Charting the TV industry's path beyond Covid - CSI Magazine
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www.csimagazine.com
The magazine for global video
TV Broadcast • Streaming • Satellite • Cable • Hybrid
The leading media for video delivery technology
Spring 2021
Remote production
Piracy trends
Direct-to-consumer
streaming
Video compression
supplement
Charting the TV industry’s path beyond Covid
June 2016
• OTT, VoD, Cloud TV, Cable, Satellite, IPTV, DTT, IoT • The latest news, views and features
Contents TV Broadcast • Streaming • Satellite • Cable • Hybrid
The leading media for video delivery technology
21 Direct-to-consumer video
Sports represents the biggest new
opportunity. CSI and MediaKind examine
the trends
Editor
27 Cable Labs Q&A Goran Nastic
Dr Curtis Knittle updates us on the group’s
work into DOCSIS 4, DAA, the 10G Commercial
Camilla Capece
06 COVER STORY: Covid and media platform and other hot topics
Examining the state of the media & Design and production
entertainment industry one year on from the 31 Compression supplement with Matt Mills (Manager)
start of the pandemic V-Nova Jessica Harrington
Deploying better compression opens new
10 Q&A with Verizon Media business cases and brings cost savings to a Regular contributors
range of applications. What are the new Adrian Pennington, Philip Hunter,
Looking at innovation during and post-
David Adams, Stephen Cousins,
pandemic codec options?
Anna Tobin
12 Analyst corner: AVOD 43 Stats corner Circulation
The evolution and consumer uptake of AVOD End-2020 European and US payTV figures Alina Susca
and other streaming services from the informitv Multiscreen Index
Accounts
44 Technology corner: Smart cities Marilou Tait, Mohamad Saidani
14 Piracy in lockdown
We talk to Irdeto about how pirates also SCTE CTO Chris Bastian says the
Editorial
adapted and changed their business models in pandemic has given rise to new smart tel +44(0)20 7562 2401
the last 12 months community initiatives goran.nastic@csimagazine.com
16 Remote production 48 Buyer’s Guide Advertising
Covid has accelerated and permanently A listing of key suppliers in the cable, telco, tel +44(0)20 7562 2438
broadband and satellite sectors camilla.capece@csimagazine.com
disrupted traditional sports production
Subscriptions
tel +44 (0) 20 1635 588 861
Editor’s report: Spring 2021 perspectivesubs@dynamail.co.uk
Circulation manager: alina.susca@
perspectivepublishing.com
Hands up who saw the AT&T-Discovery deal coming… if you did you are in a
very small minority as the announcement took the market and analysts by Subscription rates
complete surprise. The new company will have annual revenues of about $52 Per year: Europe £88; UK £68;
billion and combine an extensive portfolio of brands — HBO, Warner Bros., Rest of World £98. Cheques payable to
Perspective Publishing
Discovery, DC Comics, CNN, Eurosport, Animal Planet to name but a few —
Limited and addressed to the
alongside studios and streaming businesses that are in various stages of embryonic growth. Circulation Department
It could be messy and there may be some fat that needs to be trimmed but it marks a new
breed of media mega-M&As that will define this decade. Meanwhile, most of this issue of Printed by Buxton Press
CSI is focused on assessing the effect that Covid has had on different parts of media and
entertainment. GN Managing Director
John Woods
Perspective Publishing Publishing Director
3 London Wall Buildings
London Mark Evans
EC2M 5PD
www.perspectivepublishing.com ISSN 1467-5935
www.csimagazine.com spring 2021 03
News
news in brief Streaming grows on the main screen as
SVOD subs to hit 1.5bn
There are forecast to be
multiple devices jostle for share
just under 1.5 billion Conviva’s latest report into watch when it’s convenient
subscribers to video on the state of global streaming for them rather than
demand services globally suggests that big screens following regularly scheduled
by 2026, a growth of 591 dominating viewing might programming live.”
million from this year. The become the new normal By platform, while Roku
average SVOD subscriber for streaming. captured a significant 30%
will pay for 2.14 SVOD Streaming on big screens share of global big screen
subscriptions, according to accounted for 73% of global viewing time, this dominance
new data from Digital TV viewing time and the State of was primarily driven by
Research. The total is Streaming report for Q1 North America where it
expected to cross the 1 2021 identifies big screen commanded 37% share in Q1
billion mark in 2021. viewing as the key trend. 2021. In Europe, the second
Numbers were boosted last While people are streaming largest market for Roku,
year by the pandemic, more, they are at home on Roku only accounted for 8%
which saw a peak of 201 larger screens as smart TVs captured just 11% share share of the big screen,
million subscriptions saw the biggest expansion of of viewing time in Asia trailing a number of other
added. The number of viewership with a 115% while desktop and mobile devices including Samsung
payTV homes is expected increase over Q1 of last year. phones dominated with with 19%, Chromecast with
to remain flat during this In contrast, mobile phones, a combined 84% of 12%, Amazon Fire TV with
five year period by tablets, and desktops saw viewing time. 10%, LG TV with 10%, and
comparison. growth in line with the “Big screens are here Android TV with 9%. Roku
global average. to stay,” said Conviva. “2021 does not fare any better in
AWS for M&E In nearly every region, big came with some optimism for other regions, with 4% share
Amazon Web Services has screens dominated streaming a return to normalcy but or less in Africa, Asia,
introduced the AWS for as connected TV devices, there might be a new normal Oceania, and South America.
Media & Entertainment smart TVs, and gaming for streaming. A new normal Some interesting leaders
initiative featuring new consoles captured the lion’s that sees big screens emerged as the top big screen
and existing services and share of viewing time. Big dominate viewing as people device in different regions,
solutions from the compa- screens were most dominant watch less on smaller, mobile including the CanalPlus set
ny and its partners, built in North America capturing devices. A new normal where top box with 54% share of
specifically for content a massive 81% share, social investment is viewing time in Africa,
creators, rights holders, however in most regions big paramount and the powerful Android TV’s 49% share in
producers, broadcasters, screens accounted for at confluence of social, Asia, Chromecast in Oceania
and distributors. It aligns least 50% of all viewing time. streaming, and advertising with 24%, or Samsung TV in
nine AWS Services, 11 At the opposite end of the can no longer be ignored. A South America at 30% share
AWS Solutions, dedicated spectrum, big screens new normal where viewers in Q1 2021.
