ISSUE 03 // JULY 09
In Action
Giving consumers more choice: interview from Pascal Dormal, Numericable
Pascal Dormal, group development director at Numericable, outlines his views on video on demand (VOD) and how it has helped TV viewing experiences in France evolve to TV 2.0.
Please outline what the national VOD service in France actually is – what does it mean for consumers, and what does it mean for providers?
Numericable realised fairly early on that we had to be innovative to keep up with consumer demands. This means making the most of traditional TV viewing patterns while taking advantage of the internet to provide the content viewers want, when they want it.
What we’ve achieved is true VOD. We started to offer this in early 2008 and now offer a very large VOD environment, with close to 8,000 different pieces of content. Consumers can select from 19 different shops in conjunction with many different brands and partners.
Our model isn’t to obliterate partners (CanalPlay, TF1 Vision, Filmo TV, etc) but to allow them to coexist. One example of this is ARTE (the Franco-German TV network) – it has a linear channel but also a non-linear presence. By maintaining a hold in both worlds, it can increase revenues at the same time as catering to traditional viewers’ expectations.
One of our key differentiators when we set up VOD in France was to make sure it was HTML-based. Consumers expect a ‘web’ experience in almost all walks of life nowadays – user-friendly and easy to use, with lots of choices. Ensuring we built the platform on HTML means we can scale up in the future to incorporate new content and enhance the viewing experience.
What did you want to achieve when you set it up?
The idea behind the service was to cater for both traditional viewing habits and explore more innovative ‘new media’ channels. People’s expectations are changing. With the advent of content over IPTV/the web – which means they get what they want and when they want it – they also want a non-linear viewing experience of broadcast content on their TV.
In short, catch-up TV was the initiator. Through this we expect a big boost in our viewing figures over the next couple of months. We’re constantly improving the service and adding more hours of content and more channels and partners. Subscription VOD will emerge from this.
Currently, catch-up is limited to the post-programme airing of certain channels. This means that viewers can test and trial VOD without paying, as we see with the iPlayer. If, however, viewers want specific content (which we aim to offer with our partnerships and additional channels) such as documentaries, they can sign up to a subscription VOD (SVOD) package to Vodeo for around €8 a month. We’ve also recently launched a SVOD movie package with Filmo TV, and will soon launch another one that includes classics from the Sundance Festival and more.
These different subscription models mean that viewers can choose the criteria to suit them. Our ultimate aim is to offer such high-quality content that they move from being a trial subscriber to a long-term one, as we’ve seen with iPlayer viewers moving to a Virgin subscription in the UK, for example.
How does it work from a technological point of view?
What was key for us was to choose a comprehensive end-to-end provider and multi-content aggregator with in-built security and privacy.
The NAGRA Media SDP and its VOD shopping mall capability gave us the collaborative platform we needed to work with content aggregators and manage the VOD shops on a single-content distribution network.
Within this end-to-end solution Quative, OpenTV and Spyglass software play an essential role by enabling easier interaction between different pieces of the solution and facilitating improvements and amendments to programmes.
As I said before, we chose to go with HTML at the front end and are the first operator to do so. It’s an important technological advantage for us as it provides the possibility of linking up new content and interfacing more easily with partners in future. HTML lets you repurpose content much more easily – it can be live within days.
We realised from the start that we’d need to build bridges between the cable and content world and the internet world. Given few developers provide content for TV, this opens up the pool of developers (from the web) who can contribute content for TV.
How did you work with Nagravision/Quative to enable this service? What did they provide?
Kudelski Group provided us with an end-to-end solution with a single point of contact for both program and account management – this was vital for us. Nagravision and Quative have proven track records and have co-existed with us from start-up to providing a real-life system.
It was launched at the beginning of 2008 – how has it evolved?
The uptake so far has been pretty good. We’re continuing to work on usability and are lowering entry barriers to encourage more people to take it up – this also emphasises the reasons behind offering free catch-up content.
France as a whole has been quite slow though – we should have added more free content such as news from the start to try and bring new customers on board.
The issue facing operators when it comes to offering internet access is that different audiences want different things. Those on the web don’t necessarily expect high quality images and content. Those paying for subscription TV content, however, do expect DVD-esque quality. We’re not afraid of ‘over-the-top’ offers and collaborating with ‘over-the-top’ partners to bring part of the internet to viewers. To make it a success, though, what’s needed is a local partner to bring local content to each household.
What have you learnt, and is there anything you would do differently if you had the chance to launch it again?
To be honest there isn’t much we’d do differently from our actual launch. There’s always a time constraint and in an ideal world we’d have had more free content to tie viewers in. The solution we implemented wasn’t a proven one – it wasn’t yet available so we took a bit of a risk in launching it when we did. So far it seems to have been a success!
How has the Nagravision/Quative platform helped to make this service a success? What are its key benefits?
NAGRA Media SDP/Quative enables resource allocation at the front end and is the technical engine behind VOD. It’s an end-to-end solution with inbuilt management and project follow-up capabilities, so we have complete trust in it. This extends to our viewers when they select us for their VOD.
Being able to also choose HTML at the front end has also given us the flexibility to react and adapt each product to the needs of the viewer.
Have you had any specific feedback from users or operators on how they find it or how it's changed their viewing habits?
I wouldn’t say that VOD has revolutionised the average viewer’s experience, but it has certainly formed part of an evolution in terms of moving from an linear-only world to one which incorporates both linear and non-linear viewing patterns. Customers like VOD and its possibilities, but this doesn’t mean they’ve stopped watching linear programmes. It’s going to be a gradual behavioural change.
What are your plans for future developments?
VOD is part of Numericable’s overall vision of TV 2.0 – combining the best of TV with the best of the internet. Reliable TV with the power, flexibility and interactivity of the web – that’s what we’re aiming to achieve.
Each month we’re adding new tools to the VOD shopping mall to help viewers navigate different portals and create bridges between the internet and TV. Our ultimate aim is to combine the richness of internet content with the TV experience. Eventually all internet content will be available via the TV, but it needs to be in the right format, secure, and of good quality before consumers adopt it and are willing to pay for it.
For more information please visit Numericable
