Initial Plan for the Dissemination and Exploitation of Results
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Initial Plan for the Dissemination
and Exploitation of Results
Deliverable D7.3
MPAT File ID: MPAT_D7.3_Initial-plan-for-the-dissemination-and-exploitation-of-
results.docx
Version: 1.0
Deliverable number: D7.3
Authors: Stefano Miccoli (Fincons), Matthew Broadbent (ULANC), Christian
Fuhrhop (FOKUS), Simona Tonoli (Mediaset), Fabian Schiller (IRT),
Nicolas Patz (RBB), Jean-Claude Dufourd (Paristech), Hanna-
Riikka Sundberg (Leadin)
Contributors: Miggi Zwicklbauer (FOKUS), Doreen Ritter (RBB), Jean-Philippe
Ruijs (Paristech)
Internal reviewers: Matthew Broadbent (ULANC), Fabian Schiller (IRT), Stefano Miccoli
(Fincons)
Work Package: WP7
Task: T7.2, T7.3
Nature: R – Report
Dissemination: PU – Public
Status: Final
Delivery date: 30.11.2016
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2016-11-30 D7.3 Initial Plan for the Dissemination and Exploitation of Results
Version and controls:
Version Date Reason for change Editor
0 29.06.2016 Initial draft Miccoli
1 Until 22.08.2016 Dissemination events contributions Fuhrhop, Zwicklbauer,
Broadbent, Schiller
2 Until 24.11.2016 Partners exploitation plans Various
3 25.11.2016 Merge dissemination and exploitation Various
contributions
4 28.11.2016 Peer review Broadbent, Schiller, Miccoli
5 30.11.2016 Final rivision Miccoli
Acknowledgement: The research leading to these results has received funding from the European
Union's Horizon 2020 Programme (H2020-ICT-2015, call ICT-19-2015) under grant agreement n°
687921.
Disclaimer: This document does not represent the opinion of the European Community, and the
European Community is not responsible for any use that might be made of its content.
This document may contain material, which is the copyright of certain MPAT consortium parties, and
may not be reproduced or copied without permission. All MPAT consortium parties have agreed to full
publication of this document. The commercial use of any information contained in this document may
require a license from the proprietor of that information.
Neither the MPAT consortium as a whole, nor a certain party of the MPAT consortium warrant that the
information contained in this document is capable of use, nor that use of the information is free from
risk, and does not accept any liability for loss or damage suffered by any person using this information.
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Executive Summar y
This deliverable elaborates the initial plans for the dissemination and exploitation of results.
The first part of the deliverable, namely Dissemination, describes activities which took place or are
already planned, organizing them in two different subchapters, based on their nature: Scientific Results,
and Trade Publications, Industry Exhibitions and Networking Events. For each activity there is a brief
report from the partners who attended each example.
In the second part the initial exploitation plan is described. It starts from an overview of the target
market, where involved stakeholders and their future perspectives are analyzed one by one and the
product definition, where MPAT selling points are described.
In the product positioning chapter, MPAT is compared to existing potential competitors. Their strengths
and shortcomings are enlisted and compared to current and final MPAT status. Then the outcomes from
previous assessments are summarized in the SWOT analysis where strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats of MPAT are highlighted.
Finally, each partner describes its plans for the exploitation of MPAT.
All deliverable sections are subject to updates in D7.6, when the final plan for the dissemination and
exploitation of the results will be described.
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Table of Contents
1 Introduction....................................................................................................................................... 4
2 Dissemination ................................................................................................................................... 5
2.1 Online Social Networking............................................................................................................ 5
2.2 Scientific Results ........................................................................................................................ 5
2.2.1 Planned Scientific Publications .............................................................................................................................. 5
2.2.2 Existing Scientific Publications .............................................................................................................................. 5
2.3 Trade Publications, Industry Exhibitions and Networking Events .............................................. 7
2.3.1 Planned Trade Publications, Industry Exhibitions and Networking Events ............................................................. 7
2.3.2 Existing Trade Publications, Industry Exhibitions and Networking Events .............................................................. 7
2.4 Standardisation Bodies ............................................................................................................. 15
3 Exploitation ..................................................................................................................................... 16
3.1 Target Market ........................................................................................................................... 16
3.1.1 Public, Private and Local Broadcasters ............................................................................................................... 16
3.1.2 Content Creators ................................................................................................................................................. 18
3.1.3 Public Institutions ................................................................................................................................................ 19
3.1.4 Advertisers .......................................................................................................................................................... 19
3.2 Product definition ...................................................................................................................... 20
3.2.1 Implemented features .......................................................................................................................................... 20
3.2.2 Support and standard compliance ....................................................................................................................... 21
3.2.3 Documentation .................................................................................................................................................... 21
3.3 Product positioning ................................................................................................................... 22
3.3.1 Ngine Networks HbbTV CMS .............................................................................................................................. 22
3.3.2 SofiaDigital HbbTV Authoring Tool ...................................................................................................................... 22
3.4 SWOT Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 24
3.4.1 Strengths............................................................................................................................................................. 24
3.4.2 Weaknesses........................................................................................................................................................ 24
3.4.3 Opportunities ....................................................................................................................................................... 25
3.4.4 Threats ................................................................................................................................................................ 25
3.5 Partners’ Individual and Joint Plans ......................................................................................... 26
3.5.1 Fraunhofer .......................................................................................................................................................... 26
3.5.2 RBB .................................................................................................................................................................... 26
3.5.3 IRT ...................................................................................................................................................................... 27
3.5.4 Lancaster ............................................................................................................................................................ 27
3.5.5 Mediaset ............................................................................................................................................................. 28
3.5.6 Leadin ................................................................................................................................................................. 28
3.5.7 Fincons ............................................................................................................................................................... 28
3.5.8 Paristech ............................................................................................................................................................. 29
3.6 Expected changes for final plan of exploitation of results ........................................................ 30
Glossary ............................................................................................................................................... 31
List of Figures ...................................................................................................................................... 32
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1 Introduction
In this document, we describe both the dissemination and exploitation of results generated through the
course of the MPAT project. This includes a detailed plan for each of these, as well as results already
achieved in the first year of the project. The dissemination activity first focuses on academic
dissemination, and follows with industrial-oriented outlets. Finally, the dissemination outlines the role of
standardisation bodies in the work of MPAT.