AWS appliances, and more
than 400 AWS Partners
against five dedicated UK TV football rights rollover
solution areas. The Walt The Premier League will due to be auctioned in the comes despite rival
Disney Company uses continue its existing UK coming months, but will broadcasters unhappiness.
AWS to support the global television deal with Sky now automatically extend Due to the damaging impact
expansion of Disney+. Sports, BT Sport, Amazon at the current value without the Covid-19 pandemic, the
AWS is the preferred Prime Video and BBC Sport, an auction. The three Premier League said it was
public cloud infrastructure rolling over the rights for broadcasters paid £5 billion able to demonstrate to the
provider, helping improve another 3 years due to the to televise 200 games government exceptional and
performance and reliability impact of the pandemic. a season between 2019 compelling reasons for the
for Disney+ as the The domestic rights, which and 2022. Exclusion Order, a move that
streaming service fell in value by around 10% The decision, approved received tentative approval
continues to scale globally. in the previous auction, were unanimously by the EPL, from the government.
04 spring 2021 www.csimagazine.com
News
RDK passes 80m deployed devices news in brief
RDK Management has with RDK now deployed software stack has also Verizon sells media
revealed the latest numbers across more than 30 leading evolved beyond cable set top unit
detailing the continued service providers throughout boxes into telco but also US telco Verizon
adoption of RDK open North America, Europe, IoT/smart home services. Communications has sold
source software, which is Latin America, and Asia. For example, RDK software its Verizon Media business
used to power customer- While the rival Android is available for IP-connected to private equity invest-
premises equipment (CPE) TV platform is deployed in cameras. On the broadband ment management firm
from broadband and video over 150 operators globally, side, RDK software now Apollo Funds for $5
service providers worldwide. they are smaller in scale, spans across DOCSIS, DSL, billion. Verizon Media is
As part of its annual update, either found in Tier 2 or 3 and GPON gateways, which the global tech and media
the organisation said there operators or restricted is particularly beneficial to arm of Verizon, which
are now more than 80 million to small portions of service providers operating includes ad tech and
device deployments across a customers in the bigger a mix of transport networks media platform businesses,
variety of devices. The service providers. within their footprints. as well as the Yahoo and
number of RDK devices By comparison, most RDK Indeed, during a recent AOL brands, which
deployed globally rose from deployments are by Tier 1 webinar, Deutsche Telekom Verizon bought in 2015
60 million in spring 2020, service providers, and the revealed that it is ready to and 2017 for around $4.5
soon start deploying RDK billion each. Under the
gateways. deal, Verizon will retain a
RDK4, introduced late last 10% stake in Verizon
year, is available as part of Media, which will rebrand
the RDK Video Accelerator as Yahoo at the close of
program, which provides the transaction. At close,
development and the business will be led by
deployment-ready set-top Verizon Media CEO Guru
boxes from leading OEMs, Gowrappan. The transac-
including CommScope, tion, which is expected to
Humax, KAON, and close in the second half of
Skyworth. These set-top 2021, also includes the
boxes come pre-integrated sale of Techcrunch,
with the Metrological App Engadget and Ryot. The
Store, helping operators move effectively marks
on-board apps like Android Verizon Communications’
TV does. exit from digital media
and advertising.
TiVo buys bankrupt MobiTV Final chance for CSI
Awards
Xperi-owned TiVo outbid Cable One, and small cable which is highly complemen- This is your last chance to
rival offers from Roku and operators represented tary to Xperi’s existing enter this year’s awards. By
Amino in an auction to buy by the National Cable media patent portfolio. popular demand we have
bankrupt company MobiTV, TV Cooperative. “The acquisition of the extended this year’s
currently in chapter 11. Xperi sees the MobiTV s MobiTV assets immediately deadline to 1 June 2021.
MobiTV, which entered olution provides an attractive expands our capabilities and There are 3 brand new
bankruptcy in March, delivers extension of TiVo’s IPTV the addressable market for categories for this year
white-label IPTV solutions payTV service offerings by our IPTV solutions, helping (sustainability, broadband
and app-based video adding managed services to secure TiVo’s position experience and remote
distribution technology cable with the ability to reduce as a leading provider of production), alongside
companies, to cable and other deployment time and Pay-TV solutions,” said old favourites. For more
payTV companies and was an onboarding costs. It said Jon Kirchner, chief and to enter now go to
early pioneer in the space. Its the acquisition includes executive officer of Xperi, https://www.csimagazine.
clients include T-Mobile and MobiTV’s patent portfolio, in the statement. com/awards
www.csimagazine.com spring 2021 05
Cover story: Covid one year on
Beyond Covid: Where now for
media and entertainment?
Goran Nastic takes a look at how Covid has changed parts of
A
media and entertainment and what we can expect going forward
s the world specifically the shift from broadcast to As Maria Rua Aguete, Senior
continues to get to streaming and the adoption of cloud Research Director of Media and
grips with the infrastructure for video applications and Entertainment at Omdia, observes:
ongoing pandemic, workflows. “2020 has been a record-breaking
the media industry Streaming services enjoyed year for SVOD, caused by unexpected
can consider itself unprecedented growth in 2020, as uplift from Covid-19, but having
lucky that it has people entertained themselves during exhausted the pool of new households
managed to not just survive, but in stay-at-home orders. It was popular to to sell to, SVOD services must brace
some cases thrive during this time. suggest that Disney could not have themselves for a much slower 2021”.
