No. 298 (April 2004)
A report on the EBU Workshop "Broadcast and Telecom Synergies in the 21st Century", held in Geneva on 6 - 7 April 2004
An EBU Workshop on synergies between the broadcast and telecom communities was held on 6 and 7 April 2004 at the EBU's headquarters in Geneva. It was attended by more than 70 participants from all sectors of the broadcast and telecom industries: television and radio broadcasters (both public service and commercial), network operators, content providers, mobile phone operators, telecom infrastructure manufacturers, consumer terminal manufacturers, regulators, EU representatives, research institutes and others.
The workshop programme was divided into seven sessions covering the incentives for broadcasters and the telecom industry to work together, the prospects of new broadcast mobile multimedia developments (such as DVB-H and DMB), broadband television, content generation and repurposing, spectrum and regulatory issues and last (but not least), user experiences and convergent terminals. The discussion was extremely lively and was concluded by a wrap-up session entitled: "What future for broadcasters in the convergent world?". This open session was coordinated by David Wood (EBU).
EBU Project Group B/SYN was the initiator of the Workshop. B/SYN (Synergies between broadcasting and telecom services and systems), was set up in 2002 and produced several useful deliverables approved by the EBU Broadcast Technology Management Committee (BMC). This workshop represented its "final act". The main output of the Group is given in EBU document BPN 062 (October 2003) entitled "Synergies of Broadcast and Telecom Services and Systems". This document is available on the EBU Members' website and outlines some specific opportunities for broadcasters and telecom to cooperate in terms of joint services, networks and user terminals. The Group was chaired by Jean-Jacques Delmas (TDF-C2R). Its Vice-Chair was Martin van Trigt (Nozema).
The Workshop identified several areas which require very close cooperation between broadcasters and the telecom industry. One such area is the delivery of television and video services over ADSL, cable and fibre networks. Another area is the delivery of interactive multimedia over terrestrial networks such as UMTS and DVB-H. Yet another area is streaming and downloading of rich media content (such as text, still pictures, audio, video, graphics, etc) over the Internet.
Several presentations outlined some examples of the extremely rapid changes in the telecom industry. Twenty years ago, no one had a mobile phone. Today there are a billion and a half mobile phone users. Mobile phones allow not only the making of phone calls but also sending and receiving text messaging (soon multimedia messaging), games and location services. The third generation (3G) of mobile communications brings together the mobile and internet industries. To this end, telecom players are increasingly embarking into media delivery which traditionally has been the domain of radio and television broadcasters.
Another area of astonishingly rapid growth is WLAN. While mobile is aimed at ubiquitous coverage, WLAN provides very limited coverage (homes, airports, convention centres, "hot spots") but an increased bandwidth (in the order of several Mbit/s) with lower costs than mobile. This technology has been used mostly for data and internet communications using computers and will now be increasingly used to support voice, video and audio delivery, etc. A combination of mobile and WLAN will provide seamless mobility across a cluster of WLAN cells. As the coverage of such combinations becomes more ubiquitous, it may complement broadcasting. WLAN can also carry some live television channels.
The third telecom area which is moving extremely fast is fixed telephony which has now introduced DSL technologies to carry not only classical communication services (voice and fast internet) but also interactive television channels to the home. Currently several trials are being conducted in Europe. For example, in France, three trials are currently taking place: Freebox TV (with commercial telecom provider Illiad), CanalPlus ADSL and TPSL (MaLigneTV) which is a cooperation of TPS and France Telecom. In Italy, there is a DSL TV and VoD service called FastWeb which presently has some 150'000 subscribers. The number of Broadband TV subscribers is still relatively low (compared with the television audience which may be measured in millions) but is growing steadily. The main attraction for the consumers is the "triple play" which means, effectively, one bill for telephone, fast internet and live television channels.
Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs) are actively involved in the above trials: France Télévisions and RAI are present on the above DSL platforms in France and Italy, respectively. Their programme channels are included in the overall line-up and compete with about 60 to 70 other (mostly commercial) channels.
