UK provides IPTV model for targeting the elderly

Despite reports putting the US healthcare industry at a $55 billion opportunity for telecom service providers over the next five years, no IPTV provider in the US has taken the plunge with a service like Stream IPTV. Both AT&T and Verizon, along with specialized providers like RealPage, target multidwelling units (MDUs) and provide video-on-demand content but nothing aimed directly at older subscribers. Telecare and telemonitoring services come the closest. Sasktel and Alcatel Lucent recently developed a LifeStat remote monitoring and health management service but have yet to find a service provider to partner with in bringing it to the US. Other initiatives around telepresence have also been marketed for their potential use in at-home virtual medical visits or health monitoring.

Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for IPTV at Infonetics Research, said that this could be due to the fact that hybrid approaches combining digital terrestrial broadcasting with IPTV are not as common here. Or their focus could simply be on other services or industry segments -- generation Y, most likely. Outside of healthcare, he said the service would be used as a targeted way to add interactive services like videoconferencing to homes and elderly consumers who likely don’t have a PC. Having access to movies on-demand also makes sense for the elderly, as many probably don’t own a DVD player, can’t get to a video store and have probably never heard of Netflix, he said.

“I think you’ll probably see some service providers go after that market or at least operators that do have IPTV systems start to roll out services that are targeted at particular niche markets like that,” Heynen said. “That’s the whole story behind IPTV: It’s flexible, it’s modular and you can layer on those services pretty easily.”

If US operators aren’t ready to make the plunge into a full-blown service targeting the elderly, changing their marketing campaigns is a place they should start. The advertisements the cable industry puts forth are clearly directed to the elderly, Heynen said, with older spokespeople and scare tactics aimed at those who have never had a cable box in their lives. These ads indicate that the easiest way to deal with the impending digital transition is to sign up for a cable service, although they don’t mention the increased bill that will follow, he said. This paints an opportunity for telcos to enter with a transparent approach.