ITV

Tag: pay-TV industry

  • Synamedia expands executive team with appointment of Sue Couto as Senior Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific

    Synamedia expands executive team with appointment of Sue Couto as Senior Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific

    MUMBAI: Synamedia, the largest independent video software and solutions company, has appointed pay-TV industry virtuoso Sue Couto as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Asia Pacific, effective immediately. This announcement follows the news that Synamedia is open for business after the completion of Permira funds’ acquisition of Cisco’s video business. With offices in India and China, Synamedia’s portfolio of leading pay-TV and media customers in the region includes Astro, Bharti Airtel, China DTH, Foxtel, Oi and Tata Sky.

    Sue joins Synamedia’s executive team to drive growth and expand customer relationships across Asia Pacific. She will have overall responsibility for sales, marketing, partners, and delivery in the region. 

    Sue brings over 20 years’ experience in senior leadership roles in the TV and broadcast industry in Asia Pacific, most recently as Senior Vice President of APAC Sales for TiVo, where she was responsible for overall sales strategy for software solutions. Prior to this, Sue was Senior Vice President, Video Software Solutions, APJC at Cisco, and at NDS before its acquisition by Cisco. She has built and led the teams which have been instrumental in winning key customers and enabling them to grow their businesses. Many of these players are now amongst the largest DTH platforms in the world.

    Yves Padrines, CEO of Synamedia, said, “Sue’s pay-TV industry prowess combined with her deep market knowledge and proven track record of driving transformation and growth in Asia Pacific, means she is well qualified to lead our team and support Synamedia’s business expansion plans in the region.”

    Sue Couto, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific for Synamedia, added, “With the industry’s broadest portfolio of offerings, solutions and expertise, Synamedia is the ideal partner to help operators in Asia Pacific both innovate and capitalize on new opportunities in today’s dynamic media landscape. As an independent company with renewed investment reflecting a new vision, we look forward to working with customers as they transform their businesses.”

  • Conax warns operators to ‘look beyond piracy, content protection not enough’

    Conax warns operators to ‘look beyond piracy, content protection not enough’

    CAPE TOWN: Conax, part of the Kudelski Group and a leader in total service protection for digital entertainment services worldwide via broadcast, broadband and connected devices, announced at the TV Connect Africa conference Conax’ EVP Principal Architect and industry expert, Tor Helge Kristiansen, will advise conference participants about the dangers of a new generation of piracy exemplified by the rapid development of the “Internet of Things”. Tapping twenty-five years of conditional access and value chain experience, Kristiansen will share critical insight on pay-TV security during a special conference track dedicated to piracy “Combatting piracy across Africa”, Day 2 at the TV Connect Africa conference.

    “A completely new breed of pirates and variety of attacks – far from content security redistribution, but connected to hybrid set-top-boxes – are a growing threat for pay-TV operations,” says Tor Helge Kristiansen, EVP Principal Architect, Conax. “At the TV Connect Africa conference, I’ll address the newest dangers for operators and the measures operators can take to prevent these new threats.”

    Already securing over 30 DTH and DTT operators across Africa, Conax is both a trusted partner and a leading driver for Africa’s pay-TV expansion. With a strong regional track record in secure digital migration and innovations for robust operator roadmap, Conax is continuing its strong commitment to the African market by providing pay-TV operators with future-ready solutions and the expert guidance to build their business into the future for next generation consumers.

    A pioneer in content security and conditional access technology, Tor Helge Kristiansen joined Conax in 1992, and has played a key role in the evolving pay-TV industry and the ongoing development of Conax products in the highly complementary positions of chief developer, software architect, head of security development and VP Product Management – central for all aspects of Conax products and product development. Joining the executive team in April 2015, the EVP Principal Architect is a central function encompassing both a senior advisory role for championing strategic planning and a trigger for executing on strategy with long term global trends in mind and a dynamic roadmap. Tor Helge’s role is central in sparking and driving high-level technology collaborations with other Kudelski Group companies within the value chain.

  • Conax warns operators to ‘look beyond piracy, content protection not enough’

    Conax warns operators to ‘look beyond piracy, content protection not enough’

    CAPE TOWN: Conax, part of the Kudelski Group and a leader in total service protection for digital entertainment services worldwide via broadcast, broadband and connected devices, announced at the TV Connect Africa conference Conax’ EVP Principal Architect and industry expert, Tor Helge Kristiansen, will advise conference participants about the dangers of a new generation of piracy exemplified by the rapid development of the “Internet of Things”. Tapping twenty-five years of conditional access and value chain experience, Kristiansen will share critical insight on pay-TV security during a special conference track dedicated to piracy “Combatting piracy across Africa”, Day 2 at the TV Connect Africa conference.