The second section, namely that of exploitation, described the efforts that the MPAT project has made
towards realising some of the wider outcomes intended for the project. This includes identifying a
number of potential target markets, defining the scope and features of the product, and the position of
this within the wider marketplace. Finally, we outline both individual and joint plans for exploitation.
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2 Dissemination
2.1 Online Social Networking
Please see D7.2 for more details of the dissemination achieved through online social media.
2.2 Scientific Results
MPAT will be presented in a number of different scientific outlets, mainly academic in nature. In this
section, we discuss the plan for publishing these results, as well as targets and venues for publication.
These are described in Planned Scientific Publications. Despite the early nature of much of the work
conducted thus far in MPAT, there are nonetheless examples that have already been successfully
published and/or presented. These are noted in Existing Scientific Publications.
2.2.1 Planned Scientific Publications
MPAT has already generated a number of publishable results that are currently awaiting formation into
conference papers. This includes the outcomes of user testing and feedback generated in the WP3, as
well as the scenarios and concepts formed in WP2.
Furthermore, contributions towards architecture and design will be used in the publication of detailed
documents, presented to the wider community. These are worthy contributions if only by the fact they
will be novel and unique in the respect; no current design are freely and widely available to either
industry or the community. With the publication of these, we invite scrutiny and refinement to our work.
Finally, as the MPAT implementation matures into a useable and feature-rich tool, it is anticipated that
this will open a great number of potential avenues for further evaluation and scientific contributions. This
includes, but is not limited to, continuing work in WP2 and WP3.
There is also scope for scientific publications that are not necessarily in the main scope of MPAT. This
includes multi-disciplinary work, and could include topics such as: enabling access to content platforms
traditionally behind a technology or infrastructure ‘wall’, the impact that this access would have on the
digital digital economy, and the methods and techniques necessary to build a system simultaneously
suitable for both novice and expert users.
Potential outlets for the abovementioned work includes the following accredited and recognised outlets:
CHI (Computer Human Interaction) - https://chi2017.acm.org/
Ubicomp - http://ubicomp.org/ubicomp2017/
NordiCHI - http://nordichi2018.org/
TVX - https://tvx.acm.org/2017/
2.2.2 Existing Scientific Publications
TVX 2016
Type: Work in Progress Paper / Poster
Date: 22nd – 24th June 2016
Location: Chicago, IL
MPAT Participants: Fraunhofer FOKUS (presented), Lancaster University, ParisTech, Fincons, IRT,
Leadin
Fraunhofer FOKUS presented the overall MPAT concept at TVX 2016. This included a preliminary
architecture and a set of potential use cases. These were presented through a Work in Progress paper
and a poster. The paper is published by the ACM, and available online at
https://doi.org/10.1145/2932206.2933560.
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Forum Media Technology & All Around Audio Symposium
Type: Academic Presentation
Date: 23rd November 2016
Location: St. Pölten, AUT
MPAT Participants: RBB, Fraunhofer FOKUS
RBB and FOKUS submitted a paper on “Interactive Storytelling & Audio Apps for HbbTV” in which the
Play-along-/Karaoke-Feature of the RBB pilot BAND CAMP BERLIN helped demonstrate how MPAT
can be used to create interactive TV applications with little effort and technological requirements. After
the academic peer reviewing process, MPAT was invited to present “Audio Interaction in front of the TV
Screen” at the All Around Audio Symposium on 23rd November as part of the Forum Medientage in at
the University of Applied Sciences in St. Pölten near Vienna, Austria.
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2.3 Trade Publications, Industry Exhibitions and Networking Events
MPAT has already been very visible at a number of large and recognised industry exhibitions and
networking events. These are outlined in the section Existing Trade Publications, Industry Exhibitions
and Networking Events. The ability to present MPAT and disseminate the project, including the
technology that is being developed in such, is testament to the progress made thus far. Although brief,
the Planned Trade Publications, Industry Exhibitions and Networking Events outlines a strategy for the
coming year.
2.3.1 Planned Trade Publications, Industry Exhibitions and Networking Events
Given that MPAT has already targeted a number of key Industry Exhibitions and Networking Events, the
planned dissemination activity is very much to continue to be present at the same set of venues in the
following year (2017). In addition to this extensive list, the MPAT project will also look to further increase
dissemination of the project by targeting new venues. These will be determined given industry
preference and changing popularity in the coming months.
