Report suggests Orange should rethink IPTV strategy

A decision just rendered by France’s Competition Council on carriage of exclusive content could have repercussions on the entire IPTV industry, according to a report just published by Strategy Analytics.

The report, “Orange’s IPTV Challenge: Create a Non-Content Differentiator,” suggests that Orange will need to fundamentally alter its marketing strategy to stay competitive.

“Content exclusivity remains among the most powerful weapons in the television provider’s arsenal, and recent events in the French market may point to stronger regulatory oversight of content in other markets worldwide”

Orange has pursued an aggressive content strategy in recent years, spending over €200 million to acquire exclusive rights to sports and other content, packaged under its Orange Sport and Orange Cinéma Séries brands.

The strategy has been largely effective, and has led to rapid growth of its pay TV segments.

The new ruling threatens to remove content altogether as a differentiator for the provider.

Service providers have a limited number of tools at their disposal to differentiate. Those they do have can be easily imitated, according to the report.

“Content exclusivity remains among the most powerful weapons in the television provider’s arsenal, and recent events in the French market may point to stronger regulatory oversight of content in other markets worldwide,” said Ben Piper, Director of the Strategy Analytics Multiplay Market Dynamics Service.

“If that happens, operators will need to shift focus to non-content differentiators.”

According to the report, the global television landscape has changed dramatically in the past decade, with a host of new players, technologies, and business model challenges.

“Virtually all forms of content that can be digitalized will eventually be distributed through IP networks,” according to Martin Olausson, Director of the Strategy Analytics Digital Media Strategies service, and co-author of the report.

“While this will be a slow and evolutionary development over the coming decades rather than years, it implies long term strategic considerations for Telcos.”