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2016 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

Standards, IPR and Digital TV Convergence: Theories and Empirical Evidence

verfasst von : Nicola Matteucci

Erschienen in: Media Convergence Handbook - Vol. 1

Verlag: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

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Abstract

Media convergence presents a few noticeable dimensions, and requests an interdisciplinary research approach. We conduct a long-run analysis of the main initiatives of technological standardization carried out in the realm of “traditional” (cable, satellite and terrestrial) digital TV, focusing on Europe, to assess the technological determinants of its apparent trends to convergence. This analysis inevitably calls into question IPR strategies and policies. In particular, we investigate how private incentives and the public agenda for interoperability have shaped the on-going convergence of the TV sector toward an “IP-based” meta-platform. Despite the widespread usage of open standards and formats, the real potential for interoperability along the digital TV filière has been modest, and mostly limited to the transmission segment. This is mainly due to the strong proprietary features characterizing the TV sector, where viable content production and provision rests on effective control of content IPR. Further, patent portfolio strategies and control of crucial copyrights become increasingly central for competing in the converging TV sector, where former telecom companies, traditional TV operators and new OTT players strive to become gatekeepers of essential layers of the new IP-based delivery platforms. To sum up, while technological opportunities today do enable pervasive media interoperability and affordable convergence at the user-level, private incentives relentlessly push the industry toward standards fragmentation and the construction of walled gardens.

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Vorheriges Kapitel Business Model Convergence and Divergence in Publishing Industries

Nächstes Kapitel Converging Multimedia Content Presentation Requirements for Interactive Television

Due to space limitations, this empirical analysis mostly concentrates on the DVB and EU experience, although keeping an eye on global trends.

This section builds on a wide selection of papers and books; for sake of synthesis, we only mention the references most directly connected to our main argument, while skipping other background materials. For a proper presentation of the standardization literature, among others, Blind (2004), Swann (2010).

Here, a single company manages to have its own specification acquiring a leading market share and becoming a de facto standard.

Also most of de jure standards are privately possessed, but the ownership is usually shared by a multiplicity of subjects/licensors. A main example is provided by patent pool members (see infra).

These compatibility standards in the literature have been also called “interface standards” (David & Greenstein, 1990).

Generally, a converter is an adapter used to match the physical or functional characteristics of different objects/technologies.

Many examples are available in ICT domains, from the simplest (plug adapters and power transformers for electricity) to more elaborated ones, such as analogue-to digital converters for TV receivers (or set top boxes, STB henceforth) or, in computer science, file format converters.

This is the implementation of the standard used as its official/definitive interpretation. It checks that the specification is implementable, correcting potential errors and disambiguating its elements. The reference implementation also works as a benchmark for the following (derived) implementations.

In a similar vein, other authors stressed the path dependent nature of standards choice and technology evolution. In fact, initial fortuitous events might result in permanent suboptimal trajectories, due to network effects and lock-in dynamics engendered by consumers’ switching costs (hence the dependence—David, 1985; Arthur, 1989).

A valuable analysis of the Apple-Macintosh and IBM-Wintel saga can be found in Bresnahan and Greenstein (1999).

Being DVB a private body, the developed specifications are submitted to official SDO for formal approval. DVB was born as a temporary consortium, and later transformed into a permanent body.

Generally OS have their technical documentations publicly accessible for free or at a nominal fee.

Moreover, the concept of “openness” is many-sided and touches upon several dimensions and phases: Krechmer (2006) arrives to categorise ten dimensions of openness, and three main types of stakeholders involved: creators, implementers and users.

The software industry provides a high number of examples for enclosure strategies (Shapiro & Varian, 1999).

Those necessary to build a material implementation (a product or a service) of the standard.

In fact, the most credited definition does not assimilate an OS to a free standard (royalty-free, typical of the open source software world, OSS henceforth).

In mass network markets the entry phase may require intensive efforts (high sunk costs) to build the installed base and activate network effects.

In other words, in this case the net present value of the project is low mostly because of high licensing costs, rather than negative supply and demand conditions.

A main example is the methodology to be used for calculating the royalty base. When patents are embedded in high value added products—e.g.: Apple’s smart-phones and tablets—and percentage royalties schemes are used, they earn high absolute royalties, irrespective of their intrinsic stand alone technical and innovative contribution to the system.

