IBC Printed Guide - September 2014 - 96


www.inbroadcast.com PRODUCT GUIDE | Sept 12 - 16, 2014

Delivering & Monetising Multiscreen Services
- Now And In The Future
Delivering multiscreen services brings complexities
never faced in the video world before...
By:
Stuart Newton
VP of Corporate Strategy

W

96

ith different video assets,
protocols,
delivery
infrastructures, encoding,
encryption, locations and the
exponentially growing intricacies
of video-capable devices, there
is a web of complexity that is
incredibly difficult to plan for. Thus,
it is essential to have a strategy for
rolling out multiscreen services.
Fortunately, there are guiding
principles from the past to help
manage multiscreen deployments
today while planning for future
expansion.
Today, consumers want to
watch video whenever they
want, wherever they are, and on
whichever device they choose to
use. The trend of devices being
used also varies dramatically
throughout the day. As a result,
the delivery network is shifting and
creating a number of challenges
that soon become obvious:
	 *	 There	is	no	complete
visibility into the video
services - many parts of
the delivery infrastructure
are provided by different
companies;
	 *	 There	are	many	uncorrelated		
data sources, which will
use their own formats for
data presentation
and database access;
	 *	 Lots	of	technological	change:		
adaptive streaming, content
delivery networks, protocols,
cloud methodologies,
4K/HEVC, etc;
	 *	 The	lack	of	control	and		 	
visibility is fuelling
churn-management issues, as
major issues can't be resolved
quickly, and abandonment
trends are hard to diagnose;
	 *	 The	lack	of	behavioural		 	
visibility restricts monetisation
potential through the inability
to accurately target new
services and advertising.
The net result of all this is a
repeat of many of the issues that
created upset customers and
internal finger pointing in the early
days of video over IP. However, the

problem is severely compounded
today due to the infrastructure
segments being owned by
separate companies, the move to
adaptive streaming with multiple
protocols and increased network
load, and the enormous increase
in uncontrolled end devices. It
is therefore essential to get this
under control and build a solid
foundation
before
additional
technology steps complicate the
issue further.
Diagram 1 shows a broader
view of the delivery infrastructure
today with the different networks
showing possible paths for the
video. The green arrows indicate
recommended
operational
monitoring points in the end-toend chain to check for video or
protocol consistency. The purple
arrows indicate the ability to
collect behavioural analytics for
usage analysis (eg which video,
when, where, on which kind of
network/device/OS).
The
operational
analytics
provide a method of pinpointing
where the video is going wrong
in the end-to-end chain, and
the
behavioural
analytics
provide additional monetisation
intelligence for better targeting
of services and advertising. If
the two are combined, then we
start to enable more advanced
churn
management
through
abandonment analysis by crossreferencing behavioural analytics
to operational analytics.
In multiscreen deployments,
depending on the infrastructure,

Diagram 2. Video Analytics overview.

Diagram 1.
Operational and
behavioural aspects
of video delivery
infrastructure
analytics.

it is possible to derive behavioural
analytics from several points in the
network. In the above diagram,
the behavioural analytics can be
obtained by monitoring on the
network side at the caching nodes,
or further downstream, such as the
ingress to a mobile core or Wi-Fi
cloud.
This is because the full unicast
adaptive sessions are only visible
after the last caching point in the
network. The behavioural analytics
can also be obtained by monitoring
at the end device player, whether a
tablet, smart TV/STB, smartphone,
games console, or another device,
which can provide additional
information from the player that
may be useful e.g. decoding
problems. Monitoring intra-CDN
can provide operational analytics
for intra-CDN issues, but will only
see the requests for video that the
caches do not already possess.
Having the ability to combine
the independent network and
device data in real-time into a
unified analytics system allows
the operations and big data
teams to focus on using KPI
information for service assurance
and monetisation, rather than
trying to understand the data
in the first place. The data can
then be combined into simplified,
actionable analytics for rapid
response to customer issues. This
creates improved satisfaction,
generating more viewers and

more revenue (via pay per view
or advertising). The analytics
also allow for better tuning of
the content and loading on the
networks so bandwidth isn't
wasted and peak loading can be
more accurately predicted and
controlled.
By combining operational and
behavioural
analytics,
video
service providers (VSPs) have a
complete view into network and
subscriber behaviour, providing
a clear picture of exactly what's
happening within their networks.
In making this correlation, VSPs
can identify opportunities for
monetising their video services.
There are several pragmatic
steps that can be taken to deliver
and monetise multiscreen video
services, including:
*	Assure	 the	 video	 quality	 and	
understand your subscribers video should be monitored at all
locations necessary to ensure
delivery;
*	Optimise	 the	 content	 and	
delivery - leverage operational and
behavioural analytics to tune the
content delivery and infrastructure
to cater for different devices
and peak loading. Build a solid
foundation ready for an increase
in subscribers, and prepare
for additional change through
technology advances;
*	Personalise	 and	 grow	 your	
returns - leverage behavioural
data and abandonment rates
for content and advertising to
fine-tune recommendations and
services, and to generate more
content from advertising.
Many of these steps are possible
and will help fine tune services
and advertising for subscribers.
By learning from the past and
leveraging these methodologies,
a solid foundation can be built for
future multiscreen services and to
prepare for the volume of video
that is predicted to consume the
mobile infrastructure.
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