December 26, 2007

VIDEO ON DEMAND:
Can't Measure, Can't Manage

By Jenn Rinaldi

New research from SNL Kagan estimates that total VOD, PPV and NVOD revenue generated by U.S. multichannel service providers will top $6 billion within five years. In the study, entitled "Video-On-Demand: A Strategic and Economic Analysis," SNL Kagan says this total includes cable, satellite and telco video offerings, with major contributions coming from the adult and event-specific pay-per-view sectors.

SNL Kagan said it expects on-demand services to evolve from value-added elements designed for increased customer satisfaction to significant revenue generators. On-demand ARPU is expected to top $5 per month in 2010 and $6.56 per month or nearly $79 annually in the 10-year forecast.

How can an operator make the most effective use of available resources to ensure these revenue streams are maximized?

According to Everstream, a Concurrent company, the answer is data collection and analysis. Something Tim Dodge, vice president of sales for Everstream, referred to as the gathering of "actionable information."

"If they can't measure, they can't manage," Dodge said.

Everstream recently announced that Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico, a subsidiary of Liberty Global, has deployed Everstream's Operational Intelligence (Oi) application across its footprint. Everstream said the deployment enables utilization of near real-time data to proactively manage system performance, capacity and usage trends for over 90,000 subscribers through scorecards, reports and dashboard-style views.

Dodge said the Oi application allows operators, such as Liberty, to manage data down to a discrete level, at each different site, and obtain operational data for each location, all in a user-friendly interface.

"Where you have a lot of VOD activity, you will need reporting tools," Dodge said.

Everstream says the Oi tool is designed to provide comprehensive management of key performance indicators including: capacity planning, root cause analysis and correlation, and interactive session quality and growth rates.

“As our subscriber base grows, we must translate incoming service data into easy to manage information in order to effectively monetize present and future digital service offerings” Emerson Sampaio, director of information technology for Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico, said in a statement.

—Jenn Rinaldi