Taking stock a little over one year timed the launch of its new Disney+ From 246 million SVOD net
on from the first wave of service any better, reaching over 100 additions in 2020, Omdia expects 139m
widespread global lockdowns, the million customers in little over a year. SVOD net additions in 2021.
picture is distinctly mixed when it Traffic on the major video streaming Nonetheless, while there is some
comes to media and entertainment. sites continues to outperform pre- uncertainty from Covid-19 in the short
While home entertainment boomed, pandemic levels, up 21% according to term, in the long-term, the rise of
for example, it was a difficult time for Verizon’s Look Forward study from streaming to replace linear TV around
cinemas, exhibitions, theme parks and March 2021. the world is the clear trend in
other in-person events. Below we look However, as Netflix’s first quarter entertainment.
at several sectors of the industry to results showed, last year’s growth is Aguete thinks that Netflix will still
assess Covid’s impact, both in the short unsustainable, with the company have more subscribers than Disney+ in
and long term. attributing weaker additions to the 2025 despite the latter’s impressive
pandemic ‘pull forward’ effect seen in start, but it will be very close: both are
Streaming exploded, but growth 2020. Even the meteoric rise of Disney+ forecast to have over 250 million subs
has cooled off was unsustainable and Disney’s own by that point. In total by 2025, there
The pandemic accelerated two key recent quarterly results showed a will be 1.6bn subscribers to SVOD
trends that were already in motion, slowing down in customer growth. services globally, according to Omdia
estimates.
Cloud migration
The pandemic has seen the shift to
cloud accelerate dramatically, and the
broadcasters are on the whole
benefiting from the efficiencies,
flexibility, and scalability that brings.
The last year has seen widespread
adoption of remote and cloud
workflows, even among the largest
entities such as Globo and Univision,
who both recently announced multi-year
digitisation and migration projects with
Google Cloud.
“This year and into next we are seeing
major efforts to accelerate migration of
06 spring 2021 www.csimagazine.com
Cover story: Covid one year on
the most complex production The return of live sports revenues, Dataxis thinks that the return
environments from on-premise to the For a good chunk of the year, sports to pre-pandemic levels will depend on
cloud,” says Neil Anderson of Codemill. broadcasters had been stripped of live whether sports fans have renewed their
“Things will never be the same again, programming because of the whole appetite for sports content.
we’re seeing studios and broadcasters cancellation of almost all live sports
moving as much as possible to the events from March 2020. This forced Remote production is on the rise
cloud, held back, only by online video many to turn to their library archives, Much like the news side of the
editing, colour grading and audio giving people something to watch in television business, many of the
finishing, which are still desktop based that absence. technology changes that sports
and hardware dependent.” However, new figures from Dataxis broadcasters rapidly adopted in
According to Shahar Bar of shows that the churn and the loss in response to Covid were already
Harmonic, “The cloud performed subscribers did not hit as hard as one underway before the pandemic hit.
exceptionally well during the pandemic might have expected, as it only When covering live events, broadcast-
— proving it is able to handle the scale intensified an already existing trend due ers are increasingly turning to remote
and the load required for complex and to other factors (such as cord- cutting or production. According to a recent
heavy video workflows. As a result, for piracy). In Western Europe at the end- Haivision survey, 39% of those surveyed
many media companies, the cloud is no 2020, the number of subscribers to are employing remote production or
longer a niche, but rather an inherent premium sports channels has almost REMI workflows. Almost half of those
infrastructure tool. Looking back at the returned to its pre-covid levels, surveyed (46%) also indicated that
past 12 months, it is clear the shifts to according to the analyst firm. Of REMI/At-Home technology is one of
streaming and cloud are in full motion course, revenues experienced a the most important trends for their
and essentially unstoppable.” significant decrease, because of organisation in the future.
But Jonathan Morgan of Object subscriptions being cancelled, frozen or It is expected that the cloud will play
Matrix offers a word of caution: “Many downgraded to less premium packages a very big role in live sports production
are pushing a narrative that widespread with lower ARPUs. into the future and that the big changes
cloud-based infrastructure is inevitable The hardest hit in terms of churn to remote production caused by Covid
in a post-Covid future. But that doesn’t were OTTs like Eleven Sports and here to stay after pandemic is over.
take into account the variety of DAZN, whose offer relies mainly on
offerings within the cloud environment, live sports, as well as flexible monthly Gaming also soars
all with pros and cons and different subscriptions that are easily cancellable. Game streaming services have soared
cost profiles. Under normal Others, such as Sky, either allowed their since the pandemic’s start. Microsoft
circumstances, organisations making customers to freeze their subscriptions now has more than 15 million Game
significant infrastructure changes would for free or compensated them with Pass subscribers, Nintendo more than
have time to plan a roadmap and additional free content. 26 million paid online subs, and Sony’s
implement a phased approach. In the Almost all competitions have PlayStation Plus now has more than 45
wake of Covid, some media returned from September, even if a large million.
organisations are making hasty majority have been behind closed doors. eSports, too, increased 2020 revenues
decisions which could see them locked This has at least given broadcasters an by about 15% over 2019 and is expected
into unsuitable cloud contracts for years opportunity to innovate, through areas to keep growing as in-person
to come.” such as co-watching. But in terms of competitions return.
www.csimagazine.com spring 2021 07
Cover story: Covid one year on
New network patterns minutes per day watching TV, which is time high, it seems natural that TV will
With the rise in streaming, gaming up 6 minutes on 2019. Even young remain an important platform for
and home working came a big rise adults’ viewing time increased by 2 advertisers,” adds Craig Buckland of
in network usage. Looking at what minutes, with an average of 1 hour 49 Broadcast Traffic Systems.
happened immediately when the minutes a day. These AVOD and FAST services
pandemic first struck, internet usage “Viewers have been keen to watch are increasingly also being added
soared and many ISPs saw double-digit TV live in 2020, notably following to the overall streaming bundle as
growth in broadband usage in March. news and country leaders addresses. an important hybrid business
Akamai saw global traffic on its In most countries, the levels of daily model component.
