“We believe that if a user needs more than 120 seconds to find content, they are likely to think that ‘there is nothing to watch on TV today’ and move on to a different service, or do something else. Some months we are within our 120-second KPI and other months we are not, partly depending on what’s on TV. In those months we are learning so we can improve performance.”

In a world increasingly full of catch-up, VOD and recordings, let alone hundreds of linear channels and streaming apps, the 120-second benchmark is an ambitious target, but careful content curation (by a curation team) and personalisation are keys to the success so far. Technical optimisations also help, with the live TV player and VOD player optimised for their respective consumption models, for example. The EPG shows now-and-next but also goes back in time so viewers can browse backwards for catch-up TV.

Allente is the result of the merger between Viasat Consumer and Canal Digital in May 2020 and Allente 1 was the first set-top box platform built for the new entity, with a streaming dongle following in February this year, with the latter aimed primarily at streaming-only customers but also available for use in DTH and IPTV homes. Allente 1 is based on Android TV Operator Tier and the streaming hub runs on Google TV.

Allente 1 achieved a significant first by using Google Common Broadcast Stack (CBS), which is designed to simplify integration with broadcast signals in hybrid boxes of this kind (Allente 1 is designed for use across DTH and IPTV homes, with streaming in parallel). “All the technical heavy lifting on CA and middleware integrations are already done (with CBS), so we can spend our time developing an awesome UX for customers,” Nergård said.

He told the London conference that Allente also made “a little tweak” to allow this STB platform to work without an Internet connection. “Some of our DTH customers, especially, do not have Internet, so that is something we had to support. We managed that, running on Android TV.”

Nergård described Allente 1 as “the king of our hardware” and also noted how consumer marketing for Allente 1 presents the Pay TV offer as the king of entertainment. Like other major Pay TV providers (Allente has approx. one million subscribers), the operator pulls key streaming services into the experience and the content discovery journey is designed to allow fast entry to those streaming apps, with a single log-in (connected to the Allente ID) smoothing the process.

Nergård explained how Allente is also experimenting with what he called ‘content worlds’, which can be categorised by genre or other properties. ‘Action’ is one example. “We gather everything [content] that is classified as ‘Action’ into one area. We could take that further: sport is a big part of our offer and a sports content world is where users could access the next matches, and matches that have already been played. It would be where you can follow your teams. There can be related content, like football documentaries, including from third-party applications. You can gather everything inside one area.”

Allente 1 is not just a consumer product – it is also the hardware for Allente’s impressive B2B offer, which numbers more than 8,000 customers, including pubs and clubs. The company is exploiting the obvious opportunity to upgrade the hospitality entertainment experience in hotels [where most in-room systems are way behind the advanced content centric UX, super-aggregation and personalisation seen in the consumer market]. The new B2B offer was unveiled in July 2021. “We are modernising how you deliver a TV service in hotel rooms across the Nordics, making it cheaper and more efficient for hotels to onboard, while delivering the same UX you see at home,” the Allente executive confirmed.

A key principle throughout the development of Allente 1 and the new streaming hub was that Nergård’s team should focus on value-add development like the UX, with the use of Android TV and Google TV making lower-level middleware and hardware functions less of a burden.

There is no long-term future for the standard Pay TV operator ‘app among apps’ model as seen on Smart TVs today, however, as this cannot support Deutsche Telekom’s big vision for what an aggregator should look like in future. Bandeira made it clear that the role of super-aggregator, multi-app subscriptions manager and holistic content discovery agent requires an elevated status for the Pay TV television screen presence. DT needs to be the primary app, not just another app, on any television, he believes.

Bandeira was speaking at Connected TV World Summit in London, and you can read about his ‘future aggregator’ and ‘future of operator CPE’ vision in a separate story, here.

