Aggregation, Security Challenge OTT Pay TV as Market Surges, Conference Told

Aggregation, security and voice control are key areas in the surging pay-TV streaming video market as consumers continue their exodus from traditional pay TV, panelists told Parks Associates’ recent Future of Video virtual conference.

“The value of aggregation is huge,” said Ben Grad, fuboTV head-content strategy and acquisition, saying over-the-top video customers will “continue to flock” to services that offer a wide range of content “all in one place, on one platform, on devices they already have in their home.” Consumers don’t want to split their viewership among a dozen different apps, he said. Though it’s a sports-first service, fuboTV also has entertainment and other genres in its 122-channel menu.

A growing number of viewers are moving to aggregation platforms for streaming channels to simplify billing and access services through a single interface, said Parks analyst Kristen Hanich.

Cox Communications, a traditional aggregator as a cable company, offers its customers streaming channels through the Contour Stream Player, noted Megan Dover, executive director-video and entertainment product management and development. The OTT service gives customers flexibility that Cox can’t offer in the traditional pay-TV environment, she said. Contour will continue to aggregate different types of content, but “we’ll be really selective about the content partners we work with,” she said.

Content aggregation will be “interesting” amid a fragmented OTT market, said Lu Bolden, Verimatrix chief revenue officer. It’s a challenge for the industry when a customer searches for content to “figure out what that end user’s authorized for through what platform,” he said. “Did they sign up through fubo for this particular piece of content, or this channel, or through Philo?”

Services will want to keep subscribers in an environment that gives them access to applications and content “so that everyone can monetize this along the way,” said Bolden. That requires “complex insight” into data, authorization information and agreements among intermediaries.

Philo’s Kirstin Seitz, head-marketing strategy and operations, downplayed its role as an aggregator, instead emphasizing how the $20 monthly service is “complementary” to other pay-TV services, such as Netflix or Disney+. Philo continues to look at ways to bring in more content, she said, while keeping its service affordable.

Voice control has an essential role in helping consumers find content in a fragmented space, panelists said, though Cox’s Dover sees it as evolutionary technology. Not all Cox customers with voice remotes are using the capability, but voice searches are “certainly faster” than what users can accomplish using a remote to navigate menus or type in the names of actors, Dover said. “It is something that is going to be critical for all customers to have access to in the future,” said the executive, adding that a strong search tool is valuable only if it’s backed by strong metadata to get customers to the content they want to see quickly and directly.

Broad integration of voice-activated devices with Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant is paving the way for customers’ overall familiarity with voice control, Dover said, citing use cases such as asking for the weather or ordering paper towels via a smart speaker. Cox is integrating voice control into its smart home products, including thermostats, lights and smart door locks, which are also controllable by the voice remotes included with its Contour service, she said.

On whether far-field mics might be built into a set-top box vs. integrated into the handheld remote, Dover said Cox is studying the possibility as an “ideal” offering for the future. “It would be great to be able to not touch a remote control and say, ‘I want to watch …,' and it starts playing,” she said, but customers are also used to being able to pause video, jump back seven seconds for instant replay and fast-forward within a program. Those types of commands are still cumbersome for voice control, Dover said. “I think we’ll get there,” but most consumers wouldn’t be comfortable issuing the series of voice commands required to have the same kind of control they have pressing buttons on a remote, she said.

Sports betting is also becoming more popular on TV services, and security will be important as that segment of OTT video expands, said Verimatrix’s Bolden. Implementing monetary transactions on platforms previously used only for viewing entertainment will be a challenge, he said. “When you look at live sports and anything that’s going to be bet on, security becomes even more important,” because there can’t be gaps due to inherent delays in OTT delivery, he said. Content needs to be secured end to end “to get rid of as many gaps as you can.” Authenticating and authorizing transactions is “critical” for the companies in the chain and for end users, he said.

FuboTV’s Grad agreed content and transaction security, along with low latency, are “hugely important” for any company entering sports betting. Betting is a “huge opportunity” for fuboTV, said Grad, noting the service has been preparing for it for several years. It brought the Vegas Stats & Information Network to the platform in 2018 to attract subscribers interested in sports betting. It also added sports-betting-related channels to the linear fubo Sports Network and is looking for additional opportunities, he said.

Verimatrix saw a drop in video piracy during the early days of the pandemic because live sporting events were on hold and few new movies were released, said Bolden. With the return of sports, the company has more need for security, especially with “microtransactions” during sports programs picking up. It’s challenging to tie in authentication of users “as they’re moving from platform to platform” and make it easy for them to move from a smartphone to a TV to another device while having to remember passwords, he said: “You want to make the experience for the end user easy, so they’ll stay on your platform -- but still secure.”