The most recent trends of the TV broadcasting business.
The most recent trends of the TV broadcasting business.
The most recent trends of the TV broadcasting business, as well as the evolution and the future of the television were the main themes at the 16th International Forum and Tradeshow CSTB’2014.
The experts of television and telecom industries from 27 countries discussed the most topical themes of the Russian TV broadcasting industry.
The 16th CSTB’2014 Forum and Tadeshow has successfully taken place in Moscow’s “Crocus Expo” Centre. The events of the CSTB have been visited by 23757 people. During the three days of the Forum, from the 28 to 30th of January the participants as well as the visitors familiarized themselves with the achievement of the leading Russian and international telecom and broadcasting companies, operators and manufacturers. The space of the tradeshow was over 18000 square meters with over 500 exhibitors from 27 countries of the world. The events gained the support of the Moscow Government, Moscow Chamber of Trade and Industry, The Federal Agency for Media and Mass Communications, The RF Chamber of Trade and Industry as well as the Russian Association of Cable Television and the International Association of Broadcasting Manufacturers (IABM).
The CSTB’2014 Exhibition presented a new section - CONNECTED TV & MOBILE MULTIMEDIA, where the technical solutions were exemplified by the content via IPTV, mobile and Internet TV, social networks, online video services on all types of consumer’s devices.
At the business agenda of CSTB’2014 the international and Russian experts were discussing the prospects of the ultra-high definition TV development. They have also presented the most recent available market solutions and the strategies for the television and telecom industries.
The starting point of the event was a Round Table called “The Television of the ХХI century – the development and the competition between the traditional broadcasting and the innovative services”. The Round table was participated by the representatives of the Ministry of Communications, The Federal Communications Agency, the top-managers of the largest companies and paid TV, leaders of the professional organization. “During the 15 years of its existence the CSTB’2014 Tradeshow and Forum became the leading site for professional discussions”,- said Yuri Pripachkin, the president of the Russian Association of Cable Television in his speech as he welcomed the participants of the Table. Mr. Pripachkin noted that over the last year the off-the-air TV grew by 13% and amounted to 52 bln. Rubles with the growth of the subscriber’s number of 9%, while the number of digital TV subscribers grew by 23%, up to 18,3 mln. households.
The Round Table participants noted that it is necessary to regulate the rules for the paid and free television, to provide the high-quality and interesting content, to develop the operator’s services, HD-watching, expanded interactive watching and Internet technologies. “ The technical opportunities of signal delivery will soon be unlimited. S those companies that manage to provide the quality content for the subscribers will definitely win in the future!”- was the comment of Alexei Volin, the Russian Deputy Minister of Mass Communications in Russia.
“Internet broadcasting Opportunities” session chaired by Leonid Konkin, the Editor-in-chief of ComNews Group of Companies, was part of the Forum, too. The industry players shared their experience on the digital market and the way they support the Internet- audience. They also told about the differences and features of the Internet- broadcasting in CIS countries and the Russian regions. The participants of the session confirmed the significant changes in the industry, such as the less time of video consumption, growth of Smart TV penetration, expensive growth of the IPTV, OTT and mobile TV audiences in Russia. Some experts from large companies, such as the SPB TV, presented their new projects- the mobile television for the regional operators that helps to give a better coverage of the social and cultural life in the Russian regions.
On January 29, the second day of the CSTB’2014 Forum, there took place another event on the state-of-the-art mobile technologies- The Mobile Multimedia Forum. “We all witness a rapid convergence of the telecom and media sectors these days. This determines, amongst other things, the coverage of the CSTB Forum and its shift to the integrated TV solutions. It is a great pleasure indeed, that the Forum attracted a number of experts with extremely interesting presentations,” – said Vitaliy Shub in the beginning of his speech. Vitaliy Shub, the Advisor to the President of TransTeleCom, was the moderator of the Mobile Multimedia Forum. Mr. Shub noted that in the nearest future the switch to the convergent LTE and LTE-Advanced platform as a single technology platform for mobile multimedia networks will become quite common:” The deepest integration of LTE networks with the broadband technology is something that is not taking place in Russia yet, but will probably be the case in the future.”
