Putting Your IPTV Eggs in Lots of X-Boxes
26/02/08 BY Adam Davies
Multi-channel delivery of IPTV and entertainment on-demand services is now happening.
Why? Well, because if you want to reach the most possible customers you have to be the most flexible service provider on the block.
A great example of this is BT Vision (an AssetHouse customer), who recently announced that it’ll be extending the reach of its service to X-Box users in order to drive up both network usage and digital product sales.
This is a cracking strategy.
BT Vision ‘gets’ the new world of entertainment on-demand. This new move is a great example of how not to tell your customer how to behave, and how beneficial this can be. Instead, BT is embracing its customer’s entertainment lives more liberally and taking advantage of what they’ve already got.
In other words, now that BT Vision has stuffed its storefront full of great content, it’s looking for ways to populate the shelves of others. In this example, they’re making a play to build relationships with new customers: ie, gamers – an audience that has absolutely zero history with them.
In effect, BT Vision has abandoned the ‘build it and they will come’ mentality that seems to be driving many service providers to an early grave. Far better to figure out your stronghold in the value chain and play to your strengths. In terms of reaching the customers of tomorrow, clearly the (set top) box holds no value for BT. So they’re piping their brand via someone else’s.
To do this quickly and effectively you’ve got to be able to change your products and your delivery strategy, look at the market and respond to what the different consumer niches really want. If the sun is out, sell barbecues; if it’s raining sell umbrellas. And, like BT, if the customer has already got the means to buy your products, then let them do it….by all means necessary! The digital market is no place to be precious about delivery…
