Google/Android apps tend to have a quick path to their play...

Google/Android apps tend to have a quick path to their play store service for download. Income earning apps tend to pay about a 15% commission to Google as part of being part of their ecosystem.

Apple/IOS apps have a longer and tougher path through an Apple based certification process, with some fast tracking for Apple IOS App certified developers. Apple can also gouge up to 30% commission on income earning apps that rely on their ecosystem.

This is one of the reasons these guys make billions. This was discussed at Broadcast Asia Trade Show last week.

The delay in an Apple IOS karaoke app is natural given the slower app deployment model mentioned above.

The other thing that shareholders must figure into revenue calculations is that the new generation of smart TV's by Samsung and Phillips etc all demand about 15% commission for subscription based services streamed to their TV's. I discussed this at the TV vendor stores and they see themselves like an ecosystem of their own with licenced software platforms on all their TV's and so feel OK to charge for content on their system.

Divian stream to over 100,000 Samsung TV's in their region and the replacement life cycle for the TV industry according to industry analyst Gartner is 2.9 years so smart TV adoption is taking place quickly. The cost impost on OTT operators like TV2U now has to factor in the cost overhead of smart TV companies when calculating the end-to-end cost of streaming subscription services to end user audiences.

What is apparent is that providers of the traditional free links in the video transmission train are all lining up to work out how they can monetise their part in the deployment chain which adds to the overall cost of deployment for OTT operators and their broadcaster clients.