The 6th International Conference «Digital & Connected TV Russia 2015 – Digital broadcasting and new ways of video content delivery. Interactive services in modern networks (DTV-2015)”, which was held on 22 October 2015 in Moscow, proved to be a success. DTV-2015 by COMNEWS attracted more than 150 leading experts in the industry: the representatives of telecommunications and broadcasting companies, content providers, vendors, system integrators, regulators and mass media.
The platinum sponsor of DTV 2015 was Huawei, the official partner – the National Satellite Company (Tricolor TV), the partner – Nagra Russia and CIS, the official CDN partner – Ngenix, the networking partner – MeYou.
Digital & Connected TV Russia 2015 was supported by the Federal Agency of Communications (Rossvyaz), the National Association of Television and Radio Broadcasters (NAT), the HD Union Association, the GLONASS/GNSS Forum Association, the Nonprofit Russian Association of Cable Television, the Wireless Data Transfer Network Market Participants Association (Wireless Ukraine), the International Telecommunications Academy (MAC), the Association of the Augmented and Virtual Reality in Russia (AVRA), the Moscow Center of International Business Assistance (MCIBA) and the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC).
The plenary session “Digital radio and television broadcasting in Russia: horizons of planning” was opened by Alexey Volin, Deputy Minister of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation. After greeting the audience, Alexey Volin listed all new developments in the regulation of television in Russia.
“On-air is no longer the main way of TV content delivery. More than a half of the population uses cables, satellites or internet, OTT or mobile applications. And this number is going to grow. Especially considering the installation of broadband in small localities. Digital on-air television, according to our estimations, will be watched only by around 30% of all viewers in Russia; however, we cannot ignore the interests of this group and we will not let anyone do that”, claimed the Deputy Minister. Later, he moderated the market players’ discussion on the prospects of digital TV in Russia.
Vitaly Stytsko, Deputy General Director - Director of the Department of innovative development, Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network (RTRS) presented a detailed report “Federal Program "Development of TV and radio broadcasting in the Russian Federation in 2009-2018. Preliminary results and major tasks for the years 2016-2018”.
The new aspects of legislation, the growth strategies for the industry and the target program for the development of TV and radio broadcasting – the main attributes of the new Russian TV reality – were covered by Vladimir Livshits, Head of Information and Analytical Center, Advisor to the President, NAT. Ksenia Achkasova, who is a Director of television research at TNS, spoke on the main trends and development strategy of measurements in linear and non-linear broadcasting. OTT market developments in Russia and worldwide was described by Dmitry Bronner, CEO, NAGRA Russia and CIS.
The future development of the TV and radio broadcasting market was further discussed during the round table “Developing digital on-air broadcasting in Russia: barriers and opportunities”, also moderated by Alexey Volin. The round table was attended by the following experts: Kalju Kukk, Chief Expert, Head of the expert council, Association of developers and manufacturers of equipment (ARPAT); Andrey Lashkevich, Head of Laboratory, NIIR; Maxim Chernov, Deputy General Director - Commercial Director, AMEDIA TV; Dmitry Filippov, CFO, SPB TV. They exchanged opinions on a wide array of topics: How are the amendments to the laws on mass media and communications changing the character of Russian television? How have the amendments to the law on advertising affected pay TV and content providers? How can the volume of Russian media content production be increased? Are foreign players ready to invest in producing content on the territory of Russia? They also discussed the undertones in defining the national origin of mass media production; frequency resources and frequency-territorial planning for broadcasting TV in Russia; the economic situation’s impact on pay TV and content providers; who is going to receive the second digital dividend (694-790 MHz); how the interests of broadcasters, mobile operators and wireless broadband providers can be matched; the models of regional broadcasting in case of a complete shift towards digital on-air TV, etc.
The second session of DTV-2015 was dedicated to the new balance of power at the market of direct-to-home (DTH) satellite broadcasting. Mikhail Goryachev, Director of content, National Satellite Company ("Tricolor TV") gave information about the new approaches to packaging TV channels and changing foreign content to the Russian one. To dive deeper into this topic, a report on a new project for the Russian television in the Middle East and South-East Europe – TERUS was made by Anatoly Sosnowskiy, Member of the Board of Directors, Continental Multimedia (CMS). These reports lead to a discussion moderated by Yana Belskaya, Editor-in-Chief of the Cableman, which dealt with the prospects of DTH operators providing satellite internet access services, expanding satellite broadcasting in the Far East, equipment upgrading and replacement programs, the new types of subscriber equipment in DTH networks, DTH operators’ policy of active base calculation, prospects of DTH operators providing satellite internet access services, combating piracy, etc.
Apart from the abovementioned experts, the discussion was attended by Dmitry Zhichin, Director of Marketing, Orion Express; Oleg Kolesnikov, CTO, NTV-Plus; Sergey Plotnikov, Director of communication technologies and multimedia services department, Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Russian Satellite Communications" (RSCC); Mikhail Sandler, Director of Business Development in Russia, SES.
The speakers of the next session of DTV-2015 presented new technologies in content production, delivery and promotion. CEO of NGENIX Konstantin Chumachenko made a report “OTT + CDN: trends of the season 2015”; Alexander Chernyaev, Senior manager of carrier software sales at Huawei in Russia – a report “Ultra HD (4K and 8K): first projects and prospects”, Alexey Sechkin, Head of CDN team, MegaFon and Roman Grishkovets, Director of television services development department, NetByNet – a report “The actual experience of using CDN for IPTV”; Maksim Garusev, Director of Marketing, MGTS – “Developing content services based on GPON”; Evgeny Mikheev, Head of technology marketing department, National Satellite Company (Tricolor TV) – “Ultra HD (4K and 8K): first projects and prospects”; Dmitry Ershov, CEO, 3D Media Group made a report “3D content in networks today: the experience of production and promotion”.
The new technologies were also described at the session “Media environment development: from television to internet TV viewing”, moderated by Denis Rychka, Head of the press service, AKADO. The report “Will LTE broadcast technology help mobile operators take root in the broadcasting market?” was made by Alexander Chernyaev, Senior manager of carrier software sales, Huawei in Russia. The presentation “Converged TV based on OTT technology” was offered by Anastasia Kiseleva, Head of pay-TV development, NetByNet.
DTV-2015 ended with a discussion entitled “Media environment development: from television to internet TV viewing”. It dealt with the task of turning a passive viewer into an equal participant of communications and with effective internet sales, ways to generate cash from interactive TV and multiscreen concept, drifting of on-air cable and satellite broadcasters to the internet, promoting internet content via mobile apps. The discussion was attended by Gerasim Gadiyan, General Director of HDTV and 3DTV channels of HD Media, NPK ERA, President of the Association of HD TV and Digital Cinema, Head of ViNTERA.TV; Maria Kosareva, Head of Channels Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Nickelodeon HD in Russia, CIS, Ukraine and the Baltic States; Andrey Naumenko, Deputy Director General, Moscow 24 TV Channel; Ekaterina Filatova, Executive Director, Association of Augmented and Virtual Reality.
The participants of the forum praised the competence of speakers and moderators at the 6th International Conference “Digital & Connected TV Russia 2015 – Digital broadcasting and new ways of video content delivery. Interactive services in modern networks”, and admitted that the conference was well-organized and provided ample opportunities for business cooperation.
