IPTV must provide quality of experience as well as value for money, says Ovum

October 15, 2008 - IPTV operators must offer a preferable alternative to existing TV and video offerings, rather than a best-effort substitute, and differentiate on quality of experience (QoS) as well as pricing and packaging, says UK research firm Ovum.

Testing BT Vision's recently expanded video on demand service, which now has a selection of high-definition movies - albeit a rather limited selection - analysts Jonathon Doran and Michael Philpott report in Ovum's daily 'Straight Talk' email bulletin that while the picture quality of the new HD titles is "far superior" to the telco's regular VoD titles, movies take at least five hours to download and the current HD range comprises just seven titles, of which only two are recent releases.

The analysts go on to say that as such, this doesn't represent a preferable alternative to either online DVD rental stores or the growing number of device-based VoD services which bypass network operators and take the content directly from the open Internet to the TV set-top box.

Mssrs. Doran and Philpott acknowledge that BT clearly recognises the growing importance of HD and is "doing its best to accommodate this", but go on to ask where the value is in its new proposition, adding that no IPTV operator can expect consumers to settle for such a limited service, given the growing choice of alternatives, ranging from tried-and-tested DVD rental services like Lovefilm to emerging OTT brands such as Apple TV, "simply because they offer more choice".

The analysts state that IPTV operators need to focus their efforts on quality of experience, not just price and service flexibility: an approach that will be especially important in markets with a good-quality, free-to-air DTT offering which consumers can supplement with some type of interactive video service. Without clear differentiation around instant streaming, Mssrs. Doran and Philpott predict that even consumers willing to try out 'download to own' services may find themselves "harking back to the good old DVD".