platform grow 30% in March 2020 as viewing time have remained high even
Internet usage soared around the world after restrictions linked to the New piracy trends in lockdown
amid the coronavirus crisis, compared pandemic were eased, especially Piracy has always been a problem for
to 3% growth in a typical month. among young adults,” said Frédéric the industry, and the pandemic has only
In the UK, as the country approached Vaulpré of Mediametre. worsened it. Covid has kept audiences
the one year anniversary of the first But it may be the renaissance was from gathering in-person, forcing
lockdown in March 2021, Virgin Media short lived, with the latest data festivals and live events to deliver
revealed that the country’s appetite for suggesting that live and same-day content through online channels. As a
data shows no signs of slowing down. viewing is once again on a result of this digital shift, a major surge
Analysis of more than five million downward slope. in online piracy has been observed
Virgin Media broadband customers since the outbreak of the pandemic,
across January and February revealed a AVOD with an increase in traffic to illicit sites.
marked shift in behaviour, with weekday In a recession, marketing budgets A case in point is the release of
afternoons becoming the busiest time of are typically the first expense cut Wonder Woman 1984 and its almost-
day for upstream traffic for the first from a company’s budget. As a result, immediate appearance on torrent sites.
time ever. The peak period for people free ad-supported services found Two months since its release in
sending data is now between 2pm and themselves in a curious juxtaposition December 2020, it was still among
4pm, and represents a shift away from where revenues did not mirror the the top downloaded and pirates
the long-established pattern of evenings increase in viewership. movies, according to the data on
being the busiest time on the network. Indeed, ad-based OTT services saw torrentfreak.com
“Fuelled by a pandemic that forced a huge increase in traffic, much more The European Intellectual Property
millions to work and school from home, people watching the service, but a Office (EUIPO) conducted a study into
2020 was one for the history books in huge decrease in revenue because the impact of piracy across member
upstream data consumption,” said advertisers were not purchasing ads states, estimating that 13.7 million
OpenVault in its latest Broadband any more; they spent less money as people across EU countries are
Insights study, which found that total people watched more. accessing illegal pirate services of
upstream consumption surged 63% “A major opportunity that emerged differing flavours.
in 2020, roughly 350% higher than from this explosion in ABR streaming Interestingly, among the new
historic growth rates. “Pandemic during Covid-19 is targeted advertising. piracy trends observed is that pirate
lockdowns changed the nature of There’s a high degree of interest in services also changed their business
upstream usage – in all likelihood, targeted ads from OTT service models to adapt to new circumstances,
forever,” OpenVault added. providers and pay-TV operators that tailoring their offers to attract viewers.
want to broaden viewership and boost Much more on these can be seen in
Linear TV made (a short) comeback revenues. Whether this is to launch new our piracy in lockdown feature on
There was something of a mini- services, attract new consumers, or page 14.
resurgence in live TV viewing, especially subsidise premium content rights,
news, and the EBU was quick to targeted advertising is the next big Chipset shortages and supply
point out how important the output growth area for streaming,” says side issues
of its broadcaster members was Broadpeak’s Xavier Leclercq. Last year, Technicolor guided CSI
during this time. “I strongly believe that linear through the various challenges and
Data from audience measurement transmission will remain important for complexities of navigating the supply
firm Mediametre’s shows that TV the foreseeable future, but it is certainly side during the pandemic. An important
viewers in 91 countries around the being augmented by FAST and AVOD. lesson learned is making sure the flow
globe spent an average of 2 hours 54 With consumer consumption at an all- of components, especially
08 spring 2021 www.csimagazine.com
Cover story: Covid one year on
semiconductors, is uninterrupted. And their doors, there is now a big debate as the ‘pre-Covid’ period.”
that semiconductor supply chain to cinema’s existential crisis post covid. Similarly, work and other live events
remains a huge issue. Some chains have not survived the will all likely continue to be hybrid post-
The global chip shortage has hit crisis, and the question now is will pandemic, with Covid permanently
everything from automotive industry to cinema goers ever flock back in the changing how we live our lives and
Apple MacBook and iPad production, same numbers, especially as release entertain ourselves.
so much so that a group of large windows continue to shrink?
technology companies formed the While many can operate profitably Innovation ahoy
Semiconductors in America Coalition at 50% capacity, the cinema crisis All in all, last year brought about
(SIAC), while the new Biden is exacerbated by a complex considerable changes to the broadcast
administration ordered a review of the environment where studios are landscape, forcing broadcasters to be
global semiconductor supply chain. experimenting with new distribution more creative and innovative than ever.
Set-top maker Amino says it is seeing models, not least Warner Brothers’ A recent Haivision survey found that
wait times for semiconductor orders decision to release its entire 2021 Covid has usurpingly accelerated IP
expand by as much as six months. movie slate simultaneously in movie adoption and how broadcasters are
Harmonic warned that part of its theatres and on its streaming service operating. While the transition towards
supply chain problems extend HBO Max. IP was already in progress, 71% of
through 2021 and possibly into More locally, Insys Video those polled stated that Covid has
the start of 2022. Technologies worked with accelerated the adoption process
MOJEeKINO.pl, a VOD platform within their organisation.
Production delays also to continue connecting more than 40 arthouse According to Bitmovin’s Annual
The production of new content has cinemas to bring the cinema to viewers’ Developer Report, 43% of respondents
proved a challenge. Many series homes across Poland. The company believe viewer engagement presents the
rapidly ended production in March also worked with music and arts most opportunity for innovation within
2020, curtailing their current seasons. festivals, helping them deliver some of the industry.
And whilst production has resumed the content they would normally be able “This is indicative of changing
under strict health guidelines, there to present live. consumer habits brought on by the
remains a significant lag in new content The growth in TVOD (transactional pandemic. Additionally, we will
which has resulted in many video on demand) is interesting and continue to see streaming platforms
broadcasters raiding the back catalogue while it cannot replace the whole adopt new technology such as
to air repeats, and bringing these to a cinema experience but can still be a HDR and next-generation surround
new audience demographic. shared experience, according to John sound to enhance the at-home
Production activity began to Griffiths of Spicy Mango. “It’s a viewing experience,” says Bitmovin’s
accelerate during the fourth quarter of different experience to the cinema but Stefan Lederer.
