a revenue enabler in the mobile media era
LTE Broadcast offers mobile-network operators a profitable business proposition through service
differentiation, new revenue opportunities, and more efficient distribution of live and other digital media.
ericsson White paper
284 23-3192 Uen | February 2013
LTE Broadcast LTE BroadcasT – a rEvEnuE EnaBLEr in ThE moBiLE mEdia Era • inTroducTion 2
Mobile-broadband users are demanding spontaneous access to video content, a higher-quality
experience and more convergent mobile services than ever before. During the London 2012
Olympic and Paralympic Games, around 50 percent of search requests in the UK were from mobile
devices. The US broadcaster NBC (National Broadcasting Company) also reported that more than
45 percent of online video streaming of the games was delivered to mobile devices (Figure 1) [1].
Subscribers like to be able to consume content anytime, anywhere. As a result, new business
models are emerging in which the line between fixed and mobile is becoming indistinct. Service
providers – especially over-the-top (OTT) players and content aggregators like App stores, Netflix,
Amazon and so on – are making premium content available anytime, anywhere on a variety of
devices. Mobile network operators (MNOs) are being challenged by the need to give consumers
what they want, while preserving the economics of their networks and creating new opportunities
for revenue growth.
Introduction
Brazil
11%
South
Africa
24%
United
States
47%
Israel
37% Japan
55%
United
Kingdom
46%
Australia
45% Source: Google
Figure 1: Google analysis revealed that mobile devices trumped desktops
in Olympic-related searches during the London 2012 Olympic Games. LTE BroadcasT – a rEvEnuE EnaBLEr in ThE moBiLE mEdia Era • inTroducTion 3
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
0
3,000
6,000
9,000
12,000
15,000
Monthly petabytes (1015 B)
Data: mobile PCs, tablets and mobile routers
Data: mobile phones
Voice
Figure 3: In 2012, total mobile device data traffic (MB/month)
was predicted to grow 12-fold by 2018. Source: Ericsson
Owing to the popularity and adoption of smartphones and tablets, mobile data subscriptions
are expected to reach 4.2 billion (Figure 2) by 2018. Mobile data traffic is expected to grow
12-fold by the end of 2018 (Figure 3), driven mainly by video [2].
Through deploying LTE Broadcast, MNOs can manage network assets better by allowing
multicast for popular content demanded by multiple subscribers, such as live TV and events.
MNOs can also utilize off-peak capacity to deliver new service offerings, such as rich media
caching or managed software updates. Lastly, broadcast capabilities enable opportunities
for monetizing network bandwidth through new business models, such as time-slot auctions.
Altogether, MNOs can improve QoS while managing costs and diversifying their potential
revenue base.
Subscriptions (million)
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Mobile PCs, tablets and mobile routers
Smartphones
Figure 2: In 2012, smartphone, PC, mobile router and tablet
subscriptions were due to grow 3.5-fold by 2018. Source: EricssonLTE BroadcasT – a rEvEnuE EnaBLEr in ThE moBiLE mEdia Era • LTE BroadcasTTEchnoLogy 4
LTE Broadcast is a single-frequency network (SFN) in broadcast mode that is part of the series
of 3GPP LTE standards known as evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS). It
extends existing LTE/Evolved Packet Core (EPC) systems with an efficient point-to-multipoint
(PMP) distribution feature, enabling multiple users to receive the same content simultaneously.
LTE Broadcast functionality is available for commercial launch, beginning with Release 9 and with
additional enhancements continuing in future 3GPP releases. LTE Broadcast is supported for all
defined bandwidths and formats of LTE, including FDD, TDD, and carrier aggregation (CA) [3].
SFN technology is used to distribute broadcast streams into well-defined broadcast areas
where all cells contributing to an SFN send the same data during exactly the same radio timeslots and appear as a single large cell. The area covered by the LTE SFNs can be small, spanning
just a few cells; or it can be very large, covering an entire country. Broadcast and unicast radio
channels coexist in the same cell, sharing capacity, while the subsets of available radio resources
are dynamically assigned to either broadcast or unicast radio channels.
