How Streaming Service Can Grow MSO Business

Analysts and experts say that within the next few years, viewership hours of live and linear streaming OTT streaming content will surpass those of traditional broadcast.

Global OTT content doubled in the past year to 12.6 billion hours, streamed more than 2.4 million devices—mostly from the United States.

For most families, having internet access is like having air, electricity, or water—vital for a higher quality of life and the greater good for both the underdeveloped and developed world. Nonetheless, how will cable MSO service providers keep up with the big change?

What is an MSO business?

A Multiple System Operator (MSO) is a designation often utilized for cable companies that provide services beyond TV broadcast. Most MSOs provide a telephone service and triple play of the internet along with their standard cable TV offerings.

The use of MSO is interchangeable between telecommunication and cable companies. Nonetheless, numerous telecoms have shifted to provide cable or IPTV-based television programming along with DSL copper or fiber-optic connections.

In short, Multiple System Operator service providers are operators of numerous cable television systems. Most of the system operators run cable systems in more than one community, and therefore, many of them are considered multiple system operators.

Cable systems in America serve distinct government entities or single communities, each with their individual franchise agreement with cable corporations. MSOs are companies that obtain multiple CATV systems took under the control of a single corporate entity where distinct CATV systems may or may not be shared to single networks or combined at metropolitan or regional levels.

The importance of being competitive in every industry, and MSO is not an exception

Industry competition involves businesses selling a similar service or product. Thus, if you are starting an online clothing store, your industry is digital retail, and your competitors are other online apparel businesses.

Keep in mind that all businesses have competitors, and an MSO service provider is not an exception to that. The competition in the industry is extremely fierce that other service providers have to fight for the business of potential customers. Other players have a negative vision of competition, but it is the reality of doing business.

In spite of the negative notion of the term competition, the very state of industry competition can have a big impact on MSO’s business strategy. Do not make the mistake of thinking that you do not have any industry competition if your product or service seems unique.

Every single business has competition, and if there is a market for what you are selling, and you’re on the cutting edge of something that has never been done before, you will see your industry progress, and new competitors will appear all the time.

In 2015, global data use was up to 1.0 Zettabytes for the year. That figure increased to 4.3 ZB in 2020 as MSOs are forced to keep up with the data demands caused by technological advancements in both the commercial spaces and consumer services.

Such advancements involve immersive experiences like the Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality, and virtual reality that will continue driving the demand for higher speed access and bandwidth as data usage increases.

Thus, Multiple System Operators will need to rapidly increase their fiber-optic network and innovate the capabilities of their existing HFC network infrastructure to keep up.

Why is the streaming platform a must-have service for MSO?

People’s conception of how they watch television is quickly transforming. In the past years, consumers (particularly younger ones) have been favoring Video on Demand (mostly AVOD or SVOD) content from services such as Netflix on different devices over the standard viewing of live television content.

That’s why Multiple System Operators should change their video offerings as well as delivery capabilities to take advantage of such changes in the market trends. That needs to be ready for new content, new devices and formats, new IP delivery models, and new consumption models at an unpredictable and ever-increasing scale. That’s where streaming enters the picture.

Smart TV offers both reconfigurable software and hardware applications, combining STB, TV, and compute functions. A smart TV should not be confused with IPTV services that are packet protocol enabling OTT. Nonetheless, an increasing number of subscribers are getting OTT using WiFi and internet connections.

OTT depends on a broadband service or internet connection. There are numerous OTT providers, such as YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, content distribution providers, and even most cable operators. Still, OTT has been a thorn in cable’s side, causing a stable flow of lost linear video subscribers.

With that substantial amount of OTT demand, M2M, IoT, and many more new services, it must come as no surprise that Multiple System Operators have been investing in modernizing their cable access network to bring more bandwidth to the edge.

For greenfields, fiber is considered the order of the day. However, for prevailing infrastructure, Fiber Deep will allow Digital Fiber Nodes with DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification to present high-bandwidth to its customers.

All that bandwidth will need modular and compact platforms offering more scalability and bandwidth between headend and hub locations and between DFN and headends or hubs to lessen power and time. Further, more bandwidth is made possible by innovative programmable coherent optics scalable to more than 30 Tbps.

Final thoughts

Even before the increase in demand on home networks from the pandemic, consumers constantly reported numerous concerns with wireless. Research finds that service interruptions rose from nineteen percent in the second quarter of 2019 to twenty-nine percent in the second quarter of 2020. Reports of slow speed raised as well during the same time.

That leads to an increasing number of consumer frustration and interest in support services to enhance overall performance throughout every home. Multiple System Operators could take advantage of such wireless concerns by expanding their support services to help fix such concerns and enhance the user experience of the home network. The net result will be a lot stronger customer retention as well as the validation of the value of the broadband service being subscribed.