OTT TV services on CE devices: feedback from the field

Erwan Nédellec – Orange, November 2013

2

What is

Orange?

3

Locally, it’s the national color, but…

Source: http://www.youthleadersacademy.nl

Source: http://wanna-form-a-congo-line.blogspot.fr

Source: http://gretschpages.com

Source: http://www.rnw.nl

4

It’s also a major worldwide telco

231 million customers worldwide

€43.5 billion revenue, and

€3.4 billion net profit (2012)

168 000 employees

– 103,000 in France

7 000 sales points

450 000 km of submarine cables

– enough to circumnavigate the earth

10 times!

IPTV launched in France 10 years ago

– 5.5 million IPTV / satellite customers

in Orange countries

5

Which

services

have we

launched on

CE devices?

6

Orange services have been launched on connected CE

devices for several years

Infotainment services are available on

– LG (March 2010 in France,

August 2011 in Poland)

– Samsung (November 2011)

Our live TV channels are available on

– XBOX 360 (April 2012)

– Samsung Smart TV (February 2013)

– LG Smart TV (July 2013)

Our VOD service is available on

– XBOX 360 (April 2013),

– Samsung Smart TV (July 2013)

And more devices to come…

The strategy is to target second

screens at this stage

– The STB is still the preferred device in

the living room

Smart TV Orange portal in 2010

Orange VOD on XBOX 360

7

Our experience is positive in many ways

Innovative devices

Good relationship with the partners

Constructive exchanges

Co-marketing opportunities

But we have also identified several

topics that we must improve together

WebTV linear channels on SmartTV

WebTV linear channels on XBOX 360

8

What have

we learnt?

9

We come from the same planetary system, but not

from the same planet

Their goal is to keep

their STB in the field

as long as they can

Their goal is to sell

as many TV sets as

they can

Telcos CE

manufacturers

10

A typical year for a TV set manufacturer

Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. March April May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov.

Engineers are

developing

next year’s platform

Qualification

of the new

platform

New year

model on

the market

Engineers are

switching to

next year’s platform

11

A typical year for a TV set manufacturer, and the

impacts for their partners…

Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. March April May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov.

Engineers are

developing

next year platform

Qualification

of the new

platform

New year

model on

the market

Engineers are

switching on the

next year platform

Visibility

given on next

year’s model.

Good

support,

but very

hard to get

samples

Not always

possible to

certify a

service as

QA team is

qualifying

new year’s

models

Good

support,

products are

available. But

it is no longer

possible to

set up co-

marketing

activities on

previous year

model

Less support

on previous

year’s model

(which

means

models sold

until May)

12

Our biggest fear is regression

We have faced regression with all our partners

Examples (not the complete list):

– Regression with persistent PlayReady license

– Regression due to heuristic changes in Smooth Streaming player

– Regression in rendering Live streams in Smooth Streaming

– Regression in dealing with the same origin policy for XHR requests

– Etc…

Regressions are unfortunately unavoidable, but:

– It is more complex to identify regressions for a CE manufacturer with

100+ partners, due to the distance from Korea or US, than for a telco

with its end-to-end controlled solution in its premises

– So, regressions are identified too late (after a firmware upgrade in some

cases), and the probability of facing regressions is higher on CE

devices than on a STB

13

And when a regression occurs, the following questions

come up straight away

1

2

3

Are we the only partner impacted ?

Is the firmware already rolled-out ?

Was it the latest firmware for that device ?

Yes

Yes

Yes

+

+

Very

bad news

14

Firmware management is the second hot topic

As we do not control the device, we have

no control on

– the features included in the firmware

– when the firmware will be rolled out

– which kind of firmware will be rolled out

(mandatory or optional update)

Firmwares do not always behave the same

way (differences between mid-range and

high-end models within the same line-up)

We lack visibility on the scope of the

firmware

– In almost all cases, there is no release

note available for partners

15

Nobody controls the retailers (especially whose are

doing e-commerce)

Source: http://www.amazon.fr/

Let’s assume

For (at least)

Romanian market

For (at least)

French market

For (at least)

Belgium market

When a device is not for your domestic market,

1 – your customers may not be able to select

your local language, and your country. As a

consequence, your service may be not available

2 – the characteristics of the device may differ a lot

(ex: BD-E6100/ZF supports Smooth Streaming,

but BD-E6100/EN does not)

16

And last, but not least, the support is more complex

Today, we have representative

configurations of households in

our premises (STB + gateway)

– This is a really useful means

of reproducing customers

issues

When we rely on CE devices,

this is not possible

– Between 2 and 4 different

platforms by manufacturer

each year

– In some cases, there are

several different firmware

releases in the field for a

same device

It is very hard for hotlines and

technicians to help our

customers

17

What are

the next key

challenges?

18

Our ecosystem is not a long quiet river

Yes, STB represents an important part of

the CAPEX for a telco, but relying on CE

devices induce important cost side effects

as well

Beyond the technical fragmentation (on both

sides: telcos & CE manufacturers), and the

certification process (a painful experience

with some CE partners), all the operational

aspects must not be underestimated

My 2 cents comment for my telco colleagues

– It is crucial to use the technologies used by the whole ecosystem, and avoid specific development

(lack of support, risks of regression, risks of having the technology not embed in new platform)

My 2 cents comment for my CE partners

– There is a mismatch today between the development lifecycle of services, and the development

lifecycle of SmartTV (cf. slide #11). The situation is better in the smart phone world (OS driven),

and in the game console world

Thank you