Telco
TV is going to change the landscape of the Canadian telecommunications
industry. This SeaBoard report offers our subscribers an in-depth survey
of the service and its environment: a look at its technical
requirements and regulatory issues, some international examples of
Telco TV offers, our view of video services in the future and recommendations
for our Canadian carriers, both
cableco and telco.
- The "triple-play" - phone, internet and television services
- are
now table stakes in the consumer telecommunications space dominated
by cable
companies and phone companies. Television service offered by phone
companies
is the inevitable response to recently-launched phone service offered
by cable companies.
- Video is the telephone carrier's best chance to boost average
revenue per user (ARPU) by layering television and Video-on-Demand
(VOD)
services at $30 to $75 a month on top of a $50/month broadband connection
and a $35-40/month telephony service.
- The requirements for offering video services are not trivial.
Carriers need a high-speed connection to the customer, preferably
VDSL or ADSL2+, good content, a solid middleware platform, end-user
hardware,
usable program guides, and good customer service back-ends.
- Canada - specifically with companies like MTS and SaskTel - is
leading the way in offering Telco TV to consumers. Take-up rates
have been
solid at both companies. Bell and Telus are both in the process
of preparing their own services for launch in the larger Canadian
cities.
- We recommend that Canadian telco carriers:
- Take the time to launch
the right service
- But hurry up doing it
- Change the customer experience - be different.
- Be ready and willing to unbundle from your other products.
- Leverage the uniqueness of IP to deliver other applications.
- The current situation won't last long - a great customer experience
will win the day. The video content environment is going
to drastically change over the next 5 years. Companies like Apple
and
Google
are going to
be among the competition, bringing video directly to
consumers over their
broadband connections. Be there to compete!
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