2.3.2 Existing Trade Publications, Industry Exhibitions and Networking Events
4th European HbbTV Symposium
Type: Networking Event
Date: 8th - 9th December 2015
Location: London, GB
MPAT Participants: Fraunhofer FOKUS
The topic of the 4th European HbbTV Symposium in London was “HbbTV 2.0 and Beyond”. Under this
topic the major subjects were HbbTV for operators, UHD and HDR in HbbTV, HbbTV 2.0 value for
broadcasters and service providers. In 2015 the HbbTV association also highlighted the status of new
continents and countries adopting HbbTV including Africa, Asia, New-Zealand and Japan and discussed
successful services and marketing examples. Fraunhofer FOKUS demonstrated during the conference
the first draft implementation of the Multi-Platform Application Toolkit on their own booth.
Figure 1: Fraunhofer FOKUS demonstrating the MPAT Editor and generated Application
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HbbTV Interop Event
Type: Workshop / Networking Event
Dates: 13th - 14th April / 20th - 21th July / 23th -24th November
Location: Munich, GER
MPAT Participants: IRT
The HbbTV Interoperability workshop provides the possibility for manufacturers to ensure that their
implemented new functionalities are according to the standard and gives application developers the
chance to test the maturity of their applications on different devices. There the first HbbTV 2.0
prototypes are being tested incorporating new features such as DASH, HEVC and synchronisation of
companion devices amongst others, which are part of the MPAT scope. The advancements of the
project are tested against different TVs and STBs in order to keep up with the latest devices on the
market. At the latest event, IRT was testing the Bandcamp pilot application and performed component
tests to ensure following standard HbbTV specifications.
Figure 2: Device manufacturers and app developers at the HbbTV Interop Workshop
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re:publica
Type: Industry Exhibition / Networking Event
Date: 2nd - 3rd May 2016
Location: Berlin, GER
MPAT Participants: Fraunhofer FOKUS
In May 2016 Fraunhofer FOKUS was demonstrating the 360° video MPAT plugin for the first time in a
cooperation with the broadcaster ARTE on the ARTE booth at the 10th re:publica. The re:publica is one
of the largest festivals about digital culture in the world. Around 8.000 participants and 800 accredited
international journalists visited the fully packed STATION Berlin and adjoining Kühlhaus for this event.
Figure 3: FOKUS 360° Demo at the ARTE 360° Cinema Dome
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27th FKTG Conference
Type: Industry Exhibition / Networking Event
Date: 9th – 11th May 2016
Location: Leipzig, GER
MPAT Participants: Fraunhofer FOKUS, RBB
The FKTG Conference was a combination of symposium and exhibition that is hosted every two years
on different media-relevant locations in Germany. Fraunhofer FOKUS presented MPAT during the
“Crossmediale Distributionen” session on the last day. During the symposium, FOKUS also presented
MPAT on a booth, including the new plugins like 360° and interactive video.
Figure 4: Fraunhofer FOKUS presentation about the MPAT at the 27th FKTG
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Digital2016
Type: Networking / Workshop Event
Date: 6th – 7th June 2016
Location: Newport, GB
MPAT Participants: Leadin (presented), Lancaster University
MPAT was presented at a session titled “The Future of Interactive TV”, which explored the way that TV
is consumed, how TV-based applications are now a core part of the the experience and how MPAT can
be used to further this. A number of scenarios were described, and a lively discussion was generated
around the use and implementation of the MPAT platform. A number of industrial contacts were made
during this event, and continue to be pursued.
Figure 5: Leadin presents the MPAT concept at Digital2016
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IFA
Type: Industry Exhibition / Networking Event
Date: 2nd - 7th September 2016
Location: Berlin, GER
MPAT Participants: Fraunhofer FOKUS, RBB, IRT
RBB and IRT presented MPAT as a major achievement at their neighbouring booths at ARD’s Digital
World (Digitale Welt) focusing on both consumer interface - with the new feature SlideFlow - and
content creator interface - with hands-on presentations of how such pages have been created with
MPAT.
While IFA is generally consumer-oriented, the visitors of the RBB Innovation Projects booth are often
from other broadcasters from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. These colleagues were very interested
in the tool and its workflow. While RBB’s demonstrations focused more on consumer interfaces and
workflows, guests who were specifically interested in technical and infrastructural questions were
welcomed by IRT’s experts at the neighboring booth.
Figure 6: Booth of RBB Innovation projects at IFA: presentation of the BAND CAMP BERLIN
Demo
IBC
Type: Industry Exhibition / Networking Event
Date: 2nd - 7th September 2016
Location: Amsterdam, NL
MPAT Participants: Fraunhofer FOKUS, IRT
The IBC (International Broadcasting Convention) is an annual trade fair for the broadcasting industry.
With 55000 attendees in 2016, it is the largest event in Europe for professionals involved in content
creation, management and delivery. Traditionally, IBC has been geared toward the technical side of
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broadcasting, but has in recent years moved more toward the coverage of media and entertainment
industry as a whole.
