NXTcomm: Playing by new rules

What lies beyond current triple-play and quad-play bundles still marketed primarily around price? Panelists in this week’s Digital Hollywood session on marketing bundles had some ideas that, believe it or not, didn’t have much at all to do with entertainment applications—and also might spell an end to the industry’s obsession with counting its plays.

“Marketing the Triple or Quad Play: Adding Value and Service to the Customer Relationship - Bundling that Works!,” was moderated by Meredith Flynn-Ripley, CEO of Integra5, and featured Vince Vittore, senior analyst for the Yankee Group; Fred DiBlasio, vice president of content for Canadian carrier Telus; Ray Sokola, chief technology officer for Motorola Connected Home; Matt Cuson, vice president of marketing for Minerva Networks; and Stuart Taylor, senior director of Internet business solutions in the service provider consulting group for Cisco Systems.

Vittore suggested, and some other panelists agreed, that under-exploited areas for multi-play bundle evolution include home security applications and remote medical monitoring—solutions that don’t currently fit into triple-play and quad-play plans. “Bundling will become technology agnostic in the future and will be just about new applications,” he said. Cisco’s Taylor said those applications fit into a vision for building multi-play packages around the requirements of a “connected life” and experience, rather than discount pricing.

Minerva’s Cuson added in one of the session’s many spins on next-generation descriptors for multi-plays that “N-plays” will add personalization to the current bundle mix, and that carriers could provide customers with personalized skins for their service bundles. “A bundle today is really a billing bundle, and the only reason we talk about triple plays or quad plays is because that’s as many as we can think of right now,” Cuson said.

Sokola’s new name for next-generation bundles has a lot to do with timing. NXT-Plays, he noted during this session co-located at NXTcomm, involve “integrating wireless to make as many plays as you want. I don’t believe in quad plays.”

DiBlasio, too, sought to deconstruct the multi-play by suggesting that Telus focuses on customized applications that are drawn from a “quintiple play of technology possibilities” that includes voice, data, video, IP services and content. “If you change the definition of bundling from a discount to something that has added value, that you can start to charge more for new services,” he said.