Telco 2.0: how to accelerate the implementation of new business models

Summary: Opportunities exist for operators to support third-party businesses in Customer Profiling, Marketing offers, ID & Authentication, Network QoS, and Billing, Payments & Collection. However, our in-depth research among senior execs in ‘upstream’ industries (e.g. retail, media, IT, etc.) and telcos shows that poor communication of the telecoms value proposition and slow implementation by operators is frustrating upstream customers and operators alike. Our new analysis identifies strategic customer segments for telcos building new ‘Telco 2.0’ business models, key obstacles to overcome, six real-world implementation strategy scenarios, and strategic recommendations for telcos. (March 2012, Executive Briefing Service, Transformation Stream.) Google's Advertising Revenues Cascade

 

  • Below is an extract from this 29 page report, kindly commissioned and sponsored by Openet and independently produced by Telco 2.0. Openet developed the initial research concept and scope. The research, analysis and the writing of the report itself was carried out independently by STL Partners.
  • Members of the Telco 2.0 Executive Briefing service can download this report in full in PDF format here.
  • Alternatively, to download this report for free, join our Foundation 2.0 service (details here) by using the promotional code FOUNDATION2 in the box at the bottom of the sign-up page here. Once registered, you will be able to download the report here.
  • We’ll also be discussing our findings at the EMEA Executive Brainstorm in London (12-13 June, 2012).
  • To access reports from the full Telco 2.0 Executive Briefing service, to submit whitepapers for review for inclusion in this service, or to find out more about our services please email contact@telco2.net or call +44 (0) 207 247 5003.

Preface

This research has been designed to explore how valuable new telecoms solutions could be for third-party companies (a key part of Telco 2.0), as well as to evaluate the barriers to effective implementation. Third-parties (upstream customers) and operators were interviewed to explore their thoughts in this key strategic area for the telecommunications industry.

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Executive Summary

Headline Conclusions

  • Opportunities exist for operators to support third-party businesses in Customer Profiling, Marketing offers, ID & Authentication, Network QoS, and Billing, Payments & Collection.
  • Poor communication of the telecoms value proposition and slow implementation by operators is frustrating upstream customers and managers within operators themselves.
  • There are four upstream customer segments. Two of these are particularly important for the operators to address when developing go-to-market approaches:
  • Enthusiasts who need full-service Telco 2.0 solutions now;
  • Non-believers who need to be educated on the value of telecoms enabling services and convinced of operators’ ability to implement.
  • There are few material barriers to developing solutions except operators’ inability to implement effectively:
  • Although lack of cross-operator solutions and regulatory impediments are considered significant in Europe and the US.
  • There are four key reasons for the slow implementation by operators:
  • Reason 1: Insufficient investment by operators in services and service enabler platforms.
  • Reason 2: Financial metrics which do not encourage investment in new business models.
  • Reason 3: Inability to pin down the optimal timing for investment in new business models.
  • Reason 4: A prisoners’ dilemma over whether to collaborate or compete with other operators and with upstream customers when implementing solutions.

For the complete recommendations, detailed conclusions and full analysis, please download the report by following the instructions at the top of this page.

 

Introduction, Objectives and Methodology

The research consisted of interviews with 26 major corporations that use telecoms networks to deliver services to consumers including players from advertising, media, financial services and retail (upstream customers or ‘third-party’ companies). Interviewees where senior managers who were responsible for the provision of services via digital channels and thus were familiar with the challenges and opportunities they faced in this developing market segment. Additionally, STL Partners interviewed senior managers from 16 major mobile and converged communications service providers (see Figure 1 below for more details on participants).

The objectives of the research were to determine:

  • What Telco 2.0 (enabling) services would upstream customers like to see from communications service providers?
  • What are the most common use cases and attractive commercial models for such services?
  • What are the current barriers to realising the Telco 2.0 opportunity and what needs to be done to overcome these barriers?

Figure 1: Interviews conducted with players from telecoms and adjacent industries

Companies interviewed for this report

Source: STL Partners

Interviews were 30-60 minutes in length and largely qualitative in nature. Some quantitative questions were asked so that the relative attractiveness of Telco 2.0 solution areas and the size of implementation barriers could be evaluated. The interviews were also designed to uncover differences in perspective between:

  • Operators and upstream customers;
  • Upstream customers from different industry groups – Advertising, Media, Financial services and IT;
  • Operators from different geographic regions – Europe, North America, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Asia Pacific (APAC).

Interviews were conducted with senior decision-makers and influencers and, to ensure discussions were full and frank, the content of interviews has not been attributed to individual companies.