Fraunhofer demonstrated the MPAT toolkit on the Fraunhofer booth at the IBC event, demonstrating the
ease of changing application elements of a demo application, created with MPAT for a project-external
company, containing 360° video content and supplementary material.
HD Forum Italia Conference 2016
Type: Industry Exhibition / Networking Event
Date: 6th - 7th October 2016
Location: Vatican City, VC
MPAT Participants: Mediaset, Fincons
The HD Interoperability forum was the occasion for the association “HD Forum Italia” to officially present
HD Book 4.0, containing all HbbTV technical specifications for TV manufacturers on the Italian market.
Mediaset is member of the association since its birth with the aim of actively promoting the adoption of
HbbTV standard and its coexistence with MHP standard.
Besides participating as speakers at above event, Mediaset & Fincons hosted a booth and a demo app
with the aim of:
presenting the latest version of the MPAT tool;
launching the first official trial of HbbTV transmission with the first official full deployment in Italy
of a national HbbTV channel, namely on La5 channel;
helping promoting the HbbTV adoption process.
Figure 7: Demonstration at the Mediaset booth by Mediaset & Fincons
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Medientage
Type: Industry Exhibition / Networking Event
Date: 25th - 27th October 2016
Location: München, GER
MPAT Participants: Fraunhofer FOKUS, IRT
The Medientage is the main annual event for media related professionals. It comprises a conference
track and an exhibition. The number of attendees is usually around 6000 and includes media makers,
media technology experts and media politicians. An indicator of the significance of the event for the
German media industry is that Angela Merkel and Horst Seehofer (Minister President of Bavaria) were
attendees this year.
MPAT was present at the event by showcasing the editor itself at the Fraunhofer FOKUS HAT booth
and an 360° HbbTV application created with MPAT at the 360° showcase.
Figure 8: Demonstration at the joint Fraunhofer FOKUS and IRT booth
Workshop on Smart TV production
Type: Expert Workshop
Date: 16th November 2016
Location: Berlin, GER
MPAT Participants: RBB
On 16th November 2016, RBB hosted a workshop on Smart TV Production. 30 experts from different
public broadcasters in Germany participated in a full-day workshop where innovative technologies and
methods for TV production were presented, demonstrated and discussed.
RBB presented MPAT as a smart tool for creating HbbTV applications.
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Changing the Picture
Type: Industry / Networking Event
Date: 17th - 18th November 2016
Location: Potsdam, GER
MPAT Participants: RBB
Every year in November Film University Potsdam hosts a technology conference on Film and TV
production, Changing the Picture (http://www.changingthepicture.de/#changingthepicture2016). In a
session on Collaborative Production, hosted by RBB, the MPAT team presented and demonstrated
MPAT as a tool for creating HbbTV applications.
Media Web Symposium (MWS)
Type: Industry Exhibition / Networking Event
Date: 16th - 18th May 2017
Location: Berlin, GER
MPAT Participants: Fraunhofer FOKUS
The 6th FOKUS Media Web Symposium will offer the latest insights in internet delivered media such as
360°/VR Streaming, multiscreen interaction, media sync, SmartTV/HbbTV, protected adaptive
streaming, related standardization and market developments. Following our tradition of providing a
platform for international technology experts, the latest developments of web technologies and up-and-
coming trends of the creative industry will be presented and discussed. Fraunhofer FOKUS will also
present the newest implementation status of MPAT on a booth.
2.4 Standardisation Bodies
The MPAT consortium is tracking progress and changes in the HbbTV specification, as well as related
developments in the area. Similarly, the consortium is also monitoring progress and discussions in the
W3C Web and TV Interest Group. As of yet, the project has not made any contributions to these two
groups, but they are nonetheless planned in the coming year. Importantly, the project has also not made
any technical or architectural decisions that would contravene current efforts in these two groups.
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3 Exploitation
3.1 Target Market
We are certain that HbbTV trend is generating important stimuli for market development by changing
the consumption of audiovisual services and by opening up television to new content, new providers,
and new business models.
Consumers want to simplify and unify the way in which they browse, search and watch video content
through TV, while operators are looking for ways to reduce the costs associated with the app creation
process and ways to exploit massively the opportunity offered by the convergence of broadcast and
broadband to deliver interactive content.
MPAT can currently benefit from an outstanding growing market scenario in HbbTV penetration which
paves the way for an excellent potential of adoption by multiple players to deliver apps on multiple hbb
devices. At present, more than 90% of all producers of TV sets have adopted the HbbTV standard
(source: GfK).
Figure 9: Map of HbbTV adoption in November 2016
In the following paragraphs, the main beneficiaries of MPAT are described.
3.1.1 Public, Private and Local Broadcasters
Regarding the status of Market Development in HbbTV Services, since IFA 2010, all four free-to-air
television broadcast groups in Germany ARD, ZDF, RTL, and ProSiebenSat.1 have been offering
HbbTV services.
While public broadcasters have focused mainly on media libraries, teletext, and EPG, the commercial
broadcasters have proposed upgraded variations of their teletext pages with photos, video clips, and
interactive advertising, and Pro7 and Sat.1 also offer games and voting.
