Accedo: Building a video business white paper

White paper

BUILDING A VIDEO BUSINESS, NOT JUST AN APP

www.accedo.tv

CONTENTS

1.

2.

3.

4.

INTRODUCTION & EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2

VIDEO MARKET SITUATION AND TRENDS

3

Changing industry dynamics Consumer preferences Technological change

3 3 3

SOLUTION REQUIREMENTS FOR SUCCESS

4

Creating and supporting numerous applications while ensuring one brand experience Ongoing change means big challenges for app developers Success factors

4 4 4

VIDEO EXPERIENCE SUCCESS STORIES

5

Hayu from NBC Universal Telstra TV and the value of OTT aggregation NRTC’s ViewLocal: Making IP Video Cost Effective for US Rural Telcos

5 6 7

5.

RESULTS AND LESSONS LEARNED

9

6. SUMMARY

10

7.

CONSIDERATIONS WHEN CREATING A VIDEO EXPERIENCE

12

8.

ACCEDO: FOR ALL VIDEO SERVICE PROVIDERS EMBRACING CHANGE

14

1

1. INTRODUCTION & EXECUTIVE SUMMARY For a video service to be successful today, stability, rapid results and continuing improvement to the overall experience are critical. While it’s tempting to think of app development as the biggest factor for success, software is really just a component of a much larger effort. Successful apps are video businesses, developed on a basis of clear goals and objectives, defined up front with all the success factors in mind, and are clearly defined before development even begins.

Recognizing that consumer interests constantly change, new opportunities and competitors will disrupt and that costs must be contained, an iterative process is the only way video providers are able to constantly refine and expand their service offerings for business success. While software, visual design trends, and changes in the service-enabling technologies are certainly important, refinements must also reflect the ever-changing nature of the business.

This paper presents the business cases of three very different entertainment services providers, from around the world: US broadcaster, NBC Universal, which is delivering content to the UK, Ireland, and Australia; Telstra in Australia; and the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) in the US. The success stories of their cutting-edge video services illustrate some of the best-practice strategies toward developing competitive video services and experiences.

2

2. VIDEO MARKET SITUATION AND TRENDS Let’s step back for a moment to see just how complex the market landscape has become for video providers, with greater competition, more ways for consumers to watch, and ongoing technological change.

CHANGING INDUSTRY DYNAMICS Pay TV operators and content owners today struggle to remain relevant as a higher percentage of younger consumers opt for video streamed online. Their traditional content suppliers are now their competitors. TV networks, broadcasters and movie studios are increasingly bypassing pay TV distribution and going direct-to-consumer, Over the Top. Retailers like Amazon are producing original programming, and winning awards for it. In recognition, pay TV providers are adding online video to their traditional set-top box user experience; in an effort to attract the millennial demographic. There is also an increasing trend for skinny bundles, whereby multiple SVOD services are being bundled based on target groups. They generally offer big discounts compared to selecting the services individually.

This also reflects the fact that pay TV providers are no longer an oligopoly of a few powerful players, but instead, must constantly re-invent themselves to quickly respond to the changing dynamics of their content suppliers, their industry and to changing consumer preferences.

CONSUMER PREFERENCES The mix of consumption by age groups and other comparative metrics provide important guidance to video providers that are aiming their services and apps at specific groups. According to Nielsen, 45% of the video content watched by adults in the United States overall was on TV sets by mid-2016. But Millennials watched only 31% on TVs. 11% of the TV content watched by Millennials was over streaming video devices, while adults over 50 years of age watched only 3% that way. Nearly a quarter of video consumption by Millennials was via mobile smartphones.

TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE Just as services and audiences are evolving, the technologies associated with video delivery and consumption continue to proliferate, and change is the only constant. Device and OS providers like Apple, Google, Roku, Amazon, Sony and Microsoft each offer video content through vertically integrated ecosystems in an attempt to create differentiation and exclusivity.

LINEAR AND DIGITAL PLATFORM USAGE DIFFERS

BY AGE Q2 2016 AVERAGE AUDIENCE COMPOSITION BY PLATFORM 5%

6%

7%

24%

20%

17%

TV

11%

Radio

8% 3%

9% 6%

4%

10%

11% 18% 6%

18%

11%

TV Connected Devices (DVD/Blu-ray, games console, multimedia device, VCR) PC

18%

Smartphone

18%

Tablet 56%

45% 31%

Adults

P18-34

38%

P35-49

P50+

Source: Nielsen 1, 2

As a result, each environment is different from the rest.

