2017 saw a great deal of shake-up in the cable and telecom landscape – with waves of disruption crashing and rippling through the industry from all directions.

From one side, tech giants including Apple, Facebook and Google seriously looked to enter the television arena (previously shaken-up by Netflix and Amazon) – presenting opportunities for streaming, tech and cable providers to work together. From another side, the social media era gave content offerings a facelift with short-form content, providing a disruptive opportunity for every player.

Meanwhile, throughout the entire sector, organizations were wrapping their heads around the extensive range of new technologies and skills needed to leverage the Internet of Things – in order to effectively translate the buzzword into business value in 2017.

So, what’s next?

Below, I’ve highlighted five trends that will fuel digital transformation in 2018 – from industry co-opetition and competition, to embracing new technologies and business models, in order to stay ahead of the curve.

2018 Co-opetition and Competition

Industry shift: Broadcast and OTT co-opetition 

The next wave of the co-opetition phenomenon will primarily involve broadcasters and OTT providers. Broadcasters will extend campaigns to OTT apps – developing affordable streaming offerings that are highly configurable to viewers’ tastes.   And with the recent FCC rollback on net neutrality, network and content providers and aggregators will work more closely together to service a common target audience. This convergence will also allow more access to customer data – empowering providers to deliver interactive and engaging advertisements centered around individual preferences. 

A new era of industry competition 

The word “industry” is becoming obsolete as lines are blurring between cable and telecom; between communications and entertainment providers. As we look ahead to 2018, we will see these industry categories break down when it comes to defining the customer experience.

Instead, brands (regardless of their origin industry), will look for new ways to open their business models to both replicate and compete with successful elements of the customer experience offered by players like Uber, Amazon and JetBlue.

Embracing New Technologies – and their corresponding revenue opportunities

Managing the IoT ecosystem 

With Uber and Amazon setting a new caliber of customer experience, everyone else will need to leverage emerging technologies to keep up (and stay ahead). Gartner projects that there will be over 20 billion connected devices by 2020. Specifically looking to 2018, the Internet of Things will evolve into the Internet of Everything.

In the face of the widespread connectivity we’ll see in 2018, service providers would be doing themselves a disservice by overlooking the connected home market (projected to exceed $9 billion by 2021).

Despite speculations that connected devices will “self-install,” eliminating the need for human intervention to connect these elements –  consumers will want human help more than ever before to build connections between the machines in their homes. In fact, a recent market survey polled 2,000 consumers across the globe to discover how the connected home will become more connected – and uncovered that 67% of consumers will feel not at all confident to do complex installations on their own.

Additionally, 84% of survey respondents believe that consumers will want help from a skilled technical resource to connect just two-five devices. As smart home devices become part of daily life, service providers will evolve the skills of their field service technicians to capitalize on the booming connected home market.

Staying Ahead in the Era of Digital Transformation

Beyond digital transformation: business transformation 

As we look to 2018, there is a lot of buzz around advanced technologies like IoT, AI and machine learning, as it relates to the next evolution of digital transformation. However, in 2018, service providers will likely push these topics lower on the priority list in favor of continuing to focus on core business transformation and centering operations around an agile business model that is able to continually embrace and deliver the latest technologies. 

In my opinion, transformation will likely continue as service providers are pressed to create compelling and engaging content and experiences for tomorrow’s consumers. As the Internet of Things evolves into the Internet of Everything – organizations around the globe and across market verticals will be presented with a whole new set of business opportunities (and corresponding challenges).

Looking forward to seeing what 2018 has in store!

--Sean Casey is executive director of product management, CSG International

[Image source: Wikimedia Commons]

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association's rebranding of its annual show to "Internet" and "television" was clearly the right way to go if a new survey has it right.

According to just-released findings, 80% of video streamers subscribe to at least one streaming service in addition to, or instead of, a pay TV service from a cable, satellite or IPTV company.

The survey, commissioned by CSG International, which helps companies set up and cash in on online distribution, also found that 79% of streamers primarily stream to their TV sets.

Among millennials, more than half spend more time watching Internet video on their TVs than traditional TV programming.

Almost three-quarters (72%) said sports programming is the most important to stream.

"[S]treaming services with the highest subscription rates offer original content and sports content," the study found. "To align with these trends, the ability to offer new skinny bundles and innovative OTT-like services will become increasingly important for pay TV providers."

Streamers said they are watching more than 26 hours of online television each week, with half of that on services including Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.

The report concludes the way to get a bigger piece of that online video action is "not by an intensifying price war, but by offering more options for packaging and pricing the specific content that streamers want."

"Personalize the bundle," CSG said. "Provide a user experience on par with the most popular competitors, making content transportable across devices and providing enhanced features like recommendations and search, not only for a single service but across as many distinct services through partnerships wherever possible.

"Offer aggregated billing, discounting and payment options to the all-important subscribers of more than one service or type of content," the report advised.

Millennials see decreasing value in traditional pay services, the survey found, and 20% said they planned to switch, downgrade or disconnect their pay services in the next six months.

They also are the biggest commercial skippers (via bathroom breaks and snack runs in particular). "Among those 18-24, 43% always or often avoid commercials, compared to 35% of the general population," the study said

In a finding that could buoy, at least slightly, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler's push for uniting video services in a single access device, 48% said they would "greatly value" centralized search across all their paid subscriptions, regardless of provider. (But cable operators note they are already launching apps that can reside side-by-side with other online services on, say, a Roku platform, just not disaggregated program streams and data, as the chairman has proposed.)

The survey was conducted in January among 1,900 randomly chosen adult broadband users who stream video -- short- or long-form, free or paid service -- on one or more connected devices.

CSG clients include Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Dish Network, ESPN and Verizon.

Colorado-based billing and customer care company CSG International said it has appointed industry vet Marwan Fawaz to its board, and has promoted  CTO Ken Kennedy to EVP of product development.

Both execs assumed their new roles and responsibilities today (March 1).

Fawaz, a founder and principal of consulting firm Sarepta Advisors, is also on the board of Synacor and is an advisory board member of ADT, Liberty Global and Guavus, a big data firm.

Fawaz, recently named to the 50th anniversary class of Cable TV Pioneers, was in charge of Motorola Home before Google sold it to Arris in 2013, and is a former CTO of Charter Communications, Adelphia Communications (sold to Comcast and Time Warner in 2005), and MediaOne (now part of Comcast).

CSG said it developed its relationship with Fawaz during his time at Motorola and at Charter, which recently extended its agreement with CSG.

”Marwan Fawaz has first-hand knowledge of the inner workings and needs of CSG’s strategic markets, and he will bring an insider’s perspective that will help CSG align to address the challenges that these dynamic industries face,” Don Reed, chairman of CSG International’s board of directors, said in a statement.

CSG said Kennedy’s promotion followed his work to define the company’s technology roadmap and align the company’s technical vision with its business strategy.   Kennedy has managed CSG’s software development organization and been responsible for various aspects of developing and implementing technology initiatives related to CSG’s product offerings over the past 10 years. Kennedy joined CSG when the company acquired Telution, an OSS company, in 2006.

“Ken’s expertise and vision has led us to develop new innovations in our solutions portfolio that enable our clients to have more agile and dynamic operations. His promotion is an acknowledgment of the value that he brings to the future of our organization and to our clients worldwide,” added Bret Griess, CSG International’s president and chief executive officer.