AMSTERDAM — With the technology integration needed to natively embed top OTT programming services like Netflix and YouTube into leading pay TV user interfaces like Comcast’s X1 platform out of the way, expect a flurry of smaller OTT integrations to follow
“Now that you’ve got this infrastructure in place, you’ll see many other integrations without the financial pain that would traditionally happen,” said Greg Riker, senior VP of Americas for Metrological Group.
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For its part, Rotterdam-based Metrological’s cloud-based tools have been essential components for both Comcast and Liberty Global as they’ve integrated Netflix into their respective operating systems.
Comcast, which also just announced the official deployment of YouTube into its X1 interface, just touted the integration of CBS Sports Fantasy Football, as well. Riker said we can expect a lot more of the latter types of smaller integrations to start occurring.
“What we’re seeing over the last two years are new technologies speed up the ability to bring in third-party content,” he said.
Riker was speaking at a roundtable even at the IBC Show, hosted by Technicolor and focused broadly on OTT topics.
The consensus of vendor executives speaking at the event was that consumers no longer have patience to toggle between TV sources. “The company that controls HDMI 1 controls the customer,” said Jon Walkenhorst, CTO of Technicolor’s connected home unit.
Walkenhorst’s comment lended support, of course, to Comcast’s “aggregator of aggregators” approach for X1, integrating as many OTT and linear programming sources as possible into one platform.
“We’re seeing the pressure X1 puts on the market now,” he said.