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Figure 10: Effectiveness of interactive over non interactive video ads in 2015
An outstanding example for the potential of HbbTV was demonstrated during the 2012 Olympic Summer
Games and the 2014 Olympic Winter Games with the integration of six and four live streams,
respectively, into the HbbTV Olympics apps of ARD and ZDF. But smaller broadcasters also regard
HbbTV as a valuable extension feature to their program activities: By now, Sport1, HSE24, QVC,
Sonnenklar TV, and Astro TV have launched their own HbbTV options.
Interestingly, a growing number of local TV broadcasters in Germany is also providing HbbTV content
bringing the total to 70 program providers offering HbbTV services (as of September 2013). They
already include applications that allow bookings or purchases. There is no doubt that such applications
will also be offered by many more providers in future and MPAT in this sense will provide a perfect
solution to support massive and customizable app production.
At the same time, the number of “interactive” devices in use by consumers has seen a very dynamic
development. According to GfK Retail & Technology, a total of 20.5 million Web-enabled consumer
devices had been sold by the end of 2013 on the German market, including TVs, Blu-ray players, and
set-top boxes
Fifty-nine percent of the TV sets sold in 2013 were capable of displaying Web-based content and were
thus considered “smart TVs” (2012: 50%, or 4.8 million; 2011: 3.4 million). Moreover, a full 92 percent of
the smart TVs sold in 2013 supported the HbbTV standard for interactive television via a special red
button on the remote control. Not all smart TVs sold in Germany are actually hooked up to the Internet,
but a survey conducted in April/May 2013 on behalf of gfu (Gesellschaft für Unterhaltungs- und
Kommunikationselektronik) showed the number of those that are connected to the Web now to be close
to 60 percent.(source: Deutsche TV Platform).
Germany was a pioneer in the launch of HbbTV on an international scale. The French market had
already played a key role in the development of the HbbTV standard, and by now, TF1, France
Télévisions, and Canal+ are using HbbTV. Internationally, HbbTV has since made great strides: In
Europe, nine countries have regular HbbTV operations (Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic,
Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Switzerland). A number of other European
countries are planning the launch of HbbTV or have commenced test runs (Hungary, Norway, Portugal,
Sweden, and the United Kingdom). Even beyond Europe, HbbTV has been reviewed, and in some
cases (eg Italy), introduction has already been greenlighted.
There is no doubt that HbbTV applications will therefore be offered by many more providers in future
and MPAT can provide a solution to support massive and customizable app production across different
players.
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3.1.2 Content Creators
Broadcasters rarely produce their own content, but purchase complete programmes from production
companies. These typically not only deliver the broadcastable video content, but are often also
responsible for the production of supporting material, such as the provision of a web presence related to
the TV programme or series or the supply of promotional material, such as trailers, teasers, interviews
or ‘making of’ supplements.
Content Creators is used as a term to include those that create media content. This includes images,
video and music, but also incorporates other mediums, such as art and performance. Content creators
usually rely on broadcasters and media houses to publish this content using traditional channels such
as television and radio. However, there has been an increasing trend towards this group of users
moving towards self-publishing. This is enabled by the availability of platforms specifically created to
host content without the need to vast amounts of infrastructure or without significant levels of
knowledge.
Currently, these content creators do not have suitable tools to create an HbbTV presence to accompany
their content. MPAT helps these creators to build HbbTV applications that are small, stand-alone and
suitable for adding to existing broadcaster pages, leveraging experience the content creators already
have from providing a web presence.
Being more accessible by this target group is one of the reasons for including the ‘page flow’ navigation,
as this style of presentation of supplementary material is common and popular with, for example,
documentary producers.
MPAT extends this ability to television as a platform to host applications. Gone are the need for
expensive and time consuming development process. In its place, MPAT enables the rapid
development of applications at a low cost. This is important to note only enable a presence on a
platform that is typically underused by content creators, but also allows such users to create
applications in response to events, new content etc., and thus avoid long wait times that may otherwise
stifle innovation and progress for such organisations.
A consistent level of branding and awareness is key across many platforms these days. This includes a
presence on different social networks, video services and other platforms used to share content. MPAT
enables the development of a single application that is then compatible across multiple such end-
devices, which allows for more coverage and a wide potential user base.
Importantly MPAT also does not block the creative process in anyway, allowing content creators to
realise the designs and layouts that have been prototyped or sketched beforehand; it is no barrier to the
creative process. This is also coupled with a movement away from the traditional toolchains and
workflows that can be found in larger businesses. Much like its counterpart Wordpress, MPAT does not
impose any such restrictions to workflow or permissions (although they can be used if required).
Currently, most HbbTV applications are developed with a lead-up time of weeks or months. Current
events can only be supported with applications that are fixed, but dynamically include content from a
live source. For example, an image gallery can show the six most current new pictures or a social feed
can show the latest user messages, but the application itself stays unchanged.
The capability of MPAT to generate applications quickly, allows content creators to react to current and
upcoming events quickly by providing supplementary material as HbbTV applications, without the need
to contract out-house specialists or programmers.
The abovementioned reasons are motivations as to why MPAT is appropriate for the content creator
market. To reinforce this, we show the importance of user generated content, which could be
considered as generated by this group. In September 2016, it was estimated that the two largest
content creators on Facebook generated over 6 billion views alone 1. This count could be increased
further with the development of a TV-based presence for each of these creators. YouTube also provides
a similar indication of the potential for this market, with over 127 billion views registered in September
2016 alone2. This is again without the use of targeted and branded applications for the television,
designed and built by the content creators themselves.
