Aug 09

Television: Merely a Source of Entertainment?

By S. Kerstens CEO Mware Solutions | IPTV OTT | No Comments

Television: Merely a Source of Entertainment?

By S. Kerstens CEO Mware Solutions | August 9, 2017| IPTV OTT

With the changes in shapes and sizes of television, from monochrome to color to HD to 4K – television has seen varied changes over the last 3 centuries. However, one thing has not changed – the importance of television in the lives of people. In the days of high-tech smartness – smart phones, tablets and laptops, television has succeeded in maintaining its stand in almost every household.

Widely considered as a source of entertainment, the majority of the population of Europe claimed they are most interested in watching news, movies and documentaries on the television. Apart from these 3 categories of TV programs, there was a marked difference in the preference of viewers based on whether they are working or non-working, with about two thirds of the non-working European women preferring political and business shows, which makes this particular genre the fourth in terms of preference of TV programs. However, working women (about 71%) usually prefer to unwind themselves after work with a good crime thriller. Comedy shows are more popular among the children and the younger generation. 33% and 20% of the working women prefer to watch science fiction and mystery shows respectively. The sports genre shows a striking difference in the figures, with 51 percent of non-working women enjoying sports shows as against 38 percent of working women.

Even though tastes and preferences differ, one thing remains common among the people. Television is something that no household can do without. With the changes in technology and our fast-paced life, people are not longer satisfied with watching pre-determined shows at pre-determined times. This has heralded the advent of IPTV. With IPTV, all you need is a web-enabled device like a smart TV, smart phone, tablet or laptop to watch the shows that you are interested in, at the time you prefer. The video content is available on-demand and you pay for only the content you actually watch. So you can do away with traditional subscriptions with your cable or satellite service provider.

IPTV is slowly gaining significant market in the entertainment industry and this can be said to be the future of the television world. So if you are a cable operator or a satellite service provider, now is the time for you to tie up with IPTV middleware providers so that you can be one of the early ones to capture the market. All you need to do is reach out to MWare Solutions. We will make sure that the rest of the way is a piece of cake for you.

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Jul 24

Difference Between IPTV and OTT

By S. Kerstens CEO Mware Solutions | IPTV OTT | No Comments

Difference Between IPTV and OTT

By S. Kerstens CEO Mware Solutions | July 24, 2017 | IPTV OTT

As the digitization is booming all over the world with more then 3.8 billion people use the internet today, Internet penetration has increased exponentially across the globe towards digital.

Internet has radically changed a lot of things along with the television experience from now obsolete terrestrial television or presently viewed satellite television to OTT (Over the Top Technology) and IPTV (Internet Protocol TV). Gone are the days when there were low signals due to bad weather and you missed your favorite show. These are two growing technology mediums giving us treasure trove of options to view media being telecasted anywhere across the world with just a click away.

OTT

In OTT, the video streaming uses the publicly accessible Internet connection. Thus it can be picked up externally. The content transmission is from a third party sectors like Netflix and YouTube.

Pros

Price: Monthly prices as lows as $5, with much free content on YouTube and Hulu.
Installation: All you need is a laptop or phone. (Having a streaming TV box like the Roku or Apple TV enhances the experience, though.)
Programming: Wide choice of providers, with Netflix and others now offering original programming similar to cable.

Cons

Quality: Subject to Internet speed, with “buffering” and other wait-times common for slow connections and peak-hour viewing.
Programming: While most shows can be found via major streaming services, some are cable-only and they generally don’t reach OTT streaming until the end of the season.
Data caps: Many ISPs now have limits on how much data you can consume, putting a limit on how much you can watch each month, even with unlimited plans

IPTV

IP stands for Internet Protocol, the “language” used to transfer packets of data between computers attached to the Internet network. IPTV is a platform where videos are used as per protocol streaming. This makes it a private managed content delivery network.

Pros

Quality: High-quality video with fewer interruptions than OTT streaming due to privately managed content delivery network.
Programming: View-on-demand and get shows date of release.
Installation: Requires no special installation aside from a set-top box, assuming you already have broadband Internet.

Cons:

Price: Sold as a subscription at comparable rates to cable TV.
Quality: Since it comes over the Internet, it can get slowed down during peak hours.

IPTV services can be classified into three main groups:

Live television: With or without interactivity related to the current TV show.
Time-shifted television: Catch-up TV (replays a TV show that was broadcast hours or days ago), Start-over TV (replays the current TV show from its beginning)
Time-shifted television: Catch-up TV (replays a TV show that was broadcast hours or days ago), Start-over TV (replays the current TV show from its beginning)

Though in both cases, the consumer requests and receives content via Internet Protocol yet OTT and IPTV differ on various prospects like quality of service, content, ownership, cost and business model. Both technologies are good in their own way and efficiently deliver services to the viewers. The primary difference between IPTV and OTT streaming is that OTT streamed content comes over the same open, unmanaged network as your email and web browsing while IPTV uses a private, dedicated network to deliver more consistent service.

We, IPTV Middleware Solutions, provide the viewers with the best television experience. We offer our customers true turnkey end-to-end OTT IPTV Middleware solutions based on a modular design, delivering state of the art solutions that meet their needs as desired. We also offer custom development on all of our solutions. The coordination between the different modules such as Transcoding, Content Delivery, OTT IPTV Middleware and User Interfaces has become so fluent that we feel like one system. This makes us the most stable and perspicuous CloudTV Middleware platform in the world on the endeavor to be the best.

One can choose between IPTV and OTT or subscribe for the combination of both by going through the rudimentary differences given below:

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May 23

OTT IPTV Financial Business Consultancy

By F. Blommestein CFO | IPTV OTT | No Comments

OTT IPTV Financial Business Consultancy

By F. Blommestein CFOSolutions | May 23, 2017 | IPTV OTT

More and more requests by OTT/IPTV operators for Financial Business Consultancy

Mware Solutions is well known for its end-to-end OTT/IPTV solution, starting from transcoding, CDN services, Middleware and Set Top Boxes. The market for OTT/IPTV services is growing rapidly and more new kids on the block enter this exiting market next to the traditional telco’s and cable operators. Some of these operators are looking for additional support and a sparring partner to finalise their business plan. Recently, Mware Solutions started to successfully assist these companies building a financial business case which is used by these operators as a financial guideline for the first years of their OTT/IPTV operation.

In addition, the financial business case can be used to attract additional investors for the OTT/IPTV project of the operator.

Based on the input / assumptions provided by the OTT/IPTV operator, Mware Solutions and the operator cooperate to develop and finalize an achievable and realistic Financial plan.

Financial business case – assumptions (amongst others)

– The content and subscription offer to the subscriber
– Optimize and minimize the Head end and network infrastructure, to save investments
– Projected subscriber growth
– Distribution method (resellers / own shops / e-commerce / retailers)
– Usage of Content Distribution Networks to optimize the quality of the streams
– OTT/IPTV platform requirements and costs

Reporting

– Profit & Loss statements for several years
– Cash flow forecasts

Scenario analyses

– Expected case scenario
– Lower case scenario
– Risks involved

Profitability of the OTT/IPTV project

– When will the project achieve a break even situation
– When will the investment be paid back
– What is the projected return on the investment

We have learned from several cases, the cooperation between the operator and Mware Solutions results in a robust plan that has the best chance to become a success.

Please contact us, if we can assist you in being the next successful OTT/IPTV provider.