National Advertising Alliance (NAA), Channel One and the SPB TV company announce the development and test-mode run of a generic technology solution for in-stream ad replacement.
National Advertising Alliance (NAA), Channel One and the SPB TV company announce the development and test-mode run of a generic technology solution enabling the market participants to start a legitimate live broadcasting of TV-channels on their Internet platforms and do it by taking into account all legal and commercial interests of TV-channels.
One of the obstacles to the development of the legal market for online video distribution in Russia remains the controversy between TV-channels/broadcasters and independent OTT-services (online movie sites).
In an effort to increase their audience, OTT-services purchased licenses issued by cable telecom operators and used these licenses to broadcast the over-the-air versions of the First and Second multiplex TV-channels over their online platforms – websites, mobile devices, SmartTV applications and set-top-box.
Television channels have repeatedly pointed out that the existing legislation does not, in their opinion, give any online movie website the right to broadcast any over-the-air content on the Internet. Broadcasting over-the-air versions in the OTT environment gave independent operators a competitive advantage over TV-channels, for, according to the restrictions imposed on them by the rights holders, these channels are often not able to broadcast the over-the-air content via their own Internet resources. Besides, the broadcasters did not get any access to TV viewing data located on the third-party OTT platforms and were deprived of the possibility to monetize their growing Internet audience there.
The representatives of several major OTT-services agreed with the broadcasters’ arguments and expressed their readiness to switch to broadcasting the legal Internet versions provided by TV-channels – and some of them have already done this. At the same time, they pointed out that the timely and efficient implementation of all broadcasters’ requirements (including the integration of advertising opportunities) could be possible only if there is a unified technology solution available.
The advice of the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media prompted National Advertising Alliance (NAA), Channel One and the SPB TV company to jointly develop a system technology solution making it possible to:
1. Provide OTT operators with free versions of TV-channel signals (including the Full HD format) necessary for the “single window” Internet broadcasting.
2. Provide TV-channels with the access to data on their audiences (located on independent OTT platforms).
3. Provide TV-channels with the possibility to control the use of their content and to reduce its illegal distribution;
4. Provide TV-channels with the possibility to make use of their advertising opportunities when broadcasting over the Internet.
The commercial launch is scheduled for the 2nd quarter of 2017.
Ilya Bulavinov, Director of Internet Broadcasting Department, Channel One: “Channel One has consistently been defending the TV-channels’ right to monitor their Internet broadcasting. In our opinion, no cable or any other type of license shall allow anyone to distribute the content of Channel One in the OTT environment – and do it in an uncontrollable and, in fact, illegal manner. Thinking primarily about the viewers and users’ interests, Channel One has not been prohibiting any online movie websites from broadcasting its signal – however, we have been always demanding this to be done legally and in an agreed-upon format. Together with our colleagues from NAA and SPB TV, we developed a solution which, in our view, will help to resolve the existing contradictions and serve the interests of both broadcasters and OTT service providers. We believe that the proposed solution can become the ground for adoption of a unified industrial standard, as well as give a fresh impetus to the development of the legal online-video market in our country.”
Anton Petukhov, Technical Director, NAA: “The emergence of the OTT environment prompted by the use of Internet technology enables us to create a more interesting TV ad product and demonstrate that TV ads are changing and becoming more up-to-date. It also gives us the chance to collect unique data on TV viewing and, eventually, attract more ad money thanks to the OTT environment and the opportunities it brings. The proposed technological solution allows us to use all these offered features in their entirety due to two simple tools: centralization and unification.”
Kirill Filippov, SPB TV CEO: “Implementing the technological solution we developed will allow members of the industry and the advertising market to work by following clear, concise and uniform rules. The pilot version of the solution has been launched to be tested with part of the SPB TV audience, and we have already witnessed a consistent increase in views – up to 6% per month of our app’s overall audience.”
Channel One
The largest federal television broadcaster in Russia with the widest audience coverage (99.8% of the entire population). According to all sociological reviews, the projects produced by Channel One enjoy the highest popularity with Russian TV viewers. In 2016, for example, among the most successful high-audience shows in Russia were Voice and Voice.Kids entertainment projects, as well as The Silver Spoon - 2 TV series that were interesting to both adults and young people. Channel One is the winner of numerous prestigious professional awards, such as Russian TEFI or international Promax award, to name a few.
pr@1tv.ru
National Advertising Alliance
Established in 2016. The founders are the largest Russian media holdings – Channel One, VGTRK, Gazprom-Media Holding and National Media Group – that own the company on a parity basis. The main area of business is the implementation of founding media holdings’ advertising opportunities and the provision of services to advertisers.
pr@nra.media
SPB TV
SPB TV is a leading global provider of high-end technology solutions used for delivering TV- and video content to various types of screens: mobile phones, tablets, computers and TV sets. The SPB TV solutions in the OTT/IPTV sphere have been integrated by the largest Russian (and also by some foreign) mobile operators as well as recognized by mobile device manufacturers around the world. The top quality of the company's technological solutions has been recognized through a number of prestigious awards, including CSI Awards, TV Technology Europe STAR Awards, Russian Mobile VAS Awards, Mobile Entertainment Awards, Google Developer Challenge, Bolshaya Tsifra (Russia's "Big Digit" award) etc.
dperepelitsyn@spbtv.com
press@spbtv.com