Revenue streams for the screens?

Let’s define the different screens – First screen is the TV that one uses at home. The second screen is typically a laptop or a desktop screen and the third screen is the mobile screen (mobile phone, iPOD etc).

Cable, Satellite and Broadcast operators typically have access to the first screen. For IPTV to be relevant and truly differentiated, they may have to be the integrated services to all the three screens. The IPTV operators would typically be an integrated service provider – quadruple play operator (Wire-line voice, Wireless voice, Data, Video).

Typically when one thinks of bundled services, one thinks of getting a better price when one subscribes to all the services as opposed to subscribing them individually from different operators. I believe if service providers think this way, then they would be missing out on the real benefits of IPTV. Let’s examine how.

Let’s look at the revenue stream of the different operators.

As can be seen, there are two revenue streams that a service provider can expect for their IPTV service offers,

Subscription that the end user would pay to get the service as with other entertainment service
Advertising revenue from companies who need to reach a particular demographic. Since IPTV uses IP Technology, data mining of usage of content by each IP address will be easily accomplished and hopefully the service provider can charge a premium for their service.

And to make this revenue from advertising significant, service providers may have to promote them through all the three screens. This will also become a major differentiator too.

Other thoughts?