Connected TV conference discusses market challenges

Connected TV has endless opportunities but its status is still unclear, according to an introduction by Telecompaper CEO Ed Achterberg at the Connected TV conference in Utrecht. While the sector promises much, it also presents significant challenges. The relatively young industry must deal with issues such as content ownership, DRM and standardisation. Especially content licensing is throwing up obstacles to the development of connected TV, according to Joris Willems, lawyer and partner at international law firm DLA Piper. The idea is that content is tied to a certain region and so it can't travel. This is completely against the idea of free movement in the EU, he said. Furthermore, copyright law has not yet been fully harmonised across Europe. While copyright is fundamental, the current discussion seems to date from the 1980s, when content was tied to regions, Willems said. Apple for example offers content in a tightly controlled environment and keeps an iron grip on its content. Vanessa Vigar, Broadband Solutions Marketing Manager at Irdeto, called on content providers to make use of dynamic security rather than a static system. She pointed to the possibilities of watermarking, where invisible watermarks can be added to digital material such as music and video. Vigar called the market "chaos", as broadcasters become "broadbanders", new players enter the market for connected TV and everyone looks for new business models. She underlined that the potential of connected TV is huge. In the US alone, 138 million people watched online video last year, and this number will only increase with the arrival of new tablet devices. She called on industry players to look for the right partnerships and not to forget that consumers are willing to pay for content. Vigar and other industry executives said consumers need to be put central in the discussion. Consumers expect the same experience regardless of which platform they're using, said Gerwin Franklin, senior manager business development at Alcatel-Lucent. Content is moving towards the app and becoming strongly personalised, which supports new types of creativity and business models. Lucent Nick Fielibert, CTO Video, Service Providers Europe at Cisco, said this should support a greater reach for service providers, a lower TCO, cloud services and a clear customer relationship. While broadcasters want to keep a tight grip on their content, in the end they will sign lucrative partnerships with service providers, and consumer electronics makers will provide a growing number of devices to view the content.