Solutions

CSPs have many options to choose from when crafting the support systems that are needed to support next-generation video. These range from situation-specific tools that address real-time billing, network optimization and monitoring and content integration and monetization to full-service suites that address nearly all of the moving pieces.

On the front end of the provider-subscriber relationship, subscribers want the flexibility to order, view and store video content in any manner. This could mean a “day pass” (akin to the aforementioned 24-hour window), a weekly rental, a time-based usage package (ten hours of video, for instance), or a single-view, single-device option. Real-time, multidevice billing is required to support these cases, and MetraTech’s innovative MetraNet billing engine is capable of handling infinitely dynamic catalogs; settling accounts in any currency, virtual or physical; and supporting the kind of multiparty agreements that frequently occur in today’s video marketplace. (A cloud-delivered variation called Metanga is also available.) Another option is Amdocs’s recently announced Charging Smart Start platform, which allows CSPs to implement real-time, convergent charging in just four months.

Integrating and monetizing internet-delivered and/or paid OTT video content with federated video is a key strategy for service providers. This evolution in collaboration marks a significant change on the competitive landscape—it’s what Pipeline calls coopetition—and video aggregators like Microsoft’s Xbox Live and Roku have grown in popularity due to their ability to function as unified home-media gateways that simultaneously deliver paid OTT, web based and even cable video streams. As you can see in figure 1, Xbox Live provides access to 75 channels of live TV programming from Verizon FiOS along with content from dozens of providers, including Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and—believe it or not—Comcast Xfinity.

Source: Verizon, December 2012

In response, the next round of video service platforms, such as Comcast Xfinity’s own X2, focus on corralling, indexing and delivering all possible video streams to the subscriber in a personalized fashion. This reduces billing complexity (if direct-to-carrier billing is offered), addresses subscription fatigue and provides subscribers with a seamless cross-platform portal and single point of authentication. 

How is this complex problem solved? With products from CSG International, Amdocs and Ericsson, among others.

Content Direct is a comprehensive video platform developed by CSG that confronts the multicontent challenge along with nearly every other hurdle that CSPs and content creators face as they move to compete in the next generation of video services. Content Direct is capable of managing authentication and permissions, targeted promotions, distribution, multiscreen VOD, integrated dynamic advertising, and customer care. It can also be used to support advanced strategies such as content syndication.