Sanjiv Kainth
The Indian television industry has traditionally been very competitive with over 823 channels of which 184 are pay channels. However, the entry of Over the Top or OTT players such as Star Sports, Spuul, ErosNow, Bigflix, BoxTV promises to change the way content has been traditionally viewed in the Indian market and challenge the dominance of operators such as Videocon, Tata Sky and Dish TV. Irdeto’s Media Protection solution can provide pay media companies and content owners a robust real-time defense and collaboration against piracy. Sanjiv Kainth, Irdeto’s Country Manager for India spoke with fii-news.com on a wide range of topics relating the communication technologies in general and television in particular.
Question: What are Irdeto’s views on the prospects of foreign investments and technologies in the entertainment industry?
Answer: Over the previous decade, the Indian Media and Entertainment or M&E industry has been largely driven by increasing digitization and higher usage of internet. As such, the internet has become a platform that most people go to for accessing media services and entertainment.
Irdeto supports Indian government’s initiatives to spur M&E industry growth such as digitizing the cable distribution sector to attract greater institutional funding and increasing the limit for Foreign Direct Investment, or FDI to 100 per cent in cable and DTH satellite platforms. Nevertheless, such initiatives can spur local competition resulting in higher consumer expectations, emergence of new connect devices, rise in piracy and stringent requirements for content owner security.
As such, operators can often feel imprisoned by the complexity and pressure of deploying a successful multi-screen strategy especially when many are still struggling to deliver a seamless and compelling television programming experience everywhere that they are also able to monetize properly. To protect and expand their market share, local content operators need to find ways of being better than an array of new-entrant online video services.
Q: What are the opportunities and the big threats that could impact businesses in the entertainment industry?
A: OTT opens up new possibilities for content operators. It reaches more consumers on different devices, creates interactive services that differentiate a content operator’s brand, drives up revenue with new services and engages more with customers to know their preferences.
Indian consumers are getting more smartphones and broadband penetration is growing rapidly in India. According to Ovum, by 2017, the Indian market is expected to attain an overall broadband penetration of 50 per cent — 40% and 10% mobile and fixed broadband penetration.
A survey conducted by Irdeto last year found that 61% respondents in India watch content on their laptops/desktops and smartphones/tablets although video content was mainly consumed at home, signifying a shift towards multi-screen viewing.
Consumption of video on the Internet is at an all-time high due to the extensive growth in bandwidth and proliferation of multimedia devices in recent years. There is a real need for education around how we access content online – both on the part of content owners and consumers. Many consumers are confused by issues involving piracy. They access pirated content due to lack of legitimate availability or failing to realize that the site they are accessing is illegal, as they even see advertisements on the site from legitimate companies.
Content owners must realize that illegal downloading and content consumption is a symptom of a real market demand that is not being met. Release of long awaited content in different markets at different times is an obsolete strategy as consumers expect content to be instantly at their fingertips.
Q: What are the urgent security requirements needed?
A: Entertainment industry needs to work to reduce piracy by employing new technologies to make content theft difficult. They should adapt their strategies to serve their customers the content that they desire in a format that is relevant to them.
Security technologies such as Conditional Access offer a good level of security against piracy on broadcast networks and is still the dominant technology for delivering premium content to consumers worldwide.
To effectively protect content and business models against new threats, content owners and distributors must also evolve their anti-piracy strategy, from implementing innovative technologies such as Internet monitoring and content watermarking, to leveraging different expertise and networks to track down and stop pirates. The speed and effectiveness of anti-piracy actions is key to protecting the business models of content owners and distributors.
With the shift to multi-screen programming, being able to secure the content that is provided across the various devices is key for operators to build a profitable OTT business. Another key is securing the TV app or services on these non-managed devices – tablets, smartphones, personal computers or PCs, game consoles and connected televisions. As these platforms can be susceptible to malware, it is important to have a holistic security approach. Irdeto’s Media Protection solution can provide pay media companies and content owners a robust real-time defense and collaboration against piracy.
Instead of using multiscreen as a defensive play to reduce churn, operators need to think differently to compete with new competitors. They should be using it as an offensive strategy that propels their business forward. Irdeto’s Multiscreen solution allows operators to offer features such as search, discover and recommendation to drive media consumption, and support a variety of business models including subscription-based, pay-per-views, or PPVs and ad-sponsored services. With a booming and robust film industry where some film stars enjoy demi-god status, this can be of great interest for avid fans.
Q: Whether subscription, transaction, ad-based or freemium, how can businesses ensure that the technologies selected support any and all business models to be implemented?
A: The business model is of utmost importance. There is no “one size fits all” model as dynamics of each market differ due to cultural, social, economic, technological and regulatory reasons. This is where Irdeto plays a vital part in conducting a discovery workshop for the operators to devise a customized solution to fit their business.
One example is offering local content through a subscription package or transactional platform such as iTunes or Google Play for communities outside your domestic target market. Businesses can also leverage the Freemium model to offer a no-cost content catalog for a wide base of viewers with a specific charge only for premium titles or for viewers outside the main subscriber base. Businesses can also syndicate niche content on specialist platforms such as YouTube channels, leveraging the power of targeted advertising.
Q: Why personalization of content is important to drive businesses and stand out from the competition?
A: There is an overload of content and information. Sifting and navigating through the available content becomes key to a consumer’s user experience. Personalization of content through recommendation engines and social network integration is important because a viewer moves away from a certain service not due to a dearth of choice, but the inability to find something interesting to watch. If a content provider can help its customers to quickly find compelling content that appeals to the viewer, it will be able to ensure that the customer stays loyal to the service. While many solutions focus on just “getting on a device,” the real challenge is making a personalized experience across devices that whets the appetite of consumers. An intuitive design, coupled with the best of recommendation technology and consistency across devices is key to success.
Businesses can leverage on their knowledge of the market and customer insight to provide tailored content recommendations and personalized experiences to increase consumption and customer satisfaction. This will also allow customers to move seamlessly between devices while still having access to their customized preferences, helping to drive customer loyalty and subscriber growth.
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