By: Jesse Cryderman

On-demand video has come a long way since the pay-per-view was first launched in the 90s. The introduction of digital video recorder (DVR) platforms like TiVo accelerated the popularity of video on demand (VOD), and once Internet speeds moved past dial-up, streaming video over the Internet became massively popular. This trend has continued, unabated. Streaming video gobbles up the lion’s share of bandwidth today. According to Sandvine’s latest Global Internet Phenomena Report, Netflix accounts for nearly 40 percent of all downstream data in the U.S.

We have more video content available at our fingertips than ever before. It can be streamed from a multitude of sources, billed in numerous ways, viewed on a multitude of devices, and enjoyed just about anywhere in the world.

Yet finding and purchasing video content quickly and easily is still a challenge. There is no Spotify for video content! In fact, consumers generally know that a movie or TV series is available somewhere, but where? Numerous walled-off content enclaves serve up pieces of the video pie, but not the whole plate. Microsoft XBOX, for example, plays well with some over-the-top (OTT) services, but not all. It also integrates with a couple cable providers, but not all. Similar examples exist with other “aggregator” platforms from Apple, Amazon, or Roku. At trade shows, cable companies have showcased more integrated offerings that incorporate external content, but deployment is another story. Comcast’s next-gen X1 platform, for example, is only in about 12 percent of subscriber homes, and has been very slow to reach the markets. Other global pay-TV providers have created their own OTT services, but again, these disparate offerings aren’t integrated.

This creates a lot of problems from the customer viewpoint, and we know that customers have a very short attention span; after six seconds of searching, consumer interest level drops off precipitously. Often times a consumer is required to switch television inputs, log into various accounts, and boot up and authenticate multiple devices in order to watch the desired video content. This doesn’t match the expectations of the Internet - and cloud-generations, and negatively impacts the customer experience.

If the customer experience is paramount to success for service providers, than video convergence is the next step in content delivery. What the world needs now is one stream to rule them all. Following are some early examples of video convergence and solutions in the marketplace that can help service providers tackle this issue.

MSOs integrate OTT

The most popular streaming service by a longshot, at least in North America, is Netflix; so it makes sense to bring this OTT player under the umbrella first. DISH announced an integration with Netflix back in December, 2014. This brings Netflix content to DISH customers via a Netflix app, similar to what XBOX or Roku does.

“Pairing Netflix with Hopper represents the consolidation of two incredible video experiences,” said Vivek Khemka, DISH Senior Vice President of product management. “This app integration eliminates the need to switch television inputs to access content on varying devices. It gives our customers easy access to their favorite shows and movies, on both DISH and Netflix, without ever having to leave their Hopper.”