Will European broadcasters survive the streaming migration?
Will European broadcasters survive the digital migration?
I'll tell you straight away: I'm not certain at all.
I'll explain the reasons for my doubts and also why the MainStreaming project is so important.
First of all, two premises:
- The first is about how American companies face the market and their ultimate goal: monopoly.
This is a well-described mechanism, among others, by Peter Thiel in his book: "Zero to One". The market leader takes it all, and the tech giants do not stop until they achieve their set goal. Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google, to name a few, apply this approach to competition, even in content.
- The second is about European broadcasters.
On contrary, they were born and prospered in a monopoly or oligopoly, to be technically more precise. A highly regulated market with gateways at the entrance made it inaccessible: frequencies, language or simply first mover advantage. Let’s take the case of TVs in Italy: connecting any DTT decoder, RAI1 was the first channel, Rete4 was number 4 on the remote control and so forth.
This situation is destined to mutate drastically. It has partially shifted already, but this transformation will be even more definitive and irreversible in the coming years.
Due to regulation, discussions that started from the Lamy Report led to the Decision of the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union (COM 2021/0 293) related to the goals of the European way for the Digital Decade. The switch-off of most frequencies currently allocated to broadcasters is planned by 2030.
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The spread of broadband has provided enormous opportunities, but has also removed all entrance barriers and allowed technological pervasiveness, as we mentioned earlier.
There often seems to be a misunderstanding from the political side and media companies themselves about what is happening. For instance, I saw a live stream of a Prime Minister’s announcement on Facebook and asked why. I was told: "It's better to communicate on Facebook, that's where the users are." But it would have been normal to share a preview of the player and a link to the live stream on a public service platform, such as RAIPLAY.
Sometimes, it seems like media companies are acting like ostriches, hiding their heads in the sand to avoid the problems. It seems evident, that companies like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video aim to transform national or private broadcasters into mere content producers, with content then distributed to global audiences from their platforms.
The innovation and services they offer are monopolistic in aspiration, and due to their marketing strategies, they have collected millions of customers over the years. However, they are facilitated by those who should be their competitors. For example, some media companies and broadcasters buy services from AWS, convinced that they are the best partners, but in reality, they are only facilitating and financing the monopoly expansion plan.
This is why the MainStreaming project is so important.
MainStreaming aims to offer broadcasters, OTT TVs, ISPs, and Telcos an innovative platform for the distribution of their content, dedicated and specific to managing the distribution of live video and on-demand content in a completely autonomous way, while respecting their brands and identities and without risking dependence on multinationals outside of European borders.
It's not just a defensive move; innovation can be made by thinking about European infrastructure, such as those created in previous decades, and acting strategically. National infrastructure is a valuable asset that must evolve, taking into account technological scenarios, but also preserving the specificity and vitality of communities within the European Community.
Will European broadcasters make it? Will we be able to provide an efficient and effective PSB (Public Service Broadcasting) in the world of EDGE computing?
Will broadcasters overcome the shock of no longer being seen by habit, but rather as a result of their clients/users conscious choice?
The best is yet to come...
Advascale- Co-founder I Airmed - Co-founder
1 年Antonio, well-write! .
Product executive, 4x founder
2 年Thanks Antonio. Here in the US, the traditional gatekeepeer to users was the cable operator. For years, the monopolistic forces drove the market toward Comcast and a few other operators. The rest were small, regional and local players. Enter over-the-top video streaming: the owned, physical network is no longer the moat for TV. 83% of US homes have connected TVs. Netflix, Amazon Prime/FireTV, Google TV, Apple TV, Roku are quickly becoming the gatekeepers. It's another oligopoly. Content providers try with their own apps, but they don't own the front page, the global recommender system, the feed. You can even activate a Paramount+ subscription from within Prime Video: yes, it may be a clever go to market for Paramount, but the user is conveniently staying in the Amazon bullpen, as is usage data... Internet enables these platforms to bring their flexible model outside the US: Netflix is already global, with content, infrastructure, billing and user base. Their model can and will make roots in Europe if European players do not align and create a platform that can leverage the same scale of marketing, infrastructure and user experience. Europe is strong on content, UX design, attention to localities and technology: let's build!
Managing Director
2 年Some broadcasters like BBC, TF1 have understood the migration to an all digital world, but in the same way as big OTT content providers, they need to solve the DTC business and Tech equation. This is why aggregation of diffeeent broadcast services developped in UK, France, Italy, Spain or Germany give some hope. Note with Salto going under in France, this is not a good sign. The jury is for me still out.
CEO I Aviation I Streaming Media I SaaS I B2B I M&A I AI
2 年Good article, Antonio. As I’ve said many times, you can lead them to the water, and even push their heads into it, and mostly they still won’t drink!