Growing multiscreen viewing trend opens up new opportunities for pay-TV providers

A new report from Pyramid Research has found that as the consumer demand for OTT services increases, pay-TV providers are being forced to adapt and evolve their business proposition to provide multiscreen models to better satisfy their growing customer base. Such huge changes present massive opportunities for the pay-TV industry to introduce multiscreen business models, increase customer loyalty and generate higher revenues.

We’ve already seen significant second screen growth. Last year’s sporting summer provided the perfect opportunity for consumers to get to grips with their new multiscreen TV options to keep up to date with the latest scores and results.

The UK also saw social media conversations rocket during popular programmes such as the X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent, and of course, the Olympics, as consumers shared their thoughts on what they were witnessing on TV with their peers. Demonstrating this, a staggering 150 million tweets were posted during London 2012, making last summer’s games the very first social Olympics. This growing trend has brought with it an influx of companion apps being introduced to the market, such as our very own ANT Galio Move. Apps like this extend the TV experience, allowing consumers to interact with their favourite TV shows, follow relevant hashtags on Twitter and discuss their views with friends online, all from a second screen.

Consumers are getting increasingly comfortable using multiple screens and interacting directly with the programmes that they’re watching, and the pay-TV industry is no different. Consumers now want to watch video services on multiple screens, and as a result, pay-TV providers must now evolve to meet their customer bases’ changing requirements. Launching OTT-like video services enables pay-TV providers to extend their reach to a new wave of customers. It’s an exciting time for the industry, with huge opportunities to create new, additional, revenue streams for those prepared to respond to changing consumer viewing behaviour.

Twitter spikes demonstrate links between TV and social media

After a year of sport which saw the Olympics come to the UK, a Brit win a tennis major,  Chelsea win the European Champions League and a Briton claim cycling’s Yellow Jersey Twitter has revealed that seven of the top ten trending stories in 2012 were related to sport.

As the nation was glued to their screens by a compelling year of sport, 2012 also became the year when viewers truly interacted with the content they were witnessing. At one point, fans were tweeting so much while watching a sports event it even impacted the coverage carried by the BBC.

For the connected TV market, 2012 has shown the potential for companion device applications. It’s something we’ve believed in for a long time, and that we’ve continued to develop in our own product range by adding new features such as Twitter integration to ANT Galio Move. New viewing behaviour is driving the development of new TV applications that will enhance the overall experience, which can only be good news for consumers.

BBC scales back Red Button video ahead of connected TV service

The BBC has recently announced that they’re scaling back their use of “red button” video ahead of a wider deployment of their connected TV service.  Given the success of iPlayer, this isn’t entirely surprising.  The use of broadcast services for delivering alternative video streams is both expensive, because you have to pay for the spectrum to broadcast it, and inherently limited because there are only so many alternative streams that you can carry at any time.

The BBC’s excellent coverage of the Olympics showed the value of alternative streams, by allowing everyone to choose which Olympic events they wanted to watch.  While this is feasible as a one-off for high-profile events such as the Olympics (if you’ve got a satellite or cable subscription that can handle all of the extra channels that are needed), it doesn’t work so well in day-to-day situations because of the limited number of streams that you can carry.  Broadcasters end up having to make a choice of what alternative streams to provide - not only to fit them into the available channels, but also to maximise the use of those channels.

The success of catch-up services on smart TVs has shown that customers will accept streamed video, and services such as the “Tagesschau” service in Germany (which provides news on demand) show the advantages of a connected approach, especially as the adoption of connected TVs grows.  The flexibility of connected TV services offer a big advantage over broadcast-based alternative video streams, and over time users will see real benefits from this through the increased availability of alternative content.

It’s Official: Sport is Social

The British public is embracing second screening as part of their everyday viewing habits. According to Sky, 75% of people now watch TV with a second connected device in hand. During the Olympics, over 150 million tweets were posted, making it one of the most talked-about events ever on Twitter. It confirms that big sporting events trail only breaking national news for stimulating social networking.

Now, social networking sites are not only being used to discuss programming, but to choose what to watch too. 24% of 18 to 24 year-olds use Facebook and 9% use Twitter to find something to watch on TV. Remarkably, over one in ten of us are now turning on TVs because of what we’ve seen on social media.

According to Broadband TV News, BBC’s iPlayer received a record 196 million views over the Olympics, with almost a fifth coming from mobile and tablet devices. This, along with the Ryder Cup, has given sport 30% of the online viewing market.

Sport is reacting to this too. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the world’s fastest growing sport, and this could well be down to social media and second screening. For example, Head of UFC’s parent company, Dana White, has over 2.2 million followers, and before the main fight, on pay-per-view, supporting events are shown live on Facebook. Sport has always engendered debate, something which second screening and social media can only help to grow. In the weird and wacky world of professional wrestling, WWE recently acquired social networking site Tout, and now regularly uses content from Tout in its broadcast programming.

All of this means sports fans and content providers are using multiple platforms to source, consume, and enjoy more entertainment at once. In this regard, sports content is ahead of the market, but it will surely only be a matter of time before other content providers start to integrate further in this way.

Beijing Olympics: A test for TV

The Beijing Olympic Games will surely be a test for the TV industry. For the first time in Olympic history, there will be complete global online coverage of the events.

Major broadcasters such as NBC and BBC, technology providers like Adobe and Microsoft and content networks like Google's Youtube are all getting ready for the online battle.The Athens 2004 Olympics broke all global TV viewing records with near 4 billion unique people watching the games at least once, and a cumulative audience at around 40 billion. However, at that time online broadcast coverage was only available to a few territories.

But times are a-changing. This will be the first games when online streaming video will be availabile to mass audiences. NBC will offer more than 2,000 hours of live video coverage and 3,000 hours of on-demand video on its website. The BBC holds the exclusive rights for the Olympics content in the UK and will bring daily highlights to its iPlayer service. Meanwhile, Youtube has managed to get the rights for online video coverage of the event in the 77 territories that aren't officially covered by Olympic sponsors.

The increasing popularity of streaming video combined with the expectations raised by the Beijing Games will surely boost web traffic and possibly be the greatest test the broadcast and telco industries have faced to date.

Chinese tune into IPTV ahead of Olympics

Chinese tune into IPTV ahead of Olympics

Telco operators in China are experiencing record numbers of new subscribers signing up to their IPTV services ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games next week, say reports in the Shanghai Morning Post.

China Telecom is estimated to be receiving around 3,000 applications for IPTV services each day, thanks in part to a replay function that allows users to revisit programmes aired within the past 48 hours. Shanghai Telecom has also said that it will promote a new service during the Olympics that will enable viewers to watch different sporting events on different windows in the same screen.

Limited content has previously been cited as one of major factors for slower IPTV uptake in China. The Olympic Games will be the first major test for IPTV in China so all eyes will be on the major operators…as well as the athletes, of course;-)