As Vice President of Video Services at the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC), Madeleine Forrer is well positioned to keep tabs on the development of IPTV services in rural areas of the US.  She will be speaking at the upcoming IP&TV Forum North America event taking place in New York next month, and here gives a few insights into where she sees this market going.

Ms. Forrer holds responsibility for developing the strategic business direction for the NRTC's Video Services business, and holds over 20 years of experience in the fields of video services and entertainment, including positions at United Video, Inc. (TV Guide), The Family Channel, and most recently Cident Entertainment.


What progress have you seen in the past 12 months for NRTC's members in their launch and operation of IPTV services?

We’ve seen a lot of interest.  Members are seeking a cost-effective means for getting into the video delivery business.


Are end-customers enthusiastic in the take-up of video services from their local telecoms operator?

While we don’t disclose the penetration rates or subscriber numbers of our members, I can safely say that our members are having great success gaining subscribers.  Their success is the result of offering a robust lineup of programming, including premium services like Starz and  Showtime, multiple tiers of programming, a significant number of high-definition services and by incorporating local content. 

Delivering local content not only draws customer but engages the entire community.  Put another way, our members are delivering the content that their customers want—and that’s driving the success of their business.


What challenges have NRTC's members faced in their launch and development of pay-TV services?

It’s important to determine what products you plan on offering prior to building your network that will sustain the growth of the business.  While we expect compression technologies to improve, we also anticipate the number of high-definition services will grow.  The net result will be an increase in bandwidth requirements for the network. 

Right now, the biggest challenge continues to be technical:  the network must be able to successfully support at least one gigabyte of multicast traffic.  Accomplishing that in an environment without standards and its own version of “plug and play” makes the technology challenging.


How can the IPTV industry assist rural telecoms companies in their efforts to offer sophisticated video services to their subscribers?

The IPTV industry can take three actions that will do much to assist telcos in offering sophisticated video in rural areas of the United States.  First, is to recognise the needs that are specific to the rural markets that these telcos serve.  These telcos are building out cutting edge networks - fibre and other technologies - and are offering IPTV in sparsely populated areas.  Programmers must realise that these telcos are not going to be able to deliver the same level of subscriber numbers as a telco serving an urban area.  Their market  penetration may be higher, but the net homes  may not be what they are accustomed to.  

Second, it’s time for some common standards and interoperability of equipment.  This is crucial to reducing the cost of delivering service and will ensure that a telco won’t get left out in the cold if one equipment provider goes out of business.  And, finally, with standards should come the certification of solutions, which would give telcos greater confidence and might enable more to move into video.