Television: CAS and Middleware

Hydra is implemented at dozens of service providers offering services of digital TV, IPTV, and analog TV, which use DOCSIS, DVB-T, and Metro Ethernet technologies.

Marketing: Promotional Price Plans and Options

Billing system allows segmenting the customer base by offering your customers a number of price plans to choose from with different basic TV packages. For each basic package, specify a separate list of additional packages (plan options) available for an extra fee. For example, a football channel can be an extra option to the basic Sports package.

Video on demand (VoD) services are included in the Hydra price plan as a one-off service with an extra charge or as a subscription for a plan option of N movies for an extra fixed fee.

New customers get special promotional price plans and discounts for the first number of months, which is set up so that later Hydra will automatically change them to standard terms.

Price Plan Offers

Many TV service providers strive to increase the ARPU of TV as their flagship service with the help of extra convergent services, for example Internet access. For this case, Hydra offers two types of bundled price plans:

• fixed, meaning they have fixed terms for each kind of service. For example, Internet traffic at 20 Mbps plus a basic package consisting of 50 TV channels; and
• flexible (à la carte), meaning customers choose which terms they need for every service, and Hydra gives a discount for a combination of subscriptions.

For example, Internet access at 20 Mbps costs $25 a month, while a package of 50 TV channels is $15, if you offer each one separately. If a customer already has a TV subscription and then requests Internet access, it is possible to offer it at 25% off so that both services together will cost only $33.75 ($15 + $25 * 75%) instead of $40.

More often, service providers using Hydra introduce new services with fixed bundles to make them clear and simple to customers. As the customers get more experience, they are offered more complex à la carte bundles with a service selection wizard with a built-in discount calculator.

Set-top Boxes and CAM Modules Inventory

Hydra stores all inventory data on customer set-top boxes and CAM modules, such as their serial numbers, MAC addresses, IP addresses, and owner addresses. This data is used to manage subscriptions for bundles of channels in CAS and middleware. Moreover, with the help of Provisioning, CPE can be paired with a card to avoid possible fraud.

For digital TV services, Hydra Billing offers marketing support for more than one unit of equipment per customer. For example, households with several TVs can be offered the second set-top box on free lease terms under the condition that they purchase a defined number of channels, while the third or more set-top boxes require extra fees.

Set-top Boxes for Rent or on an Installment Plan

Hydra allows selling set-top boxes to customers in installments or leasing them in order to lower the initial investment. Subsidized equipment, as a rule, is offered to customers with a commitment for long-term service use. Billing supports contract price plans, including the installment payments in the subscription fee. In this case, a customer cannot change the price plan in the Self-Care Portal. Hydra automatically charges late payment and early termination fees. If equipment is leased, Hydra charges an extra subscription fee.

Customer Self-Care Portal

The customer Self-Care Portal is included in the standard version of the Hydra Billing and makes it possible to:

• change price plans,
• switch on and off price plan options,
• pay for services online,
• set up recurring payments,
• download invoices,
• check detailed history of payments and services, and
• manage SMS notifications.

Technical Information

We have already integrated the Hydra Provisioning module with popular CAS like:

• Irdeto
• CTI
• XCrypt

Further, Hydra supports IPTV middleware and OTT services from different vendors out of the box. For analog cable TV, Hydra does periodic reports on customers for termination in case of late payments as well as for connection for newly paid bills.