The LTE network can be upgraded by software, and a new media service layer offers a dedicated
network element for the implementation of end-to-end LTE Broadcast services. LTE Broadcast
provides a more flexible and lower deployment cost compared with previous mobile-broadcast
options by leveraging OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access) and wider
bandwidths available in LTE. On user devices, LTE Broadcast requires no separate device chipset
and can use common middleware.
LTE Broadcast offers the greatest benefits in the delivery of content demanded by mass
audiences. The technology starts to provide network-capacity advantages over unicast in a cell
with as few as one to four concurrent users, depending on the deployment characteristics.
LTE Broadcast’s flexible service dynamics allow MNOs to offer different services based on
service type (live or non-real time), location (venue-specific, local, regional, national), quality
(bitrate, QoS), and time of day/duration, and, as a result, charge differently for these.
LTE Broadcast
technologyLTE BroadcasT – a rEvEnuE EnaBLEr in ThE moBiLE mEdia Era • BusinEss opporTuniTy 5
LTE Broadcast supports a range of use cases: live streaming of video for high-demand content,
such as live sports and breaking news; background file delivery for popular content (video, music
and print), software updates and emergency broadcasts. MNOs may choose to deliver their own
content or partner with other content providers.
Below are some of the key use cases associated with LTE Broadcast and potential MNO
business models.
Some examples of broadcast services and their economic analyses are presented below.
Business
opportunity
Live event
streaming
Real-time TV
streaming
News, stock market
reports, weather,
and sports updates
Broadcast music
and radio
Off-peak media
delivery
Offer in-venue, local or nationwide
coverage of key events such as
sports, concerts, highly rated
TV shows, awards, elections,
and so on
Offer live broadcast of one or more
popular TV channels or other curated
content
Deliver broadcast radio and music
services
Deliver top TV shows, movies,
newspapers, magazines, music,
YouTube videos, and so on
Provide necessary software, app
and firmware updates
Provide news, stock market reports,
weather and sports updates several
times a day, including live broadcasts
and on-device caching
Subscription, advertising–supported, free for
premium customers, revenue share from
content partners
Direct demand away from unicast capacity,
saving network resources and reducing
congestion in the network
Subscription, advertising–supported, free for
premium customers, revenue share from
content partners
Direct demand away from unicast capacity,
saving network resources and reducing
congestion in the network
Subscription, pay per view, revenue share
from content partners
Deliver services while not taxing unicast
resources, reduce churn
Subscription, advertising-supported software,
free for premium customers
Increase service breadth and direct demand
away from unicast capacity by providing
updates throughout the day.
Subscription, pay per view, revenue share
from content partners
Save on network expansion, high QoS
Subscription, pay per view, pay per event,
season pass, revenue share from content
partners
Save on network expansion, high QoS
Services Description MNO business models & benefits
Figure 4: Potential use cases and business models for LTE Broadcast services.LTE BroadcasT – a rEvEnuE EnaBLEr in ThE moBiLE mEdia Era • EvEnT sErvicEs 6
It is well established that there are significant spikes in mobile data traffic in many markets across
the world due to major sporting events, breaking news, highly watched TV programs and celebrity
events – for example, final soccer matches, the Oscars, the Eurovision Song Contest, concerts,
royal weddings, and so on. In fact, Google reported that in the first week of the London Olympics
in 2012, event-related searches on mobile devices grew 10 times compared with the previous
week [4]. The BBC reported that online video-traffic levels during the games were on average
20 times higher than those during the Beijing games four years before [5].
Using LTE Broadcast, MNOs can handle these
spikes in mobile usage and also offer premium
content service in venues, city centers or
nationwide, to create new revenue streams with
well-controlled media quality and efficient
scalability.
