WIXLIB

Newsnews in briefNetflix France to operatefrom LuxembourgNetflix has reportedly decided tosupply the French market fromheadquarters in Luxembourg inorder to bypass Frenchregulations. A report in LesEchos, citing unnamed officialsat the French culture ministry,said Netflix is unwilling tocomply with French regulationson video broadcasting thatinclude mandatory investment inFrench productions and quotas ofFrench series and movies beingstreamed to customers. TheUS-based company alreadyoperates in some Europeancountries from Luxembourg. It isgearing up for a French launchbefore the end of the year andhas contacted local telcos aboutcarrying the service.Legacy TV to fall at expenseof OTTBroadcast legacy television willdecline from 90% of all videoviewed in 2013 to two-thirds in2020, with broadband TV makingup the difference, says TDG. Bythe end of the decade, legacy TVviewing will fall by more than25% from current viewing levels,driven by evolution of the ‘Big 4’of Amazon, Apple, Google, andMicrosoft and the impact theywill have on consumer videoviewing, according to TDG.Arris snaps up SeaWellArris is expanding its IP videoportfolio with the acquisition ofSeaWell Networks. The Ontariobased company brings technologyincluding adaptive bit-rate, multiscreen video and ad insertionsolutions. SeaWell will join thenetwork and cloud business, oneof three units that was createdafter Arris bought MotorolaHome last year.06May-June 2014Telecom Italia and Sky in broadband TVpactSky and Telecom Italia are teamingto deliver an internet-televisionservice. The deal will allow thetelco to offer Sky content via itsbroadband TV service. As of nextyear, Telecom Italia clients with aMy Sky HD decoder will haveaccess to all of Sky’s TVprogrammes over the Web.“The Sky offer becomes the keyelement of Telecom Italia’sultrabroadband strategy, and accessto the new generation networkallows Sky to benefit from anadditional distribution platform forits programmes,” TI said.“From 2015 consumer customersof Telecom Italia will in fact be ableto access a Sky offer that isequivalent, in terms of contents,services and pricing, to the satelliteoffer,” the telco said.The offer will primarily be aimedat households with fibre-basedinternet connections, and will driveuptake for high-speed broadbandconnections.Sky will have access to a newmarket, namely people living inhistoric towns who are unable toinstall a satellite dish. TelecomItalia’s mobile-phone customers canalso watch Sky TG24 all-newschannel on their smartphones andtablets.Sky has about 4.8 million payinghouseholds in Italy and an audienceof more than 15 million viewers.Vodafone teamed with Mediaset ina similar deal to offer movies andTV-shows on its Web-basedon-demand service called Infinity.Time Warner to develop RDK boxTime Warner Cable is to launch itsfirst IP set-top box integrating theReference Design Kit (RDK)platform and featuring cloud-basednavigation.Time Warner is working withHumax to create the RDK-basedSTB, due for launch by the end ofthe year. The cloud navigatorconsists of its new HTML 5 cloudbased navigation guide that providesenhanced search capabilities andadditional programme information.“We’re very excited as this is thefirst implementation of the RDK forTime Warner Cable and steers ustowards the future of an all IPservice,” said Matthew Zelesko, TimeWarner Cable’s senior VP, ConvergedTechnology Group.Time Warner Cable expects todeploy the new IP boxes in selectmarkets by the end of 2014. Comcastis the only other operator to havedeployed RDK-based boxes, built onits X1/X2 platforms, andmanufactured by Pace and Arris.Irdeto opens multi-screen centreIrdeto has opened its new globalNetwork Operations Center (NOC)to support customers deploying itshosted/cloud-based solutions andmanaged services.The facility was established inresponse to growing use of OTTand multiscreen services andconsumer expectation for a flawlessuser experience, something not yetguaranteed in these environments.Irdeto said the NOC offers 24/7monitoring and rapid response tocustomers but it will also use thefacility to track and monitor otherareas that impact customersbusinesses such as the rising trendof global internet piracy and theneed for revenue assurance.It will offer an established andwww.csimagazine.comdedicated customer care team of over40 staff who will proactively monitorBusiness Critical Applications,Services and Hardware in real time,allowing rapid response to servicedisruptions and customer cases.The company claims the newinitiative, which already countsaround 25 existing customers, willhelp reduce time to market of multiscreen implementations by morethan half.

