By Rahul Mehra, Chief Technology Officer, Consult Red

The opportunity for telco and Pay TV providers to diversify their retail offer has arrived but those with RDK and Linux middleware-based video devices risk getting left behind.

The provision of apps to users outside of Google’s own Android TV ecosystem remains challenging. Native apps are costly to develop and maintain while control over user experience and customer data is often ceded outside of the operator’s domain.

A new advanced application delivery platform changes this at a stroke. AndApps™ from Consult Red unlocks access to the vast library of Android applications directly on suitable RDK and Linux middleware-based devices. The solution empowers telco and Pay TV providers to manage the app’s full lifecycle from onboarding to deploying and managing subscriber availability – efficiently, effectively and securely.

With AndApps, operators can deliver any number of available and maintained Android apps alongside native RDK and Linux applications for a unified user experience.

What’s more, it keeps you firmly in control of your service delivery and your customer experience.

All the upsides

AndApps means you can engage and excite subscribers with the widest range of applications such as access to cloud gaming, local catch-up content, ‘must-have’ SVOD services and social media applications – all delivered within your existing user experience and on your deployed CPE devices. You can leverage many market-available applications to cut time to market and save on associated development costs while reducing reliance on developers to port or update applications for your platform.

AndApps greatly simplifies app onboarding. Rather than having to execute big software releases on an annual or bi-annual basis, you can control App lifecycles — nimbly deploying, updating or uninstalling apps and runtime updates on in-field devices using downloadable application container technology.

Because it is built on several open source projects, AndApps enables flexible development and future scalability. It leverages AOSP (Android Open Source Project), which is maintained by Google, community-contributed, field-proven and receives monthly security patches and regular bug fixes. Because you’ll be running applications on AOSP, you can also benefit from new app releases and features as soon as they are available, typically without re-porting or additional development.

Most importantly, you’ll maintain complete control of your customer experience and subscriber data. You decide which apps you make available, and on which devices, with the future option of monetisation via advertising and in-app purchases.

AndApps components

There are three components to the AndApps solution providing operators the flexibility to tailor deployment:

AndApps Runtime is the component of the platform that is deployed on the set-top box or connected TV device. It adds a containerised AOSP image, integrates drivers optimised for hardware profile, and adds components to enable seamless operations with your UI and application lifecycle management.

AndApps Cloud delivers the operator-centric management of the platform and enabled devices, including application and runtime lifecycle management. It is used for the delivery of AOSP security and version updates, and to deliver apps to the devices in the field.

AndApps Warehouse is a global application repository managed and populated by application vendors and Consult Red. These applications are made available for operator distribution via AndApps Cloud.

AndApps Services

AndApps is designed and delivered by Consult Red alongside comprehensive supporting services that include consultancy, device and end-to-end system integrations, development and any required customisation and optimisations. Once deployed, in-life services including app onboarding, maintenance, runtime updates, and QA, will ensure ongoing security and stable operation.

Why Consult Red?

AndApps has been developed by Consult Red, a trusted partner to some of the largest global media operators including Liberty Global, Comcast, Sky and DIRECTV. We have 20 years of middleware experience, over 10 years of RDK development experience and 5 years of experience in field-proven application containerisation for video CPE devices.

Come and see us at IBC 2023 or the RDK Global Summit to explore how you can take advantage of this next-generation consumer-facing opportunity. Reach out here.

“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.

The reasons for its popularity are clear. Android TV works well and is easy to use. It has an intuitive interface, includes access to any streaming app viewers could want, and offers important features like voice control and deep search. For operators making their own Smart TVs and STBs, Android TV eliminates the hassle of developing a proprietary OS. Of course, they still must customise their Android TV OS by modifying it to personalise their brand, user experience, and available or highlighted content, as well as controlling things like security, analytics, and billing.

In a world where most users have Smart TVs, STBs, gaming consoles, and mobile devices capable of playing streaming apps on their home entertainment set-ups, how can any provider become the go-to method for watching video? The answer is simple: by providing the best end-user experience. After all, if a customer is watching Apple TV+ on one operator’s STB and it crashes, they will go watch it somewhere else.

Continual testing and monitoring of the Quality of Experience (QoE) being delivered to customers is the best way to retain them. It isn’t about monitoring only one service, either. Content providers on Android TV should be testing how their own app works, how it interacts with Google’s OS, and even how popular third-party apps perform and interact.

Another common concern for providers on Android TV is content availability. If consumers search for a movie, is watching it using their service or someone else’s the first option given? Does using voice control search or different keywords yield different results? After each new asset integration, content providers need to make sure their content is being properly annexed and is easily accessible for users at home.

The other issue for operators using Android TV is that they have no control over the future of the OS, or even a timeline for updates. Google can push an OS update at any time. Even if an operator’s services, apps, and content were working perfectly before, they could immediately be altered by an unexpected update. The only way to prepare and protect their service is to continually test and monitor its performance, making sure to benchmark the results over time and through different updates.

In fact, continual testing and monitoring of video services is the best approach for all operators using Android TV to ensure that their customers are receiving excellent streaming quality and will continue to use their products. It’s the most effective way to make sure their content is accessible and available in the ways they want it to be, keep performance consistent across OS updates, and be proactive about QoE while using Android TV.

Many of these testing and monitoring scenarios can’t be accomplished manually. It’s difficult to find a human willing to sit and monitor Android TV’s performance on their device 24 hours a day, or type in the same title over and over to ensure the results work. That’s why testing automation exists – to cover the endurance, stress, and performance testing that cannot be accomplished manually.

Testing automation and proactive monitoring are essential tools for any operator working with Android TV. It lets their team sleep soundly at night, knowing their service’s performance is still being measured. It helps avoid technological catastrophes and retain customers. Since Android TV is only getting more popular and reliable, it’s an excellent time for operators to choose it for their OS – and combine it with testing automation to ensure their own success.

