It’s that time of year again, when cable operators and Motorola get together to decide the future. You know—The Cable Show. 

This year, the focus is on content discovery, multi-screen, and speed. We want consumers to find what they’re looking for, fast. Even if they have 500 channels, video-on-demand, and more Internet cat videos than you can shake a stick at.

But we also want them to be able to enjoy that content on any device.  That’s why we designed our Medios Multi-Screen Software Suite—a set of tools that help service providers make this vision a reality. You see, good multi-screen experiences are more than just watching video on multiple screens. Just like a mobile app is more than just a miniature version of a Web site. The experience is tailored to the device. And when it comes to content, it’s not just about search; it’s about discovery—like our recommendation engine that learns what you like to watch. All this takes lots of behind-the-scenes magic to make the experience helpful without getting in the way and to look and feel the same on a tablet or smartphone as it does on a TV. 

Enter Medios, whose goal is two-fold: to make TV experiences just as good on other devices as it is on a living room TV. And to make those experiences even better, on all devices.  For providers, this means ensuring that the consumer experience is personalized, consistent and easy to navigate (DreamGallery™). But it also means securing content across different platforms (SecureMedia Encryptonite ONE™ HLS+), keeping track of their proliferating asset library (VideoFlow), and leveraging new opportunities to cross-sell targeted content and other products (Merchandiser).  Come check out Medios for yourself in our living room display at The Cable Show, Booth #733, or visit www.motorola.com/medios.

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Delegates at this year’s VLF heard from, Gerd Leonhard, described by the Wall Street Journal as one of the world’s leading futurists in the world, and author of The Future of Content (2011).

Gerd outlined his vision for the future of our industry over the next three to five years and, like us, he focused on the shift of power from corporation to the consumer and how we need to adapt.

Power has shifted to the consumer

The emergence of social media has given power back to the consumer to share, consume and, most importantly, influence opinion and behaviour. Twitter, for example, is the new CNN and, once Twitter adds video, it will become the main source for breaking news – 2 minutes compared to an average of 50 minutes to broadcast a new story on TV.

Peer-to-peer news will drive the modern paradigm, solely driven by consumers – something that telcos and content providers need to figure out how to capitalise on. We’re in a data-driven, social economy – Facebook accounts for 10 per cent of all web traffic – and companies like Facebook are the new broadcasters.

Gerd described Facebook as the ‘channel’ and us as the ‘programme’ – we are the producers and stars of our own reality TV show. Before long, he says we’ll see OTT content distributed via social networks and, therefore, to a huge proportion of the population.

Are social networks, then, the new telcos and content providers?

Social sharing is the new phone call

By passing the operators to make calls and send texts has become a widespread practice – Skype being the most obvious example – with many social networks providing embedded communications tools such as IM and SMS services.

Gerd proposed that this will only increase as consumers get more familiar with doing everything over IP. In this way, social media is replacing traditional text and phone – which poses a huge problem for telcos. The simple fact is that the operators have been slow to respond whilst social media has evolved to replace some core services.

Content is about access not ownership

Traditional communications companies must become ‘mediacos’ – media owners, content providers and connectivity suppliers (as the enabler) – in this way they must remake  their models to catch up. And Gerd highlighted this with a quote from Gerry O’Sullivan, of Deutsche Telekom: “The failure of telcos to become mediacos comes from the failure to understand content.”

History shows that customers will always ditch a current provider in favour of a good deal – even if it’s only a small reduction in price. And customers are starting to expect their suppliers to provide content as standard as part of their package.

The future for consumers looks free in terms of content. If, as Gerd proposes, content is so freely available on the net (music and movie streaming), why would customers expect to pay? The companies who are offering free access to quality content are proving that this model works and are taking market share from those who don’t.

Return on Involvement not Return on Investment

According to Gerd, successful companies are those who give power to the consumer – those who are prepared to invest in building a really fantastic, compelling and engaging service as part of a reasonable connectivity contract. It’s all about giving access and, as a result, engaging their customers on a much deeper level – shaping and monitoring their involvement and, eventually, turning that into an on-going organic business opportunity.

For those companies, the real value lies in the involvement of the consumer. They become brand advocates; they breed positivity (or negativity) for your brand and bring in new business like no other marketing tool. And if you do it really well, they’ll be loyal for life.

If you can give customers legal and affordable access to the content that they want, they will stay loyal.

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