‘New boy’ Peled’s ‘Three Cs’
September 12, 2011
By Chris Forrester
Dr Abe Peled was recently promoted to Executive Chairman at NDS, and used his annual IBC press lunch to introduce his new CEO Dave Habiger. Peled said 2011 was proving to be a very important year for the television distribution business. “Topics like OTT seeming to be making headlines everywhere. We have been talking for many years about how pay-TV operators will embrace broadband and use it to link their set-top boxes to hybrid connections, and in the process expanding consumer choice and options. It is becoming the reality and has been endorsed by such technology luminaries as the BBC saying that hybrid is the way to go.”
“Combined with this is the proliferation of mobile devices. What’s particularly exciting for us is the chance to see some real interactivity come into the home. In the past people have been reluctant to press a button and move away from the picture on screen. These new devices make it very easy to draw down extra information while leaving the main set alone. “
“But in my view, whether content is delivered over-the-top, or by telepathy, is not a big question. What is important is what’s available, and how users identify it. Let’s be clear: the only thing the studios like is money, and they want to know whether there’s money in OTT. If they can get an extra $1 by telling Comcast or DirecTV that they can add this show or that film to the library, then that’s what they’ll do. Our customers tell us that once they have a broadband connection to the box, then they can buy these same Library Rights because they’ll then have a delivery mechanism.”
“The pay-TV business is driven by the ‘three Cs’: Choice, Convenience…. And Quality! So OTT is all about expanding consumer choice, having everything from one provider, on one input on the TV.”