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MHP was no GEM: the jewel in interactive TV’s crown is likely to be the Internet

February 19, 2010 by Barry Flynn

Europe’s TV standards group DVB has designated GEM as its primary middleware technology in place of MHP - after standardisation body ETSI adopted it as a self-contained specification.

GEM - which stands for Globally Executable MHP - was, as its name suggests, a DVB-independent derivative of MHP (Multimedia Home Platform), a Java-based system originally proposed as a common European interactive TV platform.

Now, GEM becomes a standard in its own right, eclipsing MHP.

The original idea behind MHP was that its inclusion of a Java Virtual Machine would enable interoperability of interactive TV applications across different digital TV platforms. But in practice, MHP implementations turned out to be stripped-down, customized affairs that were only nominally independent of the platforms that deployed them.

MHP boxes also generally cost more than ones using interactive technologies such as OpenTV or MHEG, a factor which was exacerbated by an unexpected hike in licensing-fees in March 2006. MHP interactive environments also proved costly to maintain.

Thus, apart from MHP’s success in colonizing the Italian DTT market (the result of a government subsidy being made available for interactive set-top boxes), the middleware was never widely adopted.

GEM has now emerged as the more significant technology: (a) it is incorporated into the high-definition optical disc standard Blu-Ray; (b) it forms the basis for the US Opencable standard (under the brand ‘tru2way’); and (c) it underpins Brazil’s interactive middleware standard Ginga-J.

GEM is also compatible with the US and Japanese digital terrestrial broadcasting standards.

DVB claims that GEM/MHP technology is currently in around 50m devices worldwide, the vast majority of which are likely to be Blu-Ray players, in Farncombe’s view.

However, the trend towards hybrid decoders and connected TVs indicates that such broadcast-specific interactive TV platforms have probably had their day. In the future, interactivity on the TV is likely to use the broadband link and to derive from existing, tried-and-tested Internet technologies, with new standards such as Europe’s HbbTV and the UK’s Canvas pointing the way.

Posted in Digital Cable, Digital Satellite and Digital Terrestrial. 1 Comment

Studios back ‘Buy Once, Play Anywhere’ with DECE

January 4, 2010 by Barry Flynn

A new cross-industry coalition - the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) - has agreed on a common file format for the distribution of digital content, promising that it will make the concept of ‘Buy Once, Play Anywhere’ a reality. The idea is that the new format can be licensed by any company to package a piece of content, which will then be playable on any DECE-compliant service or device across any network.

DECE boasts some big names*, bringing together most of the big Hollywood studios (Disney being the exception) with major global consumer hardware and software brands such as Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Toshiba, Microsoft and Adobe. However, the distribution networks and pay-TV operators are less well represented: Comcast (poised to own a studio once it acquires NBC Universal) and Cox Communications account for less than half of US cable subs, satellite and IPTV are absent, while Liberty Global is the only European cable owner.

The technical set-up DECE is proposing includes a cloud-based authentication and account management hub called the Digital Rights Locker, to be run by Neustar, which will administer consumers’ rights to their content and store it as required; and a choice of five different proprietary DRM solutions for content security (Adobe Flash Access, CMLA-OMA V2, The Marlin DRM Open Standard, Microsoft PlayReady and Widevine).

Technical barriers placed in the way of consumers wanting to port premium content they have paid for to the device of their choice have been proven to encourage piracy. If successful, DECE could speed up implementation of the ‘Buy Once, Play Anywhere’ concept in connected homes and counter this.

Distribution networks should be aware, however, that the positioning of DECE as a studio-led industry grouping in which they are weakly represented could position it as a bid to disintermediate them, supplying content direct to consumers over the Internet instead of their managed networks (the Digital Rights Locker being viewed as the system’s virtual headend).

They must therefore make it much easier for their customers to consume what they have paid for in whatever way it suits them, and do so fast. This will help reduce churn to any emerging Internet-based alternatives. And they should also encourage more of their counterparts to join DECE so that together they can act as a counterweight to studio interests.

* Adobe, Alcatel-Lucent, Ascent Media Group, Best Buy, Blueprint Digital, CableLabs, Catch Media, Cisco, Comcast, Cox Communications, Deluxe Digital, DivX, Dolby Laboratories, DTS, ExtendMedia, Fox Entertainment Group, HP, Intel, Irdeto, Liberty Global, Lionsgate, Microsoft, MOD Systems, Motorola, Movie Labs, Nagravision, NBC Universal, Netflix, Neustar, Nokia, Panasonic, Paramount Pictures, Philips, RIAA, Rovi, Roxio CinemaNow, Samsung Electronics, Secure Path, Sony, SwitchNAP, Tesco, Thomson, Toshiba, Verimatrix, VeriSign, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Widevine Technologies Inc. and Zoran

Posted in Broadband, IPTV and TV-over-Internet. 0 Comments

Higher TV viewing: DVRs may be the reason

December 17, 2009 by Barry Flynn

The UK regulator, Ofcom, has released international comparison data showing that the UK witnessed the highest average increase in TV watching during 2008 across 11 major economies, up by 3.2% to 3.8 hours a day. Ofcom also noted that the UK remained the country with the highest proportion of households with digital TV on their main set, at 88%.

