The world of TV and content, may it be gaming, news, social media or video, has experienced an unprecedented upheaval in the last 5 years. From all content consumed on TVs from our sofas, to a large majority of it now being consumed on mobile devices from everywhere, the Millennial generation has completely transformed content consumption. For the African youth of today (which is estimated to encompasses 60% of the African population), high content consumption experience is all about being able interact with relevant content, on-demand, on all devices, especially mobiles, and at all times. What consumers also want is to access their content through an easy to use App, supported by a user-friendly payment mechanism.
This shift in content consumption has in turn triggered a transformation of the delivery model. Content providers are now moving away from cable or satellite TV to deliver content over the top (OTT).
The proliferation of OTT-native providers, such as Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Youtube, is therefore forcing traditional operators to also evolve to include at least some sort of OTT content delivery solution to their offering. Challenges exist:
Consequently, telecom operators who are striving to offer a multiservice platform to retain customers and generate new revenues, have a role to play in the evolving content distribution value chain. They enjoy customer intimacy and trust, as well as the connectivity and reach though content delivery networks (CDN), which are two prerequisites for success here. They also have the necessary capability to create innovative and flexible business models to support that.
Now the missing piece is the relevant local content, which they could develop themselves or in partnership with innovative local content providers.
As mentioned earlier in this article, intelligent CDNs are at the core of delivering media quality, speed, and reliability as they enable providers to bring content physically closer to the user. They also ensure providers minimize their distribution cost.
Consequently, even if you have relevant content, without a reliable CDN, Quality of Experience will remain an impossible dream. This is even more critical in a region such as Africa, where connectivity is one of the main hurdles to delivering high quality communication solutions.
Orange, through its connectivity solutions, removes this significant obstacle. Firstly, it gives service providers access to international content, through its global network. Secondly, as it has the largest deployed CDN network in Africa, it also enables the delivery of the media as close to the customer as possible in 10 countries.
Finally, Orange can wrap its connectivity offering with value added content management and security solutions, which means it can support the complete OTT content delivery value chain.
So, when it comes to delivering content in Africa using Orange’s Content Delivery Network, the only limit is your imagination!
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