The participants of the Forum were actively discussing the overuse of the low-frequency bandwidth by the mobile companies in their infrastructure as well as the low-frequency bandwidth as the only way to ensure the high coverage and, at the same time, the low level of absorption by the walls of the buildings given the high capacity of the network. “ The use of the low frequencies, below 700 MHz will probably become one of the solutions in terms of coverage and network capacity”,-Mr. Shub commented.
According to Constantin Ankilov, the Managing Partner of iKS-Consulting Analytical Agency “ the paid TV market last year reached the point of saturation. We already have around 32 mln. IPTV, cable and satellite TV subscribers. Their number continues to grow, and the churn from the analogue networks is mainly taking place to the satellite and IPTV. The mobile TV market has the fastest growth, in spite of the fact that there are no explicit tools yet to measure and rate its parameters.”
According to the data Mr. Ankilov provides, 16% of the population in large Russian cities watch mobile video. 25% out of them are the youth. The most popular content are the videos in social networks, 64% of users is watching them. The number two most frequently viewed category are the concerts with 43%. The representative of the «iKS-Consulting» pays special attention to the survey on the multi-screen that was conducted in the largest Russian cities:” The use of several devices for viewing is already the case in Russia. An average Russian uses 2-3 devices to view the TV and video content. The majority uses a classical TV-set of a Smart TV, while the notebook and the computer are lagging behind. 15-18% use tablets and smart phones.”
Stanislaw Zhuravlev, the Head of VAS-services Department in MTS made a presentation on the data delivery networks as a platform for the multi-screen:” Our technology base is able to deliver a large traffic volume, also for the multi-screen viewing. The platform for the active implementation of the multi-screen services in Russia is being developed. Over 93% base stations of MTS 3G today support the HSPA+, thus ensuring 21Mbit/sec, while 50 % of 3G base stations are Dual Carrier- based, at the speed of 42 Mbit/sec. At the same time, the LTE networks develop as the penetration of subscribers’ devices grows. We are now developing a unique project in Moscow, called GPON. In terms of scale , it has no matches in Europe.
The state-of-the-art multimedia technologies on the satellite broadcasting market, as well as the recommendations, ratings, on-line surveys and the remote control& synchronization methods were the themes covered by Denis Vysotsky, the Head of the Project Management and Technocal Development Service of “TriColor TV”.
Yevgeniy Novikov, the CEO of “The Bradbury Lab” has analyzed the TV evolution process and the mobile market in Russia:”Several years ago we did not have that number of mobile devices as we do now. At present, we came to the threshold, when the user can choose that to watch, how and when to watch. TV is not the only channel to view the content anymore. The TV signal source, however, has not changed. What changes are the end devices on the user’s side.”
“Content as the main service of the paid TV operator” annual session chaired by Yana Belskaya, the Editor-in-chief of “Kabelschik” Internet portal, was dedicated to the global and Russian demand for the TV content as well as the social networks as a tool for the channel promotion. Maria Kamenskaya, the Head of the Thematic Channel Research Department at TNS Russia, presented the most recent data on TV-watching and the development of different content consumption forms. It turned out that the TV viewing time in Russia is not decreasing and the TV demand remains sustainable. The forms of the content consumption, though, are changing, as the digitization opens a number of opportunities. The variety of devices allows the TV to be viewed from different screens. The demand for the genre programs on the national and thematic TV channels remains sustainable.
The experts have also taken part in the Round table called “Open digit- an advantage or not?” In his attempts to answer this question Mikhail Kovalchuk, the CEO of “Signal Media” noted:”The issue we have is the absence of a uniform position among both the telecom companies and the right owners. That is why we are failing to find a reasonable compromise.This means that all the players will treat the situation from their own commercial viewpoints. Let’s wait and see whether this is good or bad.”
This year there was a special focus on the new session of the Forum. It was dedicated to the Connected TV and Second Screen. The session was moderated by Mikhail Shekhovtsov, the Managing Director of Media Projects at J’son & Partners Consulting. The participants noted that by implementing the Second Screen the TV channels attract a highly- targeted audience and they can use more focused marketing tools.The speakers mentioned the role of the television that sets forth the trends for the audiences and acts as a guide. The prospects of the off-the-air TV and online-video in the media advertisement, the content distribution to all home devices and many other vital topics have been discussed at the session.
