After multi-room DVR, multi-screen is next for n

In the U.S., multi-room DVR is now an important part of a competitive Pay TV service offering, with deployments helped by the ready availability of coax (MoCA has been the preferred home networking solution) and a desire to avoid CableCARD costs. Mike Paxton, Research Director, Digital Entertainment at the research company NPD In-Stat says the slower uptake in Europe is largely explained by viewing habits, with continental Europeans watching less TV and time-shifting less, and the continuing importance of analogue cable (which means Pay TV is already available on different outlets in the home).

Carl Hibbert, Lead Analyst for Broadcast at Futuresource Consulting, says the big factor has been the lower number of households with multiple TV sets but he adds: “Moving forward we are seeing the average number of TVs per household in Western Europe continuing to rise, which presents greater opportunities for Pay TV households.” He thinks free-to-air services will limit the market, and TV Everywhere, on-demand and HD are likely to attract greater attention.

But there is still increasing demand for these solutions and according to Pascal Portelli, Senior VP, Connected Home at Technicolor, which provides STB, DVR and home gateway solutions: “We do not know of any major Pay TV operator without some kind of project, either something they are doing already or a roadmap for multi-room DVR.”

One company already using multi-room DVR, and pioneering the server/client architecture in Europe is the Polish satellite operator ‘n’ (ITI Neovision). According to Christian Anting, Vice President and COO of ITI Neovision, there is already demand for multi-room TV and DVR in that country. “More than 5 million households in Poland have at least two TV sets and one million of them have three or more. The multi-room demand in Poland is very high, reaching more than 40% of the DTH market,” he explains.

An ADB customer, ‘n’ introduced multi-room TV and DVR in November 2010 and one year later began offering multi-room HD, available on up to six TV sets. With the ‘Premium HD’ offer, consumers can have up to five client set-top boxes capable of accessing content from a shared ‘master’ hard drive. “The launch of our Multi-room service proved to be a breakthrough in the market,” says Anting. “It is very important to make Pay TV services available on more TVs around the home, as it allows customers to focus on watching the high quality content whenever and wherever they want, and for Pay TV providers to expand their offers accordingly. The Multiroom HD service has met with a lot of positive reactions.”

Anting is confident that multi-room TV/DVR helps keep ‘n’ viewers loyal, because if they are watching his satellite television on a bedroom TV, they cannot watch an OTT service at the same time. “Customers are less likely to change operators while using multi-room services, as it is more comfortable for them to use one, best-in-the-market, offer. We are more than happy to be that one provider for them,” he declares.

Like most Pay TV operators, ‘n’ is looking to get its services on even more screens, going beyond the television, and the company is introducing a multi-screen TV service in the first half of this year targeting the PC, tablets and smartphones. Anting predicts this will change the way people consume television. “Our customers will have the chance to watch linear and non-linear programmes anywhere and anytime. Multi-screen is the most important development for the Pay TV industry today.”

He believes the tablet could take over from the PC, or even a portable TV in the bedroom, as the second most popular viewing device at home. “Yes, tablets are optimized for multimedia experiences. With increasing penetration, these devices will become key for TV consumption in future. We are seeing a strong growth of tablet penetration in the Polish market. Polish consumers are traditionally tech-savvy, as we saw with the wide acceptance of HD and 3D.”

Videonet has just published a report on how Pay TV operators can get their content onto every screen at home, covering both multi-room and multi-screen TV, and this story is partly an extract from it. The free 7,500 report considers the business rationale and the technology strategies for creating whole-home networks, including key debates about the role of software upgrades vs new gateway devices and cloud delivery vs multi-screen adaptation in the home gateway. It considers the challenges of making everything work together and whether Pay TV operators can differentiate in the market by taking responsibility for the customer experience on all screens. You can download the report from our website: â€˜Getting Pay TV onto every screen’.