TelcoTV Preview: Growing wholesale IPTV market speeds service deployment

“We thought originally the biggest challenge would be on the technology side, but our biggest challenge has been the contracts and affiliation agreements with programmers,” Godfrey said. “Anyone who wants to get in with IPTV has to be very patient to get all the contracts in place. We don’t know why it takes so long, but anyone getting into IPTV needs to know that.”

This is a common misconception for a lot of telcos just entering the TV game, according to Arnason. He The waiting period is just a reality of the market that many don’t anticipate, he said. “Overall, the content acquisition process is one that is misunderstood, and telcos probably aren’t aware of all the nuances associated with it.”

The process becomes especially lengthy considering affiliate agreements secured by the NRTC also have to be in place to get started. Time-wise, it would take a minimum of a year to just get the contracts in place, where a transport aggregator – be it Avail, SES or others – could shorten it to an average of two to three months, Arnason said.

To help expedite the process, Avail customers are increasingly expressing exactly what they want, Romm said. Today this includes HD, a personal video recording service at the set-top level and eventually the network level, if approved. In the near future, it also includes local channels, local advertisements and new revenue streams as telcos move from offering IPTV as a defensive play to an offensive one.

“It is always hard to sell someone a service when their position is defensive,” Romm said. “When you can sell someone something where they see the benefits and the upside, it becomes a little bit of a different sale. It’s more positive in nature. People tend to be more creative and think about how they can enhance their business as a whole.”

Avail Media will be exhibiting next week, Nov. 11 – 13, at the TelcoTV conference in Anaheim, Ca. The company will also host a breakfast to discuss the latest value-added services developments for video service providers.