There are few common denominators.

Browsers are even more complicated, even though HTML5 has been touted as a common framework that accommodates content, feature enhancements, and security in a standard way, no single set of components works across all browsers.

All of this may sound somewhat abstract until your end users start complaining that a service that they are paying good money for has suddenly broken. Most of them have no idea that the app stopped working because the latest release of the app no longer supported a legacy device, or that their Web browser was set to auto-install an update that rendered the Web version of the video provider’s app incompatible with the browser.

Meanwhile, the video provider may have lost the ability to serve entire classes of devices overnight and not even know it.

1. Nielsen Total Audience Report – Q2 2016. Market research report.

Published Sept 26, 2016.

See: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2016/the-nielsen-totalaudience-report-q2-2016.html 2. Nielsen Comparable Metrics Report – Q2 2016. Market research report.

Published Oct. 10, 2016.

See: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2016/the-comparablemetrics-report-q2-2016.html

3

3. SOLUTION REQUIREMENTS FOR SUCCESS The greatest challenge facing video providers is to establish and maintain engagement with the end consumer.

Yet, engagement cannot be fully gauged until the product is launched and consumer behaviour data is available for analysis.

SUCCESS FACTORS

Ideally, video providers must then be able to adapt quickly if they are to maintain a differentiated position for their video brands, take advantage of evolving user needs and market trends, grow their subscriber bases, and minimize churn.

All this, while at the same time, enforcing a methodology that keeps the overall goals in view.

These include:

CREATING AND SUPPORTING NUMEROUS APPLICATIONS WHILE ENSURING ONE BRAND EXPERIENCE

DE-COUPLING THE USER EXPERIENCE FROM THE MECHANICS OF THE APP ITSELF

Set against this need for continual improvement, the process of creating and supporting a suite of video applications that remains consistent across multiple end user environments can become very expensive. Furthermore, every service provider wants to reach as many people as possible and a decision not to support any individual device in an effort to save money may also be a decision – intentional or not – of whether or not to serve an entire audience segment.

ONGOING CHANGE MEANS BIG CHALLENGES FOR APP DEVELOPERS Continuing maintenance is familiar to Web developers that use WordPress or Drupal for Web sites. However, it is elusive for video apps, where changes typically require new coding, resubmission to the device manufacturer for certification, and a pushed update to the consumer.

In addition, product life cycles of consumer video devices are short. Operating systems evolve and sometimes gain important new features that consumers might expect to be reflected in their apps, such as screen casting and social sharing.

In the traditional development process, app developers regularly revisit the structure and makeup of the offering, iterate their changes, recompile, resubmit the completed apps to the device and OS providers for certification, and then push updates to subscribers through the online app stores. Smaller video providers with limited resources have a hard time keeping up.

To meet these many challenges, video experience providers are wise to adhere to some basic best practices.

BEING PLATFORM AGNOSTIC So that the resulting apps work on any device, and new devices can be added easily; even if the individual apps are developed by different software houses.

This enables the provider to make real-time, dynamic modifications to the service experience, while minimizing the need to re-submit the updated apps for approval each time.

A MULTISCREEN DESIGN PHILOSOPHY HELPS REDUCE COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH CHANGE By establishing a core design that extends across all devices, video providers can concentrate on changing just the data and content that populate the design, and enforce the design across all devices; rather than having to change each app individually.

DATA DRIVEN DESIGN USING A/B TESTING To immediately see and test the results of any changes before deploying the change and learning of problems the hard way.

HAVING A CLOUD-BASED DASHBOARD GIVING EASY OVERVIEW OF ALL END USER PLATFORMS If the video provider wants to direct the app to different content for a special promotion, or change a layout or a colour scheme, a single view helps video providers avoid surprises resulting from unintentionally missing the mark for a given platform.

HOST THE APP DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCE IN THE CLOUD This enables the video provider to assign development resources to a project that may reside in different locations or work for different development companies.

4

4. VIDEO EXPERIENCE SUCCESS STORIES The case studies in the following section describe the challenges, and illustrate the sophistication and complexity of their video experiences.

It’s one thing to talk about market dynamics and changing technologies, but in the end, apps are the store fronts of video experience businesses. Here are the stories of three video service providers that have created successful new business from video services that are delivered via applications across various devices: The first is an OTT content provider NBC Universal, the second is a national service provider in Australia, Telstra, and the third runs a multi-tenant service in the US; NRTC’s ViewLocal, in which each tenant must present a unique experience to its subscribers.