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He then made it clear that while the set-top box is the essential device for supporting these aims today, Deutsche Telekom will have to take a position directly on the glass [television set] itself, eventually, with less reliance on HDMI inputs. The company will have to enable a virtual STB scenario in collaboration with Smart TV makers – meaning an operator app replaces the STB, and this app is the default content and UI experience that someone sees when turning on their Smart TV (if that home is a customer of the Pay TV provider). If this cannot be achieved, DT will need to follow Sky’s example and launch their own Smart TVs.

Throughout his presentation, Bandeira spoke on behalf of Deutsche Telekom, outlining its plan and thinking. But this felt like his vision for an industry, too. His belief that a Pay TV provider must be present directly on the television glass chimes with the philosophy at Sky, which has already taken matters into its own hands with the revolutionary Sky Glass (a Sky OS/UX embedded into a private-labelled Smart TV designed and retailed by Sky). But where Sky moved directly to ‘building’ its own televisions, Bandeira made it clear that DT wanted to avoid this if, possible, and would first seek the Smart TV partnerships that would support the virtual STB model.

Bandeira began by outlining the challenges a Pay TV provider like Deutsche Telekom faces. “We are still in the middle of a transformation cycle that involves a shift from linear to non-linear consumption and also a very important change from service provider centric to content centric. Content brands that used to have us in the middle, as a broker, try to go direct-to-consumer to deliver their services.

“This is a fundamental change and something operators must be aware of as we prepare our TV services for the future.”

He outlined one all-embracing principle and three pillars that will underpin the future of Pay TV. First, the principle: “We must deliver an unbreakable service with the best video and audio quality. We must do a lot of background work to support this.” Then he moved onto the pillars.

“First and foremost, aggregate, aggregate, aggregate – and when you are tired of aggregation, aggregate some more! We must have the content [that consumers want] available. This is fundamental – it is what differentiates us from the other guys who do not have that content.” He added that content is king, and today some popular content may be hosted by one streaming service, and tomorrow it could move to another. It is the Pay TV provider’s responsibility to keep track and provide the access.

“Then you need to aggregate the subscriptions, enabling ‘subscribe’ and ‘unsubscribe’ [for the multiple subscription streaming apps that are onboarded as part of the super-aggregator role]. It is one thing to have the apps [the streaming content services, within your UX] but lots of people have them, so what is your real value, because over time that [having the apps] will not be enough. You need to put smartness into your aggregation.

“In the same way that someone can subscribe [to an app] in one click, they should be able to unsubscribe in one click directly on your TV service. It is very important that we give simplicity to consumers with one single billing relationship. We should be the main touchpoint with consumers who want to take those services. We are the middleman, so we must take ownership of this position.”

Bandeira’s third pillar is content-centric discovery. “This is where we can make a huge difference. Discovery should be independent of who is delivering the content. The consumer should not have to think about where the shows are that they want to consume, whether they are in Netflix, Disney or Amazon, and they might not know, anyway, but we have the answer for that.”

He pointed out that Deutsche Telekom’s focus on content aggregation, discovery and personalisation in the UI is not unique, and acknowledged that the quality of execution is key. “We do the fine-tuning based on the data, what is working and what is not working, and that is very important,” he pointed out.

Bandeira highlighted how Deutsche Telekom’s customer premise equipment strategy must align with these requirements, which led to the conclusion that the set-top box is still essential, for now. “The STB is the only place today where we can fully deliver on our vision for super-aggregation and a seamless subscribe/unsubscribe experience. I can’t do this on a third-party device. So, the STB is still central to our strategy today, but it can become less fundamental.”

The typical Pay TV operator app on a Smart TV, as seen today, is not part of the long-term CPE strategy, Bandeira revealed. “We are not happy to be just an app on an interface; I don’t want to be just an app.” He acknowledged that Deutsche Telekom’s Pay TV service (MagentaTV) is available on Smart TVs as an app, of course. [It is available on all Tizen OS Samsung Smart TVs since 2017, Sony Smart TVs running Android TV since 2015 and on all Android TV Smart TVs running Android 7, 8 and 9.] “But I am not happy to continue in this way in the future, as just an app on a Smart TV.

