Advanced Television

IPTV roadmap

October 10, 2008

Reasearcher IMS claims to have roadmapped the way to converged services for IPTV operators. By categorising multi-platform services into functional groups including Time-shifting, Place-shifting, Personalisation, and Socialisation, the report provides numerous examples of what new services may look like on different platforms and regions of the world.

“The Millennial generation already expects video, personal communications and messaging services wherever they are, regardless of device or network,” said Steve Hawley, Sr. IPTV Analyst, Multimedia Research Group, “Operators that aren’t transforming their service platforms to serve these ‘digital natives’ are already at a disadvantage.”

Over 180 companies and IPTV Operators are featured in this report, including Operators Deutsche Telecom, PCCW, Orange, and many others; and Vendors Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, IBM, HP, Integra5, NSN, Motorola, and many others. Real-world examples also are examined. One example shows how theatre tickets are purchased on a home eset-top box with the “ticket” transferred to a barcode on the consumer’s mobile phone. This can only happen if the Operator has control of both platforms.

“The purpose of this report was to identify if, when and how IPTV Operators would move to advanced and converged (multi-platform) services, and measuring the use of IMS and alternative technologies,” states Gary Schultz, President of MRG.. “The reality we discovered is that the interim steps to converged services de-siloisation and unification of elements of the back office – were already becoming vehicles to decrease OpEx and improve customer loyalty.”

Categories: Articles, IPTV, OTT, Research