Report Contents

 
  • Introduction
  • Real potential value in Telco assets but implementation proving difficult
  • Defining the opportunity areas
  • Strong overall alignment across all eight areas between operators and upstream customers
  • Averages hide variations in upstream customer responses
  • Operators consistent about opportunities apart from Identity & Authentication solutions
  • Telco ability to implement is seen by all as the key barrier…
  • …although operators in Europe and US also see lack of cross-operator solutions and regulation as key barriers
  • Four upstream customer segments require different solutions from operators
  • Operator segment mix looks very different to upstream
  • Why are operators finding implementing Telco 2.0 so hard?
  • Reason1: Insufficient investment by operators in services and service enabler platforms
  • Reason 2: Financial metrics which do not encourage investment in new business models
  • Reason 3: Inability to pin down the optimal timing for investment in new business models
  • Reason 4: A prisoners’ dilemma over whether to collaborate or compete with other operators and with upstream customers when implementing solutions
  • Conclusions and recommendations

Report Figures

 
  • Figure 1: Interviews conducted with players from telecoms and adjacent industries
  • Figure 2: Broad alignment on opportunity areas from operators & upstream customers
  • Figure 3: Upstream customers – variation even within industry sectors for specific Telco 2.0 solution areas
  • Figure 4: Perceived lack of telco interest in developing new solutions for upstream customers
  • Figure 5: Regional differences in operator opportunity sizing for Identity & Authentication solutions
  • Figure 6: Telco operational and organisation limitations seen as the biggest barrier to success
  • Figure 7: Regional differences in perception of key barriers to Telco 2.0 implementation
  • Figure 8: Upstream customer segments
  • Figure 9: Telco go-to-market approaches for upstream customer segments
  • Figure 10: Telco segments – Telco 2.0 could be valuable but can it be realised?
  • Figure 11: An historical lack of investment in services by operators threatens voice, messaging and newer Telco 2.0 solutions
  • Figure 12: Current operator metrics discourage investment in new business models
  • Figure 13: New business model investment timing dilemma
  • Figure 14: The prisoners’ dilemma
  • Figure 15: Six Telco 2.0 implementation strategies
  • Figure 16: Value-creating and value-destroying approaches
  • Figure 17: Geography determines the most important Telco 2.0 implementation strategies

To access this report:

  • The 29 page Telco 2.0 Report can be downloaded in full in PDF format by members of the Telco 2.0 Executive Briefing service here.
  • Additionally, to give an introduction to the principles of Telco 2.0 and digital business model innovation, we now offer for download a small selection of free Telco 2.0 Briefing reports (including this one) and a growing collection of what we think are the best 3rd party ‘white papers’. To access these reports you will need to become a Foundation 2.0 member. To do this, use the promotional code FOUNDATION2 in the box provided on the sign-up page here. Your Foundation 2.0 member details will allow you to access the reports shown here only, and once registered, you will be able to download the report here.
  • We’ll also be discussing our findings at the EMEA Executive Brainstorm in London (12-13 June, 2012).
  • To access reports from the full Telco 2.0 Executive Briefing service, or to submit whitepapers for review for inclusion in this service, please email contact@telco2.net or call +44 (0) 207 247 5003.

About Openet

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Openet is a leading provider of Service Optimization Software (SOS) tailored to meet the evolving needs of communications service providers, or CSPs, including wireless, wireline and cable network operators. Openet’s integrated, high-performance software solutions provide real-time policy management, rating, charging and subscriber data management solutions to enable real-time, contextual network resource allocation and monetization decisions based on information about the end user and the service being used. CSPs use Openet’s SOS solutions to enhance quality of service, create a more personalized end user experience, develop new business models and dynamically control network resources. Openet’s SOS solutions are used by more than 80 customers in 28 countries. For more information, please visit www.openet.com.

Organisations interviewed for the report: Televisa, BBC, Intuit, Google, Tesco, MTV, Intel, TiVo, Sling, Ogilvy, Fox, Omnicom, Microsoft, Visa, Barclaycard, Ultraviolet,  PRS, American Express, MasterCard, CitiGroup, On Live, Warner Bros, MEF, Gap, Salesforce, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint,  Deutsche Telekom, Du, Teliasonera, Orange, Everything Everywhere, Turkcell, Qtel, Etisalat, Singtel, Axiata, Telekom Indonesia, TIM, Tele2.