“If I am just an app on a Smart TV, then over time I will lose engagement with consumers because they will spend less time with me on my experience and more time with all the other apps that are available in the same UI. I can only replace the STB if I can replicate the STB experience without one, and that means I have to be the main app on the [Smart TV] ecosystem, where I contain the other apps [e.g. Netflix, Discovery, local broadcasters] in my app, as seen in my STB.”

Bandeira continued: “Being the aggregator that manages the subscribe and unsubscribe [across multiple third-party apps] is also fundamental, but this is very difficult if you are just one of the apps in the ecosystem. You have to control the experience, like you do today on the STB.”

This brought the Deutsche Telekom executive to his future CPE roadmap, because he made it clear that despite these reservations, his company does want to look beyond STBs. “Aggregating directly on the TV panel, without an STB, is the Holy Grail, and we need to do this. UIs in Smart TVs are becoming better and better. As an industry, we had a head-start on Smart TV makers, but they are catching up, and some UIs are becoming really good.

“These [Smart TV] guys are becoming our competitors with regards to aggregation, and they are well placed for this role because they have the [television] display in the customer home.”

So, how do you work around this, Bandeira asked the audience before answering for them. “We are working on two possible paths simultaneously, A and B. Either we will be successful with A, or we move to B,” he told the Connected TV World Summit audience.

“Path A is where you can broker a deal with TV providers in which you become the [primary] app. When someone buys the television, it asks if they are a Deutsche Telekom customer or if they take their Pay TV service from named competitors. If you are a Deutsche Telekom customer, you then get the Deutsche Telekom experience. We become the [primary TV] app. This is the path we would like to follow because doing [making, private-labelling, retailing] TVs is not our core business.

“But, if we are not successful on this path, we might need to go the other route, and ‘do’ televisions, in a similar way to Sky [with Sky Glass]. That is the only way you can continue to be relevant [as a Pay TV operator] in that case [where virtual STB on third-party branded Smart TVs is ruled out].”

Finally, Bandeira declared that Deutsche Telekom’s vision to be the super-aggregator and the subscriptions manager, as well as the primary content discovery agent, should not be limited to the STB today and the Smart TV (virtual STB or ‘DT Glass’) in the future. He is interested in mirroring this Pay TV role across multi-screen devices too, which requires a promotion for the classic operator TV Everywhere mobile/laptop app.

Noting that multiscreen devices are especially important to younger generations, he asked: “Why not apply the same vision to the smartphone or tablet, with an app that aggregates other apps? Of course, you can’t be the super-app on ecosystems that Google and Apple control, but you can still recreate the concept of an app that can aggregate other content apps and provide [unified] discovery and subscriptions [management]. That will give you service continuity between the experience you offer on a TV set and the experience you offer on these other touchpoints. This is a clear part of our vision.”

The DT executive concluded: “Our vision [for the role of Pay TV operators in future and the CPE that underpins it] puts us on a long path, and one we started a long time ago, but it is fundamental to the sustainability [economic] of the TV business, because we feel the TV ecosystem is going to become more and more challenged unless we do this. There is risk, but there is opportunity to capitalise by doing things that others cannot.”

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First, Swisscom provides its notable sports content, plus films and documentaries to its rival Pay TV provider, Sunrise (the Liberty Global subsidiary), but not as linear broadcast channels. The content is made available via the blue TV app that has been onboarded on Sunrise set-top boxes. The evolution of the user experience is most obvious for football fans (seeking Super League, UEFA Champions League, Serie A, LaLiga, Premier League, Ligue1, etc. via blue TV). Where once a typical European sports rights licensing deal would have involved linear channels being made available via another Pay TV provider, the sports package on blue TV is accessed only via the onboarded app – and that includes live matches.

blue TV means that, in effect, Swisscom has become a direct-to-consumer app on the Sunrise set-top boxes, since Swisscom creates a customer relationship with the viewers. It also means that more premium sports TV viewing will be via unicast streaming. Schmidt pointed to greater UX control as a key advantage of the new blue TV app approach to distribution partnerships, contrasting the lack of control over licensed linear channels to the way that blue TV transports the brand and the Swisscom-defined UX.