HAYU BUSINESS MODEL The service costs £3.99 in the UK, £4.99 in Ireland, and AU$5.99 in Australia, making it affordable as an additional OTT service. No contract is required, making Hayu an easy, low-risk decision for consumers, which also means that subscribers can come and go at will.

In addition to this direct-to-consumer model, NBC Universal also offers Hayu through partnerships with pay TV operators and device providers, including Virgin Media and TiVo in the UK, and via Foxtel in Australia.

HAYU CHALLENGES NBC Universal has made Hayu available on a wide variety of connected video devices, including tablets, smartphones, laptops, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV. The service also features a download function, meaning subscribers can download their favourite programs to watch offline, such as on the train.

Hayu’s content is curated by a small team of people that add or rotate recommendations of what to watch within the service. The team is committed to making content available as quickly as possible after the initial broadcast, and because Hayu’s consumers are many time zones ahead of the US, the team must work quickly to offer fresh content on a daily basis.

HAYU SUCCESSES: BEATING THE CLOCK While Hayu is backed by a large company, the service is produced by a small team split between London and Los Angeles. Because of the time difference, Hayu can place an evening’s programs into the service after the programmes run in the US, but have just a few hours’ window to do so before people start their days in London.

Small teams are not always given a wealth of resources to work with, yet Hayu’s staff manages to work quickly and efficiently, to place a fairly large amount of new content into the service.

HAYU FROM NBC UNIVERSAL NBC Universal had its origins as one of the original TV broadcasters in the United States. In the effort to reinvent itself to capture Millennial audiences both within the US and internationally, NBCU turned to online distribution. Hayu is an NBC Universal online direct-to-consumer video service that launched in March 2016 in the UK, Ireland and Australia.

Hayu is the first all-reality Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) service, focusing solely on reality TV programming, and is aimed mainly at women between the ages of 18 and 39, which are generally the biggest consumers of reality TV content. It launched with more than 3,000 available episodes and NBCU plans to add 500 more titles each year.

The service is integrated with popular social media platforms, making it easy for users to share clips from within the service, and even includes the Twitter and Instagram accounts of some of the stars of reality TV. Users can search for specific pieces of content by seeing what’s trending, as well as by word search.

5

“Why did we get into this space?

We could see a clear growth in SVOD services worldwide and we also saw a very clear niche, because there is no other SVOD player in the market focused on unscripted reality TV.” Hendrik McDermott Senior VP, Branded on Demand for Hayu at NBC Universal International

DELIVERING VALUE TO THE BROADBAND BUSINESS With the mass migration of customers to the Australian Government’s National Broadband Network and increasing competition in the consumer mobility market, Telstra has had to continue find new ways to differentiate and maintain it’s premium position within market. Entertainment is a key part of this strategy, with Telstra TV, Mobile Sports rights, it’s ownership in Foxtel and partnerships with OTT partners giving them a broad range of assets to successfully leverage.

Telstra TV has been a shining example of this strategy, with benefits in the Broadband Business assisting in increasing market share, reducing customer churn and increasing customer satisfaction. It has also been able to drive adoption of streaming within its customer base, with roughly 30% of Telstra TV customers having never had streamed before they had used the device.

CONTINUING TO MAINTAIN A MARKET-LEADING EXPERIENCE Telstra’s main challenge is to maintain its market leading position in market for the experiences it has created with Telstra TV, which relies on executing an ambitious product roadmap in two key areas: hardware and feature enhancement.

On the hardware side, Telstra is set to launch a revised Telstra TV that will be the first to deeply integrate a live DTT experience with streaming services across Search and Discovery. It’s anticipated this device will have similar specification to that of the Roku Ultra with HEVC, 4K HDR and 802.11ac Wi- Fi Support.

TELSTRA TV AND THE VALUE OF OTT AGGREGATION Telstra is Australia’s largest telecommunications provider, offering voice, mobile, internet access, pay television and other entertainment products and services across Australia and the world including its joint venture with News Corporation of Australia’s only broadcast pay TV provider, Foxtel.

With the emergence of main-stream OTT services in 2015, Telstra launched ‘Telstra TV, a Roku-powered streaming device that was aimed at aggregating the best of Free and Paid streaming services for customers.

In 2016 Telstra expanded its aggregation experience to mobile with the launch of ‘Telstra TV+’, an app that brings the Telstra TV search and discovery experience to iOS and Android devices, including content from Foxtel, Netflix, BigPond Movies, Stan and local catch-up television applications. Telstra also built a deep companion experience with the Telstra TV device, allowing customers to cast content and use their mobile phone as a remote control.