Broadcasters are involved in mobile interactivity not only as content providers but also as network providers operating new digital broadcast networks such as DAB, DVB-S, DVB-T and DVB-H. In general, broadcast coverage areas are larger than mobile cells and thus represent a cost- and spectrum-efficient bearer for delivering point-to-multipoint services. Some projects, such as CISMUNDUS and SAVANT, were outlined at the Workshop. These are based on a combination (synergy) of broadcast DVB and mobile networks which may lead to a two-way (interactive) system with asymmetrical forward and return channels. This asymmetrical network topology reflects the traffic asymmetry (which may be as high as 10:1) and is therefore very efficient. DVB-H, promoted by Nokia, is close to becoming a commercial mobile television service in Finland. DMB, which is based on DAB, is already commercially successful in Korea using Samsung user terminals. Both DVB-H and DMB could in principle use the same API as well as the same IPDC layer, which would facilitate the production of content.
Alcatel (UK) made a very strong case in favour of a combination of DVB-T and DSL. The former is capable of providing wide-area coverage across the whole territory, whereas DSL can provide TV channels in urban areas and indoors where DVB-T signal may be weak (especially if roof-top antennae cannot be used). A "combo" STB should not be more expensive than the DSL-only or DVB-only boxes, as almost the same technologies are used (same audio/video coding and similar multi-carrier modulation). DSL could potentially help DVB-T to provide interactivity, improve security and customer relationships, shorten time-to-market and ease DVB-T spectrum planning in urban zones.
Both the telecom and broadcast worlds will benefit from the exciting developments in video and audio coding technologies. The presentation from Philips showed that, nowadays, MPEG-2 is used for digital television while H.263 is most often used in telecom systems. In the future, however, MPEG-4 Part 10 (also known as H.264 and AVC) has the potential to become a universal video compression technology used in DVB as well as 3GPP for a range of bitrates, resolutions, displays and contents. For audio, HE-AAC is most likely to succeed commercially. Both technologies will be principal enablers for television to move from standard definition television (SDTV) to high definition television (HDTV) with 5.1 multichannel audio. The transport mechanisms to carry AVC/AAC will be MPEG-2 TS and IP. The DVB and 3GPP Projects are in the process of standardizing the use of AVC/AAC in broadcast and telecom ecosystems.
In the competitive media environment, the major differentiator is the quality and diversity of content. Today, radio and television broadcasters are the principal originators of new content such as news, live sports, drama, reportage, etc. Multimedia content may consists of short video clips, interactive games, internet pages, m-commerce, location-based services, booking and ticketing, etc. As RAI Research Centre clearly demonstrated, the content will have to be suitably repurposed for various pipelines. The repurposing can only be done automatically in a closely controlled environment. Broadcasters are well armed to produce multimedia content, as we have skilled workers, studios and studio facilities, extensive archives and often (but not always) the necessary budgets. RAI has established a multimedia catalogue which allows journalists to preview and easily access the multimedia content. Each item is automatically indexed, encoded and associated with metadata including digital rights management (DRM). A speech-to-text transcription system has been developed to allow for searching of programme items via text search engines. RAI Click provides 1600 hours a year of archive content to Fastweb for VoD via the Internet.
One of the culminating presentations at the Workshop was given by the Ofcom representative from the UK. Ofcom is the new converged communications/media regulator in the UK and is in charge of reviewing public service and commercial broadcasting as well as telecom strategies. Ofcom's mission is to encourage evolution of electronic media, foster plurality and competition, protect citizens and consumers, and ensure cultural diversity. Ofcom makes sure that the spectrum is used efficiently and favours a more market-led approach to spectrum management. Ofcom is supporting the drive to digital TV switch-over in the UK. New applications for spectrum are being sought when all the analogue services have switched to digital. To this end, Ofcom is monitoring the evolution of IP datacasting experiments in Finland and Germany. This will position the UK at the forefront of the global digital revolution. The Ofcom example could provide guidance to many other countries on how to organize their regulatory activities covering both broadcasters and the telecom industry in an appropriate manner.