Swisscom has created a common HTML5 browser-based app that can be used across operator set-top boxes (i.e., Sunrise) and on Smart TVs. This app also means that blue TV is available on Samsung television models dating from 2018 and on LG televisions back to 2017. Single app development was a key goal for Swisscom. “Like every major operator, we have to watch where we invest our resource and creating individualised apps for each platform is a development effort we did not want to bear,” Schmidt noted.

The second notable device and distribution innovation at Swisscom is the recent introduction of Apple TV devices as a second set-top box option shipped by Swisscom for on-network Swisscom customers (in a Swisscom home). These now sit alongside the ‘original’ Swisscom-developed STB platform that harnesses Android Open Source Project. This also turns Swisscom Pay TV into an app experience and delivers content as unicast ABR, rather than the classic multicast IPTV delivery into the classic Swisscom-developed STBs.

“Swisscom is an Apple-fan country with a very high iPhone penetration,” Schmidt says, pointing to why Apple was chosen as a new device partner. “Most of the [user] experience is identical [on the Apple TV devices to what you get with the Swisscom-developed STB].”

Swisscom already made its television service available as an app on retail Apple TV devices. But Apple also runs the Apple TV Distribution Program that enables Pay TV operators to become a specially integrated app experience on the Apple TV set-top devices – a similar approach to Android TV Operator Tier.

The new Apple STB app was built for the tvOS environment (so is different to the HTML5 app above). Swisscom appears as a very prominent app on the home screen and if you press the EPG button, the grid that appears is served through the Swisscom app. “You are more deeply integrated in this partnership [than when providing an app on a retail connected TV device] and that is why we consider this an equal set-top box, alongside ours,” Schmidt told the Connected TV World Summit conference two weeks ago.

All content, including the approx. 15 UHD linear channels from Swisscom, are served as unicast ABR streams through the Apple TV set-tops – which becomes the first unicast STB deployed by Swisscom. Asked about the trajectory towards all-ABR television, Schmidt pointed out that everyone knows the world is moving to all ‘OTT’ whether in the near or far future.

“There is a lot of innovation in this direction, so we will be driven in this direction. Companies will need core networks that are ready for unicast [as the default TV delivery].”

Addressing the challenges associated with the expansion of the Swisscom addressable market via the blue TV retail apps (on Smart TVs and connected devices owned by the consumer, and not supplied by Swisscom, including in non-Swisscom homes), Schmidt pointed to the need to support legacy devices with weak CPUs and ensure strong new partnerships so changes on the CTV device (like a browser update) do not kill your app. “You must also work on the operations advice for customers that call you, if anything needs to be fixed.”

He also highlighted a UX challenge thrown up by the often-streamlined remote controls on retail CTV devices (and indeed, on the Apple TV set-top boxes). “You are no longer in charge of the remote control and how many buttons you have, so a lot of attention has been paid to how we maintain a superior user experience with less navigation commands.”

Phil Cardy, Vice President, International PLM, Home Networks, CommScope, said: “Telenor Sverige is a leading service provider that wants to grow its business with a new video offering. By using a solution powered by Android TV from the Home Networks’ business, Telenor Sverige will deliver a great viewing experience to its customers with its own branded user interface using a solution that is compact and easy to install.”

Hanna Idstam, Manager TV and Media, Telenor Sverige, commented: “We are excited to offer our customers a new TV and entertainment experience by deploying CommScope’s innovative set top solution. CommScope’s expertise in deploying solutions powered by Android TV enabled us to deliver a rich, entertainment offering that our customers have come to expect.”

The telco also collaborated with 24i – a streaming solutions provider – on the STB, who provided the software platform to power the set top’s live and on-demand viewing experience. The software platform also supports unified search and single sign-on and, according to the companies, gives Telenor “the freedom to build and design its own user interfaces.”

