Evolving the TV experience – Anytime, anywhere, any device

Ericsson Review, no. 03, 2006

Written by: Torbjörn Cagenius, Andreas Fasbender, Johan Hjelm, Uwe Horn, Ignacio Más Ivars and Niclas Selberg

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Broad deployment of broadband access infrastructure and pressure on telecommunications operators to exploit new business potential are driving up interest in IPTV. However, in order to meet the ambitious expectations, IPTV must quickly evolve into a personalized, interactive application that is well integrated with communication services and has inherent support for portable and mobile devices.

The requirements for personalized, interactive IPTV are best addressed by a solution based on IMS. Because IMS already provides an open, IP-based framework for voice and multimedia communication services across fixed and mobile devices, only minor extensions are necessary for integrating media services.

The authors describe Ericsson’s approach toward a personalized, interactive IPTV solution based on IMS. They also discuss standardization activities and highlight areas where more work is needed.

Personalized, interactive IPTV – meeting future needs

The transition from analog to digital TV standards is in full swing around the world. Efficient video compression and broad deployment of broadband access allow telecommunications operators to complement IP telephony and internet services with IPTV offerings. However, the anticipated consumer, operator, and service-provider demand will require features that go beyond what IPTV is able to deliver today. Consumers, for example, increasingly want personalized media services, anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Operators want to seamlessly combine TV with internet and communication services. And content providers are looking for new revenue opportunities from interactive services. They also want to mine the consumer feedback loop enabled by IP-based content distribution.

Personalization and interactivity

Consumers want greater control over TV services and delivered content. Personalization will enable them to customize TV and video-on-demand (VoD) packages according to individual preferences and to exert greater control over channel content as well as when children, for example, may access it.

Personalized user interfaces will present customized channel selections, much in the same way as bookmarks in a web browser, and pre-scan electronic programming guides (EPG) for content that matches user interests. These capabilities improve usability by reducing the time a user must spend zapping through channel lists.

The increasing popularity of SMS-based voting and chat services in TV programs points to strong business opportunities in the area of interactive services. Enabled by the bidirectional nature of the transport system, interactivity will give content providers simple interfaces that allow users to vote, shop, access background information, and publish content to a program.

Personalization and interactivity will enable TV service providers to increase the appeal of advertisements, and permit users to dynamically select camera angles from a pool of cameras at a sporting event or reality game show.

Clearly, the role of mobile devices will become increasingly more prominent in a world of personalized, interactive IPTV. Numerous cellular network operators have already launched mobile TV services, and the deployment of mobile broadband access  (HSPA) as well as the introduction of mobile broadcast technology (MBMS) will supply the capacity that is required for excellent-quality delivery of mobile TV services over cellular networks.

Apart from consuming TV content, users will be able to use their mobile devices in many different ways, for instance, to control their IPTV services when they are on the move or for sharing personal content in a TV program.

The use of a common control framework for fixed and mobile devices opens the door to many new possibilities, including session portability between fixed and mobile devices. This means that if a user, “Maria”, begins watching a TV program at home but must step out, she can either transfer the TV session to, or reconnect to the service from, a mobile phone once she is, say, seated on a bus (Figure 1).