2020, following a virtual standstill. the studios could consider launching in In the final analysis, it is just as
Furtherm ore, a number of countries this window for TVOD, alongside the well that the media and entertainment
like Canada, France and the UK have cinemas and then licencing to SVOD,” industry has been used to its fair
launched and/or extended pandemic- he suggests, adding that the idea of share of disruption over the previous
related support programs including guests having to be in a studio decade. While question marks remain
wage subsidies and production everytime is a thing of the past. as to some long-term impacts of the
insurance/indemnity schemes that This hybrid approach is expected to pandemic on specific sectors such as
provide pandemic-related coverage. continue going forwards, helping to cinemas, most insiders are confident of
There continue to be production engage a more global audience a healthy rebound going forward.
stoppages/delays as the latest waves of alongside physical events. “Despite enormous setbacks, our
the pandemic temporarily restrict “We’ve been hearing a lot of industry proved once again to be as
production activity or limit international discussion about when in-person trade adaptable and innovative as it was
travel for talent and crew. Nevertheless, show attendance will resume as well as resilient,” said Charles Rivkin, chairman
the industry is optimistic about a steady the role hybrid events will play in the and CEO of the Moton Picture
return to normalcy during the second future. Right now, the context of the Association in the group’s annual
half of 2021. situation is unclear,” says Atika Boulgaz THEME report. “Innovation will help
at Viaccess-Orca. “Events organisers us meet those audiences where they are
What now for cinemas? need to prepare the in-person events and help restore the vibrant creativity
With many cinemas finally opening bearing in mind it will not be similar to that fuels our industry.”
www.csimagazine.com spring 2021 09
Covid special
Q &A
Ariff Sidi of Verizon Media shares his thoughts and insights with CSI into
the impact of Covid on media and entertainment
Would you identify any key trends things or learnings we can take
that Covid has significantly from these as we slowly move
Ariff Sidi, General Manager
accelerated, bringing about long- forward post-pandemic?
and Chief Product Officer,
terms structural changes? Verizon’s PayItForward LIVE initiative,
Verizon Media Platform
New types of immersive experiences are powered by the Verizon Media
making their way into the OTT Platform, offered live-streamed
streaming world and are evolving sports entertainment from some of the biggest
fans’ viewing experience. Real-time names in the industry, to financially
streaming technology, like that offered support small businesses in need. Large
by Verizon Media, sets the stage for a global organizations, such as Verizon
new reality of how sports content can and Verizon Media, have the
be consumed and provides viewers with capabilities to be part of positive
new ‘watch together’ social experiences, community solutions. It’s important to
such as co-viewing synchronized live us and our team members to contribute
streams and in-game trivia. Sports fans to local communities and provide
can now host virtual watch parties with support not just when it’s desperately
T
family and friends. These capabilities needed, but as much as possible.
are highly valued now and will continue
he media to be in the future as they make live Zooming in on networks and
entertainment viewing a more interactive experience. streaming, the pandemic has
industry has seen The acceleration of cord-cutting in brought about new peaks and
its fair share of favor of OTT has led to both traffic patterns. Looking at your
disruption in past broadcasters’ increased need for own data (and perhaps on a wider
years, but those in operational stability and a focus on level), how do these look in 2021
the last year have revenue, which is now a significant, if compared to last year but also
been the biggest so far. From a not critical, part of the business’s pre-pandemic?
very high level, how would you bottom line. The pandemic brought a boom in
assess Covid’s effects on our Additionally, the rapid acceleration of streaming due to most people being
industry so far? OTT in an increasingly crowded market at home. In March 2020 there was a
The pandemic created a turning point is forcing providers to think about how huge spike in internet traffic, with
for video streaming. Behavioral and they price their products in ways that broadband providers experiencing a
lifestyle changes led to digital media create flexibility through a variety of traffic surge between 30% - 50% across
consumption hitting record levels, price points that appeal to the broadest their mobile and fixed networks. In
forcing streaming providers to further audience. Peacock, as a recent example, Europe, the spikes were as high as 70%.
innovate and evolve the viewer has three tiers from totally ad-supported We’re still seeing high levels of traffic
experience. The increase in content to fully-paid without ads. This across our network and while we
streaming, game downloads, and consumer-first approach will be around expect these to level off, the overall
at-home activities accelerated trends for the long-term. trend for internet traffic is heading in
around OTT already underway. The an upwards direction.
industry was already heading towards Service providers in the US and
more widespread adoption of cloud- Europe have undertaken various Do you think these new patterns
based technologies, particularly in live community initiatives during this will stay with us post-pandemic?
sports, but the pandemic served as a period to assist families and other Despite the initial spike in
catalyst for these trends. people. In your opinion, are there consumption, we anticipate traffic
10 spring 2021 www.csimagazine.comCovid special
phishing attacks used to steal account
credentials and financial information to
using platform names and their original
programming as bait to trick users into
downloading a variety of threats,
including malware and adware.
As a result, there’s been an increase
in OTT platforms evaluating their
approaches and moving to cloud-based
solutions for security. Verizon Media
patterns to flatten as we begin to return philosophy is to partner with our Platform’s Security Services protects
to normal life. We still expect to see customers and provide them with streaming services from the latest
YoY growth as global streaming services the flexibility and ability to tailor infrastructure and application-layer
continue to increase in popularity. The the products they deliver. Doing so attacks. Built on Verizon’s global
huge increase in traffic, caused by the empowers service providers to network with high-capacity PoPs around
pandemic, caught a lot of providers off deliver the best possible experience the world, our WAF DDoS and bot
guard, which is why it’s vital for to consumers, given the current management solutions provide scalable
streaming services to be prepared to constraints. protection at the edge of the Internet,
handle unexpected peaks. The sheer amount of video traffic and stopping advance threats before they’re
consumer demand for high-quality able to reach critical web infrastructure
The EU notoriously brought in streams mean that media companies and impact users’ experience.
measures during the first can no longer rely on a single content
lockdown to limit network delivery network (CDN) to deliver Live sports have suffered but
congestion by downgrading video content to a global audience. Verizon events have come back, in many
quality. What are the main ways in Media has pioneered a multi-CDN cases without crowds. How do you
which Verizon Media works with approach. By spreading traffic over see sports streaming adapting to
service providers in terms of the multiple CDNs, broadcasters are new realities and do you think the
technology options to guarantee a protected against slowdowns and overall market (payTV and OTT)
top QoS/QoE? Is there any one- downtime; if one provider’s network will be significantly different as we
size-fits all advice you can give? experiences an outage, traffic can be move out of the pandemic?
