IPTV and VOD in Europe: Growing, Slowly but Surely
In the Nordic countries, Swedish/Finnish-owned telco TeliaSonera has selected UK-owned technology provider Axiom Systems' AXIOSS Suite as the basis for a new rollout of IP-based virtual private network (VPN) services, incorporating carrier Ethernet services. TeliaSonera chose IT services provider Wipro Technologies to implement the new system as part of a global framework agreement which will enable the group to deploy potentially thousands of IP VPN sites across Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, and to deliver a range of broadband services, including IPTV and voice over IP (VoIP) telephony. AXIOSS is already used by TeliaSonera for the provision of PSTN services, Cross Domain Management and DSL services. Other European on-demand projects include France Telecom’s MaLigne, another French IPTV service called Neuf Telecom, and Lyse Tele in Norway. Deutsche Telekom in Germany and Comhem in Sweden are also rumoured to be working on VOD services through their cable operations.
A New Era?
These green shoots, suggest some observers, indicate a new era in interactive services. "With the dramatic increase in both broadband take-up and availability of higher speeds, VOD is no longer the domain of the specialist players such as HomeChoice [in the UK]," thinks Ben Hart, CEO of The Glass Partnership, a London-headquartered design and interactive marketing agency. "We're beginning to see the IP world threaten the models of traditional broadcasters. In the new world, viewers become spoiled by almost limitless choice, entire back catalogs, user-submitted, and underground content—programming in the traditional sense, along with appointment viewing, become viewing modes of the past."
"I'd be very surprised if some of the big broadband ISPs like [France Telecom’s] Wannado and [Italy’s] Tiscali didn't enter this market by the end of the year too. {Satellite broadcast giant] Sky purchased Easynet last year for exactly this purpose," believes Paul Cleghorn, Creative Director of digital creative agency Neuromantics.
Some see this as a revolutionary moment. "Today we are witnessing the last of the printing presses and the entire media landscape evolving from mass to social media. Control of the media has been ceded to the people, where we are curating our own media consumption. And the likes of BT, BBC, Sky, and so on recognize that prime time is no longer a time of day, it’s a state of mind," says Alan Moore of marketing specialist SMLXL.
Possibly. Some say it’s inevitable that similar services will be rolled out across Europe by a variety of national and international players. But there are still a lot of issues that have not been addressed or regulated, a function possibly of Europe’s complex legal and cultural make-up.
Roadblocks Remain
The main obstacles are ongoing issues about rights management, the fact that geo-locking techniques are not fully tested, and—surprise—business models not fully explored. These overshadow just as crucial technology issues around platforms and DRM (digital rights management).
In the UK for instance, communications regulator Ofcom in January imposed a two-month deadline in a bid to get warring broadcasters and producers to settle their differences over new media rights before it steps in to impose its own rules. New media rights are defined as Internet and mobile broadcasting, VOD, and repurposed programming, such as adapting content for mobile phones.
The body’s suggestions, so far unacted upon, are for a set of rights "windows" that would give broadcasters the opportunity to distribute content on multiple channels before rights revert back to the producers of the material. In the UK the BBC, for instance, wants a short (seven-day) window while rival Channel 4 prefers a 30-day version.
Under a law passed in the UK in 2003 (the Communications Act) stronger protection was extended to the independent production sector, but this sector still worries it isn’t getting to maximise the value of the programmes it creates. It’s hard to see how VOD and other forms of on-demand can really ramp up until these entirely legitimate but fussy issues are tied up.