With Apple TV and Google TV in sight, European pay-TV providers are hurriedly assessing cloud-based, value-added service opportunities to become OTT content providers in their own right, albeit over their own networks. One idea is to turn the home set-top box (STB) into a gaming console, for video-streamed gaming on demand (GoD) direct to the TV. Up until very lately, the technological challenges in addressing latency in the network, as well as head-end and related STB issues, have proven difficult, but breakthroughs in network optimization, frame prediction and compression are now removing some of those barriers.

The cloud gaming to the TV market is taking shape, with a large number of vendor/carrier partnerships and pilots to video stream games to the TV (either direct to IP-enabled TVs or indirectly via the STB) in the background. At the same time, the games console vendor community is now flagging the ability to download games and other OTT content direct to Internet-connected games consoles, threatening the STB’s primacy in the living room. In what’s turning out to be a rather swampy market, two new operator-branded cloud gaming to the TV services have emerged in Europe. Video-streamed gaming offers (direct to the TV) from SFR in France today and imminently from incumbent Portugal Telecom flag up fresh momentum in this space.

MORE INFORMATION

Please fill out the following form to set up a conversation with Current Analysis
on how our Competitive Intelligence on Consumer Services Europe can help you
Outsmart Your Competitors and win more business.

Top

| Client access - Report in Consumer Services Europe | More information