At Verizon Media, our CDN is routed through another network. As The increase in demand for interactive
optimized for video delivery while more content owners start to adopt a features will continue to accelerate,
maintaining best-in-class QoE regardless multi-CDN approach, consumers especially from live sports broadcasters
of demands. We are working with our around the world will be able to enjoy who want to continue to evolve the
customers to move key video workflow the best quality streams with sub-second match-day experience for viewers at
capabilities such as video ingestion, latency on multiple devices. home. Even though fans are beginning
video encoding, and ad-insertion closer to return to stadiums, as we’re seeing in
to where users physically are by utilizing Cybersecurity has been on the rise the English Premier League,
a CDN Edge Compute platform. in the last 12 months. What trends interactivity will continue to play a
Computing at the CDN Edge has has Verizon Media seen at this time significant role in sports and events
the potential to meet the challenges and how do you assist your OTT streaming as OTT providers utilize
of a network tasked with delivering and broadcast customers to technology to go beyond just replicating
more data at higher quality to protect themselves from these the traditional TV-watching experience.
end-users with minimal latency, new threats? Based on the conversations we’re having
guaranteeing quality and reliable The increasing frequency, severity, and with customers, features I mentioned
experiences for broadcasters sophistication of cyber-attacks have left above, like “watch together” and
looking to enhance or reinvent the video streaming services open to in-game trivia, are here to stay.
viewing experience. constant threat. The spectrum of For more information go to
Verizon Media’s one-size-fits-all malicious activity is broad - from verizonmedia.com
www.csimagazine.com spring 2021 11Analyst corner
B
It’s all just TV in the end
VoD is AVoD…except
when it’s SVoD; Most
studio D2C is both
AVoD and SVoD… By Guy Bisson, Executive Director,
or is that hybrid?
Acronyms aside, Ampere Analysis
whether we are
talking about local or global subscription model that has so the technicality of delivery is removed
Subscription Video on Demand dominated streaming TV (and TV from the equation and TV is again
(SVoD) services, Broadcaster full stop) to date. But the streaming divided simply into free or pay,
Video on Demand (BVoD); environment is growing so quickly differentiation becomes the challenge.
international Ad-supported and the choice of services expanding Differentiation, of course comes
Video on Demand (AVoD) or so rapidly that this won’t be the case down to content and audience…two
studio Direct to Consumer (D2C) for long. things that are anyway intimately
streaming, it’s all streaming TV, Our latest consumer research shows related. What’s becoming very obvious
or more accurately still, just TV. that more than one in four US online is that distinct segments of viewer are
Increasingly the only difference a homes now watches one of the major emerging for the different streaming TV
consumer will be aware of when international AVoD services (Tubi, services and that audience segmentation
consuming these services is the Pluto, Vudu, IMDBtv or Roku is not based simply on a free vs. pay
difference in business model. And Channel). In the UK, 63% of homes model. Broadly, paid streaming services
if we accept that it is all just TV regularly watch one of the main like Netflix and Amazon still skew
anyway, that boils down to free TV, broadcaster (free) streaming services. In towards the under 45s in their audience;
pay TV or a combination of both. I both countries just under 60% of homes free international streaming services
think we’ve been here before! watch either Netflix or Amazon in any like Tubi, Vudu, Pluto TV and the Roku
The distinctions between the various given month. In other words, all forms Channel skew heavily towards over 35s
types of VoD that we in the industry of streaming TV are becoming (and older); and local broadcaster-led
talk about so freely today are red ubiquitous. That’s an important free or hybrid ad-carrying services are
herrings. AVoD was seen as the new inflection point, taking us as it does somewhere in the middle (although
trend to watch last year and into this. from thinking about streaming TV, to they profile more closely for age to
Today it is indeed growing fast, although that point I described earlier, of Netflix and Amazon). As the presence
still calling second fiddle to the thinking just about ‘TV’ again. Once or absence of advertising cannot explain
12 spring 2021 www.csimagazine.comAnalyst corner
the difference, it leaves content quality GROWTH OF VIEWING US SVOD SERVICES
as the main determining factor.
Analysis shows it’s not so much about
the breadth of content; with the
exception of Tubi and Amazon which
have particularly large content offers
all of the US streaming players have
catalogues that run to between 15,000
and just under 40,000 hours.
What is clear is that regardless of
catalogue size or business model,
audience segmentation falls strongly
along content quality lines (judged on
average popularity of titles).
To take the analogy of ‘it’s all just TV’
further then, studio streamers and
Netflix are the premium TV channels
of new; international AVoD fills the
thematic channel space; local broadcast-
led streamers fill the role they always
have: offering quality content with a AGE PROFILE OF US STREAMING SERVICES
local twist.
Original content will continue to
play into the strategies of all players,
and volumes of new original production
also align well with the quality and
audience continuum illustrated here,
with Netflix, Apple, Amazon and
studio streaming platforms leading
the charge to the benefit of their
content popularity ratings. Going
forward, ad-supported services will
simply be constituent part of the
increasingly voluminous in-home
streaming bundle, watched and
interacted with on the basis of the
content they provide. Our latest round
of consumer research shows that 40%
POPULARITY VS. CATALOGUE SIZE
of US online homes now take four or
more streaming services.
As AVoD is subsumed into the overall
streaming bundle, the packaging,
combining and discounting of bundles
of streaming services will be the new
industry trend in a development I’m
dubbing ‘Compounding’. That brings
with it technical, navigation and data
challenges as well as the need for new
routes to sharing viewing information
as well as challenges around security.