Delivering video streams to hundreds of users
in a cell site by using LTE Broadcast will utilize
almost the same bandwidth as a single user with
the same video quality. The guaranteed quality
of experience can increase subscriber loyalty
and deliver significant service differentiation
compared with the competition.
There are multiple business models that
MNOs can use. They can choose to offer their
own content. Alternatively, they can offer the
service capability in certain time slots in the area
to rent to the broadcasters, venue owners or
content providers in exchange for a fixed fee or
percentage of revenue from their services.
The same business models can apply to a
local event, where MNOs can offer managed
services to enterprises that need to broadcast
content within a venue or to specific locations,
such as shopping malls, museums, airports,
theme parks, concert halls, and so on.
For instance, if one UK operator with
25 million mobile subscribers had implemented
LTE Broadcast in the major cities in the UK and
provided premium-content services including
multiple in-venue channels in Olympic Park with
multiple camera feeds and nationwide broadcasting of quarter-final and semi-final heats, as well
as Olympic finals. The MNO could then have offered its subscribers a special pay-per-event
package of gBp 4.99 (Eur 6), which would not have been counted as part of the data bucket.
With 10 percent penetration, the MNO could potentially have generated up to GBP 12 million
(EUR 14 million) during the course of the event. As an additional benefit, the MNO could have
extended its relationship with the subscriber, reducing churn and increasing the possibility of
providing more services in the future.
event services
In-venue video service
+ Revenue from event selling
+ Advertising revenue
+ Service differentiation
In-venue video service
+ Revenue from event selling
+ Advertising revenue
+ Service differentiation
Event ticket
Premium video service
Event video service
Nationwide video service
+ Revenue from subscription
+ Voice/data revenue from
spectrum efficiency
+ Advertising revenue
+ Great viewing experiences
Nationwide video service
+ Revenue from subscription
+ Voice/data revenue from
spectrum efficiency
+ Advertising revenue
+ Great viewing experiences
Total value of the event =
+ Revenue from premium video service
+ Revenue of voice/data from spectrum efficiency
+ Advertising income
+ Guaranteed user experiences
Total value of the event =
+ Revenue from premium video service
+ Revenue of voice/data from spectrum efficiency
+ Advertising income
+ Guaranteed user experiences
Figure 5: An example of a business case for MNOs: GBP 12 million (EUR 14 million)
in revenue from a video service during the London 2012 Olympic Games.LTE BroadcasT – a rEvEnuE EnaBLEr in ThE moBiLE mEdia Era • EvEnT sErvicEs 7
In addition to that, the MNO could have offered mobile advertising and location-based services
to targeted subscribers to generate further revenues.
In the London area, the average population density is more than 5,200 per square kilometer, with
more than 8 million residents in the greater metropolitan area [6]. if an operator has a 30 percent
market share of the covered area, the operator is potentially serving 2 million subscribers. In an
Olympic final, with 10 percent of subscribers watching the 800kbps live video streaming (about
1GB of data volume per subscriber in three hours), the traffic payload would have reached more
than 250TB. Assuming 30 percent of the viewers were using eMBMS-capable devices and
connecting to broadcast channel, there would have been 75TB off-loaded from the network. The
saved bandwidth could have been used to provide other telephony or data services, which equals
more than 22 billion web page views or more than 800 million song downloads [7].
Another approach to understanding the benefit for an MNO is to look at the cost savings that
the MNO realizes when delivering premier-event content to its subscribers using LTE Broadcast.
The broadcast of live events such as American football, soccer or cricket across a dense urban
coverage area offers a highly cost-effective solution compared with unicast. At similar streaming
bitrates, it takes four to five MNO subscribers for multicast to break even, with unicast costs being
calculated on a per-site basis.