Dr. Neale Foster, CEO, 24i, said: “24i is delighted to support our friends at Telenor Sverige with its on-going service enhancement, including the rollout of this new generation of Android TV set tops, powered by the same 24i software platform that brings the Telenor Sverige customer experience to existing set tops, iOS and Android mobile phones as well as Apple TV devices.”

Bravo noted: “OTT technology simplifies all the technology standards we have to use in our devices, which has time-to-market benefits. And you can see the amount of investment in set-top boxes by big streaming companies. Until now we had lots of legacy in the broadcast and multicast space. We have created a new television ecosystem – a single product for all our NatCos. Now we must improve OTT capacity and move customers to the new ecosystem.”

Interviewed by Andy Waltenspiel, Managing Director at Waltenspiel Management Consulting, Bravo confirmed that Deutsche Telekom views the set-top box as a key control point and a device it is committed to, even though it is seeking ways to implement its full Pay TV operator experience on other devices. He agreed with comments his boss, Pedro Bandeira (VP Product and New Business, Europe at Deutsche Telekom) made previously (elsewhere) that the TV industry had possibly under-invested in CPE in recent years.

“It is clear the customer experience is connected to what happens in their homes and that applies to all CPE, not only set-top boxes,” Bravo noted. “People thought for many years that telcos were selling X Mb of fibre or xDSL but, to be honest, we were selling Wi-Fi, and for that you need the best devices. I think we need more powerful devices, and you need to control the number of providers that you use – if you have a zoo [of devices] you have lifecycle management issues.”

In January this year Deutsche Telekom launched its MagentaTV One STB, powered by Android TV OS, in Germany to deliver its premium TV experience. This follows the introduction of the Android TV OS powered MagentaTV Stick in 2020. On the partnership with Android, Bravo pointed to the importance of apps aggregation and the ability to scale apps availability. Asked about the decision to choose Android TV over a home-grown OS, he said: “You have to think about the trade-off between control of the user experience and scalability.”

Asked how Deutsche Telekom can differentiate in the super-aggregation function, he pointed to the need for “an excellent user experience for content discovery and the way you implement that with different [consumer/content] touch points.”

Touching upon non-STB device strategy, Bravo acknowledged that Deutsche Telekom was watching Sky Glass with interest. He did not rule out the possibility of DT making its Pay TV experience available through its own television sets, too. “We are tracking this proposition to see if it makes sense,” he told the London audience.

The set-top-box’s middleware is fully integrated with the Android TV software stack, enabling new pre-certified Android TV capabilities. Among these is Custom Over-The-Air Update which the company says “accelerat[es] the introduction of new appealing features”. Allente has also said that PVR functionality will be rollout with the deployment later in 2022.

The move represents the latest collaboration between Allente and 3SS. The Nordic Pay TV operator’s first 3SS enabled satellite and OTT service – OnePlace – was launched by Canal Digital in 2018. This new deployment adheres to the “SAFe” (Scaled Agile Framework) – a practical experience-based software development framework, brought to Canal Digital first by 3SS.

Kai-Christian Borchers, Managing Director of 3SS said, “In making its super-aggregated service available to consumers in so many ways, Allente is yet again demonstrating its abiding commitment to providing a superior entertainment experience to all subscribers, on satellite, OTT and IPTV. Allente is at the vanguard of technological innovation and customer focus, and we are extremely proud of our long and ongoing partnership.”

Jon Espen Nergård, CTO of Allente said, “We’re very excited to now offer our next-generation service to subscribers via satellite, IPTV and OTT streaming. We thank our amazing partners KAON and 3SS, and all our technology collaborators, in helping us provide our customers with a rich array of content, including their favourite apps, all wrapped in a world-class 3SS-enabled experience and delivered on KAON’s powerful STB.”

Tom Buhl, Executive Vice President of KAONMEDIA commented, “We congratulate Allente for going live with its next-gen TV offering, which is bringing a truly advanced service, abundant with top entertainment, to viewers across the Nordic region.”