We just need to remember that TV
is streaming; streaming is TV.
www.csimagazine.com spring 2021 13Covid special
Video piracy in lockdown
Irdeto’s Mark Mulready talks to CSI editor Goran Nastic about the
ways that video piracy has changed during the global lockdowns,
sharing some key trends and findings
explains. “They supplemented the lack from social media (Facebook, Twitch
of sport by accessing the library of and YouTube), which is probably due
Mark Mulready is Vice
content that many of the sports to the fact that many of the signposts
organisations made available. They for live events are being placed on
President of Cyber
basically put those archive games into those sites.
Services, Irdeto
their OTT libraries to supplement and Because a lot of people are working
maintain their customer bases. They remotely that has extended the attack
also became savvier in terms of how surface for cybercriminals, who have
they market themselves and how they exploited this.
connect with their customers and keep “We’ve seen a massive increase in
them sticky throughout the period. ransomware attacks on organisations.
There was a lot of Covid-19 discounts We’ve seen the continuation of
T
being offered, a lot of outreach to credential thefts and ongoing credential
customers, use of encrypted stuffing attacks occurring. That’s
he media and communications like WhatsApp to important in the context of video
entertainment reassure customers they will continue because a lot of the pirates are using
industry finds itself in with their service, and to notify them those compromised credentials to
an interesting they are improving their VoD offering access the content and re-distribute it.”
position at this to supplement the lack of live sport.” Irdeto has also seen things like
moment in time. This is because in the case of live session ID sharing, where the pirates
On the one hand, sport, piracy dropped off in the same are piggybacking off the CDN
Covid-19 has accelerated ongoing way as all broadcasts when leagues shut infrastructure of legitimate
digitisation and D2C streaming down in the immediate Covid aftermath broadcasters. So rather than having
services. In doing so, it has of the first wave. their own hosted streaming servers they
heightened the security and piracy “With live sports, the piracy there simply redistribute the session IDs to
risks for those platforms. dropped right off, but it came back end-users who are then piggybacking off
What the last 12 months or so of immediately as soon as the major the legitimate operators’ CDN
intermittent global lockdowns have sporting leagues came back we saw a infrastructure.
confirmed is that video pirates have return to levels we experienced prior to “Attacks on OTT platforms will
found new ways to reach and engage the pandemic — and it has stayed increase because there is a real financial
with their customers, being forced to consistent or even increased in some motivation there because they don’t
adapt in much the same way as cases since then as the leagues have have to pay for that hosting infrastruc-
legitimate broadcasters and other continued mostly without live ture. They can piggyback off legitimate
service providers. audiences. People still want that live operators,” explains Mulready.
“What we saw with pirates was that sports fix and there’s a real demand In terms of the scale of the problem,
they took advantage in some respect of there,” Mulready observes. different studies have highlighted the
the captive audience and the increased When the sports leagues came back, numbers. Parks Associates estimated
demand for content, particularly when Irdeto saw an 18-fold increase in traffic the revenue lost to piracy at around $61
it comes to P2P. We saw an immediate to the popular streaming sites in May billion in 2020 and predicts close to
spike in P2P traffic,” says Mark and June of last year. The company $70bn globally by 2023.
Mulready, VP of Cyber Services, Irdeto. also saw a 50% increase in searches Another big trend that Covid has
“The pirates also became a bit savvy for sports streams between June and accelerated is studios more aggressively
in terms of the content supplied with July 2020. experimenting with direct-to-digital
their illicit streaming devices,” Mulready Additionally, it saw links originating releases, which has shrunk — in
14 spring 2021 www.csimagazine.comCovid special
some cases completely — cinema-to-
digital windows.
“That, again, heightens the piracy
risk and if people don’t put the
appropriate protections in place, then
this could be kind of a new piracy
bonanza,” warns Mulready.
For content owners, because there’s
no box office revenues during COVID-
19, the digital revenues and D2C play
becomes increasing important. So the
value chain here has become
considerable expanded, as has once
again the potential surface area of
attack for pirates.
An interesting by-product of this
development has been a decrease in
piracy spikes. With new titles, P2P, are multi-jurisdictional in nature, with for ads from pirate services on the first
traditionally there would be multiple hosting servers and payment platforms page of results.
spikes as the title moves through the in different countries. “It’s right there in your face. If you’re
various windows and marketing “As a result, we still see this a consumer you don’t have to look very
campaigns, but what Irdeto is seeing discussion between the rights owners far to find pirate services. It’s a multi-
now with the short windows is a huge and operators as to whose responsibility million dollar business and pirates are
spike in P2P piracy on first release, but it is to address piracy, but I think now very savvy in reaching their market,”
there isn’t the same duplication of those the licensees are almost using piracy as Mulready observes.
2nd and 3rd spikes seen before. a negotiating point contractually. We’re “The pandemic has grown the
starting to see more cooperation and streaming market, but it has also
Countering a big business collaboration in that regard,” says created billing fatigue because for some
To address these issues, media Mulready. “That type of cooperation we people you need to access multiple OTT
companies need a combination of good need to see more of, between rights services to watch the content you want,”
technologies – a combination of robust owners, operators, enforcement Mulready surmises. “That in a way is
CA, DRM and watermarking. They can agencies and industry bodies like the giving people the motivation to
also use tools like AI to identify and MPA,CAP and AAPA,” adds Mulready, purchase an illicit streaming device
track suspicious behaviours. who also currently serves as where you have thousands of channels
“I don’t think there’s a broadcaster, Co-president for AAPA, a leading pan- from premium broadcasters around the
studio or OTT business that doesn’t see European anti-piracy industry world and tens of thousands of VoD
piracy as a risk to their business, but association. titles available on the same device. That
there is no silver bullet,” says Mark, “The trouble is the legislative change has become quite attractive for people.
who recommends concurrent stream is very slow and pirates are very quick But what people don’t realise is that’s
management and CDN tokenisation as in their ability to adapt. We need to exposing them to a criminal
two important techniques open to OTT move as an industry at the same pace as organisation with access to their
operators. Irdeto provides these abilities the pirates,” Mulready argues. personal data or a malware risk.”