Cisco Videoscape:expands to the CloudCisco Videoscape is an open andmodular platform that enables serviceproviders and media companies to deliver andmonetize experiences faster using the latestcloud technologies.See us at:Converging Home Summit, LondonANGACOM – stand J13

NewsPay TV to soar in Eastern Europenews in briefIPTV close to 100m subsIPTV is nearing the 100 millionsubscriber threshold, reaching 96million at end-2013. The marketgrew 21% last year with 17million new subscribers. At theend of 2013, 14.1% of fixedbroadband subscribers alsosubscribed to an IPTV service.Asia led the way with 45m subs,followed by Europe with 34m andNorth America with 13m.UPC tests HomeSpotsUPC Poland has started a freeWi-Fi service based on sharedaccess to customers homerouters, also known asHomeSpots. The UPC Wi-Freeservice is currently in trials witharound 6,000 customers in theSpopt area, and the cablenet aimsto launch the service to allcustomers in a couple of months.Sky buy-to-keep filmsSky has introduced a ‘Buy &Keep’ movie service, givingcustomers the ability to buymovies as well as rent them forthe first time. Launching withhundreds of titles, Sky customerswill have access to a full digitalmovie store directly on their TVvia their connected Sky HD boxat the same time as their DVDrelease, with many titles availablefor digital early release.Customers also get a postal DVD.Amazon in HBO firstAmazon has signed a licensingdeal with HBO to make PrimeInstant Video the exclusiveonline-only subscription home forselect HBO shows. This is thefirst time that HBO programminghas been licensed to an onlineonly subscription streamingservice, although the content willstill be available on all of HBO’scurrent platforms.08May-June 2014The number of digital TV homeswill triple in the region between2010 and 2020 by which time TVwill be almost fully digital.The number of digital pay TVsubscribers will increase from 26.1million in 2010 to 45.0 million in2013 when it will account for athird of all homes and onto 73.6million (58.2% of homes) by 2020,according to Digital TV Research.From the 52.3 million digital TVhomes to be added, DTT willsupply 24.9 million, digital cable15.3 million, IPTV 6.6 million andpay satellite TV 5.8 million. Russia,Ukraine and Poland will accountfor most of the growth.Eastern Europe TV households by platform (million)2010201320142020Analog Terr45.3023.1618.360.00Pay DTT0.350.700.871.62FTA DTT4.6016.1319.6840.15Analog cable TV35.1927.5424.081.88Digital cable TV4.9510.9113.3326.20Pay IPTV2.417.619.3114.24FTA DTH10.3311.2211.1610.86Pay DTH18.4025.8426.8031.59Dig pay TV26.1045.0550.3173.65Source: Digital TV ResearchDigital TV penetration crossed thehalfway mark of TV households in2012, and will reach 98.5% by 2020.Pay TV revenues will be 48%higher in 2020 at 7.305 billion.It is probably worth noting that forthe purposes of this report, theanalysts have assumed that thesituation in Ukraine will be resolvedfairly quickly.US online ads surpass TV in 2013Online ad revenues have for the firsttime come in higher than broadcastTV advertising, new data show.According to the InteractiveAdvertising Bureau (IAB), onlineads hit a record a record 42.8billion in 2013 billion, narrowlyedging out broadcast TV’s figure of 40.1 billion. Cable televisionstood at 34.4 billion withnewspapers fourth at 18 billionlast year.The online revenues, whichinclude mobile ads, rose 17% onthe previous year’s total of 36.6billion. Mobile hit 7.1bn for theyear, and accounted for 17% of 2013revenues. Digital video saw 2.8billion for the year, up 19% from theprevious year.Retail advertisers continue torepresent the largest category ofinternet ad spending, responsible for21% in 2013, followed by financialservices and closely trailed byautomotive.“The news that interactive hasoutperformed broadcast televisionshould come as no surprise,” saidRandall Rothenberg, president andCEO of the IAB. “It speaks to thepower that digital screens have inreaching and engaging audiences. Inthat same vein, the staggering growthof mobile is clearly a direct responseto how smaller digital screens play anintegral role in consumers’ livesthroughout the day, as well as theircritical importance to cross-screenexperiences.”