Connected TV: Forecasts and Winners/Losers (UK Case Study)

Summary: our in-depth look at the UK’s highly competitive digital TV market which reflects many global trends, such as competition between different types of content distributor (LoveFilm, YouTube, Virgin Media, BBC, BSkyB, BT, etc.), channel proliferation, new devices used for viewing,  and the increasing prevalence of connected TVs. What are the key trends and who will be the winners and losers? (August 2011, Executive Briefing Service) Chart from Connected TV Figure 2 telco 2.0

 

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Below is an extract from this 23 page Telco 2.0 Report that can be downloaded in full in PDF format by members of the Telco 2.0 Executive Briefing service here. Non-members can buy a Single User license for this report online here for £595 (+VAT) or subscribe here. For multiple user licenses, or to book a place at our Digital Entertainment 2.0 workshop on New Business Models for the Home Video Entertainment market in Europe – Lessons from America at our London Executive Brainstorm on 8th November, please email contact@telco2.net or call +44 (0) 207 247 5003.

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Introduction and Background

With every wave of innovation, there are always winners and losers. In this note we examine who are likely to be the winners and losers in the UK as increasingly, TVs become connected to the internet.

While it is difficult to generalise with TV markets across the globe as the markets are fundamentally different in structure, especially with key variables such as PayTV penetration, state broadcaster involvement and fast broadband penetration varying widely, the comprehensive range of players and highly competitive nature of the UK market makes it a useful benchmark for many key global trends.

The UK TV Market

According to OFCOM’s latest research, there are 26.6m TV households in the UK with 60m TV sets or an average of 2.25 TV sets per household.

TV Viewing

Figure 1 – Average UK TV Viewing Per Day

Chart of average UK TV viewing to 2010 Fig 1 Connected TV Article Telco 2.0

Source: BARB.

TV viewing over the last few years has been remarkably resilient despite the internet and other platforms competing hard for attention. Where the TV market differs is that average consumption is very strongly proportional to age. In typical technology adoption cycles, adoption is indirectly proportional to age. This presents a real challenge to the connected TV market: the main TV consumers are more than likely to be adverse to technological change.

TV Device Manufacturers

Figure 2 – Annual UK TV Set Sales by Type 2002-2010

Chart of annual UK TV Set Sales to 2010 Fig 2 Connected TV Telco 2.0

The long term volume trend for TV manufacturers has been healthy. This has mainly been due to the innovation in device form and screen quality, with flat screen and HD features becoming the norm. TV manufacturers are now hoping that internet connected TV’s will generate another spurt in growth. Samsung and Sony are the UK market leaders.

But the challenge is the replacement cycles. With a 60m installed base of TV’s in the UK, and assuming that all the 9.5m TV’s sold in 2010 are replacements and not simply increasing the number of sets per household, the implication is that the replacement cycle is currently roughly every six years at a minimum. This is relatively slow when compared to two years for mobile phones and three years for laptops, and this in turn suggests that the adoption rate for standalone connected TVs will be much slower than the technology cycles for these devices.

While we expect internet connectivity to become a pretty standard feature with TV over the next couple of years we are sceptical about their active use for viewing video. The content offering is currently too limited. We would be surprised if within a couple of years, there are more than 1m homes regularly using TVs to watch video over the internet.

Set Top Boxes

The Set Top Box market in the UK falls into two categories: a subsidised segment which the consumer generally gets either for free or heavily discounted by their PayTV provider; and a retail segment where the consumer generally pays a full price and gives the consumer access to a limited set of free to air (FTA) channels and quite often DVR features.

In the subsidised segment, the market leader is Sky which currently manufacturers its own boxes. All the current models contain internet connectivity but require a subscription to Sky Broadband service to access Sky’s closed pull VOD service, Sky Anytime+. Sky has seeded the market for quite a few years with its Sky+ HD boxes which are currently in a minimum of 3,822k UK homes. We say a minimum because the figure is for homes with a HD subscription and Sky also installs a HD box for homes who do not subscribe to HD. This market seeding strategy accounts for the high initial take-up of the Sky Anytime+ service of 800k in the first quarter of launch. Since the service is effectively free, or rather bundled into the Sky TV and Broadband prices, we expect a rapid take up and within a couple of years Sky will have over 4m homes with their main TV connected to the internet.

Virgin Media has chosen TiVo as its exclusive connected set top box provider. The TiVo box is more open than the Sky box with the future promise of allowing independent Flash developers to deploy applications. TiVo is off to a steady start with around 50k homes in the first quarter of 2011. We expect TiVo adoption to be slower than Sky because the need for a new box which is priced at £50 with an ongoing service fee of £3/month. We expect these prices to reduce over time, but still can envisage an uptake of over 2m homes within two to three years assuming effective promotion by Virgin Media.

