Television services delivered over the top (OTT) via broadband networks have really started to take off, presenting traditional pay-TV service providers with both a threat from new entrants and an opportunity to launch multiscreen services by embracing OTT themselves and generating customer loyalty and additional revenues.
OTT is certainly gathering momentum as three-quarters of broadband users now watch online video on an ever more diverse range of client devices including their TV sets. Tablet and smartphone owners also make extensive use of their devices while watching television, creating a new media consumption paradigm when accessing second screen OTT services. Market-strategy firm The Diffusion Group (TDG) even goes as far as forecasting that by the end of the decade, consumers will be watching more broadband-delivered OTT television than traditional broadcast television.
Whether things will really evolve that fast is frankly yet to be seen but in any event we believe that established service providers have many factors in their favour to make the most of the OTT opportunity. Solutions like NAGRA MediaLive are available today to make multiscreen a reality for service providers worldwide.
Challenge to service providers The fact that consumers can increasingly use their PCs, smart TVs or games consoles to get films, TV series and sports events from third-party providers poses an evident challenge to the pay-TV business model. Similarly, new second screen applications, supported by the tablet and smartphone living room revolution, are also making TV content accessible from different sources. So where does this leave the traditional pay-TV operator?
The answer is that service providers must embrace OTT themselves and use it as a weapon to increase the value of their services. When they do so, they have a clear advantages over emerging competition. First, they can exploit their existing commercial relationships to sell new OTT services to their subscribers. Second, because they operate their own broadband networks or have secured partnerships with ISPs, they have more control over the user experience across devices and can ensure better video quality while controlling delivery costs. Broadcast service providers have a specific advantage in that a relatively low investment threshold will allow them to significantly enrich their existing DTH or DTT bouquets which are inherently efficient for high viewership channels, with the implied flexibility and multi-device reach of OTT.
Content and pricing are key factors too. Established pay-TV service providers can build on their existing relationships with studios, broadcast channels and other content providers to acquire additional rights for OTT delivery. Broadband operators can also gain an advantage in the marketplace by pricing OTT television services very competitively, even using them primarily to add value to their broadcast service subscription packages, leading to increased customer satisfaction and reduced churn.
The need for robust content protection and a consistent user experience But delivering OTT TV to a broad range of devices set-top boxes, connected TV sets, PCs, tablets, smartphones and games consoles also implies a need for robust content protection and a consistent user experience across all these different devices.
On the security front, set-top boxes, the traditional client devices of pay-TV operators, offer the highest level of content protection for OTT TV delivery. They rely on DRM technology with hardware security built into the chipset. This combination offers the most secure way to deliver television via broadband. However, in today's multi-device world, consumers expect to use their retail market devices to consume pay-TV content. These devices don't yet offer hardware-based security and need to rely on renewable software-based security instead. Connected TVs and Blu-ray disc players have varying degrees of openness and an increasing number of models are able to include some hardware-based security in their chipsets.
To address all of these use cases and deploy OTT services to multiple devices, service providers need a versatile and robust DRM solution. NAGRA MediaAccess PRM (Persistent Rights Management) addresses all of these scenarios by taking advantage of built-in hardware-based security, through the NAGRA On-Chip Security (NOCS) program or by running in a software-only environment. What's more, NAGRA MediaAccess PRM is Hollywood-approved by studios and premium TV channels. As the entertainment industry is raising the bar in terms of content protection, service providers need to make sure upfront that their best content will be accessible by their subscribers across all the supported devices. For devices where MediaAccess PRM is not yet available, the NAGRA MediaLive Service Platform provides multi-DRM capabilities that abstract the complexity of multi-DRM management and extend service reach to any device type.
With new devices and new forms of content delivery such as the second screen experience coming on board, the ability to provide a consistent user experience across all devices is another key differentiator for service providers. To achieve this, the industry has converged on HTML5 and JavaScript a move which facilitates the creation of consistent and seamless cross device user experiences. Services and applications can be more easily ported from one device OS to another, extending device reach without increasing the application development, testing and maintenance costs. NAGRA has adopted these standards in its MediaLive Client Framework, designed for portable application authoring and customization of the user experience. The framework is implemented by NAGRA's newest media convergence platform for set-top boxes, OpenTV 5, as well as by NAGRA Media Player clients on PC
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
When Canada qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026, OneSoccer knew this wasn'...
04/07/2026
Celebrates company's 80th anniversary
Rhodes have recently revealed that they will be producing a limited run of electric pianos in celebration of their...
04/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program
Brie Clayton July 3, 2026
0 Comments
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagi...
04/07/2026
iZotope Joins Boris FX
Boris Yamnitsky July 3, 2026
0 Comments
iZotope, the team behind RX and Ozone, is joining Boris FX. A letter from founder Boris...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
02/07/2026
BLAST, a competitive entertainment company focused on esports, has announced more than $133 million in revenue for 2025, representing more than 40% year-over-ye...
02/07/2026
Riedel Communications has announced official SKAARHOJ panel support for SimplyLive production workflows, enabled through the SimplyLive 2.1 release. The integra...
02/07/2026
The Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic has deployed LiveU video-over-bond...
02/07/2026
Gravity Media USA has announced the appointment of Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development, effective July 1, 2026. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Bosto...
02/07/2026
TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, has announced $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radic...
02/07/2026
The Pro Padel League (PPL) has announced a broadcast partnership with USA Sports that will air five PPL championship matches on CNBC during the 2026 season, the...
02/07/2026
LiveLike, a digital fan engagement platform, has announced eight confirmed FIFA ...
02/07/2026
Cobalt Digital has received Future's Best of Show Award, presented by AV Technology at InfoComm 2026, for its blueCORE family of standalone signal processor...
02/07/2026
Synamedia has announced the appointment of Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transition...
02/07/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Sony Group Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration for the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC), taking place in Paris, Fra...
02/07/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ( Z') has announced exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the Bundesliga in India for five years, beginning with the...
02/07/2026
An effort uniting News, Sports, Local, and Telemundo, the 50+-camera live produc...
02/07/2026
Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Ben Wang appe...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Following the successful launch of its inaugural APAC Mentoring Programme last month, the Rise AV APAC Regional Council will bring the conversation around mento...
02/07/2026
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out
Brie Clayton July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Highly mobile camera supports tense and de...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, medi...
02/07/2026
Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversar...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...
02/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
Television services delivered over the top (OTT) via broadband networks have really started to take off, presenting traditional pay-TV service providers with both a threat from new entrants and an opportunity to launch multiscreen services by embracing OTT themselves and generating customer loyalty and additional revenues.