“Our survey confirms that we arefully in transition to the post-desktopera,” said David Silverman, partnerat Price Waterhouse Coopers US,which prepared the report for IAB.Vodafone enhances fibre TVAs part of its wider global strategy,Vodafone is deploying new TVservices over its fibre-to-the-homenetwork in the Netherlands.The Vodafone Thuis brandedservice being rolled out is deployedover the company’s FTTH networkto enable advanced IPTV services,including pausing live TV and anextensive video-on-demand libraryfrom public broadcasters, HBO,Videoland and others.www.csimagazine.comVodafone, the world’s largestmobile operator, is increasinglylooking to fixed line services as away of boosting revenues andwinning customers through quad-playbundles. It is undergoing a spendingspree acquiring able and other fixedline assets in several Europeanmarkets to achieve this.“This is a significant step inVodafone’s strategy, in theNetherlands and globally, to build onour market leadership in mobilecommunications to create a multiservice delivery platform thataddresses all needs of the consumer,”said Gerard Overmars, head ofconsumer fixed at VodafoneNetherlands.The telco is partnering withEntone, whose solution includes802.11ac for wireless distributionand MoCA for coax cabling aroundhome, as well as Boxless.

WHITEPAPERSCSI now has whitepapers available to download on thehome page of our website.Please click on the whitepapers button atwww.csimagazine.comin order to see a full list of whitepapersDOWNLOAD WHITEPAPERS for FREE, please visit:www.csimagazine.com/csi/whitepaper.php

News analysisnews in briefZiggo tests new VoIP appZiggo has started testing a formof fixed-mobile convergence thatinvolves using a mobile orwireless internet connection forcalling with a customer’s landlineon the go. Using the new Bappapp, available for trial, Ziggo saidit lets users have their fixedtelephone number wherever theygo, even abroad, via WiFi or3G/4G connections. Bapp is aniOS and Android call appinstalled on a smartphone ortablet. Phone calls are made withthe same rates as through a fixedline and can also be used on allfixed and mobile numbers,something not possible with mostVoIP apps.Zeebox becomes BeamlySocial TV app Zeebox hasrebranded as Beamly as it seeks amore consumer friendly image.The company is relaunching itswebsite and iOS and Androidapps with the new branding, aswell as features that aim to getpeople logging in throughout theday to chat about their favouriteshows. The move is part of aneffort to show it’s a mainstreamproduct rather than just a synchronised Twitter TV guide forgeek to being a larger part of awider viewing experience. Thenew app encourages people to“follow” individual TV shows,celebrities and other Beamlyusers, before serving them up afeed of activity and show recommendations. Shows will have theirown “TV rooms” within the appwhere fans can chat and interact.Conax part of KudelskiThe Kudelski Group hascompleted its acquisition ofConax, the Oslo-based globalprovider of content protection fordigital TV services.10May-June 2014Netflix CEO fuels the flames and comesunder fireNet neutrality and internet peering have come under a new spotlightonce again thanks to Netflix’s recent actions. By Goran NasticReed Hastings has been accused ofwanting a “free lunch” by AT&Tafter the Netflix CEO called forISPs not to charge for betterinternet service quality as thenet neutrality debate enters anew chapter.In a widely publicised blogcomment last week, Hasting saidthat broadband companies shouldbe required to connect theirnetworks to major contentproviders such as Netflix for free,arguing that ISPs should not beable to charge an “arbitrary tax” forinterconnections to OTT services.“Netflix believes strong netneutrality is critical, but in the nearterm we will in cases pay the toll tothe powerful ISPs to protect ourconsumer experience. Withoutstrong net neutrality, big ISPs candemand potentially escalating feesfor the interconnection requiredto deliver high quality service,”he wrote.Hasting’s comment came lessthan a month after his companyagreed to pay Comcast to ensurethat its OTT service was deliveredwithout interruption. But it is theprinciple of paid peering thatconcerns Netflix in the long term,and Hastings now called forSource: Netflix on Apple TVwww.csimagazine.comstronger network neutrality rules andpositioned himself and the companyas a champion for net neutrality.Since then, AT&T senior executivevice president of external andlegislative affairs, Jim Cicconi,replied by labelling Hastings as“arrogant,” “self-righteous” and“expecting a free lunch.” He said thatinternet users who do not subscribeto Netflix shouldn’t have to crosssubsidise the bandwidth expansionrequired to ensure the delivery of theOTT service for those who do.Irrespective of whether