Skype and Panasonic have launched 'Skype on your Viera'. The new platform for video calls via a TV set was announced already in January, when Skype also unveiled deals with LG and Samsung. The video calls service is now available, initially in the US.
In terms of time to market, Pansonic has beat the competition. Not only LG and Samsung, but also operators, which are struggling to find their place in the OTT value chain. They can already be easily passed up; OTT stands for 'over the top'. Whoever buys a Panasonic TV now needs their operator only for the broadband connection to the TV and if so desired, a broadcast signal. The range of OTT services is growing quickly: not only Skype, but also Amazon VoD, Netflix, Picasa and other OTT services are available in the Panasonic system Viera Cast. If Hulu, the catch-up TV service run by US TV networks, starts a subscription service, the need for a broadcast signal will further diminish and the operator's role will be even smaller. Panasonic is also focusing more on the Viera brand name, to further attract the market.
We've written before in a research brief (OTT: distribution as a scenario for operators) about the operators' precarious position and how they all seem to think it won't all end badly. If it's up to Panasonic, it appears it will. And Panasonic is certainly not the only one presenting a challenge. The threat is not just from what OTT is about, but also the big players such as Panasonic, Samsung and Intel, which are the only ones that meet all the basic requirements:
- software development: at Panasonic it's the Viera Cast technology, Intel uses partners such as Yahoo!
- hardware: Intel has a powerful processor line, and Broadcom is also a supplier
- content deals: you're lost without deals with the big studios - a big stumbling block for smaller players
- DRM: the big content players, united in the DECE (digital entertainment content ecosystem) consortium, have chosen five technologies, among which Adobe, Microsoft and Widevine.
And then it all has to work (read: 'plug and play'). Last but not least is the earlier mentioned time to market. As more and more Panasonic, LG and Samsung TVs are sold, the operators risk losing more and more customers. Whether its cable operators or other providers of IPTV, DTT or satellite TV, there is a clear urgency. Liberty Global recently announced that UPC will launch in the first half of 2011 a box with OTT services (see our Background piece 'Comcast and UPC can learn something from each other). And that can't come soon enough.
