Just returning from this week's Cable Show. Since I missed reading bedtime to my boys all week, please allow me a little creative freedom if you will.
"Goldiebox and the Three Barriers"
Our story starts with service providers who now completely understand that consumers have started to embrace new services and new locations - a bundle of next generation services and devices we'll call Goldiebox. If you need an example, just look at Michael's piece above on Netflix users growing intent to downgrade their service. These wise service providers want to protect their markets, empower the consumer for these services, and raise ARPU in the process. Some of the smaller providers have even more basic goals like the ability to add VOD. But to do so, they have reached a decision point- a barrier if you will - which must be addressed. Their choice will define their individual strategies and opportunities in the evolving paytv market and can be boiled down to three overly-simplified options:
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Do nothing: Continue to monetize in the existing infrastructure and business model. Watch the market slowly shrivel over time as the customer invites Goldiebox in from other places. (Poppa growls Bad move)
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Complete overhaul: Replace the entire plant in a costly move to add Goldiebox services. (Momma says Not gonna happen... and we all know Momma controls the checkbook and is being tight in a tough economy.)
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Gradual Upgrade: A mix of the existing infrastructure and new components allowing Goldiebox to be run in parallel and be incrementally layered onto the current service. (Baby says just right, and is excited to play with the PS3 ...) No, this isn't really a fairy tale, but the difficult choices SPs face in delivering these next generation services. The good news, though, is that the vendors have begun to address this gradual upgrade process with easier-to-use packages, bundles, and frameworks that allow providers to deploy without complete overhaul. It is this category that had the most excitement in all of my discussions at the show.
While multiscreen and open Internet delivery announcements have been, to date, mostly vendor hype, we are beginning to see signs of these solutions being embraced and deployed. In case you missed them, here are some of the more interesting "turnkey" announcements from this year's Cable Show:
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thePlatform - thePlatform was revealed as being one of the entities powering Comcast's next-gen xfinity. The company is working with AlcaLu to release a joint platform delivery of linear TV (note: scheduled, not live), VOD, and "TV Everywhere" services to a variety of screens.
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Rovi - RoxioNow has been expanded to multi-platform VOD option for small carriers and works with their TotalGuide XD iPad app. One interesting note is that Rovi has content licensing capabilities allowing providers the option of skipping that process for their VOD systems.
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Echostar - Hello Aria, a Sling and ip-enabled box for instant deployment to existing QAM systems. This should be particularly interesting to the small operators who've been begging for a solution for the past few years.
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Tivo - boxes without DVRs (blasphemy!)for multi-room sharing from new central Quad tuner PVR. Includes guide/search/discovery that can integrate OTT offerings at the providers choice.
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Avail-TVN and SeaChange - SeaChange is bringing their cloud-based Express system with Avail-TVN's content for rapid deployment to the usual range of devices.
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Clearleap - Announced back in February, Clearleap and Pace were showing their integrated IP services for existing cable infrastructure. In addition, Clearleap recently announced asset of APIs for rapid integration of iPad apps and other platforms.
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