1
http://tubularinsights.com/top-facebook-video-creators/
2
http://tubularinsights.com/top-youtube-channels/
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3.1.3 Public Institutions
Public Institutions could also benefit from the use of MPAT. Statistics are hard to gather for this group,
but they could nonetheless be considered content creators too. Importantly for public institutions, MPAT
enables the low-cost development of applications, and yet offers a rich support network through the use
of plugins. Thus, this group could well consider the development of a bespoke application as a presence
on the Television platform. As members of this group typically have to provide accountability for any
expenditure, the open source nature of MPAT provides an enticing no-cost solution that has the
potential to create exposure on a new platform. As this becomes increasingly important in the modern
world, they will undoubtedly have to consider this in the future.
During communication/dissemination events we gathered concrete feedbacks and ideas for example by
an Italian public institution to enrich their existing broadcast channel. We are considering to organize an
ad-hoc demo for validating MPAT in their use case in the next months.
3.1.4 Advertisers
As more viewers become more familiar with OTT programming, the digital Connected TV (CTV)
advertising market will become larger. The trend, already taking shape, is that everything that is
currently broadcast on traditional TV will have an option for connectivity and all TV shows will get their
own apps. This means that advertisers will need to allocate more of their advertising budgets to CTV,
since it will provide more opportunities for specific interactive ads. Marketers of commercial broadcast
networks therefore regard HbbTV tools more and more as a venue for new advertising formats.
According to Deutsche TV Platform, TV apps will be able to generate annual advertising revenues in the
low to mid-six-figure range with an upward trend, since the number and reach of apps increases, as
does their quality. Besides this HbbTV and MPAT plugins could offer new transaction options to the
advertising and Internet industry as well as portal solutions, e.g. for hotels.
Also insightful for the digital TV ad industry: research shows that people are more likely to watch
lengthier content when they are viewing it on an actual TV screen from the comfort of their couch.
Digital ads displayed on CTVs are shown in full TV-screen size, at full resolution, as a pre-, mid- or post-
roll formats before user-initiated content. This explains why the completion rates for video ads viewed
on CTV typically exceed 85% the non-connected ones — and why this rate is higher for CTV than on
desktop and mobile. Another good reason for advertisers to be interested in using tools enabling
interactive ad campaigns to their customers.
Figure 11: Relevance of interactive video in marketing in 2015
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3.2 Product definition
The process of authoring, reviewing, and publishing apps remains an expensive, time-consuming
process that can require significant up-front investment and technical expertise. Coupled with lengthy
review processes this can create delays of up to a year before new apps are published. MPAT, open-
access authoring publishing tool is based on the WordPress content management system and provides
an easy-to use solution to existing publishing systems that supports very rapid expert review and
professional online publishing.
When it came to define MPAT as a product, a top-down approach was adopted. First of all, an high-
level list of key points was defined. In this sense, it was clear that MPAT had to cover the following
items:
consistent HbbTV applications, since MPAT is meant to reduce costs and risks during the
development of HbbTV and considering the devices fragmentation as a tangible treat in the
end-user results, the key point is to ensure that HbbTV applications generated by MPAT appear
and behave in a coherent way on the highest number of devices as possible;
intuitive user experience because MPAT is addressed to non-technical professionals, and
thus it has to offer an intuitive editor interface which does not require any IT competence;
open source to reduce access costs to the system and to stimulate the growth of a community;
integration because unlike wordpress-based websites, HbbTV applications cannot be
considered stand-alone, they have to integrate with playout systems both for testing and for
production deployments. Moreover, we believe that the creation process will have great benefits
if MPAT can provide to the editors the necessary tools to retrieve creative contents from
existing management systems, and consequently broadcasters would be more eager to adopt
MPAT;
customizability, because a flexible tool covers more cases out-of-the-box, reducing cost and
effort in custom code implementations;
extensibility to provide to the community an easy and effective way to develop new reusable
components and features, feeding the virtuous circle of a community-based platform;
strong roles management, given the professional-oriented nature of MPAT, it has to be
flexible also in terms of division of roles and capabilities, to adapt to any company organization;
multi-device support, to allow editors to adapt application content to different screen sizes
through an intuitive UI without technical concerns related to companion device pairing with TV.
Defining the won't-have is just as important as the must-have, to mitigate the risk of going off on a
tangent during the development of the tool and to avoid unfortunate decisions when it comes to decide
whether MPAT fits the broadcaster needs for a new HbbTV application.
In analogy to what Wordpress offers to the web ecosystem, namely a content creation and publishing
system but not a web application framework, MPAT is not meant to cover all HbbTV application
scenarios. Even if the modular nature of MPAT leaves plenty of room for customizations, it has to be
clear that application concepts which cannot be reduced to a composition of reusable "common"
components, don't match with native MPAT capabilities.
In this sense, MPAT is not supposed to cover high-complexity use cases, such as strong interactions
between communities of users, and thus a custom implementation might be required.
