Multi-Screen = Mega Opportunity

Next Generation Communications Blog

Multi-Screen = Mega Opportunity

A new trend is sweeping the land.
 
Consumers, once tied to their television screens or computer monitors are now leveraging a wealth of modern devices to stray far from their homes and offices, while consuming an ever greater array of content. It's no longer necessary to rush home to catch the latest episode of a favorite program, or stay late in the office to stay up to speed with an important webcast. Increasingly end users are taking this content "to go."
 
As we touched on in our last blog entry, the opportunity facing service providers and advertisers alike when it comes to enabling -- and serving ads to -- this new nomadic audience, is huge.
 
Today we'll focus a bit more on operators and how they can enable this so-called multi-screen experience.
 
In a recent article in Alcatel-Lucent's Enriching Communications magazine, authors Thomas Fuerst and Richard Fraser of the company's Carrier Business Group discuss how service providers need to begin planning for this increasingly important trend in consumer service consumption.
 
Today's iPod weaned, touch-screen enabled consumer, who has the expectation of broadband everywhere, has come to expect the ability to download applications and watch programming on any device, in any location. And they'll want the ability to reuse that content across multiple screens i.e., multiple devices.
 
Imagine downloading a documentary to watch on your 50-inch plasma set at home. You have to leave for work, but that's ok, the show has been synced with your mobile device, which allows you to watch more of the program on the train as you make your way to the office. During lunch, you catch a few more minutes of this compelling show on your PC, as you log in to your provider's Web site and watch the program online. Finally as you come waltzing through the door at the end of the day, you place your mobile device in its dock, and resume watching the documentary on your big-screen TV.
 
Sounds positively futuristic doesn't it?
 
Well it's possible today, provided the operator takes several things into account, most of which need to take place on the back end.

That is to say, a multi-screen experience necessitates multi-screen delivery.
 
For one, the operator needs to know who the consumer is, whether or not they are authenticated with regard to specific content (did they pay?); They need to be able to manage the content (across multiple platforms); They need to be able to feed relevant advertisements into the content stream (self-explanatory); and they need to know what the end user is capable of doing with the content (what device they are using at the time).
 
To learn more about this exciting opportunity and what it might mean to operators and advertisers, check out the article, Enabling the Multi-screen Experience.


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