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Consumer appetite for video-on-demand services – the ability to access videos when and where it is convenient to them – is on the rise. The arrival of 3G/4G and LTE networks has opened up new bandwidth for on-demand access, with entertainment such as movies and television shows driving adoption. Other driving factors are at work, too, particularly for mobile subscribers, which leaped over the 300 million mark in the United States alone this past year. The uptake is partly due to the greater availability of mobile phones, with larger and higher resolution screens, at lower prices and data-friendly pricing plans. Recent stats show it is estimated that around 60% of U.S. consumers have accessed video services via their mobile phones.
With video now able to bring a truly real-time multimedia experience to the fingertips of consumers, whether live sports updates, breaking news, movie trailers, YouTube video playbacks (which has reached over 200 mobile video playbacks a day) or user-generated and shared video content , mobile operators are scrambling to find ways to keep up with user demand.
The growth for video-on-demand services represents tremendous average revenue per user, and content generation opportunities that can positively affect the bottom line. And for users, accessing high-quality video-on-demand services will keep them engaged and loyal. Satisfying demand will also enable mobile operators to provide high transfer rates over longer distances and efficient bandwidth so their users can seamlessly watch any content at any time, and maximize the promises of GPS services and multi-player gaming facilities, both which are built into smartphones today but continue to depend on operators’ networks for efficiency. Win-win for everyone, right?
It can and should be a win-win, but only if mobile operators can find a way to meet users’ appetite for on-demand video. What does this entail? Delivering on-demand video requires sustaining high video quality without incurring significant capital expenditures and overwhelming internal resources – and risk digressing from core business competencies of delivering service and improving the user experience. However, mobile operators, especially those in the United States, are struggling to keep up.
Technical challenges of delivering mobile on-demand video services
Mobile operators have not historically been equipped to handle the infrastructure, technical and resource challenges involved in delivering mobile content, which is a capex and operation expense-intensive set of processes that can deplete the resources of even the most robust and sophisticated software development and IT departments. First, content must be delivered to all types of devices and platforms. A single mobile operator might offer dozens or more mobile devices at any given time. Each of these devices has a distinct screen size, resolution and media player that supports different video codecs and streaming protocols. Second, the video content needs to be converted to fit each different screen size, bandwidth constraints and media/codec processing and protocol capabilities.
Media adaptation may be performed on-demand or in real-time, or in an off-line mode. It consists of several processes: transcoding, transrating and scaling. Transcoding takes existing video content and changes it into a different codec. Transrating converts media content prepared for one bandwidth (bit rate) into another to match network fluctuations. Transrating may be adaptive to network conditions. Scaling refers to adapting the video to the proper targeted video resolution. To ensure optimal consumer experience, a video must be rendered for each screen size, each resolution and each codec before it can be distributed.
On-demand or real-time media adaptation is significantly more challenging than the off-line counter-part. Smart techniques have to be employed to avoid excessive network infrastructure, and to deliver quality experience.
Staying ahead of the curve with value-added services
Given these challenges, mobile operators are seeking innovative strategies to create mobile experiences that both engage and retain their users and do not suck up internal resources. Pursuing an outsourcing strategy, relying on the technical expertise of value-added services providers, is one way mobile operators are increasingly able to deliver on-demand services at reasonable cost.
VAS providers provide the critical, technical and software platform components required to help mobile operators deliver a high quality video experience for their customers. By leveraging VAS to handle the technical and platform aspects of on-demand video delivery, mobile operators are also free to focus on their core business – delivering high-quality mobile service to customers.
With VAS competencies, mobile operators also can offer value-add services that provide topline growth – and gain a leg up on over-the-top players, whether cloud-based or not, such as OS vendors (i.e. Android), handset makers and app developers, all of which are quickly figuring out ways to benefit from growing appetite for mobile video-on-demand services. As mobile operators ramp up in on-demand video services, working with a VAS provider can alleviate many of the pain points associated with deployment, keep them ahead of the curve and generate new revenue streams.