Allente was established by a merger of Canal Digital and Viasat Consumer in 2020, and is owned 50/50 by Telenor Group and NENT. It provides TV and broadband services to over a million customers in Norway, Finland, Denmark and Sweden.

Waoo viewers can now receive integrated search results from across the Waoo platform, including catch-up TV, the EPG and more than 12,000 TV and movie titles available to rent in the Waoo Bio VOD store. The Android boxes will include Disney+, Discovery+, Viaplay and the national broadcaster DR as preloaded, onboarded apps. Network PVR is part of the service.

“Aggregation is the keyword. Using our existing 24i streaming platform to reach Android TV boxes with the Google Play Store means we can offer our customers a wider range of attractive content,” declares Martin Jürgensen, Waoo’s Senior Product Development Manager. “This box is a versatile media hub in the home.”

He adds: “The new Universal Search function is already proving popular with our subscribers. As a viewer, you just have one place to go to find the content you’re looking for, so you don’t have to browse all kinds of catalogues and archives. You can just start entering the name of an actor or a show and then the result will pop up. It’s an easy way to discover content and it works across all devices including STBs, web and mobile phones.”

Joachim Bergman, CEO at 24i, says: “We are delighted to support Waoo on their step into content super-aggregation. The combination of a custom Android TV launcher and our cloud-hosted Universal Search solution is a great way to give customers what they want – quality, choice and convenience.”

Interested in super-aggregation?

This May, Connected TV World Summit will explore how Pay TV stays relevant in a world where content exclusivity is harder to achieve (due to studio direct-to-consumer services and streamers fighting for sports rights). A key theme is how to master super-aggregation (for platforms and for streaming services). You can find out more about the event here and register here.

Canal+ International faced challenges partnering with another STB supplier, including providing the same quality of service across both device suppliers, as well as the number of global territories which would need specific adaptations based on their language, security and connectivity requirements, alongside other elements.

To maintain identical service across STBs, iWedia will port Canal+ International’s pre-existing software solutions to the new STB supplier, including the ‘Zapper solution’ – a Linux-based system  that supports consistent service in areas without Internet connectivity. iWedia has ensured “security requirements are in place, PVR solutions are accessible, and connected services can be made available via 3G dongles” for the new STB supplier. It will also work with Canal+ International and both suppliers on maintenance and software updates across STBs.

Jerome Trift, CANAL+ International’s CTO, said, “It was clear that this project, while necessary, would add significant complexity to our existing software solution, and we needed a reliable partner to help us. With iWedia’s extensive software integration experience in the market, we were confident that they could work with us to solve any challenges and ensure a smooth launch for our expanded service, as well as provide continued software maintenance across both STBs in the years ahead.”

Hans-Jürgen Desor, CEO, iWedia, says, “iWedia’s work on this project has certainly been complex, not least due to the diverse needs of many territories to consider… CANAL+ International invests heavily in its diverse territories, with local content that supports local cultures and affordable bouquets of services available in financially disadvantaged regions. Its customers will continue to receive a high quality and reliable service experience, whichever STB they choose.”

Jeroen Ghijsen, CEO of Metrological, says, “The Lightning-based Deezer app was built to provide the optimal music experience on TV. Now, our global operator customer base can seamlessly access Deezer’s extensive catalogue of songs, playlists, podcasts and more from the comfort of their living room.”

The version of Deezer in the Metrological App Library was developed in the open and lightweight Lightning app development language and Software Development Kit. “This SDK is tailor-built for developing high quality UX and browser-based TV apps with great, native like, performance,” Metrological says. “Lightning optimises the user experience for high-performance apps across next-gen, as well as memory constrained legacy devices.”

With a Deezer premium subscription, the Deezer music streaming app provides listeners with access to an audio catalogue of more than 73 million songs, podcasts and radio stations. Deezer is free, with a subscription then unlocking premium features.

Miall-d’Aout adds: “We want all our users to enjoy simple, highly relevant and personalised content no matter what platform they prefer to use. Deezer helps companies improve customer satisfaction and boost long term ARPU.”