StreamTV Europe kicked off with gusto on Monday in Lisbon, where there was no shortage of interesting discussions and insights to glean. There’s plenty to dig into but here we’ll highlight three things learned and heard that caught our ear.
Telcos see opportunity to bring order to chaos amid fragmentation
The first Day 1 focus is how and if European telcos can actually take advantage of, or see opportunity from, the fragmentation challenge and find ways to address various audience bubbles as it relates to catering to viewers consuming content across linear, streaming as well as social.
These were among questions raised by Andreas Waltenspiel, Managing Director of Waltenspiel-Connecting The Dots, during a panel session at Alan Wolk’s TVREV workshop.
As Waltenspiel noted, European telcos are trying to address a fragmented ecosystem, where “sometimes they have to work with frenemies” as they aggregate content they do not own and distribute it on devices they don’t control.
To Pedro Durate, head of TV Engineering Europe and Network Engineering Portugal for Vodafone Group, “content is King” and still the main reason people go to streaming services.
“But in this time of mega fragmentation, of multiple bubbles, I believe that there has to be a queen to rule over this complexity,” Durate said. “And the Queen has to be aggregation.”
In this sense, asked if fragmentation presents opportunity for telcos, Durate believes it does – and it all comes down to simplicity, as the needs of customers are still very similar to legacy days of pay TV and he thinks telcos can bring order in a sometimes overwhelming sea of choice.
“People want simpler access to the content they want, and we have an opportunity as an [operator], to do this bridge and bring this simplicity to the chaos,” Durate said.
Daniel Bravo, VP of TV & Entertainment Products for Deutsche Telekom, meanwhile, said the aggregation era is over – but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work or serve a purpose. He too thinks telcos “can bring our value” by making life easier for customers via aggregation, but simply adding subscriptions within the same commercial pay TV package “is not enough," he said. "This is not a differentiator. Everybody can do that.”
“We need to deliver to the customer a seamless experience, across all the content, all the services, and across all the devices,” Bravo continued.
DT is among those that pushing the smart TV industry to create what he dubbed an “operator tier approach” that would enable telcos to deploy its full experience in terms of super aggregation and controlling functions of the TV device.
The telco already announced Hisense as its first partner in this effort last fall, with the news the smart TV-maker would build a set-top-box-less smart TV for DT.
And while most telcos offer high-value services like mobile and broadband, a collective sentiment was that having a TV and entertainment offering helps on the retention front and to reduce churn, while also potentially offering an opportunity to differentiate.
In a world of complexity, pirates may own the crown – but there are ways to manage
Within the same theme of telcos serving a role to help solve complexity, another topic heard in more than one session is the known issue of content piracy and illegal streaming services.
To Joao Ferreira, director of product development at NOS Inovação, in the fragmented world, sometimes the one “who owns the crown is piracy services.”
But the real king, he said, “is convenience for the customers,” who are turning to illegal services not just for the low cost but also because of all the friction fragmentation and various app walls have caused in consumers’ quest to easily access content.
Speakers on the panel noted that since illegal pirates don’t need to abide by the same types of commercial agreements legal providers do, it means they can offer a lot of convenience with access to content from a wide range of services and deliver consumer-friendly UIs that tap into content metadata that legitimate players are sometimes restricted from due to business agreements.
Although piracy is a known issue, it doesn’t appear to be abating, according to the panel, as greater fragmentation, rising entertainment costs and more points of friction encourage consumers to turn to pirated services that feel simpler and cheaper.
So what’s an industry to do?
A general sentiment is that the piracy issue isn’t one that will ever be fully solved, but that it can be managed better. And to get any kind of real traction means not going it alone, as it may require greater industry-wide, global and cross-border collaboration.
“We need to agree on ways to fight on the origin globally, not just locally in each country,” Ferreira said.
Durate also likened it to the music industry, when piracy became a problem in the internet age but then things changed with the advent of Spotify, Apple Music and so on. But there, it wasn’t the technology that changed, he said, but rather the business model.
“I think in video, we will in the end, face the similar dilemma because what customers want…is simplicity, less friction.”
And to Bravo, pirates are already able to do super aggregation because they have the content, metadata and experiences that - unlike a legal player – don’t have to go through agreements with the likes of Disney or Netflix, which ultimately can restrict their app and content integration into a telco’s distributed offering or experience.
“I think we, from the telco side, we need to challenge the industry…especially the streaming industry, for deeper integration in the products, bigger collaboration and simpler experience,” Bravo said. “Because at the end, this is what will improve the overall proposal to the customer.”
And some cited ways to make the pirated streaming experience somewhat less desirable to those that use them.
On a panel during Marion Ranchet’s Streaming Made Easy workshop, Ian Franklyn, CRO of CDN provider Mainstreaming noted that sports fans go to piracy because they don’t want to pony up for paid content.
“But ultimately, if they get a poor experience, then they’ll get frustrated,” Franklyn said. “I think this presents an opportunity for the legitimate broadcasters or provider of that content.”
While he too agreed piracy isn’t likely to be totally solved, through technology, the experience can be negatively impacted for pirates, including by CDN providers or telcos.
“It is possible to, for example, add in buffering or misalign the audio to the actual video content,” Franklyn noted.
And although there are anti-piracy mandates in countries like Mainstreaming’s home base of Italy, the CRO noted pirated services are ultimately a form of organized crime and “unfortunately, they’re better funded than many of us in the value chain.”
Meaning it may be impossible to completely clamp down, “but we can degrade it, we can make it uncomfortable for the viewer.”
Leaning into social and fandoms: Love Island, Corona collab announced
The importance of social video and fandoms was another theme on display on Day 1 of StreamTV Europe.
The topic came up throughout the day, but one great example was a case study session on ITV Studios’ global hit franchise Love Island. The current UK series, Love Island: All Stars series 3, has already amassed 53 million streams on free streamer ITVX and over one billion social media impressions at its midway point, following a launch that stands as ITV’s biggest 16–34 program of the year.
At the event Monday, Ruth Berry, president of global partnerships at ITVS, noted that at one point in time they found there were 87,000 pieces of Love Island-related creator content on TikTok.
Now that wasn’t the IP owner’s content itself, but fan-created content around the show.
The question then became, how does ITVS become a part of that conversation, she noted - fueling a desire to create a business that could build and benefit from a clearly engaged fandom already happening off-screen.
She also attributed that factor as a very important to the genesis of its Zoo 55 unit, which now operates 160 owned-and-operated social video channels for ITVS, many of which are on YouTube.
The role of social video and fandom around the show also impacted how the Love Island series itself gets made, and brings opportunities for brand partnerships, as they also want to become part of the conversation.
On that front, newly announced today at StreamTV Europe, is a partnership between Corona Sunbrew and Peacock’s Love Island: Beyond the Villa and Love Island USA Season 7 fan-favorite Amaya Espinal.
That’s our three things wrap up for Day 1. Stay tuned for more from StreamTV Europe throughout the week.