Riding the MPEG-4 Wave

Networks Embrace Format For HD, As MSOs Eye Slower Move

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 9/6/2010 12:01:00 AM

Cable’s years-long goodbye to MPEG-2 is far from over, but the shift toward MPEG-4 — the newer, more-efficient video format — has passed the halfway mark on the satellite-delivery front.

Today, the majority of high-definition channels are delivered by programmers to affiliates in the newer format. Of the 143 HD feeds available from a dozen major network programming groups, 72% are in MPEG-4 format, according to an analysis by Multichannel News.

“Any new HD service that’s going up today is in MPEG-4,” said Bart Spriester, vice president and general manager of Cisco Systems’ Digital Media Networks business.

That’s because video encoded in MPEG-4 requires roughly half the space, meaning programmers can pack more HD into the same satellite bandwidth. Using MPEG-4, coupled with DVB-S2 (the second generation of the digital video broadcasting satellite modulation standard), up to 10 HD services can be delivered over a 36-MHz transponder, versus four or five in MPEG-2, said Mark Schaffer, Motorola’s director of product management for the satellite programmer business.

“The satellite transponder is an expensive resource, so it’s essential to maximize the efficiency of that,” he said.

The downside: Most digital set-tops deployed by cable operators today are capable of decoding only MPEG-2. That means that to deliver services available from programmers only in MPEG-4 — like Starz Entertainment’s entire HD lineup, and most of the HBO and Showtime Networks high-def multiplexes — MSOs must install receivers that can automatically transcode the video into MPEG-2 for delivery over the cable plant.

Cisco, Motorola, Ericsson and others sell integrated receiver/ decoders that provide such automatic conversion, which can cost anywhere from 33% to 100% more than single-format units.

Now, cable operators are looking to tap the MPEG-4 capabilities in their newer set-tops, to take advantage of the bandwidth efficiencies over the last mile . Comcast, for example, earlier in 2010 started to deploy dual-format MPEG- 2/MPEG-4 set-tops and has fewer than 10 million in operation.

At some point later this year, Comcast plans to begin delivering ESPN 3D in MPEG-4, whereas it’s currently carried in MPEG-2, according to Comcast senior director of corporate communications Jenni Moyer. The MSO has required subscribers who want the 3D sports service to verify that they have an MPEG-4-capable box — and if they don’t, will upgrade them to a new model — so that when it throws the switch, they won’t lose the signal.

“We’re committed to MPEG- 4, and essentially all new set-top boxes that we purchase and deploy will be MPEG-4-capable,” she said. Comcast has purchasing agreements for dual-format set-tops with Motorola, Cisco, Pace and Samsung Electronics.

DirecTV and Dish Network, the two satellite operators, were earlier adopters of MPEG-4 and today deliver all their HD channels in the format to subscribers.

Still, MPEG-2 lives on even on the delivery side.

ESPN, for example, still delivers its four HD services — ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD, ESPNews HD and ESPNU HD — in MPEG-2. Fox Networks Group declined to provide updated figures for this story, but it had previously planned to deliver all its HD programming in MPEG-2.

And the bulk of standard-definition programming is exclusively available in MPEG-2. However, starting in early 2011, at least one major programming group is looking to move its standard-definition feeds over to MPEG-4, according to Cisco’s Spriester. (He declined to identify the company.) The media company’s expectation is that will achieve payback within three years based on savings from satellite-transmission costs, after the cost of distributing transcoders to cable affiliates.

“They’ll cut their transponder costs in half,” Spriester said.

Not all programmers will be willing to foot the up-front cost for a wholesale changeover on SD anytime soon.

When Starz switched its HD feeds from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 in 2007, the move was comparatively easy because the HD services were not fully distributed at that point, said senior vice president of programming operations and information technology Ray Milius.

“Migrating all the SD folks over would be a considerably more expensive proposition,” he said.

FORMAT SCORECARD

Breakdown of feeds from major programmers:

	MPEG-2 SD	MPEG-2 HD	MPEG-4 HD
AETN/Lifetime	12	3	5
Comcast Networks (excluding RSNs)	10	0	6
Discovery Communications	16	7	3
ESPN	6	4	0
HBO	26	4*	26
MTV Networks/BET/Epix	43	1	16
NBC Universal	18	6	0
Rainbow Media	10	4	0
Scripps Networks	9	0	5
Showtime Networks	23	6*	19
Starz Entertainment	33	0	11
Turner Broadcasting System**	23	5*	12

* Also simulcast in MPEG-4

** Turner additionally provides 18 SD feeds in MPEG-4

Source: Multichannel News research