This device launch will heavily influence the feature enhancements for Telstra TV as it continues to build out aggregation experiences for customers that solve real problems. This includes expanding search to include both Live and On-Demand results from all major OTT services, building out content lead experiences across device and mobile app as well as focusing on simplifying the way in which customers redeem their content-offers as part of being a Telstra customer and sign-up to OTT services.

“We have been a partner of Telstra for over 5 years and whilst they have continued to drive the adoption of OTT services in many facets of their business, never has Accedo been more proud to have helped them deliver such an incredible experience in Telstra TV+.”

Matt Kossatz VP APAC, Accedo

6

ENHANCED BENEFITS FOR SUBSCRIBERS AND PROVIDERS In contrast to first-generation IPTV services, ViewLocal is hosted in the cloud, is highly customizable by NeoNova, and is device and systems agnostic. This approach lowers the barrier to market entry for providers that otherwise could never afford to compete with other pay TV services.

ViewLocal can be distributed to Roku streaming players, to mobile devices running iOS and Android, and to HTML5 Web browsers on computers. Because ViewLocal requires low network bandwidth in comparison to traditional video services, it can be delivered to subscribers who were previously unable to receive reliable broadband TV service.

In addition to broadening the potential subscriber base, ViewLocal also gives providers a “middle ground” video service offering that appeals to subscribers who may not be able to afford a traditional pay TV service. Instead of the usual $80 per month (or more) cable TV bill, ViewLocal can be priced as low as $20 per month and still be profitable to the operator.

MULTI-TENANT EXPERIENCE, ONE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK

VIEWLOCAL FROM NRTC AND NEONOVA: MAKING BROADBAND TV COST EFFECTIVE FOR US RURAL TELCOS Recently, NRTC, a cooperative of more than 1,500 rural telecom and electric utility members in the United States, and its wholly-owned subsidiary, NeoNova, launched a multiscreen, multi-device broadband TV service called ViewLocal, which is available to more than 230 independent rural broadband providers serving over 1,000,000 subscribers across 44 US states.

Rural broadband providers have had a long and expensive history of providing video services. In the early days of IPTV, the technologies were in their infancy and, while engineers relished the challenge, early adopters were saddled with huge expenses and platforms that were custom-developed, one-off solutions made by start-up companies that had no guarantee of surviving.

7

A core feature of the ViewLocal service is its multi-tenant capability, allowing providers to offer a highly-customized experience to their subscribers. The benefits of this multi-tenant capability come at the cost of significantly more complexity, however. Each time a provider works with NeoNova to add the ViewLocal service, a new tenant must be created with a custom programming line-up, and the service must be integrated with the provider’s back end.

NeoNova then packages the provider’s TV programming according to their market territory (via a feature called “geofencing”) and their desired lineup tiers, plus helps providers negotiate TV retransmission rights. ViewLocal’s geo-fencing capability enables providers to manage access by DMA, zip code, IP address, and other location-based factors, helping the provider to satisfy broadcast retransmission agreement terms.

ViewLocal has also been engineered to fulfil the requirements of agreements that mandate distribution to one screen at a time or to only specific device types.

VIEWLOCAL CHALLENGE: CUSTOMIZATION Because ViewLocal’s key benefits involve its ability to be customized, the huge number of possible combinations of user experiences, channel lineups, and other customizations could have made the service impossible to scale. NeoNova had to find a way to create a custom experience for every provider without requiring a custom software build for each one.

Three of NeoNova’s most essential needs – the ability to accommodate new tenants, new content, and changes in design – mandated an approach that lets providers offer a predictable, replicable experience, where the majority of the work is in the initial setup of design and layout.

Over the next two years, NeoNova expects to scale significantly, placing ViewLocal with an increasing number of rural broadband service providers. NRTC, NeoNova’s parent organization, also serves rural electrical utilities, which are keen on providing TV services over fiber. NeoNova sees these providers as a big additional opportunity.

VIEWLOCAL SUCCESS: ACHIEVING SCALABILITY Through its relationship with Accedo, NeoNova has achieved the scalability that’s so essential to achieving this continued growth of the ViewLocal service. Using Accedo’s video experience cloud platform, NeoNova has created a single app with the necessary framework to capture the visual and feature attributes of each individual provider, rather than having to create a new custom app for each one. With the addition of Accedo’s technology, NeoNova is well positioned to deliver a low-cost, high quality broadband TV experience to subscribers across America.