A compact historical analysis of patent pools and antitrust practice in the US case is provided by Gilbert (2010).

Obviously, the bargaining power of each member of the pool depends on the size and importance of its IPR portfolio.

In the first case, standards do not proliferate and unique designs prevail. In the second case, standards may proliferate, but services and devices are interoperable, supporting multiple standards.

Other ancillary supporting standards were also developed, such as DVB-SI (for service information), DVB-SUB (for subtitling), and MHP, the open middleware specification analyzed infra. The transmission-independent part of MHP has led to the GEM specification, used also in off-line media (Blu-ray Disc).

At that time, typically, a signal of 166 Mb/s or more.

Historically, satellite and cable have been used complementarily for primary transmission of TV signals. The wide footprint enjoyed by satellite helped to connect separate distant cable networks (Parsons & Frieden, 1998).

Concerning modulation, two different techniques were chosen. For satellite, QPSK (quadrature phase shift keying), for cable QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation). These techniques, through different implementations, are also the modulation core of other platforms such as DSL modems, CDMA, 3G, Wi-Fi and WiMAX.

For example, two different modulation schemes were developed, differentiating geographical areas starting DVB-T services early (based on 2k OFDM + QAM) and those starting later, and building on single frequency networks (SFN, henceforth). The second required adopting 8k OFDM + QAM modulation, which is backward compatible with 2k/QAM broadcasts. Later on, several EU countries adopted improved algorithms, adds-on and devices to the basic DVB-T standard, in order to cater for their specific transmission and spectrum needs.

In fact, with satellite, a single up-link transmission site (from the earth base station to the satellite transponder) concentrates all system control and signal management functions (Drury, 1999; Reimers, 2006). Here the main problem is transmitting a compatible signal receivable by household devices produced by different vendors, and patronized by different satellite TV operators, while satellite services have transnational coverage and reception.

All figures include the DVB second generation of transmission standards. The latter at 2011 is relevant for satellite, still marginal for terrestrial and zero for cable.

Obviously, backward compatibility is a technological possibility offered by the DVB-S2 design, but its actual materialization will always depend on what happens during the commercial implementation, id est, on the commercial choices and incentives held, country-by-country, by broadcasters and satellite operators, which interact with CE manufacturers’ incentives and market expectations.

Nolan (1997) remembers that a strong obstacle for analogue satellite TV diffusion in EU had been the fragmented structure and incompatibilities affecting the reception devices, with the satellite receiver being typically universal and separated from the decoder (signal descrambler), proprietary. Hence, those offering a proprietary unique piece of receiving equipment (STB) enjoyed a strong market boost.

This section partly builds on Matteucci (2008, Sect. 3; 2009). We refer to these papers for a comprehensive techno-economic analysis of the EU market experience and policy for Interactive TV, and for a focus on the Italian case.

Despite the general formulation requested by law, the provisions of NRF were first and foremost inspired—if not specifically crafted—at the benefit of the MHP, which was the first specification to be formally recognized in the list of EU official standards for ITV.

At that time, EC (2006) argued that this success was jointly due to a virtuous and synergic public-private mix of factors: the public subsidies to MHP decoders, the voluntary agreement of Italian broadcasters to use MHP, and the definition of common specifications for the national implementation of the MHP standard. As a counterfactual, the Commission noticed that the same degree of stakeholders coordination did not materialize in Germany, nor in the Northern EU markets, despite the early market consensus.

MHEG-5 is a language for presentation of multimedia information, particularly used for ITV services. To be useful for broadcasting, the language has been codified (“profiled”) as ETSI standard. WTVML (Worldwide TV Mark-up Language) is an XML-based content format, standardized through ETSI, allowing web designers to create ITV services with minor adaptation requirements.

Minor variations and logical subsets are also “Web-TV”, “Net TV”, “OTT TV”, “Catch-up TV”.

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Titel: Standards, IPR and Digital TV Convergence: Theories and Empirical Evidence
verfasst von: Nicola Matteucci
Verlag: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Buch: Media Convergence Handbook - Vol. 1
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-54483-5

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-642-54484-2

Copyright-Jahr: 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54484-2_12

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