kauserkanji

It’s easy to think of FAST as simply a nice-to-have mezzanine floor between legacy scheduled programming and true on-demand viewing. After all, aren’t FAST channels – which are pre-programmed “linear” streams delivered OTT – mainly used by cord cutters who want to retain the experience of having [...]

In the days of linear-only TV, the EPG (electronic programming guide) was the easiest way to find out what you might like to watch. Presented as a simple grid, or even just a list, it would tell you what’s on now, next and, if it was very sophisticated, [...]

On the one hand, last week’s news that Disney was planning to launch an ad-supported tier for Disney+ came as a bit of a surprise. After all, the SVOD, which has only been live since 2019, is still growing strongly and is forecast to overtake Netflix – [...]

With the launch of Peacock last year, the further rollout of HBO Max this spring, and Paramount+ coming soon to the UK, D2Cs (direct-to-consumer OTT services) are massively in vogue. At the same time, aggregators seem to be falling out of favour. NBCUniversal, for example, has pulled [...]

Take a look back at the history of OTT product development and you can see distinct cycles in action. 2005 to 2012, for example, was the pioneer phase which saw broadcasters setting up systems and workflows, digitising back-catalogues and launching their first-gen VOD services. Many of those [...]

Thousands of SVOD services - niche, regional and multinational - have launched around the world over the past 15 years and for each of them, someone (or perhaps a group of people) has decided what the monthly subscription cost should be. How do they do that? Have they [...]

With a population size comparable to the UK, a flourishing TV and film production sector, and a growing list of native-language titles appearing on the international streamers, it’s a little surprising that we don’t hear more about France’s OTT landscape. Especially so since last December when France became [...]

As a broadcaster, and as an OTT service-provider, ITV is a fascinating company to study and analyse. Sure, it comes with a legacy tech stack but has often been willing to embrace vendor and platform solutions to quickly get to market. It operates using lean teams full of [...]

There was a long stretch of time, from around 2012 to 2017, when Netflix was the big buzz term in the OTT industry. Everywhere I went – panels, speeches, conferences – it felt like everyone was talking about it. Netflix the disruptor. Netflix the pioneer. Netflix, both the [...]

Over the past couple of years, and whilst the world has been in various shades of lockdown, film studios and distributors have ramped up the number of their titles available to watch via PVOD. Not without some reluctance. A PVOD-First strategy means potentially leaving a lot of money [...]

At this week’s OTT Question Time, Thursday 17 February, 4pm UK, we talked about the broadcasters, films studios and operators all over the world that have decided to launch their own stand-alone OTT services and go direct-to-consumer. These companies may already have dipped their toes in the water [...]

If you’ve ever had a Star Wars night on VCR, a Friends fest on DVD, or gotten lost in a Lost box set on Blu-ray, you’ll know that TV and movie binge-watching isn’t a new phenomenon. What’s different now is the wide availability of titles to binge on, [...]

If you're analysing the environmental impact of OTT streaming you can choose to jump down any number of rabbit holes. The most obvious one is how much online video is actually being watched by any given person over the course of, say, a year? And what does that [...]

When we talk about The Streaming Wars who do we think of as the major players? Amazon, Disney and Netflix, undoubtedly, but also, given its huge customer base and deep pockets, Apple TV+? And surely Sky too as a trusted, multi-territory brand with bags of experience? But outside [...]

Sky’s launch, last month, of Sky Glass – the company’s new Smart TV – was celebrated in both the trade and national press. For consumers, Sky Glass offered the chance to subscribe to Sky TV without the need for a satellite dish or a separate set-top box. For [...]