to its customers to help act quickly and Security companies like Irdeto What all this shows is that the pirates
manage the problem. The company also work closely with agencies like Europol have, once again, adapted to how the
provides 2.7bn DRM licences, and and Interpol and local police to market is moving. Piracy and that battle
growing, monthly. coordinate actions. In fact, Interpol will always be there. Technology,
While the technology piece is very in April this year launched a new business models, enforcement and
important, the industry can’t just rely digital piracy unit. education all play a part. Moving
on the technology to address the piracy Moreover, pirated content is very forward, demand – for legitimate and
issue. It also needs consumer education, compelling: it’s cheap and of good pirated content - will continue to
legal accessibility to content and quality in many cases. That is why the increase and security needs to be front
enforcement, on both the criminal and education piece is hugely important. of mind, evolving as threats evolve
civil side. All of these pirate networks Typing ‘IPTV’ into Google gives paid- over time.
www.csimagazine.com spring 2021 15Covid special – Remote production
Out of chaos comes new order
The pandemic permanently disrupted traditional sports
production, accelerating distributed workflows and pushing
live further into the cloud, says Adrian Pennington
D
igital transformation use of distributed production models, This transition was already in play
is usually gradual, particularly for esports and high-value before COVID-19 but broadcasters who
meticulous and tied live sports would not have even considered moving
up in corporate red “The broadcasting industry to remote production “are doing so very
tape and pivoted to remote, cloud, and digital quickly, either out of necessity or from
conservatism. The workflows almost overnight, showcasing a desire to reduce costs and maintain
global health crisis its resilience and innovation,” says quality,” says Szabo-Rowe. The Switch,
changed this dramatically. John Denison, VP of Innovation, for example, have supported a major
“COVID-19 has pushed broadcasters LTN Global. North American sports league by
to embrace more remote production “There’s been a huge acceleration in keeping its commentators on-air using
models, a trend that would otherwise this space for Tier2/Tier3 content with remote production.
have taken many years,” says Robert full integration of end-to-end workflows “The ability to assemble a team,
Szabo-Rowe, SVP Engineering and for OTT and social media distribution,” situated anywhere in the world, and
Product Management, The Switch agrees Per Lindgren, CTO and collaborate on video production has
which has seen significant spikes in the co-founder of Net Insight. been a key factor in keeping shows
on-air, enabling
publishers to deliver at
scale without any
geographical
restrictions,” says Scott
Lunn, head of content,
Grabyo. “This
highlighted other
benefits to the industry
including environmental
sustainability and the
option for more people,
and importantly more
women, to remain in the
workforce when the
demands on travelling
are removed for
production staff.”
There’s been a rise in
models where the
different constituents of
a control room are
distributed. This involves
having crew such as
graphics, an EVS
operator, programme
mixer all in different
locations and remotely
connected to centralized
16 spring 2021 www.csimagazine.comCovid special – Remote production
jitter can destroy the
content and the
ability to remotely
manage and control
the production.”
ST 2110 and
compression
It is the transport
links from site or
between ST 2110
facilities requiring
compression which
can be problematic.
For top tier events,
JPEG2000 which
displays near lossless
compression has been
equipment. BT Sport worked with available by consumer contributors led the most common. JPEG-XS is
Timeline to do this in the UK and is media companies and producers to becoming increasingly popular due to
intent on keeping similar arrangements accept webRTC streams onto the air,” its ultra-low latency below 10 ms and its
permanent not least for the benefits to says Denison. emergent integration into ST 2110
staff work/life balance. Cloud-based workstations using workflows.
A variation on the model retains all PCoIP, and low-cost low bandwidth “For the time being, most people
the processing and hardware within an video transmission has become the don’t use 2110 for remote production,”
OB truck at venue with control remoted norm. Business teleconferencing tools, says Szabo-Rowe. “However, JPEG XS
to operators who could be situated in a smartphone cameras and webcams are can be applied to deliver ST 2110 in
central control room or at home. The in routine use in at home scenarios for an uncompressed format, which
‘remote surface’ model means only both production crew and on-air talent. reduces the bandwidth by a factor
lower resolution feeds need to be routed “The use of off-the-shelf collaboration of five to ten and could see 2110
over the internet to software panels tools keeps the media factories become more widely embraced for
while uncompressed media can be kept running,” finds the IABM in its recent contribution feeds.”
locally for processing. trends roadmap. “Audiences started to As ST 2110 is bandwidth-heavy, it is
Outside broadcast provider Arena is accept glitches, streaming issues and for difficult and expensive to use broadly
proving how low the round-trip latency that matter more often than not poor for transporting a large number of
can be with a new set-up based on video and audio quality; our signals. Denison explains that LTN
Grass Valley’s DirectIP solution and the expectations for more 4K UHD in 2020 Global’s centralised production facilities
Net Insight Nimbra media acceleration turned into Covid Quality.” have ST 2110 capability, “but we lower
platform. DirectIP requires only the As the internet and cloud is the cost of ST 2110 by using SDI in
camera heads to be deployed on increasingly used for cost-efficiency and a digital format and J2K to move
location while reducing the bandwidth flexibility, Automatic repeat request uncompressed signals into the end
by 90 percent. (ARQ) protocols such as SRT and of the ST 2110 workflow with as
RIST are used to provide a high-quality little compression as possible. With
Covid-quality production stream. However, redundancy, security computers and networks getting
Trade-offs between picture quality, and synchronization need to be handled faster and more powerful, ST 2110
latency and reliability, however, become properly for high quality, high will become more usable for
unavoidable when dedicated fibre is availability workflows. backhaul transport.”
unavailable or customers prefer to use “For broadcast quality production, One of the complications of 2110 is
the internet for camera contribution for PTP support in ST 2110 is required at the control plane and connecting
cost or convenience. COVID-19 gave both end-points,” says Lindgren. “100 systems together. Although NMOS
many productions no choice. percent quality of service in the specifications address this, The Switch
“The challenges the pandemic networks is critical for all remote finds it best to connect at one location
presented and the lower standards workflows. Packet loss, latency and with 2110, transport it to another site
www.csimagazine.com spring 2021 17You can also read
