Gerry O'Sullivan,VP Global TV and Entertainment at Deutsche Telekom, underlined the challenges inherent to merging different cultures during a keynote at IP&TV World Forum: "It's a very interesting proposition, TV and telecoms coming together--it involves two different types of people, two different types of culture, and we are seeing the successes and failures of that combination." O'Sullivan would know—prior to his new position at DT, he worked exclusively in TV. That CSPs are fishing in TV-talent pools is telling.
The video service provider with the biggest target on its back is likely Netflix. Several partnerships have been announced recently that aim to dethrone the OTT video pioneer. Creating a red-power duo, Verizon and Redbox joined to offer an on-demand streaming video service. Earlier in the year, Dish Network and Blockbuster made the same move. Comcast is pitching its own Netflix alternative, called Streampix.
The problem is, at this time, no one, save Netflix, seems able to make money for such a small subscription fee. The competing streaming services have been described by analysts as, "churn reducing strategies." Comcast's Streampix, for instance, is only available to Xfinity TV customers.
After some public foibles, Netflix is coming back strong. The company is now getting into the content creation market, launching original Netflix programming. It is also actively reaching out to cable providers for programming and revenue swaps.
Boosting content libraries is a major strategy for other OTT competitors, especially as some content studios have backed away from deals with Netflix. Last month, Amazon Prime struck deals with Viacom and Discovery Communications, seriously expanding its programming cache.
Multiscreen is another hot battleground. Whoever can serve up content to the largest number of formats stands a good chance of moving ahead. Hulu Plus is even taking their video to the Nintendo DS. Stretching out further, companies like Microsoft are attempting to bring all the video players under one roof.
Meanwhile, Cisco positioned itself squarely in the delivery chain by acquiring NDS for $5 billion in mid-March. The mega-corporation clearly sees a video future in software and delivery, and not in hardware and set-top boxes (Cisco dumped its set-top box biz, Scientific Atlanta, last month). The end goal is Videoscape, "Cisco's comprehensive platform that enables service providers and media companies to deliver next-generation entertainment experiences."
