Faultline

DishTV unlocks TVkey Cloud, hopes to expand beyond Samsung TVs TVkey, the USB dongle co-developed by Samsung Electronics and Nagra for accessing full pay TV services on dumb screens, was a device developed ahead of its time in late 2016. After a debut deployment at German satellite operator HD+, TVkey took on a new lease of life with its release into the cloud at IBC 2018. Yet it is only now, in Q4 2024, that TVkey Cloud has cracked the all-important Indian market. TVkey Cloud is seeing modest success in securing and delivering branded TV UIs for satellite operators on smart TVs, helping to offset declining high-margin cable and satellite TV revenues, and now DishTV is the first DTH operator in India to offer secure content on TVs from Samsung, without need for dedicated satellite-connected set top hardware. #TV #payTV 

In this week's unfiltered floating head news, we unpack some of the juiciest stories in the media and entertainment industry and dig through the dirt so you don't have to 💅 You're welcome #drama Featuring Vodafone, Google Cloud, JWP (JW Player), Connatix, DishTV, NAGRA, TDF, Center for Digital Democracy, Everyone TV, Little Cinema, Agama Technologies, A1 Telekom Austria Group, Meta, Brightcove, Vimeo, Kaltura, TiVo, Xperi Inc., Thierry Fautier, and a whole bunch more.

NEWS: 5G Broadcast comes to life in France during Paris Olympics   I have written in Faultline this week my take on the TDF 5G Broadcast during Paris Olympics after testing myself the service, see pictures with user feedback cloud in bonus….https://bit.ly/4dY1HXX I wrote last week a post on 5G MAG conference at #IBC2024, amongst the different topics presented, TDF presented their 5G Broadcast trial: https://bit.ly/3Y4jk1Y but also presented at the IEEE BTS conference : https://bit.ly/3YhvLJm. Those presentations will give experts a better perspective on the trial. Not to forget other tech partners in the trail: - Rhode & Schwartz on the network equipment side - ATEME on the encoding side - Xaomi on the phone side - Qualcomm on the specific SW to handle 5G broadcast on their Snapdragon processor I was fairy impressed by the service, of course we need to further dig on use case, group targeted, regulation, device support, user feedback, business model, MNO’s engagement, timing, ...  A good case study for MBA student in the coming years. It will take some time; this is why the 2028 target set by TDF is a reasonable one. “Rome was not built in one day”, as we all have learnt by the introduction of disruptive technologies (IPTV, OTT, UHD, XR, …).   I want to thank here: -         Gaëlle Kaminsky, the puppet master or cheer leader (depending how you see life…) at TDF for 5G broadcast, for answering all my (sometimes tough) questions - Ysabelle Cochemé for hosting the demo in the popup store in Paris -         But also the Qualcomm 5G broadcast tag team Thomas Stockhammer and Aytac Biber who have been pushing that initiative for some time -         Jordi Joan Giménez for inviting me to the 5G MAG session -         Dr. Peter Siebert for organizing an all-day session on Mobile Video for IEEE BTS CEDRIC DAVY Jacques Donat-Bouillud Karim El Naggar Vincent Grivet

European TV metadata heavyweight Media Press Group came out punching at #IBC 2024 with a stronger presence at the show compared to previous years. At 37 years old, Media Press is no spring chicken, but the 1,000-person company is using legacy to its advantage to straighten out the messy spaghetti’s junction of fragmented metadata found among studios, broadcasters, pay TV operators, and steamers. A new product called OpenID is hot off the press from Media Press, positioned firmly as an assault on Gracenote. OpenID is a tool designed to extinguish proprietary entertainment metadata IDs by offering a non-proprietary framework – opening up the extensive Media Press database of 1 billion unique proprietary IDs (yes, billion). #openID #broadcasting #payTV #matadata

Watch the Exclusive Interview with Tommy Flanagan from Rethink Technology Research as he interviews Michael McCluskey, and Madhav Malhotra during IBC - International Broadcasting Convention. Gain insights on global media strategies and D2C expansion that can help drive your business forward #IBC2024 #MediaSolutions #OperatorTV #D2C #AI #OTT #Broadcasting Faultline

The inside view of France TV’s UHD Olympics We were fortunate enough to be invited by Yannick Olivier at france.tv studio to visit the broadcaster’s facilities in Paris during the recent Summer #Olympics Games – broadening our understanding of what it takes to broadcast a UHD channel 24/7 for more than two weeks consecutively. First though, some definitions are a necessary housekeeping task. According to the Ultra HD Forum, UHD can be either 1080p HDR, 2160p SDR, or 2160p HDR. Although we have seen events like UEFA Euro 2024 produced in 1080p HDR, OBS (Olympic Broadcasting Services), which produces the Olympics, decided to produce the entire Olympic Games (for the first time, 100%) in 2160p HDR. #UHD #TV #broadcasting 

VR appetite fueled by motion sickness cure VR gaming is a market currently worth more than $7 billion, with projected skyrocketing growth—expected to reach some $60 billion to $70 billion by the end of the decade, according to market forecasts. However, there has been little investment in VR storytelling, which presents a much larger market, argues V-Nova Ltd. CEO Guido Meardi, bringing Faultline up to speed at #IBC this year. #VR #gaming #XR

TVScientific declares war on walled gardens with TV 2.0 ad disruption tvScientific, the four-year-old brainchild of CEO Jason Fairchild, is on a mission to disrupt the TV advertising space—and to take down Google and Meta’s dominance. Fresh off the approval of a new patent, Fairchild tells Faultline that his company’s inventions will liberate millions of advertisers by automating ad measurement and optimization based on clear outcomes. The key innovation, he argues, lies in a system that tracks audience engagement across connected TV (CTV) and OTT services, linking specific ad exposures to purchases and other post-viewing actions. #TV #ads #CTV #OTT

HAND leans into C2PA to halt lawsuit apocalypse from digital replicas New York-based SaaS outfit HAND (Human & Digital) was Faultline’s wildcard at IBC 2024, representing yet another showcase of vendors building real-world products around the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA). Incorporated in 2022 and offering talent IDs only since September 2023, HAND CEO and founder Will Kreth describes the company as Hollywood’s barcode for tracking talent in the age of digital replicas, deep fakes, and generative AI—without the need for government-level identifiers. In a world where managing talent and digital identity is increasingly complicated, with actors actively exploring digital ‘twins’, there is clear demand for clarity in this space – or else future lawsuits could be biblical. #C2PA #SaaS

In-stadium VR brings new meaning to “noisy neighbor” UK soccer club Crystal Palace Football Club has installed a 5G private network with a permanent vision enhancement system for fans with sight loss. The network claims to be the first in the world to use permanent virtual reality headsets, and for Shared Access—the firm that installed the network—this could be the new capability that will drive further adoption of private 5G in UK stadiums #VR #virtualreality #5G