Allocated cost (depreciation + opex) USD/site/year
Number of users/site
10,000
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Assumptions:
Dense urban population: 10,000 per sq km; 30 percent MNO market share
Busy hour: 12 percent; video rate: 1,500kbps/user; event length: three hours; events/year: 100
Unicast throughput: 15Mbps/sector; average numbers of sectors: three
Non-uniform distribution: 80 percent; network utilization: 80 percent; physical overhead: 20 percent
Example unicast allocated cost/site/year: USD 100,000
Multicast incremental allocated cost/site/year scenarios: USD 1,000–4,000
Unicast
Multicast (USD 1,000)
Multicast (USD 2,500)
Multicast (USD 4,000)
Figure 6: comparison of unicast and multicast costs for live events,
showing breakeven points. Source: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.LTE BroadcasT – a rEvEnuE EnaBLEr in ThE moBiLE mEdia Era • mEdia sErvicEs, oTT opTimizaTion and daTa oFFLoad 8
Real-time media seRvices foR bReaking news, spoRts and weatheR RepoRts
Daily breaking-news types of services can be delivered both nationwide and locally. Depending
on the content and relevance of the news, an MNO can dynamically select the area and size of
the broadcast.
In addition to live events, if an MNO decides to dynamically allocate its LTE-network resources
toward news, weather and sports multicasts for a few hours every day, the number of subscribers
needed to achieve breakeven cost between unicast and multicast is in the range of three to five
in a cell site.
Media services, OTT
optimization and
data offload
Number of users/site
10,000
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Unicast
Multicast (USD 1,000)
Multicast (USD 2,500)
Multicast (USD 4,000)
Allocated cost (depreciation + opex) USD/site/year
Assumptions:
Dense urban population: 10,000 per sq km; 30 percent MNO market share
Live event: busy hour: 12 percent; video rate: 1,500kbps/user; event length: three hours; events/year: 100
Live media services: busy hour: 8 percent; video rate: 800kbps/user; event length: two hours; events/year: 365
Unicast throughput: 15Mbps/sector; average number of sectors: three
Non-uniform distribution: 80 percent; network utilization: 80 percent; physical overhead: 20 percent
Example unicast allocated cost/site/year: USD 100,000
Multicast incremental allocated cost/site/year scenarios: USD 1,000–4,000
Figure 7: comparison of allocated unicast and multicast costs for the combined use
cases for live events and live media service. Source: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.LTE BroadcasT – a rEvEnuE EnaBLEr in ThE moBiLE mEdia Era • mEdia sErvicEs, oTT opTimizaTion and daTa oFFLoad 9
Number of users/site
10,000
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Assumptions:
Dense urban population: 10,000 per sq km; 30 percent MNO market share
Live event: busy hour: 12 percent; video rate: 1,500kbps/user; event length: three hours; events/year: 100
Live media services: busy hour: 8 percent; video rate: 800kbps/user; event length: two hours; events/year: 365
Off-peak: busy hour: 6 percent; video rate: 130kbps/user; event length: four hours; events/year: 365; 10GB/month
Unicast throughput: 15Mbps/sector; average number of sectors: three
Non-uniform distribution: 80 percent; network utilization: 80 percent; physical overhead: 20 percent
Example unicast allocated cost/site/year: USD 100,000
Multicast incremental allocated cost/site/year scenarios: USD 1,000–4,000
Unicast
Multicast (USD 1,000)
Multicast (USD 2,500)
Multicast (USD 4,000)
Allocated cost (depreciation + opex) USD/site/year
Figure 8: Comparison of estimated allocated unicast and multicast costs for live events, live media
services and off-peak file-delivery use cases combined. Off-peak use case is defined as a four-hour
broadcast in a day during off-peak hours at 130kbps and 365 events in a year with 6 percent busy
hours. Source: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
off-peak media deliveRy, ott optimization and data offload
MNOs can provide media-delivery services for things like newspapers, magazines, books, TV shows,
top-10 movies, top-10 youTube clips, top-10 songs and music videos, and other forms of digital
media overnight. The content can be cached on the device ready for consumption. Such off-peak
media-delivery services will lower constraints on network resources during peak-usage hours, while
potentially providing a new source of revenue.
