Making The Future Pay

James Warner, Content Encounter Initiative Head of TM Forum, explains how Content Encounter can help every organisation involved in providing digital commercial products and services deliver them profitably.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Imagine starting a movie on your computer and when you leave the computer, bookmark it and pick it up where you left off on your handheld device…then bookmark it again and restart it at home on your big screen TV. These are not just bundled services anymore; they are really and truly integrated.

Imagine an “Opening Night Movie” package where you order a specialized set of content such as related videos, trailers, music, and interviews, along with your opening night theatre tickets, sound track CDs, promotional goods, and pizza from your favourite restaurant for before the show – all based on your preferences and all packaged up as one order. Open your imagination to the idea of 4A Content – Anytime, Anywhere, Anyplace, Anything – and the sky is the limit. But there are real hurdles to making this vision a reality.

Content providers want to distribute their content across multiple channels, to multiple devices to as wide an audience as possible. They must protect the integrity of their brands by defining rules that control content categories, usage & charging policies, formatting, advertising profiles, modes of security and other key characteristics. In this way they can be assured that their content is made available to the marketplace in a way that maximizes the customer experience.

Likewise, communications service providers seek to establish a win-win relationship with their customers as well as content partners. They need to receive content in a way that allows them to easily make it available to end customers so they can ensure users receive the service quality they paid for. They also want to leverage their knowledge of the customer to deliver personalized service packages.

It's probably the central issue facing network operators today: the fastest-growing segments in the service sector are based on content and community, but many communications providers have yet to carve out a strong, revenue generating role.

New, content-based services such as IPTV or mobile TV and emerging services such as advertising based services dictate that operators have to work as part of a value chain of providers delivering the service.

To achieve scalability in this new 4A world, business models must be repeatable, and technology must be standardized. There is no other way. The number of content providers that each service provider must have business relationships with is innumerable, as the number of service providers the content providers must partner with is equally large. Defining standards for the “what” and the “how” for business partnerships and technical integration is the “secret sauce” for success.

To produce the recipe for this secret sauce, the TM Forum is leading an initiative entitled Content Encounter that is backed by many of the luminaries of the communications, entertainment and media world. Content Encounter is an eco-system where interested parties work together to produce standardised interfaces that will enable efficient communication between all involved parties. It provides a developmental arena where different players can come together to determine how they might work together to create something that money can be made from. Content Encounter manifests itself as a live demonstration showing how to manage converged content and multimedia services using open interfaces.

The Content Encounter demonstration shows several key aspects of the commercialisation of services for the digital media market in action including;

•  serving targeted, high-relevance advertising based on end user preferences

•  delivering content anywhere, anytime, any device, with high-value adoption

•  targeting content based on user preferences, consumption, location, presence … the most personalised content experience

•  creating consistent experience across all devices and channels

•  managing content as a resource for new, sticky service bundles that lock in subscribers

•  monetizing user-generated content, mash-ups, social networking, the Web 2.0 experience with converged and automated infrastructure

•  promoting superior quality of experience using key quality indicators

Content Encounter sets the standard for collaborative working in the industry: the TM Forum has brought together service providers, content providers, the advertising industry, telecom software suppliers and integrators. It also builds on the work done by other TM Forum groups working in areas such as Service Delivery Framework, Billing Map and IMS as well as the core TM Forum frameworks, the Applications Map (TAM), the Process Framework (eTOM) and the Shared Information Framework (SID) model.

For service providers, digital media provides an opportunity to build personalised content into service offerings, tailored to each customer's experiences. Content Encounter provides vital information on automating the key processes in this environment. These include acquiring and delivering content, guaranteeing the quality of service for each subscriber experience. It also shows how to monetize new services, including charging of advertisers and allowing users to receive sponsored services, while fully incorporating user choice and privacy.

For content developers and providers, communications networks are valuable channels to market for content, unlocking new possibilities in interactivity, localisation and personalisation. Content Encounter enables content providers to see how innovative forms of ‘ShapeShifting' media can be created and how meta-data about content, rights and rules can drive how content can be used and revenues shared.

For advertisers, telecom networks provide a link to ‘hard-to-reach' consumers and business users as well as an opportunity to take advantage of real-time information to customise the message and the medium. Content Encounter enables advertisers and advertising networks to learn about how they can incorporate user preferences and real-time information about the user and their environment, such as location and presence.

Many service providers are currently wrestling with this problem alone and developing individual solutions for specific partners but this is not viable. Even the mightiest telco cannot afford to make every encounter a custom deal. This is why the likes of AT&T and BT have embraced the TM Forum initiative and are driving it by illuminating the current problems and those they see appearing on the horizon.

Along with AT&T and BT, Amdocs, Alcatel-Lucent, BEA, Call Genie, China Unicom, Chungwa Telecom, Cognizant, EBIZmobility, IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Subex, Telcordia and Westwood One are all participating commercial partners.

Content Encounter provides the enabling technology that creates a win-win partnership across the entire value chain and supports current and future business models. It empowers content owners to maintain integrity of assets while allowing communications providers to offer innovative new services and it enables rapid publishing, acquisition, delivery, management of all content types. Content Encounter showcases digital media solutions for both immediate operational management challenges plus opportunities for innovation. To see the demonstration live visit Management World 2008 Nice, 18 th – 22 nd May.

Subsribe Free Newsletter for the latest in Billing OSS Industry. Latest trends and reports from world over: www.BillingOss.com