“ViewLocal is the result of understanding today’s media landscape and how our customers want to bring video solutions to market without paying exorbitant amounts of money. This solution delivers high-quality, low-cost local television options that can easily scale and stay ahead of the technology curve. We’re excited that we can now offer our ISP partners the ability to provide both local and, through our Sling TV referral agreement, national content in easyto-use applications at affordable prices on almost any device.”

Jason McGinnis NeoNova President

8

5. RESULTS AND LESSONS LEARNED All three of the above success stories are of companies running a production deployment that is operating at scale. All of them are relying upon their apps to provide experiences that deliver successful business results, and none of them can afford interruptions in service. All three companies had prior experience in distributing video content, either through pay TV services, or via a direct to consumer OTT service.

They know that content changes quickly.

When thousands or millions of subscribers are at stake, video providers must take great care to pursue a deliberate process to define the service and its face to the consumer, design, implement and test it; and then introduce it to end users. And then after the initial launch, every new iteration must be defined and executed just as carefully, and in a consistent manner.

In the end, apps are not just the face of a service. They represent a total experience, a reflection of a brand, and a tool to drive business. Anything less can put reputations at risk. The most successful video apps are created by video experience specialists that have a sound understanding of the business. Not that software development isn’t critical: apps must work every time, and it takes a high level of expertize and experience to develop, launch and maintain them. Content and service providers selecting an outside app developer should be rigorous in their selection process.

No matter whether they are media companies with direct-to-consumer offerings like NBC Universal’s Hayu, service providers that are aggregating content like Telstra; or are aggregating services for multiple service providers that each serve different end-user bases, like NRTC, the app developer makes a big difference.

9

6. SUMMARY Earlier, we said that the launch of an app is the most visible part of the app development process. In turn, the development process itself is only a part of the overall business lifecycle of an app based service.

The diagram below illustrates how business needs are captured, using an exploratory phase and continues through development, deployment and ongoing maintenance. It’s important to select a solution provider that has the resources and experience to back up the video provider through all phases of the lifecycle.

Development begins with a knowledge transfer process that includes top-line goals and objectives, resulting in a clear definition of the app and a clear understanding of both the business and technical environment that the app must exist within.

In our three case studies, Accedo provides consulting services that act as catalyst to align app requirements with business goals and objectives.

SOLUTIONS ACROSS THE ENTIRE LIFE-CYCLE OF A SERVICE

Once a design is approved, remember that apps are built upon end-to-end solutions that are often dependent on a fragmented ecosystem with sensitive interdependencies, with components and enabling technologies from multiple vendors.

Often, a change in one component has a ripple effect.

While it’s tempting to think of Quality assurance as a process of testing whether or not a feature works, QA is also an ecosystem. Testing should be a process of ensuring that the feature is interacting correctly with the rest of the service ecosystem and not interfering with the video provider’s business objectives.

As we saw with all three of our case examples, once the app is in production service, the content changes constantly. New content is added. New content partnerships are established. And in the case of NeoNova, new tenants are added frequently; each with its own graphics, color-scheme, channel line-up, and channel bundle. Each of the tenants runs promotional programmes at different times.

All of these scenarios benefit from a consistent template and data driven approach. So when a change takes place, it is implemented consistently across all device and browser platforms without fundamental re-engineering or a need to do custom work for each of these platforms.

10

HOW OUR VIDEO PROVIDERS BENEFITED FROM THE ACCEDO VIDEO EXPERIENCE PLATFORM

Requirement

Accedo Cloud Solutions value proposition

Constantly changing content that’s rotated through free and paid use, and available for both streaming and download

Sheilds the Hayu team from the technical complexities of constantly changing content distributed through different charging models A/B testing

Runs on Tablets, Smartphones, Laptops, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV

Device agnostic, lets developers apply charges once across all devices

Hayu’s content is curated by a small team of people

Easy to use, single dashboard for all device versions

Increased market penetration for streaming-based services with different business models

Enables business models and monetization

Managing the distribution of different content to different device platforms

Device Agnostic

Reduced CPE costs by using a custom designed Roku device

Multi-tenant model that is branded to individual NRTC member Telcos, with custom channel line-ups

Data Driven UX

Distribution to consumer-owned connected devices, rather than expensive IPTV STBs

Device and operating system agnostic

Reduced barrier to market entry for local Telcos, due to lower costs

Cloud-based service reduces Telco capex

Reduced time to market – 60 days

11

7. CONSIDERATIONS WHEN CREATING A VIDEO EXPERIENCE In addition to having a process, a methodology, and a tool-set that enables ongoing change with a minimum of disruptions, there are a number of other practical considerations in choosing a company to develop your video experience and app.