Tim Pearson, Vice President, Solution Marketing at NAGRA (a long-time specialist in Pay TV and multiplatform TV provision, UX, business analytics and content protection, among other things) flagged the importance of packaging and curation to make content discoverable. “We are seeing content start to fragment, but consumers still need direction and good navigation to help them find the content they are looking for.” That means editorial as well as automated recommendations.

Viewing behaviour insights underpin discovery and also content marketing, “giving you the opportunity to shape packages and propose new consumption approaches,” he stated.

Packaging and promotion are seen as key value-adds for any aggregator (and one where Pay TV can leverage its experience and strengths). Mary Ann Halford, Partner at Altman Solon (one of the world’s largest global strategy consulting firms with an exclusive focus on the Telecommunications, Media, and Technology (TMT) sectors), noted the power of free or discounted introductory offers on streaming services.

Onboarding of streaming services is central to the future of aggregation – and for Pay TV operators, super-aggregation is a way to expand the total content offer on their platform without additional content costs to themselves. Joe Nilsson, Chief Commercial Officer, SportsTribal (a FAST specialising in Tier-Two sports with 40+ channels spanning billiards and motor sports to combat sports) made this point and the specific case for the addition of T2 sports as a complement to the Tier-One sports typically found on Pay TV offers.

He believes a curated multi-channel (streamed) T2 sports offer represents a collective that becomes interesting to an aggregating platform. “It is hard to make some of the smaller sports work as standalone propositions but in a bouquet, like with motor sports or combat sports, the categories become compelling, especially if they are free to the operator,” Nilsson argued.

“We [as an onboarded app] are extending the content offering for the Pay TV operator or CE platform,” he continued. “For Pay TV providers, a bouquet like this can provide incremental audience, and for them and TV makers it will help to stop people exiting the platform.”

Expanding on this last point, Nilsson claimed: “FAST drives phenomenal watch times.” He reckons the linear nature of FAST is good for content discovery, as it reduces the decisioning burden on consumers and makes it easy to move from one content choice to another.

Halford noted that streaming services (as onboarded apps) reach different demographic audiences [in the same way that linear channels do]. vMVPD curations in the U.S. (available from Pay TV providers and non-Pay TV challengers) have distinct flavours to the point where they can appeal to different kinds of women (not just to women), for example.

Pay TV has always thrived by providing multi-genre diversity and having something for everyone, so the call-to-action is clear: make sure apps onboarding extends that principle.

Returning to content discovery and packaging, Halford, pointed out: “You have to ensure consumers are not choked with lots of programming services they have no interest in” and that “viewers want the opportunity to be surprised.”

Brigita Brjuhhanov, TV Product Owner/Team Lead at Elisa, summed up the critical nature of content discovery to the future of aggregation. “We have to make sure viewers have something to watch every day, every hour, and they never feel there is nothing to watch.” Elisa launched an Android TV based next-generation TV platform, Elamus, in Estonia last August and demonstrates how smaller operators can stay competitive in the aggregation game.

“You need good personal recommendations that show up content that is new, and which viewers have not seen before, and which excite the ‘local’ viewer,” Brjuhhanov observed – with her final point referencing the need for Pay TV platforms to differentiate themselves from global streamers with local content. “You need a great UX, and the Pay TV service needs to be multiscreen, of course.”

Pearson said Pay TV operators must ensure their ‘brand relevance’, which builds upon long-term subscriber relationships by offering new value-add functions, one of which could be carrier billing for onboarded apps. This is especially valuable in markets where credit cards are less widely used, he pointed out. NAGRA customer Claro adds Netflix to is Pay TV bills in Colombia for example, clearly increasing the potential market for the onboarded SVOD giant.

This webcast, which you can watch on-demand, also considered the degree to which CE device makers (especially Smart TV providers) are a threat to Pay TV in the aggregation space (answer – they are, and this is a view that 25% of the live audience took when asked who is best placed to be the default aggregator people use every day for their TV). You can see the full results of that poll in the on-demand recording.

The ‘Winning the aggregation battle’ webcast, which you can now watch on-demand, discusses how Pay TV operators can differentiate themselves from these CE aggregation rivals. The impact of device strategy on aggregation is explored. There is a discussion about how aggregators can make themselves more appealing than their rivals to a streaming service – and thus ensure they can onboard that streamer. And the importance of original, exclusive or ‘just’ local content, is explored.

The live audience also answered this poll question: ‘Beyond ‘carriage’, what are the most important value-adds a content aggregator (e.g., Pay TV/CE device makers) can give to a streaming content service?’ The results from this poll are revealed.

Watch the webcast on-demand

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.

VO’s DRM includes security agents that are integrated with STBs running the Android TV operating system, and the company says it offers the highest level of end-to-end content protection.

Martin Lednár, Service Platforms and Products Manager at Orange Slovensko, said, “Introducing an Android TV offering enriches the television experience for our subscribers. However, it’s imperative that the content we’re delivering is well protected. VO’s DRM solutions are embedded in our headend and at the STB level to ensure end-to-end protection. VO’s DRM solutions have passed rigorous industry assessments, which gives us the confidence that our content is safe, even as piracy continues to evolve.”

Pierre-Alexandre Bidard, Vice President of Partnerships and Security Products, also commented: “Orange Slovensko operates a countrywide network covering 99% of the Slovakian population, and we’re excited to take its TV offering to the next level”.

VO’s DRM can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud. Aside from its own in-house DRM, the company’s solutions support several DRM technologies including Microsoft PlayReady, Apple FairPlay, Google Widevine.

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.