PTV programmers and advertisers soon may gain the granular program- and ad-viewing data they covet through service- and subscriber-aware edge routers like Juniper Networks’ ESeries.
Using Juniper’s newly unveiled E120 Broadband Services Router (BSR), broadband operators now can collect per-second data on IPTV channel changes at the local, central office level. At the same time, Juniper and partners including Hewlett Packard continue to develop software programs to analyze the data.
“We’ve worked for nine months with HP, which has been creating applications to see reports with actual programs and ads being watched,” says Gary Southwell, director of IPTV/Multiplay marketing for Juniper. “They need to integrate the application for each local channel lineup, but it’s a straightforward proposition.”
Although Juniper “Multiplay” deployments like Hong Kong’s 800,000-subscriber PCCW are proving that bundled IPTV, VOD, VoIP, game, telework and home monitor offerings gain a larger share of the consumer wallet, such deployments also stand to win a share of advertiser wallets—a $72-billion market in the U.S. alone, Southwell notes.
In May, Nielsen announced it will offer clients a new Average Commercial Minute electronic data file that provides an average rating for the commercial minutes in each television program. According to Juniper, the ESeries routers can provide more granular data than that to media metrics analysis.
“We have a system that allows us to monitor not only which programs, but to see at a per-second level how many people are staying on the commercials and watching them,” Southwell says. “We can augment Nielsen to say which commercials are being watched and aid the commercial rating service.”
The 120-gigabit-per-second E120 router supports up to 64,000 individual subscribers and is fully integrated with Juniper’s Session Resource and Control (SRC) platform for policy management and control. Anchored by the larger E320 router, the ESeries now claims 57-percent worldwide market share in IPTV BSR deployments, as measured by subscribers served, according to Synergy Research group.
Since the BSR is actually changing video channels in an IPTV network, it also is “seeing the information about the channel changes” and uses the Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) protocol to translate IGMP ‘leaves’ and ‘joins’ across multicast video streams into detailed program data, Southwell explains.
“We can collect that up, time-stamp it and aggregate it typically at the hundred-home node level,” he says. “Then tools can correlate the data with the channel lineup and analyze the activities, and the analysis also can be ported up to programmers as well.” In short, he adds, “providers can gather real-time viewing statistics that are invaluable to national, regional and local advertisers.”
To help bring these goals into view for operators, Juniper has developed multiple partnerships on the advertising front:
• HP: Centralized business intelligence system that collects, analyzes, and reports viewing data and makes ad placement decisions
• Packet Vision: Targeted, addressable advertising service embracing the accountability and interactivity of IPTV
• NebuAd: Targeted browser-based ad insertions for high-speed internet users
• SeaChange International: Linear and advanced advertising solutions
With the combination of intelligent edge routing, granular data collection, analysis tools and dynamic ad insertion, Southwell says, “IPTV providers can start to build local and geographic advertising based on advertiser geography—say, in a five-mile radius from an auto dealership.”
The smaller form factor E120 BSR allows for broader geographic distribution of broadband IP routers, which in turn can aid the localizing effort. “It’s important for service providers to address the broadest range of their service areas,” says Tom DiMicelli, E-series product manager.
“Not all provider regions need a large switch, and in fact many are mid-sized,” he says. “The 120-gigabit broadband services router is very efficient at a mid-size point of presence or even local central office location. The infrastructure is optimized to address demographics, density and other variables, with a layer of intelligence to create a real-time database that can be elevated to real business analysis and value.”
, broadband operators now can collect per-second data on IPTV channel.){kind=link}