Turning the tide

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One division of SeaChange, the On Demand Group (ODG), has a collaborative role of its own to play.

Primarily a content aggregator, ODG negotiates rights deals with film and television production giants including HBO, Paramount, Disney, MTV and Universal. It then sells bundles of content on a wholesale basis to smaller operators who may not be able to negotiate an economically viable deal with studios on their own.

"It is about bringing down the cost of content by scaling it across multiple players," explains McGrath. "What we want to do in the region is work with telcos, broadband data companies and cable operators from a technology, service and content standpoint. ODG is looking to acquire content for the GCC and put together aggregated VOD packages for all those looking to offer IPTV."

McGrath says that the fragmented nature of the Middle East telco industry makes the region particularly well-suited to the ODG proposition from both the content and technology point of view, saying that it allows the operators the chance to get the scale they need faster.

"Similarly on the technology side, we are working on a solution that can either be cookie cut or even sold wholesale from one operator to the next. So a larger operator can host all the equipment and can wholesale the technology platform to smaller operators reducing their costs in the process. That is part of the solution strategy we are working on with our partners Argela."

For now, SeaChange's work in the region is likely to include a partly ambassadorial role for the IPTV platform as a whole, with key investors in the telecoms industry still feeling their way in the mainstream media sector.

"One of the messages that we are trying to put across to telcos is that they don't need to go out and buy access to pre-existing linear movie channels in order to provide their customers with movie content.

The scheduling of this does not have to be like regular FTA programming where people have to stay in during the evening to watch their favourite show. With movies, the viewer will decide spontaneously that they want to watch a movie and they don't really care how the movie service is branded or what channel it is on," says McGrath.

"A VOD service is a much better way to approach this. It is tough to get the return on investment with IPTV and it can be really frightening for telcos to launch with the cost of the content, the STB hardware and the risks associated with putting on an expensive tech solution."

The company's scalable approach to both technology and content (through ODG) could appeal to smaller operators that have not yet weighed into the IPTV arena.

As the under-pinning technology improves the vendor community will play an important role in persuading these smaller telcos to make the investment and overcome their current anxiety.

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