The trend of using the IP network not so much for the content delivery and distribution but rather for the broadcasting purposes was the main topic at IP & TV Forum, on the second day of CSTB’2014. “ On one hand, the “TV via Internet” has proven itself as a content delivery technology, and on the Russian market, for example, it is the only technology to yield the growth of subscribers and revenues last year. At the same time, the IPTV/ОТТ is but one of the ways to deliver the content and the Russian providers are only starting to work with new services,”- said Alexei Grishin, the moderator of the session and the Director for the Development of “B-Luxe” Company. The speakers dwelt upon a number of important topics, such as the new hardware and software solutions for the platforms and subscriber devices as well as the new content promotion technologies and regulation of the industry.
The presentations of the marketing directors of the four largest Russian operators at “Marketing Evolution of the Paid TV Operators” session have shown that the pad TV industry does feel the changes in the strategy. According to the moderator Nicolay Orlov, the editor-in-chief of “Tele- Sputnik” magazine “the paid TV market in Russia has come to an important threshold. The largest operators on one hand continue their expansion in the regions, by covering new areas and cumulating new subscribers. In case of expansive expansion it is common to use damping as a tool- either by reducing the subscriber’s fee, or the connection conditions, such as the free equipment given to the subscribers. On the other hand all the large operators realize that all the non-connected subscribers will be eventually covered by the companies in 2-3 years time. The marketing focus, therefore, will be shifted towards the retention. “
The state-of-the-art capacities of the communication and TV satellites were presented on the 30th of January at “Satellites as the main solution in signal delivery for Russia” session. The experts from the largest international and Russian companies, among them being FSUE “Kosmicheskaya Svyaz”, “Gazprom Space Systems”, AltegroSky, INTERSPUTNIK, Intelsat, Newtec and others, were presenting their projects on modernizing the satellite groups, as well as the plans to launch the new satellites in 2015-2018. They will enable in the future to broadcast not only in Russia and abroad, but will also allow for the first time ever creating a satellite network for Internet access.
Vitaliy Shub, the moderator of the “Future Technologies”, the final session of the Forum that took place on the 29th of January, highlighted the following trends of the industry: the further development of telemedia in fixed and mobile versions is mostly driven by the television and the video games; the tectonic movements can be seen in the industry as the three formats -FHD, UHD 4K and SUHD 8K develop; the wired network is not a restriction for the TV development anymore; subscriber’s devices allow generating and consuming the video content of any format. The wireless networks are still a bottleneck– satellite, cell and TV broadcasting; the new areas for competition are: LTE BROADCAST and Ka-VSat+IPTV.
***
The winners of the “BIG DIGIT”, the 5th National Award in multichannel television were announced on January 29. The awards this year were given according to the updated list of nominations in three categories: “Operator Company”, “Technology and Equipment”, “TV Channels”. In total, there were 103 applicants for th award this year. For details about the categories, nominees and the winners, please visit the website: www.bigdigit.ru
The participants and the visitors of CSTB’2014 had a high opinion of the previous events, too. “The goal of the CSTB Forum and Tradeshow is to find a way and harmonize the TV broadcasting means and services with other industries and areas. The CSTB 2014 Forum& Tradeshow has defined the paradigm for the industry’s development and positioning. I wish this event every success”,- said Mark Krivosheev, the Chief Scientist of the Radio and TV R&D Institute, a legend of modern TV world, one of its founders.
MIDEXPO Company, the organizer of the CSTB’2014 Forum and Tradeshow would like to thank the partners and the sponsors of the event:
- Strategic partner of the traseshow – Tricolor TV company
- General Partner of the CSTB Forum – MTS Group of Companies
- Platinum Sponsor of the CSTB Forum – MegaLabs Company
- Golden Sponsor of the CSTB Forum – Huawei
The 17th International Tradeshow and Forum CSTB’2015 will take place from January 27 to 29, 2015 in «Crocus Expo» Center.
To participate in the Forum or the Tradeshow, please, contact the organizers.