Delivering IPTV to Europe

As rightly predicted by most industry watchers and analysts, IPTV is set to find widespread popularity amongst operators and users alike. It is estimated that around 4.5 million homes in Europe will have IPTV by 2008. Although operators have been constrained by bandwidth in the past, MPEG-4 Part 10 will now be the driver for wide scale deployment of IPTV.

Having conducted extensive R&D into the delivery of content and with experience of designing advanced high quality digital headends, Scientific-Atlanta helped to write the MPEG-2 standard which served the industry well for the past decade. Today, new AVC technology has spawned new applications and has provided new business opportunities for network operators. Advanced compression platforms such as the Scientific-Atlanta D9154 MPEG-4 Part 10 AVC encoder will help operators deliver an increase in programming over existing bandwidth.

Usually, increasing ARPU (Average Revenue per Unit) has been the rule of thumb for operators introducing new services. However in the case of Europe, for most operators looking to introduce IPTV, increasing ARPU is not the prime target, but rather retaining fixed line customers. IPTV therefore provides a welcome lifeline to telecoms operators who have lost customers to rival service providers such as CATV operators, who also offer phone services.

Crucial to any deployment is the right headend solution combined with the right set top to help operators make valuable cost efficiencies. IPTV’s success therefore depends on two key elements. For the operator it needs to be cost efficient, for consumers the service needs to maximise their entertainment experience. The battle for the living room and the remote control has recommenced and the race is on to deliver the 21st century entertainment revolution.

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