As spectrum is a limited commodity, spectrum issues are undoubtedly the most contentious and difficult to resolve. The ITU's Regional Radiocommunications Conference (RRC) to be held in 2004/2006 has a mandate to re-plan the broadcasting bands: Band III (174 - 230 MHz), Band IV (470 - 582 MHz) and Band V (582 - 862 MHz). The ITU has stated that digital technology is about four times more spectrum effective than analogue technology. For that reason, a digital dividend has been foreseen, after the analogue switch-off. This spectrum could possibly be used for other types of services, including synergetic systems such as DVB-H and DMB. The ITU-R proposed, in the TWIM report, that common allocations should be made worldwide for broadcasting, mobile and fixed services in certain bands suitable for TWIM services. Two such bands have been identified: 862 - 890 MHz and 1452 - 1492 MHz. The Workshop participants asked the EBU to ramp up its efforts to find a suitable section of spectrum to carry synergetic services on a worldwide basis.
Attractive, small, light, long battery life and low cost are key to the success of mobile terminals. Consumer acceptance depends on having a choice of services, along with perceived quality and performance. A study in Sweden showed that users will pay almost any price for a device in order to fulfill their social status expectations or to become part of a community sharing such devices.
Kreatel (Sweden) outlined a state-of-the-art concept of network set-top boxes. These STBs will be part of the home network (wired or wireless), fully reconfigurable, with the ability to download upgrade software, applications and functionalities at any time. They will support automatic memory handling and hardware abstraction layer. The design flexibility of such STBs will enable them to remain in operation for an extended life time before they become functionally obsolete. Following this concept, the DVB MHP (Multimedia Home Platform) could possibly be introduced as an API in the telecom world.
This topic was, understandably, one of the hottest at the Workshop. High investments in convergent telecom services have not yet met the expectations in terms of return. At the moment these services are not very lucrative, with some exceptions. E.Biscom in Italy reported an ARPU (Average Return Per User) increase from €78 to €272 due to video services. Also, the user "churn rate" has been reduced over the same period.
Participants agreed that there is no such thing as a "killer application", although there may be a bundle of services that are commercially successful. Such a bundle may vary from country to country and may evolve withtime. In Finland, Digita launched a study on business models for mobile TV and tested several payment models: flat-rate, usage-based and two-part pay (a combination of flat-rate and usage-based). The study showed that consumers largely favour a flat-rate fee and not prices based on usage.
Interactive multimedia content generation is expensive and therefore many broadcasters hesitate to embark into it. Their first priority today is the transition to digital but, even for this, there is little or no governmental support. A gap between the technical possibilities and the commercial realities is now larger than ever.
There is no doubt that both industries (broadcasting and telecom) have enjoyed some unprecedented rates of development and have had a profound effect on people's lives. The Workshop attempted to present the state-of-the-art technologies and business processes of both industries.
The Workshop served as a useful platform for the exchange of views between broadcasters and telecom players. The world of convergence brings new challenges and opportunities and requires new approaches and strategies. The technology changes bring potential for increased competition and fragmentation of media markets. In order to cope with the new situation, both broadcasters and telecom players have to reorganize their services and need to invest in new processes.
The main opportunities for broadcasters are that their content and brands could become available not only on conventional broadcast networks (satellite, cable and terrestrial) but also on all new platforms, such as broadband and future 3G telephony circuits. Broadcasters could become important, if not principal, multimedia content providers and packagers in their countries. On the other hand, there are several challenges involved. Multimedia production and distribution is different from traditional radio and television; it requires special talent, special production facilities and different workflows. Broadcasters should consider carefully several issues such as: (i) business relationships between the different actors of the value chain (a typical question is: who "owns" the end user), (ii) spectrum for broadcast multimedia, (iii) international and national regulatory arrangements, (iv) content repurposing for the different pipelines and presentation displays, (v) multimedia services guides, etc. There are also several technology and implementation-related issues that need to be addressed, including the security of the media, spectrum efficiency and system performance.
The EBU is determined to play a pro-active role in the convergent (and increasingly competitive) multimedia world. This Workshop showed that the broadcast and telecom industries have the interest and willingness to cooperate in the future.
Franc Kozamernik
EBU Technical Department
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