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VOD Advertising Interoperability Takes a Step Forward

Tue, 7 Feb 2012 17:32:00 EST
Sam Rosen | Senior Analyst, Digital Home

CableLabs recently completed an Ad Interoperability Event, with Canoe Ventures, BlackArrow, Avail-TVN, Harris, Nagra/OpenTV, SeaChange and This Technology participating. Additional details are available at: http://cablelabs.com/news/pr/2012/12_pr_Adv_Ad_Interop_020612.html

This event, designed to test out the SCTE 130 Ad Decision Manager (ADM) / Ad ​Decision Server (ADS) interface, will help operators to have confidence in building systems with hardware and software components from multiple vendors. Notably absent from the event were Ericsson and Motorola, who had participated in previous SCTE 130 events.

Comcast (working with BlackArrow) has already been rolling VOD Ads in most of its footprint. Other operators have begun limited trials, using a single vendor to avoid interoperability issues or testing the solution in-house prior to launch.

For more details on these players roles in Advanced Advertising please see: http://www.abiresearch.com/research/1005968-Advanced+Advertising+Technologies+for+Pay-TV+Platforms

Verizon and Coinstar join forces to launch new subscription service

Mon, 6 Feb 2012 22:29:00 EST
Sam Rosen | Senior Analyst, Digital Home

Verizon and Coinstar announced a joint venture today (65% Verizon/35% Coinstar) to launch a national video service with physical and digital delivery. While few details are currently available, it will be primarily subscription based. We suspect the business model will mirror that which Netflix abandoned - unlimited streaming access to long-tail content with a few Redbox rentals per month. This type of service will compete with Netflix as well as Dish/Blockbuster, Amazon Prime, etc. We expect each partner will have the opportunity to cross-sell its products; Coinstar/Redbox will gain mindshare among those consumers who have taken to streaming video services and Verizon will gain an avenue for growing its video footprint nationally - an important step given the limitation of its FiOS expansion. With its content relationships, Verizon may be able to help Redbox customers access newer titles (e.g. before the 28 day window delay for some new releases). Regardless, it can help solve two key limitations of Redbox - first, its inability to deliver long tail content, and second, its inability to deliver instant gratification.

It is unclear at this time how consumers will interface with the service. Just how integrated will Redbox and Verizon (either Verizon Mobile or Verizon FiOS) be? If the rental systems are well integrated then a user could ostensibly reserve a video at a Redbox kiosk via Verizon's VOD storefront on FiOS or on a mobile phone. The joint venture is expected to gain access (through Verizon's Digital Media Services group, VDMS) to some of Verizon's great device support coming from both mobile and FiOS's FlexView platforms - including support for XBOX, Apple's iOS devices, and Android devices.

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On Facebook and Mobile Advertising

Mon, 6 Feb 2012 09:16:00 EST
George Kraev | Senior Analyst, Security and ID

Facebook has a longstanding problem of making money out of it's mobile platform. It goes something like this;

* Facebook is funded from advertising revenue

* Targeted advertising on Facebook is very alluring and companies are happy to pay for it

* Facebook has 845 million active users that advertisements can be served to

* More than half (425 million to be exact) access the site via a mobile device

* Facebook does not serve advertising over mobile device


You can easily see how that's a huge problem for the bottom line of the company and it was made clear in the IPO announcement that Facebook is working to address the problem. However, serving advertisements to mobile users across multiple mobile operating systems and multiple App Stores is a formidable challenge in itself. There is no denying that the iTunes Store is very particular about the advertising that is allowed and that does not bode well will Facebook. After all, in Facebook's balance sheets there is no space for an iTunes tax and there never will be.

On top of that, Microsoft is slowly proving to the as tyrannical as Apple has ever been about their App Store. In essence, Facebook needs a map to a potential mine field and needs it fast.


Here's an interesting development from the new age giant that might provide a bit of an insight into the future revenue stream. TechCrunch, recently published an article about application bookmarks in the newsfeed. What it essentially does, is it allows you to see quick links to applications that you use a lot. It's all great and the point that Josh Constantine makes is right on the money but here's something else.


With recent additions to the Facebook platform, you can now share with friends what it is that you are doing but essentially what you are doing is advertising the content provider of your activity. So how valuable do you think that is? I'd say extremely and the advertising industry know that. In fact, it is no secret that recommendations from friends are one of the most effective advertisements that you can ever get and word of mouth is the Mecca of the advertising business. Can you do this on a large scale? Not so much, at least not until now. Think about it this way, Facebook has the means of charging companies based on word of mouth advertising. You share a company's name with your friends, Facebook gets money. You add an application to your favourites, Facebook gets even more money. And you as the user, never get to see any annoying banners and yet you are the driving force behind the largest advertising agency in the world.


Yeah, I know, it's maybe a bit Utopian and a bit ambitious but if I wake up tomorrow to a world like this it would be no surprise at all. Facebook has in fact provided brands with a new advertising medium and they will be allowed to charge for it. You on the other hand can do exactly what you've always done and tell all your friends about the brands and products that you feel passionate about. And companies actually get to compete on a levelled field provided that they have the entrance fee. And if you have doubts as to will this ever work and why should brands pay for it ... look at what Twitter is thinking of making money from. ​​

Skies look clear for Aakash2

Thu, 2 Feb 2012 03:12:00 EST
Aishwarya Singh | Research Analyst

​The latest dispute between Datawind, the makers of "Aakash" and IIT Rajasthan, a premier educational institution, which was the procurement agency for "Aakash" has come to an end with the Indian government taking matters in its own hands and taking away not only procurement responsibility but also drafting of specifications from IIT and giving it to the department of IT. The procurement responsibility will now be given to public sector undertakings.

The main bone of contention between the manufacturer and the institution was the tablet specification. Both the parties had not been able to agree upon a required set of features for Aakash. While the IIT demanded a shockproof and rainproof tablet, Datawind refused to comply with the "military specifications" prescribed by the IIT saying manufacturing such a rugged tablet would push the cost to $1500 per tablet. The IIT team rejected the first 3000 tablets and also withhold the payment of the 10000 units supplied. Datawind in turn stopped the supply of tablets leading to delay in the availability of the tablet to students.

The new specification for Aakash2, the revised version of the tablet, is likely to include a capacitive touch screen and 1GHz processor. As per the latest update from the human resources development ministry of India, they will require additional 220 million tablets and would engage multiple vendors to manufacture the tablet. Datawind which currently has an order of 100,000 devices is expected the release the upgraded Aakash2 devices soon.

With things turning favourable for Datawind after Indian government's intervention, the path ahead for Aakash2 now looks smooth.​

Intel the Underdog

Wed, 1 Feb 2012 06:01:00 EST
Peter Cooney | Practice Director, Semiconductors

As Intel enter the smartphone market with design wins at Motorola, Lenovo and China Unicom for x86 based applications processors they are up against the combined might of ARM licensees already entrenched in the market.

Whilst Qualcomm, TI, Broadcom, Nvidia, etc. are relatively small semiconductor suppliers compared with Intel overall their combined might and solid market position make them a formidable force to be reckoned with.


This battle is just one exciting development in the mobile device IC market that will make 2012 a very interesting year.

More insight here ....