some seethe recent deal between Comcast andNetflix (and now rumours of asimilar agreement between thecablenet and Apple) as a netneutrality issue or not, theinterconnection debate has onceagain captured the publicimagination as high profilecompanies enter a new wave ofnegotiations. CSI understands thatNetflix has reached similaragreements with Scandinavian andother European broadband operators.It was interesting to hear bothCable Europe and Cable Labsdismiss the relevance of these dealsand what they might mean for thefuture of OTT video. Cable Europepresident Manuel Kohnstamm (whois also SVP and chief policyofficer of Liberty Global) notedthat despite most peeringagreements being noncontractual in nature only a fewend up under dispute and evenfewer result in servicetermination. Cable Labs CTORalph Brown saw it as astandard peering relationship,albeit one that will result in abetter customer experience forboth parties.Apple is effectively looking to buyinto much the same experience,wanting to use Comcast’s accessnetwork in order to guarantee servicequality for its Apple TV users. Whilethe underlying idea of guaranteedQoS in an OTT environment is agood thing for the end-user the fearis that only companies with deeppockets will be able to afford these,preventing greater competition inthe future.If similar deals become morewidespread over time, BarclaysCapital analysts warned that theinternet is likely to fragment intomultiple managed services with thosehaving the ability to pay (like Appleand Netlfix) seeking preferentialaccess to the last mile.“While this is likely to raisequestions on net neutrality, in ourview, this is likely to be a completelydifferent commercial service offeredby cable companies to companieslike Apple who want to have an offnetwork presence apart from apresence on the internet,” wroteKannan Venkateshwar and Benjamin.Reitzes in an equity research note.“In fact, this is likely to flip thewhole net neutrality debate on itshead as large internet companies likeApple and Google, who have beensupposedly the victims of the netneutrality debate thus far, are likelyto actively seek an alternative pathoutside the internet for higher qualityof service, especially when it comesto video. Therefore, instead of theentire focus of net neutrality beingon the distribution leg, we believeincreasing focus is also likely tobe paid to the edge providers,”they added.It is a discussion that is likely torun and run for some time to come.

News analysisTiVo sees Horizon TV opportunities oneyear after Liberty-Virgin dealGoran Nastic looks at TiVo’s relationship with Liberty Global thecompany’s wider European ambitionsTiVo sees interesting opportunitiesacross the Liberty Global footprint,including some integration with theHorizon TV service. The company istalking to more cablenets but saysthere is a “fear” of decision makingon advanced platforms which isstifling progress.When LGI acquired Virgin Mediaa year or so ago there waswidespread speculation at CableCongress 2013 whether that meantit would ditch the popular TiVobrand in the UK in favour of its ownmulti-million Horizon gateway anduser experience. Fast forward 12months and it seems that TiVo hasfar loftier ambitions.“The discussion now is different.We have a closer relationship withLGI and hope there are more thingswe can do perhaps outside of theVirgin Media footprint although it’spremature to talk about anythingspecific. We know a lot more abouttheir needs and them about ourtechnology so there may be someinteresting opportunities there,”Naveen Chopra, CFO and seniorVP of corporate developmentand strategy at TiVo told CSIat the March Cable Congressin Amsterdam.Another opportunity is mixingthe TiVo and Horizon platformsunderneath the hood. “There’s alot of technology below, inside thetwo UXs, that end users don’t seeSource: TiVoand that’s where you may seesome more blending but againthere is nothing specific yet,”said Chopra.Chopra also outlined thecomplexities of integrating Netflixwith cable set-top boxes, somethingit has achieved in the US and alsoVirgin Media and Com Hem inSweden. “The first time we didit was quite challenging and wethink that’s why to this date thereis only one cable software platformthat has integrated Netflix. It’s nottrivial. There’s a lot of uniquetechnology that Netflix uses youhave to carefully integrate intothe experience and do that in away that doesn’t feel siloed for theconsumer. So the first time itwas quite a lift,” he noted.It was recently announced thatover 2.5 cable