TV Everywhere Getting Closer to Reality, Thanks to thePlatform
Comcast-owned ThePlatform is arguably the top Online Video Platform (OVP) provider, and almost certainly is within the TV industry. They unseated encumbent Brightcove over the last year by launching Hulu.com, CBS.com, TV.com, and a slew of other broadcast and cable TV networks. They announced even more TV programmer customers today (most of whom are owned by Comcast) as well as Rogers, Canada's largest cable operator. ThePlatform also powers online video for Comcast's largest competitors: Time Warner Cable, Cox, and CableVision.
Today, thePlatform made a major announcement that brings TV Everywhere a HUGE step closer to reality.
ThePlatform is launching a cable Authentication & Authorization component to its white-label video publishing product that will enable programmer web sites (HBO.com, Showtime.com, NBC.com, etc) to publish their premium TV shows on their sites, requiring the user to authenticate himself as a cable subscriber with access to that channel (ie, you can only watch HBO shows online if you pay for HBO through your cable provider). Enforcing this authentication ensures everyone in the media supply chain gets credit for that view, and money is transferred accordingly. To that end: an integration with Nielsen to directly track views would be a killer strategic move by thePlatform!
This solution also has the following compelling side benefits for the MSO's and TV Programmers:
- Keeping cable subscribers happy and hooked (cable companies fear that free online TV services like Hulu may result in cable subscribers canceling their pay TV services).
- Upselling subscriptions: if I'm a Comcast subscriber but don't pay for the HBO cable package, I may be compelled to sign up now if it means I can watch all HBO shows whenever I want, online (or on my HD TV via Boxee or the like).
- Upselling content: if I am not an HBO subscriber but want to watch just a single HBO show, now there is a mechanism to buy shows a la cart. This is the model that Disney currently loves.
Here's a nice diagram of how this new component works:
ThePlatform is initially providing this technology only to TV Programmers for their sites (broadcast networks and cable channels). That's a great first step, though I believe the killer app will be making this capability available to any web site, not just NBC.com or HBO.com, etc. I wrote about this just yesterday.
Regarding the rest of thePlatform's competition in the OVP space... DigitalSmiths, despite its strong TV Everywhere positioning campaign last month, hasn't released any technology yet that addresses the initiative's largest challenges: authentication and authoriziation. Meanwhile, Ooyala and Brightcove appear to be sitting on the TV Everywhere sidelines.
