Pushing the VOD Boundaries

28th November, 04. Through the introduction of IPTV and PVR’s VOD is starting to see an increased level of innovation. In The US, VOD started on half hour boundaries, as NVOD, where satellite was the first to introduce this. There were four channels for each movie – but there was not a very big choice to select from. Therefore the take rate was not that high.

The evolution into VOD was first penetrated in the cable space, where you put a server at the head end and you used in-band signaling to initiate a stream for every user that requested VOD content.

Taking VOD one step further, SkyStream Networks is now introducing a concept called PUSH video on demand, that allows operators to take the most popular movies and push them out to the viewers home, instead of having to draw them across the telco’s network. Scott Dougall, Director of Software Products at SkyStream Networks outlined, “We’re introducing the concept of PUSH, which is not a replacement to VOD, but taking the most popular titles and making them more accessible to the user at the home.�

Dougall continues: “The cost of storage and disk drives are coming down, so that the technology is more affordable. Consumers are now willing to pay for this, so PUSH VOD gets more compelling as the storage gets cheaper.� The one thing that will give Telcos the edge in this battle is their understanding of the content industry, their grasp of things like release windows and importantly the role DRM and security will play in establishing a good relationship with these suppliers. Content will be king in IPTV service delivery, but only if protected. PUSH model reduces the amount of bandwidth required to deploy a high quality on demand service are major drivers behind consumers’ desire for VOD.

Dougall concludes; “It’s a complement to your traditional VOD – you can push the top titles to the set top box, and get rid of 75% of your network traffic.�

www.skystream.com