3.2.1 Implemented features
Main core features that will be part of the final product, without considering eventual changes based on
pilot outcomes, are summarised below:
Three different navigation models enable editors to create applications with different narrative
approaches. Website model migrates the link based navigation experience that the consumers
are used with in mobile and composer web browsers. Slideflow offers a more appealing story
telling approach, where user can follow the narration scrolling in predefined directions. Finally,
the event based model allow the editors to hook creative content, and therefore govern its
appearance and behavior, to predefined events, whether they are from broadcast programmes
or vod content.
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Layout editor, which allow high-grade editors to create and customize page layouts in terms of
size and positioning of components inside the pages.
Page editor, to assemble application pages relying on more than 15+ types of basic
components to build applications pages with rich text, background and foreground images and
videos, 360° videos, media galleries, lists and menus, resizable broadcast stream, red button
application teasers, application launcher and hotspots to anchor content to specific areas of the
page. While the combination of those components holds infinite opportunities, it will be possible
to define new ones.
Asset management, to ensure the best experience in media consumption in terms of video
quality and performance in all TVs and companion devices, without having to manually convert
one video in all needed format. Almost any video format can be uploaded in MPAT toolkit and it
is automatically converted in several quality tiers and segmented for adaptive streaming.
Analytics, to track consumers behaviours when interacting with HbbTV applications. Through
major web analytics tools is then possible to track critical information such as pages, videos and
image galleries views, to refine the creative workflow or produce any kind of application usage
report. By default any MPAT core component track any action the user can perform on it. MPAT
provides integration with Piwik and Google Analytics systems as well as APIs to integrate with
other tools.
3.2.2 Support and standard compliance
One of the strengths of MPAT is its cost-efficient deployment process. To achieve that, MPAT provides
a broad compatibility with TV devices already on the market, handling a graceful degradation of most
advanced features on legacy devices.
While pursuing 100% device support goal, compliance to standards plays a big role both for existing
and forthcoming devices and therefore MPAT produces only validated code to be delivered to TV
devices.
MPAT defines a complete suite for functional tests which covers all the core components and frontend
interactions. In this way, consistency through future developments is guaranteed. It can be also used by
third parties as a starting point to write tests for custom components.
Moreover, Wordpress demonstrates that a well defined coding standard is mandatory when it comes to
ensure a decent quality level for self sustaining ecosystems. For this reason, MPAT stricts to wordpress
best practices and leverage on its user base for a more specialized HbbTV community and
marketplace.
Finally, throughout the project lifecycle, several interoperability tests were and will be performed with the
collaboration of major manufacturers, in order to maximise devices support.
3.2.3 Documentation
In order to better support the exploitation of MPAT, and more precisely to boost the growth of a
developer community, together with MPAT codebase, it will be released an exhaustive documentation
which will cover all aspects around MPAT, from the configuration to the deployment of applications,
including themes and plugins development, API definitions and best practices to create custom
components. That documentation will be accompanied by examples to cover all the critical cases.
Currently it is planned to produce such kind of documentation in markdown files and wiki section in GIT
project. Other solutions will be evaluated if needed.
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3.3 Product positioning
At the beginning of the project, a brief research was performed looking for possible MPAT competitors.
The following solutions were identified:
SofiaDigital HbbTV Authoring tool
Ngine networks HbbTV CMS
Redsmart HbbTV CMS
After one year as passed, same kind research did not return any new solution. Indeed, Redsmart one is
not reachable anymore. It is not known if the company changed name or the project evolved in
something else, but currently there is no evidence that it can be considered a threat.
For the first two, a preliminary remark has to be done. Due to their closed-source, commercial nature, it
is hard to evaluate what promises are actually met, but still it is possible to compare their claims with
MPAT existing and future features.
3.3.1 Ngine Networks HbbTV CMS
Starting from Ngine networks HbbTV CMS, the solution promises an easy and fast creation of HbbTV
applications choosing from more than 10 templates and themes, uploading content to the platform and
selecting the layout which fits best. Predefined components are already available, such as games,
twitter streams and weather widgets. It is not contemplated any form of hosting on-premises, since the
solution is offered only in a SaaS model with a monthly fee. It is also available technical service to
implement new templates on clients need.
It is clear therefore that MPAT has at least 5 strengths when compared to Ngine networks solution:
MPAT can be hosted on-premises as well as provided as a service;
MPAT provides an higher number of components and layouts out-of-the-box;
editors can create new templates independently;
MPAT documentation enable broadcasters to develop their own components relying on internal
IT teams or via system integrators and service providers;
MPAT provides support to almost every media content type, through its asset converter, while is
unclear if HbbTV CMS can manage media content nor advanced adaptive streaming solutions
such as HLS or DASH;
MPAT offers out-of-the-box support to companion devices solution, providing the necessary
editor UI and the underlying device pairing library.
3.3.2 SofiaDigital HbbTV Authoring Tool
Currently, HbbTV Authoring tool appears to be the most threatening competitor, since it overlaps MPAT
in several areas.
It promises both SaaS and local installation capability, as well as a template based application editor.
Other similarities with MPAT are the real-time preview and division of roles between editors and
publishers, even if it is not clear the degree of customization of such roles. It does also support
advanced features such as media transcoding with support to MPEG-DASH.
