While we don’t want to run what turns out to be a great big advert for Israeli IPTV VoD firm BitBand, we do like its attempt on the eve of IBC ‘ the International Broadcasting Conference in Amsterdam ‘ to grab the limelight by releasing a paper on ten IPTV Myths
Obviously the real message is ‘keep on installing the IPTV’ and come on into the IPTV water, the weather’s fine, but it does comes from one of the longest lived suppliers to the IPTV industry which got its start creating a decentralized VoD technology for the legendary Fastweb pioneer.
Picking the bones out of the ten myths it comes down to the lessons learned, content is king, but it doesn’t have to be premium content and it’s nothing without service delivery and ease of use; IPTV is rising and already there are 15 million IPTV subscribers and the base has been growing 100% each year for the past two years with ARPUs of $50 USD a month, so get in now,now later.
BitBand goes on to say that this is not just for developed markets, and points out that Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Republics are ‘waiting to happen,’ and suggest that here, as everywhere, pricing is key.
BitBand is a refreshing voice when it tells operators to take care against overspending on the upgrading of infrastructure, and actually includes VoD storage in that equation, clearly believing that it can supply VoD cheaper than many other suppliers. It also says that costs can come down by using pre-integrate components so that no lengthy testing and service integration is required.
Finally BitBand talks about creating a personalized experience and that this includes the advertising, so much more valuable if it is personalized as well.
We imagine that points to some advertising systems introductions that it may make at IBC itself, we’ll let you know.