As telecom operators push hard to roll out Internet Protocol (IP) television services worldwide, they face major roadblocks in the shape of licensing and franchising issues, according to new studies from ABI Research. On one side, content providers worry about the security of IP networks, which are certainly not immune to hacking. These concerns affect the license arrangements they must reach with telcos wishing to distribute their intellectual property. From another quarter, cable operators -- justifiably fearing Telco IPTV encroachment on their traditional turf -- are lobbying governments fiercely to ensure that the telcos pay the same sort of franchise fees and go through the same degree of legal bureaucracy that they do. According to ABI principal analyst, Michael Arden, "In the US, this means thousands and thousands of individual contracts. Overseas, with lower cable penetration and less stringent government regulations, it is often a smaller problem." A partial solution -- at least for those telcos that can access fiber-to-the-home networks -- is "RF overlay", in which the TV signals are sent down the fiber network in a format equivalent to that used by cable services themselves. RF overlay is "a next-best solution to get content to the market quickly."
The BaaS model has been adopted across a wide range of industries due to its ability to streamline financial processes for non-banks and foster innovation. BaaS has several industry-specific use cases, where it creates new revenue streams. Banking as a Service (BaaS) is rapidly emerging as a growth market, allowing non-bank businesses to integrate banking services into their core products and online platforms. As defined by Juniper Research, BaaS is "the delivery and integration of digital banking services by licensed banks, directly into the products of non-banking businesses, commonly through the use of APIs." BaaS Market Development The core idea is that licensed banks can rent out their regulated financial infrastructure through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to third-party Fintechs and other interested companies. This enables those organizations to offer banking capabilities like payment processing, account management, and debit or credit card issuance without