Another interesting opportunity is the launch of YouView. YouView is expected to come in two flavours, subsidised by CSPs and retail. BT and TalkTalk are shareholders, and are committed to launching YouView boxes by Pace and Huawei respectively in time for the London Olympics in 2012. Humax is committed to launching retail boxes. It is too early to properly forecast demand for YouView as neither the pricing or applications have yet been revealed. However, we struggle to see an installed base of over 1m homes even with the large base of broadband connections that BT and TalkTalk can market the product to.
All the original BT Vision set top boxes were manufactured by Pace (through their purchase of Philips) and need to be connected to BT broadband and therefore the whole of 575k subscribers count as connected TVs. We expect over time for BT to replace these BT Vision boxes with YouView boxes.

The major problem for YouView is that it is a proprietary UK standard whereas other European countries are committing to the hbbTV standard. This places other set top box makers in something of a quandary – will the UK market be large enough to support product development costs? Sony, Technicolour and Cisco have already publically stated that they have no current plans to develop a YouView box.

Other commentators express confidence in the Bluray players to provide the TV connectivity. We are bears of Bluray players and think the market will be niche at best.

Games Consoles

Figure 3 – Gaming Console Household Penetration

Chart of Gaming Consoles per UK Household Fig 3 Telco 2.0

Source: Ofcom residential tracker, w1 2011. Base: All adults 16+ (3,474)

Around half of UK homes contain a games console. The market is dominated by Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo and a growing number of consoles are connected to the internet. Primarily, for online gaming, but also for watching video content either via the internet or through playback of physical media such as DVD or Bluray.

Figure 4 – What UK Consumers use games consoles for

Chart of uses of gaming consoles 2010 Fig 4 Telco 2.0

Source: Ofcom residential tracker, w1 2011. Base: all adults 16+ with access to a games console at home (1,793).

We expect Gaming Consoles to become the most important method for secondary TV sets to connect to the internet, especially in children’s bedrooms. As more and more gaming moves online, we can easily see 75% of gaming consoles regularly connecting to the internet (c. 10m). However, the proportion using the console for regularly viewing video will remain small, perhaps as low as 20%. This will mean that although important Gaming Consoles will be secondary to STB’s for watching video over the internet.

To read the note in full, including additional analysis on…

  • Communications Service Providers (CSPs)
  • BT
  • Sky
  • Virgin Media
  • TalkTalk
  • Others
  • ‘Mainstream’ TV Channels
  • The BBC
  • New Entrants and Online Players
  • LoveFilm
  • Google – YouTube
  • Apple
  • Conclusions

…and the following charts…

  • Figure 1 – Average UK TV Viewing Per Day
  • Figure 2 – Annual UK TV Set Sales by Type 2002-2010
  • Figure 3 – Gaming Console Household Penetration
  • Figure 4 – What UK Consumers use games consoles for
  • Figure 5 – Main UK CSPs – Broadband and TV reach
  • Figure 6 – Take-up of multichannel TV on main sets
  • Figure 7 – Video on demand use in Virgin Media Homes
  • Figure 8 – Total UK TV Revenue by Sector
  • Figure 9 – UK TV Channel shares in all homes 1983-2010
  • Figure 10 – UK Online TV revenues by type of service
  • Figure 11 – Unique audiences to selected online film and TV sites
  • Figure 12 – Unique audiences to selected video-sharing sites
  • Figure 13 – Forecast of Connected TV market by device in 2013
  • Figure 14 – Table summarising strategy and winners/losers by type 19

Members of the Telco 2.0 Executive Briefing Subscription Service can download the full 23 page report in PDF format here. Non-Members, please see here for how to subscribe, here to buy a single user license for £595 (+VAT), or for multi-user licenses and any other enquiries please email contact@telco2.net or call +44 (0) 207 247 5003.

Organisations and products referenced: Amazon, Apple, AppleTV, BBC, BSkyB, BT, BT Vision, Cisco, Flash, Google, Huawei, Humax, ITV, LoveFilm, Microsoft, Motorola, Nintendo, O2, OFCOM, Orange, Pace, Philips, Samsung, Sky, Sky Anytime+, Sky Go, Sony, TalkTalk, Technicolour, TiVo, TV manufacturers, Virgin Media, YouTube, YouView .

Technologies and industry terms referenced: Bluray, catch-up TV, Connected TV, Digital Terrestrial, DVD, DVR, flat screen, free to air, Games Consoles, hbbTV, HD, IPTV, online, PayTV, regulatory relief, replacement cycles, Set Top Box, Tablets, Video, Video on demand (VOD).