Similarly, OTT service providers can offer location-based information services, coupons and
e-advertisements via applications empowered by the operator’s LTE Broadcast platform. This can
mean both the reach and quality of delivery can be assured and the result will be very efficient
delivery to subscribers without Wi-Fi limitation. In addition, MNOs can turn the heavy traffic load
from costly into positive.
The media-delivery use case can be extended to file delivery of any kind. Critical software updates
and firmware updates can be broadcast to the devices. This method can secure the delivery quality
to multiple devices, while using the network resources very efficiently.
When off-peak file delivery using LTE Broadcast is offered in addition to live events and live-media
services, LTE Broadcast starts to become more efficient compared with unicast, with as few as
three to four users in a cell site.LTE BroadcasT – a rEvEnuE EnaBLEr in ThE moBiLE mEdia Era • oThEr usE casEs 10
While the focus of this white paper so far has been on mobile devices, there are many other
applications and use cases that can create new business opportunities for MNOs once LTE
Broadcast is deployed. Some more opportunities for LTE Broadcast are listed below.
> TV terminals inside elevators, waiting halls, airports and bus stops for location-based media
services.
> Automobiles, for content delivery to automobile screens and software updates to various
systems.
> Digital signage for periodical media updates.
> Emergency alerts, to deliver news and updates in a disaster-recovery situation.
> Displays in stadiums for in-venue media services and event-related advertising.
> High-value equipment and appliances that require software and firmware updates.
Once deployed, LTE Broadcast can be used for multiple use cases and allows MNOs to offer new
products and services directly to consumers, and enhances their role in the value chain. MNOs
can use and monetize their media and network assets and strike deals with content and media
partners for new services. From an ROI perspective, revenue generation and cost-savings
opportunities are significant and provide an attractive value proposition for MNOs.
Other use casesLTE BroadcasT – a rEvEnuE EnaBLEr in ThE moBiLE mEdia Era • concLusion 11
LTE Broadcast offers MNOs a profitable business proposition through service differentiation,
new revenue opportunities, and more efficient distribution of live and digital media.
To handle mobile device user demands on viewing experiences and upcoming emerging video
traffic, MNOs should look into alternative ways to cater to service-level demands and to manage
network capacity in addition to continuing investment in network capacity.
LTE Broadcast enables the MNO to charge premium rates for premium content with guaranteed
quality by knowing they have the ability to deliver at all times, no matter how popular any certain
live event or media offering may become. This certainty allows the MNO and its media partners
to offer new services boldly over the mobile networks, using innovative business models, without
the fear of congestion or failure to deliver to its customers.
The capability and the flexibility enabled by LTE Broadcast is a very powerful tool for operators
wishing to embrace the impact and attraction of media content, and thus to provide new services
and business opportunities in the digital mobile era.
CONCLUSION
ⓒ 2013 Ericsson AB, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Qualcomm Labs, Inc. All rights reservedLTE BroadcasT – a rEvEnuE EnaBLEr in ThE moBiLE mEdia Era • gLossary 12
GLOSSARY
ca carrier aggregation
embms evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service
epc Evolved Packet Core
mno mobile network operator
ofdma Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access
ott over-the-top
pmp point-to-multipoint
Roi return on investment
sfn single-frequency networkLTE BroadcasT – a rEvEnuE EnaBLEr in ThE moBiLE mEdia Era • rEFErEncEs 13
References
1. http://blogs.ft.com/tech-blog/2012/08/smart-phones-trump-desktops-in-olympicsviewing/
2. http://www.ericsson.com/ericsson-mobility-report
3. http://www.3gpp.org
4. http://googlemobileads.blogspot.se/2012/02/super-bowl-mvp-mobile-device-41-of.html
5. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/posts/olympic_statistics_traffic_week
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London
7. http://www.istart.co.nz/index/hm20/pc0/pv21902/EX245/ar29116