The Pay TV industry has undergone significant changes since its inception in the late 1940s. The industry has seen everything from small, locally owned cable systems that initially emerged as an alternative to over-the-air broadcasting to premium channels like HBO and Showtime in the 1970s and rapid growth with high-speed internet-enabled services in the 1990s.
Broadband availability has led to rising customer expectations, particularly when accessing and consuming digital content such as video, music, and games. Customers now expect faster speeds, on-demand access, high-quality digital content, personalised content, and seamless connectivity anywhere and everywhere. As a result, many service providers are considering the role of TV and their overall service bundle.
For example, broadband-only providers are starting to adopt and deploy TV more as they can see its potential for adding incremental revenue to their broadband-only offering. In addition, including TV services as part of a service bundle can be a strategic asset in driving broadband penetration rates.
By offering TV services, providers gain three significant advantages:
- Incentivise consumers to bundle services
- Increase the perceived value of their services
- Competitive differentiation
Customers looking for a comprehensive entertainment solution often prefer to bundle their services and appreciate the perceived value of a provider’s offerings when there is a broader range of services.
Because of its simplicity, accessing content via online applications has become the norm for consumers. However, the challenge falls with the service provider as a great deal of complexity is involved in managing these apps and the wide variety of media streaming devices consumers use. Different operating systems, form factors, and interactive modes come with diverse channels and devices, each accompanied by routine updates and other changes. The service provider’s developers must stay on top of technical updates, in addition to changing policies, in order for the applications to always be accessible to the consumer.
The TV landscape has undergone significant transformations in today’s rapidly changing telecommunications and technology industry. With that, implementing a next-generation TV solution requires the consideration of three crucial factors:
- Flexibility is paramount, as TV solutions must be capable of adapting to continuous changes in technology and the market. This necessitates agile software and operational processes to facilitate updates and upgrades in a timely and ongoing manner.
- Analytics play a vital role, providing service providers with valuable insights into consumer preferences, viewing habits, and device usage. Armed with this data, providers can optimise their networks and tailor consumer outreach.
- Delivering a relevant user experience, compatible with the latest apps and devices, and leveraging cutting-edge technologies is crucial in a dynamic and competitive environment.
And this is where TV as a Service (TVaaS) comes in. As a fully managed service hosted in the cloud, service providers can offer compelling TV services without the headache and cost of managing the infrastructure or any of the complexities of managing the apps and devices.
Looking toward the future, there are many areas of opportunity for the TV industry, including targeted advertising, content interactivity, and addressing the growing issue of subscription fatigue. Next-generation TV solutions need to be able to quickly adapt to continuous changes, leverage analytics for better decision-making, and provide a relevant and immersive user experience.
Enghouse Networks’ EspialTV is uniquely positioned to meet the challenges of consumer expectations, technology evolution, and competition. Its fully managed, turnkey, TV-as-a-Service (TVaaS) solution simplifies TV deployment and provides seamless support. EspialTV provides a proven low-cost and low-risk approach in this fast-changing market, allowing providers to deploy a fully branded TV experience with the services customers.
To learn more about EspialTV and how it’s revolutionising the TV industry contact us , and we’ll put you in touch with one of our IPTV experts.