These include:

DOMAIN EXPERIENCE

PRODUCTION AND POST

The developer should have customers with success with the same kinds of platforms and apps that you need. Encoding and security for TV are much more stringent and sensitive to failure than enterprize streaming.

The developer should have a proven production methodology that starts with wire-frames and static mockups, to make sure that the design is right, before the first line of code is written. As prototypes are developed, a DevOps relationship is maintained, to keep development on track and so the developer can advise the video provider on the best approach toward any adjustments that the video provider wants to make during development.

VIDEO BUSINESS Video providers don’t sell furniture. An app with a merchandize shopping experience is not the same as an app with a video shopping experience. For example, can items in your app have tiered pricing or belong to multiple bundles? Can they appear for some devices but be hidden on other devices? Can changes in the user experience or the purchasing conditions be put in place only for the duration of a promotion?

METHODOLOGY The developer should follow an established and consistent methodology with formal stages and transition points that require your approval before ending one phase and beginning the next one. At the same time, the process should be iterative and supportive of ongoing improvement.

DEFINITION AND DESIGN Video experience and app development begins with an understanding of the video provider, its market, target audience and their needs. A trusted developer should be driving the innovation road map around video experiences and have proven solutions offering video providers a baseline that they can differentiate from. Successful developers have an evolving knowledge of business, technology and design trends. Only by understanding all of these factors, can the development effort be successful.

REVISIONS Every app represents custom development, the first time.

But what happens when the first version of an app needs change? The more dependency a change has on custom development, the less adaptable your service will be, and the longer it will take to respond to changes.

DEVICE EXPERIENCE Just because a developer can produce a Web site that plays videos in Web browsers, doesn’t mean that they will succeed with native apps. And vice versa. As HTML5 and DASH become mainstream, browsers, DRM, and video players are all in the midst of architectural upheaval. Can your app developer handle this?

VIDEO ECOSYSTEM Video services have come a long way from the IPTV of a decade ago, where the primary concerns were encoding, delivery to a set-top box, decoding and presentation.

Video providers depend upon analytics for an objective statistical view of the behaviour of their end users. Content management must be in place to track assets that are produced in multiple formats for multiple end devices that have different playback environments. Recommendations and advertising drive user engagement, and often, video providers offer services with in-app enhancements and payment.

12

TECHNICAL EXPERTIZE Make sure your developer has worked with most (or all) of the technologies that you have selected for your app and your deployment. Do they have the expertize to recommend a technology solution that you may not have considered, as a way out of a jam?

DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM Your developer should have a platform that ‘abstracts’ the coding, and enables administrative users without a lot of technical training to make changes in the app. And if it does, is the developer willing to make changes in its platform that better enable it to adapt to the kinds of changes that you will need to make?

ORGANIZATION A developer’s organizational makeup makes a big difference.

Are they Agile? Are they DevOps? Do they do development Sprints? Are they organized in Scrums?

BENCH STRENGTH Your developer should never require you to hire deep inhouse app development expertize as a backstop or a fullback position to cover for gaps in the app developer’s expertize. Your developer should have all the expertize you need, both in the form of personnel, and in the form of its software development platform.

LOCATION Nothing is more frustrating, or more likely to reduce a schedule to rubble than reporting a problem on Day One, getting an acknowledgement of the problem on Day Two, a proposed resolution on Day Three, etc. – when a one hour conference call might do the trick. It certainly helps when the developer has a worldwide presence and adequate ability to cover all of the local markets that it serves.

13

8. ACCEDO: FOR ALL VIDEO SERVICE PROVIDERS EMBRACING CHANGE Accedo is the trusted video experience transformation pioneer improving the lives of video consumers by the hundreds of millions.

Over the years, Accedo has earned the trust of the world’s leading video service providers – customers to whom two goals are paramount: explore new opportunities to monetize video and transform video services to meet rapidly changing consumer expectations.

With this in mind Accedo has developed Accedo One, the first cloud platform dedicated to providing operators, broadcasters and brands with the freedom to build, manage and deploy high-quality, engaging video experiences the way they want to.

For more information visit www.accedo.tv

14

Accedo Magnus LadulĂĽsgatan 65 Stockholm 118 27 Sweden www.accedo.tv