COMMUNICASIA, SINGAPORE--Broadband networks are changing the rules of the game for telecommunications companies and giving them new market opportunities, say delegates at Asia's largest infocomm show.
Speaking before an audience at CommunicAsia yesterday, Jeffrey Soong, CEO of Broadband Network Systems (BNS) said: "Broadband is changing the economics of entertainment, and we're seeing the evolution of entertainment distribution." BNS is a broadband TV solutions provider based in Hong Kong.
"These are exciting times we live in. Telcos now have the opportunity to leapfrog over traditional content owners," he said. But service providers must first learn how to position their network "as the pivotal point providing all entertainment needs".
Soong noted how entertainment used to be a passive, or "lean back" affair, for most consumers. Today, more people source for content on their own terms--enjoying the content on devices such as Apple Computer's iPod Video, or streaming video on their mobile phones.
These consumers are likely the younger generation, and sometimes described as "Me Media"--a user community that both produces and distributes its own content to popular portals such as MySpace and YouTube.
Soong added that 87 per cent of Americans between 12 and 17 years old are online, and more than half of them have created and uploaded digital content for the Internet.
By doing so, users like them are changing the economics of entertainment because they no longer simply consume what traditional content owners offer.
This creates an opportunity for service providers to pull in new consumers by delivering IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) services, beefed up with user-created content. In IPTV, broadcast-quality videos or television programs are streamed over an IP network, rather than over the air or cable.
Soong's advice to telcos is to ensure their IPTV services are "future-proof" by thinking about how they can make the content work on various devices that consumers now own, or carry.
He noted that IPTV services offering in the market today were designed over the last five years, where service providers had not anticipated the emergence of devices such as the iPod Video and the Slingbox device, which lets people watch TV programs over the Internet.
He said: "When we advise companies looking into providing IPTV services, we always ask them: What is your content? What is your technology platform for delivering this content? What about your network requirements, middleware and even software infrastructure to bring this about?"
Soong added: "You need a flexible platform to add new services quickly, introduce flexible business and pricing models, and facilitate new distribution mechanisms."
Telcos, for example, may need to offer IPTV services at a low cost, or for free, and support these offerings through online advertising because "the world is used to getting things for free", he said.
"You have to think out of the box, and consider how things will progress in five to ten years time," he added. "You just can't model after today's IPTV services."
Broadly speaking
While Soong underscored the potential of IPTV, Simon Naylor, Asia-Pacific vice president of Sonus Networks, was enthusiastic
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