A business opportunity within a recesssion?

People’s attitudes and lifestyles have shown evidence of a shift since the recession has hit. Changes have had to be made to household budgets and the money is simply not there to spend as it was previously. Staying in is the new going out, and this could be a very good thing for technologies that have been emerging over the past few years but have not yet encountered a boom time. I am talking about demand for IPTV, for Direct To Home TV, Mobile TV and Video on Demand services. Though the recession is widely acknowledged as a very negative thing for most industries, those that provide access to home entertainment could be cashing in. The demand for at-home entertainment is going up as people are more prepared to pay for satellite- TV and IPTV subscriptions. Why go out and buy DVDs when you can gain access to Video on Demand for a fraction of the price?

The amount of digital households is growing and we are changing the way we consume media. We can watch TV when we want and however we want. We are no longer tied into schedules. We can make calls, use the Internet and choose videos. We can do all of this for a reasonable price as services are bundled together. It is a cost-effective way of accessing all the media we could possibly want in one place. And providers are continuing to add new applications all the time.

Furthermore, even though we are in the midst of an economic downturn, it does not appear to have had an effect on mobile phone and gadget sales. People are still prepared to buy these items and with the advancements made by operators who can provide mobile services such as Eutelsat and Alcatel Lucent, Mobile TV could well be another application that will do well even in a recession. Fevzi Cakmak, Director of Business Development for Mobile at Irdeto told Satellite Evolution: “I think if there is a business proposition from an operator which is affordable, where you have a new phone and the operator only charges you two or three euros a month for example, then I think it is a compelling proposition and people will get subscribed to the service.”

If service providers can deliver the right business model at the right time, then they could potentially do very well even at a time when the economic outlook is very gloomy. We are staying at home more and more, so it is a superb point at which to target a new audience with TV and IPTV delivered by satellite or using satellite headends in the sky. If the proposition is attractive, then there will be takers.

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