    “A completely new breed of pirates and variety of attacks – far from content security redistribution, but connected to hybrid set-top-boxes – are a growing threat for pay-TV operations,” says Tor Helge Kristiansen, EVP Principal Architect, Conax. “At the TV Connect Africa conference, I’ll address the newest dangers for operators and the measures operators can take to prevent these new threats.”

    Already securing over 30 DTH and DTT operators across Africa, Conax is both a trusted partner and a leading driver for Africa’s pay-TV expansion. With a strong regional track record in secure digital migration and innovations for robust operator roadmap, Conax is continuing its strong commitment to the African market by providing pay-TV operators with future-ready solutions and the expert guidance to build their business into the future for next generation consumers.

    A pioneer in content security and conditional access technology, Tor Helge Kristiansen joined Conax in 1992, and has played a key role in the evolving pay-TV industry and the ongoing development of Conax products in the highly complementary positions of chief developer, software architect, head of security development and VP Product Management – central for all aspects of Conax products and product development. Joining the executive team in April 2015, the EVP Principal Architect is a central function encompassing both a senior advisory role for championing strategic planning and a trigger for executing on strategy with long term global trends in mind and a dynamic roadmap. Tor Helge’s role is central in sparking and driving high-level technology collaborations with other Kudelski Group companies within the value chain.

  • IDOS 2014: How can the pay TV industry be made better?

    IDOS 2014: How can the pay TV industry be made better?

    GOA: India Digital Operators’ Summit 2014 kicked off at The Leela in Goa on 25 September. Opening the conference, Indiantelevision.com CEO and editor in chief Anil Wanvari and Media Partners Asia (MPA) executive director Vivek Couto gave a brief on the state of the TV nation and transition to the broadband digital economy.

     

    Wanvari highlights how the state of the industry was a few years ago and what it has become now after the advent of conditional access system (CAS) and digital addressable system (DAS). Content makers aka broadcasters have been demanding more revenue from the pay TV industry. While the capex and opex for them has been high, the return continues to be low. The MSOs and DTH operators have been investing to expand their headends and build subscriber base respectively. “While it is a good business now, the real question is if each one of us is willing to make it a great business?” he asks.

     

    In order to strengthen the business, Wanvari recommends a few suggestions that could help grow the industry. The first thing is to look at digitisation and pay TV with a changed mindset that it will be beneficial to all. The government could look at setting up a digitisation transition fund that will help educate, train, seed capital and reward people who follow the rules and ensure strict penalties for those who don’t.

     

    Subscriber management system (SMS) should be set up with correct details and billing of the services provided to customers. The government could also look at laying down minimum standard rules for set top boxes (STBs) to ensure quality control. His final suggestion is to leave pricing to the market rather than initiate 10 to 15 per cent price rise every now and then.

     

    Providing a glimpse into MPA’s study on the pay TV industry in India, Couto says that out of the 262 million households in the country only 162 million houses have a TV. In this, 27 million is taken up by the free to air service providers such as Doordarshan and Freedish while the rest comes under cable and satellite.

     

    Couto highlights that over Rs 32000 crore has been invested in digitisation since 2005 with a bulk of the investment coming from the DTH operators followed by the MSOs and LCOs since 2011. Out of this, over Rs 11000 crore in the last 24 to 30 months has been invested by MSOs and LCOs. “India offers scale but limited monetisation,” he says. What digitisation will do primarily is increase transparency, addressability, tax collection and employment. Over 120 million STBs are needed over 10 years and nearly 47 per cent share of the total market will come through broadband.

     

    The tiff between the three stakeholders continues with the LCOs fighting for revenue share, MSOs facing crash crunch and broadcasters worried about increasing carriage fees which the MPA report stated as having increased by nearly 14 per cent in Q1 FY2015.

     

    In terms of scale, India struggles as the country with the lowest average revenue per user (ARPU) but it has one of the best channel services. Couto says that it is time for the industry to move to retail pricing than stick to wholesale tariff because the competition will keep the prices low. The need of the hour is for MSOs and broadcasters to come together and design packages, incentivise upselling, indentify opportunities for sub segmenting and create new genres. The key to which lies in raising prices to consumers.