pay TV industry, let me provide you with a short brief about what Pay TV actually is? According to Television Bureau of Advertising, Pay TV is home television programming for which the viewer pays for the program or by the month. It includes both over-the-air transmission (with scrambled signals) and cable transmission (pay cable).
76% of Network providers believe in innovation to be of utmost importance to maintain and grow in the competitive markets. According to Mike Kerr, Managing Director, beIN Media Group, Asia Pacific, Content Piracy is the biggest threat in the field of the video industry.
Ron Wheeler, SVP, Content Protection and Technology Strategy at Twentieth Century Fox quote an example of Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) in the UK as a great model to follow. It is four-year-old organization coordinating with the government to enforce anti-piracy laws. It is also advocating other jurisdictions to follow same but it varies significantly by country.
Below, I have mentioned a few aspects affecting the future of Pay-TV along with the views of famous people associated with the industry.
Field of Innovations:
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Jimmy Chen, CEO of Propel says that they are currently working with various industry associations to monitor consumer trends which include reviewing online discussions about pirated content on public forums and collecting data on piracy-related activities. This information is then shared with Content Providers, investigated later and by involving government authorities legal action can be taken against them.
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According to Michael Hartman, SVP, General Counsel, DIRECTV, a multi-faceted approach (including industry coordination, technological solutions, legal action, lobbying, and education) is required. The multiple functioning of companies together enhances their ability to do lobbying to improve laws and drive governmental enforcement.
An aspect of Over-the-top Media platforms (OTT):
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Another motivational aspect is the competitive world of Over-the-top Media platforms(OTT), Jimmy Chen, here informs about the increase in OTT viewing has been the biggest change for regional pay-TV service providers as the new generation prefers watching OTT shows and access the content through their mobile devices when they are on move.
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On this Oliver Hansard, Vice President Data Services, Liberty Global says a new wave of OTT players, such as Amazon, Netflix, and Google have analytics which keeps on improving customer experiences. Hence, Consumers increasingly expect their data should be used in such a way that it delivers personalized experiences, therefore increasing the bar for pay-TV companies.
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Alexander Sacher, CTO, HD Plus believes the ability to provide OTT services as part of the product and services portfolio has is vital for pay-TV providers globally. Most of the traditional pay-TV providers have all the required assets, skills, and capabilities to provide OTT streaming services but the only hindrance is the competition in the market against the top global internet players like Amazon, YouTube, and Netflix.
Stay Strong:
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For operators to maintain and succeed in the market, they have to look for other better opportunities. Chen here quotes an example of cable operators in Taiwan. For them, high-speed broadband is of primary importance to support the launch of new services. The Taiwanese operators generally team up with new OTT providers to provide value-added video services.
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Hansard informs that churn reduction; personalized pricing and packaging; cross-selling of products and services; and optimized content acquisition, scheduling and marketing are few ways to add value to pay-TV businesses. Whereas he is primarily interested in the process of generating revenue from advanced data and analytics externally, by providing a value-added service to the broadcasters and advertisers by pay-TV providers.
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Kerr says from a sports perspective, VR is a game changer in content production which could gain mass popularity in a short period of time. The VRs are naturally predisposed to immersive and engaging an experience which brings the user closer to the live action perfectly suitable for sports fans.
Let’s talk about future:
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Thinking about the future of Pay-TV industry market in the next five years Chen, Kerr and Sacher have different views. Chen says that like every market in the world, Taiwan Market will also have novel challenges and growth opportunities in near future. He believes that in order to support the idea of Smart Home and other value-added services, broadband services will be extremely important.
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Kerr waits for the entry of complete digitalization as a new wave. Consumers may demand a simple aggregated proposition for an appropriate viewing experience. According to him, the traditional pay-TV operators, internet service providers and mobile operators of the present time are perfectly positioned to play the role of the aggregator in the near future. For example, TELCOS, Telephone Company, a provider of telecommunications services, such as telephony and data communications is rightly positioned as they are able to provide their services in a wider area to a large number of consumers. They give an integrated access to its consumers, have direct relationships with the widest consumer base and they also have strong financial and marketing platforms they can use to maximize their advantages.
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Sacher on other hand believes in order to create a successful platform, Pay-TV operators will have to welcome partnerships with content providers. To create and deliver a seamless user experience covering a variety of consumer devices, combined with the rich content offering that encloses traditional linear TV, on-demand content and YouTube-style short video clippings.
The final thought on the future of Pay TV Industry is by developing new content, new ideas, new services, advancing business transformation and having strategic partnerships with content providers one can sure a perfectly well future in this competitive market.