It has generally been assumed that TV viewing is a counter-cyclical activity, because in a recession, consumers tend to cut down on going out and are therefore more likely to stay at home watching TV. However, the recession only began half-way through 2008, and although it was deeper in the UK than most other economies, this may not tell the whole story.

Ofcom’s second data-point suggests an additional factor: as digital TV penetration has increased in the UK, so has penetration of digital video recorders (DVRs) - and owners of DVRs watch more TV. Evidence from BSkyB’s Skyview panel suggests that users of DVRs watch in the region of 17% more television than their ‘linear’ counterparts.

Farncombe’s calculations (based on Ofcom’s quarterly digital TV reports), show that the number of DVRs in the UK (excluding Freesat) increased by 60% in 2008, putting DVRs in nearly a third of UK homes at the end of last year. This is no doubt contributing to the TV viewing increase noted by Ofcom.

This underlines the positive contribution on-demand consumption can make to viewing-levels increasingly under pressure in a traditional linear broadcast environment.

Posted in Digital Cable, Digital Satellite, Digital Terrestrial and Research. 0 Comments

Widevine’s new satellite investor points to the future for conditional access

December 14, 2009 by Barry Flynn

Widevine, a Seattle-based content security firm that offers software-based conditional access (CA) systems and DRM technology to the IP-delivered video market, has received $15m in investments from cable provider Liberty Global, Samsung’s VC arm (Samsung Ventures), and an unidentified corporation it describes as “the world’s second-largest satellite provider”.

Widevine is one of the global leaders in the software-based CA segment, alongside companies like Microsoft, Verimatrix, and Latens. The new funding is the third financial injection it has received since 2003. According to Tech Flash, an online tech portal based in Widevine’s home town, Seattle,  this brings total investments since then to more than $50m.

Since Samsung Ventures and Liberty Global are existing investors, the real news is that a major satellite company now sees a future for Widevine’s products.

Satellite networks are intrinsically one-way;  in Farncombe’s view  hardware-based CA systems using smartcards offer the most effective protection against piracy for one-way networks, rather than ones that depend solely on software.

However, satellite providers are increasingly equipping their customers’ receivers with broadband links which - if properly leveraged - can potentially offer better security using software-based systems such as Widevine’s.

This trend is common to other broadcast platforms, including terrestrial ones. It represents a major reason why Farncombe concluded in a recent White Paper that, “Since the traditional pay-TV world is slowly but surely mutating into a two-way one, it is likely that there will be a gradual shift away from smartcard-based systems in favour of cardless ones.”

This poses a challenge for the major global hardware-based CA vendors, such as NDS and Nagra, whose business has traditionally been based on the provision of smartcards to operators.

Posted in Digital Satellite. 0 Comments

iPlayer and Xbox: game over?

November 28, 2009 by Adriana Whiteley

According to the UK’s Daily Telegraph, the BBC and Microsoft have “indefinitely” postponed their plans to launch the iPlayer on the Xbox Live platform. The newspaper alleges that the cause was a disagreement over Microsoft’s strategy to enable access to the iPlayer only to its premium subscribers, which would be incompatible with the BBC’s public remit.

The BBC iPlayer is available on more than 20 devices, including games consoles such as the PS3 and the Nintendo Wii, as well as PC and mobile phones. It is also available to Virgin Media’s subscribers.

BBC’s strategy to make the iPlayer available through as many platforms as possible is controversial, with pay-TV providers such as BSkyB complaining of unfair competition from the public service broadcaster. The service is, however, popular with consumers, receiving an average of 75 million requests a month. It has received more than 900 thousand requests through the Nintendo Wii since April 2008 and 100 million views in its first year of partnership with Virgin Media.  

Despite the postponement of iPlayer on the Xbox, multi-platform free catch-up TV has taken hold in the UK and will continue to challenge traditional pay-TV operator business models. High-audience genres such as live sports are not commonly available for free ‘over-the-top’, but the increasing availability of free, popular catch-up content makes basic pay-TV offers less attractive. While the penetration of game consoles is limited, hybrid free-to-air and OTT set-top-boxes will pose an even greater threat to pay-TV operators.  

Posted in Broadband, IPTV and TV-over-Internet. 0 Comments