There was no better way to kick off the New Year than to take part in the largest event for groundbreaking technologies around the world – CES 2019. Every January industry players descend upon Las Vegas to shake off the holidays and come together to learn about the latest innovations, announcements and initiatives that will set the tone for the industry moving forward. This year’s CES show did just that.
If you were not able to attend this year’s show, here are the top takeaways you need to know:
- Data Analytics for Better Business Decisions
Data analytics is a conversation that is increasing in importance, showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, the topic was discussed in-depth by André Kudelski, Chairman & CEO of the Kudelski Group, at the 2019 Variety Entertainment Summit at CES®2019. As a featured speaker at the event, Mr. Kudelski’s expertise was highlighted by Variety’s New York Digital Editor, Todd Spangler in the article, “10 Takeaways From Variety’s Entertainment Summit at CES 2019.”
“Media companies need real-time data analytics to best monetize audiences,” according to André Kudelski, chairman and CEO of video technology and services provider NAGRA. “You can’t just have a system where you look at audiences and wait a few weeks (for something) to happen,” he said.
CableFax’s Sara Winegarder’s article, “The Data Gold Mine" features additional comments from NAGRA’s senior director, product marketing, Simon Trudelle on the importance of real-time, usable data analytics capabilities.
“We have realized that a lot of the service providers sit on a lot of data,” Trudelle said. “They use traditional tools to analyze that data while their competitors from Amazon to Netflix manage big data in a much more dynamic way.” NAGRA developed a platform for its customers that allows them to take advantage of the same tools that internet players are using every day.
NAGRA Insight is the AI-driven, pay-TV data analytics platform referenced above. It enables service providers to take control of their data to make it real-time and actionable. The result is personalized actions that drive monetization, along with subscriber value, content discovery, quality of experience and targeted advertising – just to name a few.
- Consumer Loyalty and Content Monetization
Michael Depp, Special Projects Editor at TV News Check, asks a very important question in his article, “Brands, Platform Agility Will Buoy TV’s Future.” “How does a TV brand survive and thrive amid the current turbulence of fragmented audiences and proliferating platforms?” Content quality and content discovery play a significant role in addressing this question. Mr. Kudelski highlighted NAGRA’s view by stating:
“Discovering content that keeps the viewer captivated is one of the industry’s most important challenges,” agreed Andre Kudelski, chairman-CEO of NAGRA. He advised broadcasters to “walk in the shoes of the viewer” by using the kind of audience analytics that digital platforms particularly offer them and adjusting programming accordingly.
NAGRA’s OpenTV Suite, for example, allows operators to create an engaging user experience that actively drives consumer loyalty and content monetization. When it comes to delivering an optimal user experience, live events are at the top of the priority list. With scalable low-latency streaming technology, sports leagues and teams can now also deliver an immersive fan experience for sports OTT directly to consumers worldwide, to any device, including Android TV.
- End-to-End Content Protection:
As the go-to experts in the space, NAGRA continued to share its innovations and successes in delivering content value protection from origin to consumption, including:
- NAGRA’s new cloud-based Security Service Platform, cloud.SSP, a true multi-tenant solution that elastically scales and flexibly delivers the latest security technologies “as-a-service” to pay-TV operators.
- NAGRA’s comprehensive approach to Android TV security
- Cloud-based direct-to-TV security with TVkey Cloud, supported by TVkey 2.0
- The latest developments in defeating piracy through active security with anti-piracy services and forensic watermarking
As part of its traction moving into the New Year, NAGRA also shared two announcements at CES.
The first announcement, “Novatek to embrace NAGRA Connect and TVkey Cloud for next generation TV chipsets,” was showcased in outlets including TV News Check. You can read more about the announcement here.
Jointly defined by NAGRA and Samsung, TVkey Cloud leverages the security capabilities of the TVkey-embedded hardware in the TV with sophisticated security management systems in the cloud. TVkey Cloud-enabled Smart TVs let consumers immediately access premium broadcast content on their new smart TVs through a TV app with the ease of access as the established OTT service providers.
NAGRA’s second announcement, “Telefónica deploys NAGRA content protection to secure Movistar IPTV service worldwide.” As stated in Sports Video Group, “Telefónica has deployed the NAGRA Security Services Platform (SSP), managing the NAGRA Connect client to secure its Movistar IPTV service and 4K Ultra HD content in multiple countries with newest STBs. The announcement marks the first deployment of the NAGRA SSP and NAGRA Connect with a telco provider in an IPTV environment.”
And, deepening its security footprint, NAGRA also featured HomeScout. According to The Broadcast Bridge’s article, ‘Nagra Zooms in on Home and IoT Through Cloud at CES 2019,” “For smart home security, NAGRA has HomeScout, a cloud-based service that monitors devices and IP traffic over the home network to ensure ongoing privacy and safety, with smart parental controls. NAGRA claims that by allowing service providers to gain better insight into the home network it can reduce the number of service calls, as well as lowering churn by addressing issues more promptly.”
Now that CES is over, NAGRA is continuing to drive its smartly digital strategies that will enable the pay-TV industry to innovate to remain competitive. We have solidified that we have a superior understanding of the current media landscape and the needs of pay-TV operators, broadcasters and content owners. With this knowledge we are moving into the New Year and continuing to exceed the needs of our customers in addressing the challenges of the ever-changing pay-TV landscape. There are great things on the horizon. 2019 is going to be an exciting year.