Smaller Cable Operators Start Deploying Multi-Screen Video Services
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Following the example of larger cable companies, smaller operators are beginning to embrace multi-screen video services, slightly more than three years after Comcast and Time Warner introduced the TV Everywhere concept. Speaking at the Independent Show this week, National Cable Television Cooperative officials said 85 of NCTC’s approximately 900 members have deployed a new TV Everywhere authentication system designed for small- and mid-sized cable providers, just in time for streaming video coverage of the Summer Olympic Games in London. Several cable vendors at the show unveiled new user authentication, authorization and other services aimed at helping smaller operators to beam video programming to multiple screens. But cable operators and programmers conceded that they still have some major problems to iron out.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
NCTC’s “low-cost” multi-screen video platform, known as “Watch TV Everywhere,” is already available to two million basic cable subscribers, said Vice President Richard Frey. Based on a system developed by Massillon Cable, the platform enables participating cable providers to tap into streaming video content from a number of major cable programmers, including NBCUniversal’s upcoming Olympics coverage. Over 1,000 cable subscribers have registered for the service in its first week and many more are expected to sign up, Frey said. He said NCTC will also support members that build their own user authentication systems.
NCTC and Clearleap said they signed a deal for the firm to be an “approved provider” of authentication services for Watch TV Everywhere. Clearleap will offer its ClearPlay authentication service at a bulk rate to NCTC members, as it does for larger cable operators. Clearleap said its authentication system is now integrated with Adobe Pass, an authentication platform from Adobe Systems that allows pay-TV subscribers to log in once to access content from a number of major cable programmer portals, including those run by Comcast’s NBCUniversal, CNN, TBS, TNT and Cartoon Network. ClearPlay is also integrated with the authentication services of Time Warner’s HBO Go and MAX Go. “Not only does Clearleap make it easy for NCTC members to authorize and authenticate their subscribers on major content provider portals, Clearleap enables service providers to easily add on complete streaming solutions and offer their own custom-branded experiences on connected devices, tablets and PCs,” said NCTC CEO Rich Fickle.
Buckeye Cable said it reached a deal with Azuki Systems for a media platform that will power a TV Everywhere service for the Ohio cable operator. The Azuki platform will deliver on-demand and linear TV programming, including the operator’s own Buckeye CableSystem Sports Network, to a wide range of PCs, tablets, smartphones and other IP-connected consumer electronics devices. Buckeye executives said they'll also work with Azuki to develop a custom-made, multi-screen user interface for their customers. Like many smaller operators at the show, Buckeye Cable is now rolling out the NBCUniversal Olympics package for its subscribers.
Great Lakes Data Systems began a new subscriber authorization service for TV Everywhere programs, also at the Independent Show. GLDS executives said the new authorization service, called WinCAP, offers centralized multi-screen account and parental control management to ISPs and their customers. GLDS said several smaller cable operators have enlisted WinCAP for NBCUniversal’s streaming video coverage of the Summer Olympics, including BELD Broadband, Cable Systems of Nevada and San Bruno Cable.
But operators and programmers said some critical hurdles must still be overcome for their TV Everywhere efforts to succeed. Chief Technology Officer Joe Jensen of Buckeye Cable said the rapidly changing regulatory and technology environments and slowly changing programming environment are all making life more difficult for operators. He cited the lack of a universal adaptive streaming video protocol and the high costs of transcoding video content for different display devices. Speaking on a panel about TV Everywhere services, he said the industry should create “a consistent look and feel across multiple devices,” develop “a single encoding, authentication and presentation standard” and find ways to meet both the linear programming needs of older viewers and the on-demand content needs of younger viewers.
NBCUniversal has run into two major issues as it gears up to present 3,500 hours of live streaming coverage of the London Olympics free over the Web, said NBCU Executive Vice President Matt Bond. General consumer ignorance about multi-screen video services is has “hampered” NBCUniversal’s efforts to promote its Olympics and other live and on-demand offerings for multiple screens, he said. And many customers don’t have the “credentials” to access multi-screen services because they fear that they must pay for the services and become frustrated with the constant logging-in process, Bond said. “People don’t know what TV Everywhere is,” he said. “And they don’t realize it’s really free."
Working with Comcast, NBCUniversal has found “two key technology initiatives” that have worked, Bond said. One’s “a single sign-on” process that automatically logs in subscribers to all TV Everywhere portals once they sign into one portal so they don’t need to keep logging in again every time they switch to a new content source, he said. The second’s an “in-home automatic identification” system that verifies both the Internet Protocol address of the broadband service and the status of the video subscriber, Bond said: “These things have usually worked,” and Comcast has “doubled its success rate” since making these additions.