A special interview with François Moreau de Saint Martin, CEO at Viaccess-Orca, and Philippe Rozes VP, Multi-Screen Services at Orange
IP&TV News: Philippe, could you tell us something about Orange’s adventures in convergent TV services?
Philippe Rozes: Orange TV over ADSL began 10 years ago (as for 2014, It’s our 10th anniversary). In parallel we worked on TV over PC and mobile. At that time, our CEO decided that this “3 screen approach” was key for our Telco strategy. We developed the technologies and acquired content rights.
At that time, convergence was a disruptive business innovation. Today, the business concept of everywhere is a no brainer: it’s a must have for customers. For Orange, it’s a main part of a more global phenomenon: the commercial convergence of access. Customers ask for a single broadband efficient access provider, whatever the access, and ask for seamless services on top of this access TV.
IP&TV News: What do you think the future of hybrid OTT services is?
Philippe Rozes: Customers don’t really care about technologies, but about cost, availability, quality, homogeneity of the service across devices. OTT is a very efficient way to provide all that. IPTV, DTH can be, for certain business and network conditions, even more efficient. I would say that OTT (plus IPTV or DTH in certain situation) is a must have in any converged TV platform.
IP&TV News: How can hybrid services aid effective monetisation?
Philippe Rozes: As I said, everywhere is a must have for business. I imagine that the efficiency of the remote control/TV set user interface will continue to progress as business generator in the next years. But remote control/TV set has some limitations that tablets UI doesn’t have. So I imagine that UI on tablets will be much richer than on STB in a few years (it’s not yet the case) and will lead innovations and then boost monetisation.
IP&TV News: François, on the subject of monetisation, what innovative steps has Viaccess-Orca made of late, in terms of using big data or any other development?
François Moreau de Saint Martin: The industry is starting to monetize big data. Real applications are emerging with interesting implications.
In the field of big data, our content discovery solution COMPASS, provides personalized recommendations to the users and allow operators to extend their reach to new audiences and really differentiate in the marketplace. We also use big data techniques to test our content discovery platforms using smart analysis of thousands of users to constantly improve the quality of recommendations given and the algorithms powering them.
IP&TV News: Philippe, does Orange see TV and video as playing an even bigger role in its future than it does now?
Philippe Rozes: During the last years, the ADSL market has reached maturity in our major countries. But there is still a significant room for growth for TV over broadband. Plus, TV will push fiber with multiple streams, 4k, And TV will push 4G. So TV will play an even more important role as today for a Telco.
IP&TV News: You’re appearing at TV Connect 2014. What do you think the big hot topics will be at this year’s event?
Philippe Rozes: Solutions to manage efficiently (in terms of cost, quality of service, agility …) the increasing complexity introduced by everywhere
IP&TV News: François, is there any area you’re especially interested in investigating at this year’s event?
François Moreau de Saint Martin: TV Everywhere deployments are still complex and due to market/ecosystem consolidation, I’d be interested to see how this complexity is addressed at TV Connect.
Obviously, I expect the buzz around second screen to continue, as well as discussions around engagement and consumption enrichment and also around cloud for OTT TV/TV Everywhere. Last and not least, big data is an important topic for both Orange and VO.
IP&TV News: Philippe, one final question: What “recent” achievement in connected entertainment is Orange most proud of and why?
Philippe Rozes: I would choose not one but two major achievements. First, the full renewal of our IPTV platform and the migration of 4 Million customers in 1 year ½. Second, the launch in Spain last September, of an OTT TV service, seamlessly convergent, including high quality premium live, like football, at 6Mbs on STB. Both systems are built around one single convergent technology provided by Viaccess-Orca (core platform, recommendation engine, content security …)
The interview was conducted ahead of TV Connect 2014 and originally published by IPTV news
Photo Credit: guenno / Foter / CC-BY-NC-ND
