ADB has been outlining its vision for the future of Pay TV and for broadband/TV providers in particular, pointing to the need for multi-screen services that not only make video content available around the home but which also deliver ‘connected life’ services like energy management and Skype video conferencing on every screen. Making all devices work together seamlessly in a way that is easy for consumers to manage, and ensuring a good Quality of Experience (QoE), are some of the challenges that will keep ADB and their operator customers occupied.
Having acquired Pirelli Broadband Solutions in late 2010, ADB Group has spent the last couple of years integrating the business and restructuring, which means there are now five divisions within the company: Broadband, Broadcast, Services, US Cable and Systems. The company has pruned the business, in its own words, which meant cutting some low-margin products including the UK free-to-air retail receiver range.
The logic for the Pirelli deal was to support the convergence of broadcast and broadband in the home and help service providers manage the connectivity and QoE needed. ADB emphasised this week that it offers complete solutions and not just devices for the fully connected home.
There is an assumption now that consumers will be watching Pay TV video or interacting with that content in some way on various screens inside the home and this is summed up in the slogan ‘Treating the entire home as a Pay TV customer’. The concept of owning the home, rather than just the living room, embraces multi-screen TV but also multi-room, something ADB is already enabling for customers.
According to Paul Bristow, VP Strategy at ADB, “In the UK, Freeview is big for the second and third TV because people have not been able to provide a good Pay TV offer to those screens but in future operators can provide exactly the same services to the third or even a fourth screen.†He reckons the strength of DTT in the secondary rooms will diminish as a result.
Bristow believes it is time for operators to stop thinking about OTT providers as competition and start looking at them as another channel provider, a partner that can be fully integrated into the service. The challenge is to bring the OTT services into the home in a managed and coherent way and then make them available everywhere.
ADB refers to ‘super content’ to describe the combination of television, OTT and additional services that need to be made available everywhere. This includes energy management, health services, security and even gaming (the first three of which, at least, are being highlighted by analyst groups as new options for broadband providers looking to make themselves more sticky or grow revenues). “If you look at the ‘Follow Me’ capability to pause TV content and resume it on another device, there is no reason why you cannot do the same with a Skype call. You can move smart energy metering to another screen,†Bristow argues.
ADB remains focused on ensuring even the most basic television functions can help differentiate a Pay TV experience. This means fast channel change and fast EPG refresh times, for example. The consumer experience is key, and complex concepts like device interoperability must be made to work in practice and made simple.
With the Pirelli Broadband activities integrated, ADB Group has over 40 million digital TV and broadband gateways deployed. Today the company revenues are split between digital TV equipment (excluding IPTV) at 58%, broadband equipment (including IPTV) at 32% and customer care and services at 10%.
This last segment is growing and is something ADB is pushing into hard. As part of the services business, ADB will effectively take responsibility for the management of the STBs, charging a few extra dollars or Euros per device. The company thinks this is an area where it can differentiate from other vendors.