However, there are at least five selling points in MPAT offer:
MPAT offers OOB support to companion devices via an intuitive editor UI and pairing service;
MPAT asset converter support also HLS adaptive streaming protocol for smoother consumption
of videos on companion devices;
MPAT supports HbbTV stream events out-of-the-box with a dedicated timeline editor;
MPAT supports common asset management (such as TV-Anytime compliant systems) and
playout systems, while offering APIs for integration with other systems;
MPAT is open source and well documented, meaning no entry costs for broadcasters and the
opportunity for third-party IT companies to enter the market of HbbTV development with a
gradual learning curve.
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During the second year of the project, we will continue to monitor the competitors in order to react
promptly to eventual new threats whenever possible.
To date, we see them, with particular regard to HbbTV Authoring Tool from Sofia Digital, as a stimulus
to focus even more on MPAT peculiarities, such as companion device pairing and event-based narrative
model, to differentiate as much as possible and to provide a unique solution to broadcasters, IT
companies and consumers.
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3.4 SWOT Analysis
In this section, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of MPAT as a product are summed in
the following table and then more detailed discussed.
Strength Weaknesses
- No-code application creation workflow - Not suitable for highly customized
- Customizability via core and third-party applications
themes - Subject to Wordpress limitations
- Modularity via core and third-party
plugins
- Integration with existing asset
management systems
Opportunities Threats
- Lack of offer in reusable solutions - HbbTV as a standard could vanish
- HbbTV expansion in european countries - Market segmentation affects UX
and worldwide - Competitor HbbTV CMSs
3.4.1 Strengths
No-code application creation workflow
Following on from what Wordpress innovated in the website environment, MPAT will enable non-
technical users to create HbbTV applications through an intuitive WYSIWYG editor. Project timing and
costs will benefit from the reduced technical effort needed.
Customizability via core and third-party themes
As part of the no-code approach, MPAT allows editors to achieve common customizations such as
background images, font size, styles and colors among a predefined, and tested, set of values without
any involvement of dev team. Anyhow, themes can be easily overwritten for deeper customizations and
branding.
Modularity via core and third-party plugins
The same concept of appearance customizations applies to functionalities. MPAT provides natively a
set of configurable components to adapt to the majority of the cases. In all other cases, developers can
rely on clear APIs to implement custom features in MPAT.
Integration with existing asset management systems
The capability to reuse contents from existing broadcasters’ archives makes creative workflow faster
and more efficient.
3.4.2 Weaknesses
Not suitable for highly customized applications
MPAT is not designed as a single solution to all broadcaster needs. It addresses the reuse of common
concept in different scenarios with minimal effort. According to the won't-have paragraph in product
definition section, high-complexity HbbTV applications (ie with deep customization in data management
or user interactivity) are not in scope of MPAT.
Subject to Wordpress limitations
Since Wordpress is the foundation of MPAT, both its strengths and its weaknesses are inherited, such
as scalability, performance and security issues. Since MPAT addresses the production of small-to-
medium complexity applications, scalability might not be a blocking problem, since they typically occur
in websites consisting of thousands, if not millions, of articles. Performance issues can be mitigated as
well, implementing existing solutions such as database and page cache systems. Concerning security
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risks, in addition to standard actions which can be adopted in a wordpress installation, the optional
MPAT deployment system will allow to eliminate the root cause of the problem avoiding the exposure of
any wordpress instance to the end-users.
3.4.3 Opportunities
Lack of offer in reusable solutions
While several companies specialized in HbbTV development following an ad-hoc business model, the
broadcaster requirement of fast and cost-efficient deployment of small to medium applications has not
yet been satisfied. Thus, MPAT approach model could open lot of opportunities in commercial
exploitation as well as low-budget productions.
HbbTV expansion in european countries and worldwide
Examining the market in countries such as France or Germany, the long-time demand of HbbTV
applications led to the definition of some custom tools mostly used by companies themselves. While we
still see a lot of room for a standardized, affordable and flexible tool such as MPAT, it is clear that the
potential market quota is even bigger in those markets where HbbTV was adopted only recently, or is
planned for next years, and thus the IT sector could benefit from MPAT in the migration process. The
first dissemination event which took place in Italy, namely the HDForum Italia conference, substantiated
this assumption when positive feedbacks were collected both from potential customers and IT company
specialized in interactive TV applications.
3.4.4 Threats
HbbTV as a standard could vanish
Even if adoption trends are optimistic, we have to consider the unlikely chance that HbbTV will be
discontinued in favour of hypothetical new standards. In this respect we see a good potential to look
also to Freeview play UK standard, which include a subset of HbbTV 2.0 features.
Market segmentation affects UX
While MPAT will ensure a broad support to the majority of HbbTV devices, it is also true that TV market
is very dynamic, and we can expect 2 to 4 new generations of devices during the project lifecycle.
Different implementation of HbbTV standard and revision, will inevitably lead to an even greater
segmentation. This has to be considered during development and testing cycles, providing proper
fallback solutions for legacy devices.
Competitor HbbTV CMSs
Currently there are at least 3 different competitors, mentioned in the product positioning section of this
document. As a consequence of the expected growing adoption of HbbTV in european countries and
worldwide, there are chances that new solutions will appear on the CMS market to respond to
broadcaster needs. While it is not simple to produce an exhaustive assessment of those products, given
their closed-source and commercial nature, we will keep monitoring the state-of-the-art to react to
eventual tangible threats from competitors.
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