By: Jesse Cryderman

Video is more than a squeaky wheel; it's an 800-pound gorilla screaming for network upgrades and performance enhancements. No other type of content is more desired by the general public and yet more taxing on network resources. Video is the reason you lost the unlimited, unthrottled mobile data plan you loved.

According to Sandvine’s latest Global Internet Phenomenon Report, NetFlix and Youtube account for more broadband traffic in North America than everything else combined. In Asia-Pacific, mobile video accounts for 50 percent of all downstream traffic. Gather up every other connected service, content type, or cloud offering, put it all on a scale, and it still weighs less than video.

Here’s something else to think about: children born today will probably never experience TV the way you experienced it throughout your lifetime. No appointment-based programming, no scrolling pay-TV grid, and no seams between mobile and broadcast viewing. They won’t understand the frustration created by the word “buffering."  They won't know about black and white TVs or rabbit-ear antennas. Everything they will want to watch will be available anywhere; it will be easy to access and programs will be delivered with a high quality of service (QoS). What’s more, they will interact and participate with video programming to a much greater degree, and they won’t have to jump through hoops to authenticate devices, log-on to services, or pay for premium content—video will just simply work. Lucky kids.

The transition to this reality is in progress today, and it represents the biggest-ever overhaul in digital content management, delivery and monetization. If the transition from analog to digital is Genesis, this story is the rest of the Bible. The question is, how do we get there?

Challenges

To effectively service modern customers’ voracious and varied video needs, the communications service provider (CSP) must re-imagine and evolve its video delivery platform. Many new variables come into play when we move past the traditional pay-TV model. A next-gen video delivery platform must address some or all of the following:

• Digital Rights Management (DRM) and security
• Period of rental, ownership, and storage rights
• Quality of stream (based on device) and Quality of Experience (QoE)
• Authentication protocol
• Streaming live, downloadable, or on-demand
• Multi-screen delivery, including new screens, like wearables
• Real-time, convergent billing
• Parental permissions and access controls
• Dynamic streaming and caching: Stop/start/restart/recall on any device
• Advanced search, discovery, and recommendation
• Social media integration and interaction support
• New content monetization pathways (for third-party and OTT content)
• Dynamic multi-channel support
• Personalized loyalty programs and real-time incentives

Just as some legacy systems in telecom are unable to support next-gen mobile experiences, legacy video platforms can’t accommodate today's video requirements in a meaningful way and they simple weren’t designed to address all of the future video requirements above.