customers across thecompany’s three partners in Europe– Virgin Media, Com Hem andSpan’s Ono - now use the company’stechnology, which Chopra largelyattributes to its ability to simplify theconsumer experience.Given TiVo’s success in its threeEuropean markets – indeed, the threeMSO partners regularly praise theservice and the impact it has had onviewing, ARPU and other metrics –why hasn’t it been taken up by moreEuropean MSOs?Chopra admitted this is a questionTiVo asks itself and alludes to cable’smore conservative tendenciesit is traditionally known for. “Thepace of decision making is not asfast as we’d like it to be. We don’tsee a lot of operators who areinvesting in advanced platforms,or doing so with vastly differentpartners. It seems to be more thatthere’s a fear of making a decisionSource: TiVoon advanced platforms. There’s toomany people trying to do takeindividual unique approaches asopposed to leveraging a lot ofwhat’s already out there.“We hope the pace in investingin those types of projects beginsto quicken (something that LGIexecutives called for at last year’sCable Congress). I think that willstart to change as momentumcontinues to build and competitiveenvironment continues to grow,”Chopra said, adding that TiVois in discussions with a numberof European MSOs, although itwas to soon to know how thesewill pan out.news in briefYahoo may do originalprogrammingYahoo is reportedly planning tomake its own TV shows, part of astrategy to shift advertisers’budgets to online. The onlinegiant aims to schedule tenepisode, half-hour comedies withper-episode budgets ranging from 700,000 to a few million dollars,according to the Wall StreetJournal. The projects would beled by writers and directors withtelevision experience.Europe gets African OTTcontentPan-African bouquet Seeafrika isdeploying RGB technology toenable the delivery of its over-thetop video services targetingmillions of users across Europe.Seeafrika plans to roll out 30channels to subscribers in theinitial stage of its deployment.While its OTT services are aimedpredominantly at viewers usingAndroid and iOS-based devices,this is expected to expand to anyIP-enabled device as Seeafrika’ssubscription base grows.Imagine acquires DigitalRapidsImagine Communications hasacquired Digital Rapids as itpursues its new multi-screenstrategy. Imagine recently splitfrom Harris Broadcast to focusexclusively on IP, software, cloudand TV Everywhere, which theacquisition of Digital Rapidsshould compliment. The Torontocompany’s software-basedworkflow management,transcoding and encodingsolutions will integrate withImagine’s existing mezzaninequality origination encoding,ABR transcoding and CDNsoftware. Terms of the acqusitionwere not disclosed.www.csimagazine.comMay-June 201411

Analyst cornerThe end of the linefor linear 3DTV?The number of linear 3DTV channel closures is nowexceeding the number of launchesThree years after first launch,the future for linear 3DTVlooks bleak. The number of3DTV channel closures isnow exceeding the number oflaunches. That’s not the sortof trend that signals a brightand rosy future. Pay TV operators across the worldare shutting down their 3DTV channels, usuallyciting lack of viewership. Our analysis includesonly true linear 3DTV channels and excludeson-demand services and test channels, butnonetheless, it looks increasingly like the nail isfirmly in the coffin of 3DTV.Early evangelists for 3DTV spoke in awe ofthe viewing experience that 3DTV offered, livefootball was screened in 3D to great fanfare inpubs across the globe and 3D movies that enjoyedsome success in cinemas were seen as the perfectcontent to transfer to the next-generation ofin-home viewing experience.All along the value chain, 3DTV offered alifeline. For TV manufacturers, 3DTV offered thelatest shield in an ever-expanding feature list thatallowed them to battle the price commoditisationthat manufacturers face on an annual basis.For infrastructure owners, the high bandwidthdemanding 3DTV channels (compared tostandard definition), came along just as HDTVlooked to be slowing. For pay TV operators,3DTV represented the latest premium offering,either as a direct tier up-se

DOCSIS 3.1, CCAP, WiFi and seamless mobility and other hot topics influencing cable 24 Cable special part III: Cable Congress review The last part of our cable special coverage looks back at Cable Congress 2014, which this year strongly focused on what wireless and mobility can do for cable 25 Viewpoint There is more to social TV than just Twitter