PayWizard director: Its complicated to monetize Facebook, Twitter

One of the key questions at the moment is how new technologies, pay TV business models and social media can be monetized effectively.

SNL Kagan caught up with Jamie Mackinlay, the commercial director at PayWizard Plc, a British payment and subscription firm serving broadcasters, pay TV operators and OTT platforms in the U.S., United Kingdom, Western Europe, the Middle East and a range of countries in Africa.

SNL Kagan: How does PayWizard combine payment processing, technology and marketing tools? Jamie Mackinlay: We provide subscriber management and billing for multiscreen media. The system combines subscriber management technology with marketing functionalities, enabling our clients to understand their consumer relationships and thus maximize revenues and profitability. We enable pay TV operators and content owners to manage and integrate consumer information across multiple platforms. By putting contact records at the heart of operations, customers can use this real-time actionable data to drive relationships with consumers.

Some of your customers are OTT platforms. Do you think OTT services should increasingly be personalized? And how do you monetize that? OTT services should definitely be personalized in order to create a compelling consumer experience that the consumer wants and enjoys. As OTT systems are online and Web-based they have trackable leads. This means that they are in the perfect position to turn the data that they have gathered and stored into high-quality actionable data, information that you can really use to enhance the consumer experience. By doing so, OTT services can build a profile of the user and their preferences, allowing them to get their proposition right. When the proposition is right, consumers are more willing to make purchases.

Will the set-top box eventually be abandoned and are we moving more and more toward IP solutions and the cloud? No, the set-top box is not likely to be abandoned as there is still a need for it. It is still playing an important role. The combination of the set-top box with connected devices is strong. Leading broadcasters, for example, show how the set-top box can benefit from its partnership with connected devices. And this will be the eventual reality; devices and set-top boxes will merge to create a winning service.

The problem with IP solutions and the cloud is that premium content owners are not completely satisfied unless these services are proven to be secure. Additionally, few conditional access vendors do not believe that at the moment, there are robust and secure solutions available in the cloud.

Content is increasingly consumed via mobile devices. What is your take on the future of mobile payments? Mobile payments are rapidly evolving and are most definitely here to stay. They are currently playing an important role in todays connected lifestyle, and they will continue to do so as the number of mobile devices continues to grow.

How important is it to guarantee a consistent TV experience? It is imperative to guarantee a consistent TV experience across all devices. Consumers must be able to purchase content or subscribe to the services that they want no matter what device they use or payment option they prefer. Payment must be supported by a specifically designed payment model, such as long-term subscription or micropayments.

Ultimately, a good user experience will be tailored for each of platform or territory, with a simple and easy-to-use interface that enables the consumer to make quick and easy payments, all at the touch of a button.

Social media is increasingly used in TV services. How will the industry monetize the use of Facebook Inc.s and Twitter Inc.s services? It is complicated to monetize social media as there are so many tertiary systems. Typically, Facebook uses Facebook credits to make payments, and what they are currently doing is using an ad-funded model for monetization. For example, they are drawing people in and driving traffic via ads, and this is how they generate their revenue. In order to fully monetize social media, they will need to open up to third-party payment systems and integrate with these.

What challenges does your company face in the years to come? And what are its ambitions? Like everyone else, our challenge is to keep our product development at the forefront of a constantly changing market. This obviously means we not only need to constantly create new services, but also make them available on multiple platforms and devices.

LINK:	http://www.paywizard.com/index.php/business-news/263-paywizard-directo...
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