OTT Question Time Live 2025 – ITV’s Approach to Ad Innovation in the Streaming Era
Experiments, prototypes, pilots, happy accidents; From Dynamic Weather targeting to KERCHING via the UK’s largest off-platform Retail Media proposition, in the last 3 years ITV has pioneered a path for broadcaster innovation in advertising. ITV’s director of Advanced Advertising, Rhys McLachlan, talks to Marion Ranchet and lifts the lid on their [...]
OTT Question Time Live 2025 – BBC iPlayer Adapting for Audiences of the Future
We started OTT Question Time Live 2025 with a discussion about future audiences and, neatly, we end with one now too with our final keynote from Kerensa Samanidis, GM of BBC iPlayer. In conversation with Ben Keen, Samanidis tells us that within an increasingly competitive and evolving digital environment, the [...]
OTT Question Time S5, Ep 7 – Amazon Prime, Disney+ & Netflix Ad Strategies
In its recent Q3 report, Netflix reported that its AVOD tier was proving to be extremely popular: ads memberships were up 35% quarter-on-quarter and, in the countries where it was available, the ad tier accounted for 50% of new sign-ups. Over at Disney, D2C streaming revenues were up [...]
OTT Question Time S5, Ep 6 – The Dynamics & Future of Film & HETV Financing
Ben Keen, the renowned OTT industry analyst, recently published a report about the state of UK film financing for the British Screen Forum. In it he outlined some of the trends he’d spotted over the past 10 years including: total spending across all film and High-End Television (HETV) [...]
OTT Question Time S5, Ep 5 – OTT Service Feels
When you think, or talk, about various OTT services, what reactions do they evoke? Are they functional (catching up with Strictly Come Dancing on BBC iPlayer)? Transactional (Prime Video comes with my Amazon membership)? Or even, ahem, emotional (Netflix and chill)? Do we love, love, love our streamers, [...]
OTT Question Time Online, Season 5, Ep 4 – Olympics Debrief
Everything about the Olympics and Paralympics is at a gargantuan scale. The logistics, the venues, the ticket sales. The sponsors, the travel, the security. The inspiration, anticipation and the sheer spectacle of it all. And, of course, the people: the athletes and fans, volunteers and organisers, the media [...]
OTT Question Time Online S5, Ep3 – The Value of Content
One of the things that made the old TV model so successful was the relative scarcity of content. If you missed something when it was broadcast you’d have to wait for it to appear on the channel again, pay to rent or buy it, or subscribe to a [...]
OTT Question Time Online S5, Ep2 – IBC Preview
At this week’s OTT Question Time Online, Thurs 12 September, 4pm UK / 5pm CET, we’ll be talking about IBC – the industry’s biggest annual trade show in Europe. But fear not, it won’t be an extended sales pitch! Instead, and together with our guests, Jonas Engwall, CEO [...]
OTT Question Time Online S5, Ep1 – Back to the Future
OTT Question Time Online returned on 29 August and in the first episode of Season 5 we debated whether, with streamers increasingly adopting broadcaster characteristics, the old broadcast model was right all along. Together with Liz Bales, CEO of BASE (the British Association for Screen Entertainment), Gulliver Smithers, formerly [...]
Ad Tiers & Password-Sharing Crackdowns Go Hand-in-Hand
What happens when a streamer starts cracking down on password sharing? Some back-of-the-envelope thinking: Password-sharers (i.e. those not paying a subscription themselves) ignore messages and continue using the service for as long as they can They stop using the service altogether They legitimately subscribe to the service and [...]
Can we Stop Talking about FAST Now?
I was at the CTAM Europe Symposium in London yesterday where, together with excellent guests from Samsung TV Plus, Vevo and Virgin Media, I moderated a panel about FAST. Yes, another one. If you detect some weariness in my tone it’s because – at least for Europe - [...]
50 VOD Professionals 2024 – Nominations Now Open!
50 VOD Professionals – our list of the 50 most influential people working in the UK’s video-on-demand and OTT industry – is back for 2024! Nominations are now open and we’d like to hear from you about the brilliant people that power VOD services all over the UK: [...]
Disney’s Q2 2024 Numbers
In a wide-ranging presentation at this year’s OTT Question Time Live 2024, the excellent Ben Keen declared a winner in The Streaming Wars. Collectively, he said, Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Paramount, Sony and Comcast had lost $600bn in value since peaking during the COVID years. “Why? Because Wall [...]
OTT Question Time Live 2024 — The Changing Face of OTT Viewing
Opening the show at OTT Question Time Live 2024, Julie Mitchelmore, VP Digital at A+E Networks UK, asked her panel about the demographic shifts in OTT viewing over the past few years. Are younger viewers – whose early buy-in can lead to years of loyalty and repeat visits – [...]
OTT Question Time Live 2024 — Google: Meeting Challenges by Leveraging New AI Powers
Faz Aftab, Director, International M&E Partnerships at Google TV, talked to Minal Modha, Research Director & Consumer Research Lead at Ampere Analysis, about how Google’s new AI tools can help the OTT industry meet some of its most pressing challenges: user engagement, monetisation and relevancy. [...]
OTT Question Time Live 2024 — Monetising Your Platform – Lessons Learned from TiVo
In this session Joanna Burton, adviser, will discussed with TiVo’s Lisette Preston-Barnes, Business Development Director for Monetisation and Data Optimisation, and Patrick Byrden, VP of Business Development and Strategy, insights from their experiences of helping operators, content providers, TV OEMs and brands create new revenue streams from their platforms and [...]
OTT Question Time Live 2024 — BBC iPlayer: Staying Relevant in a Competitive Market
Kerensa Samanidis, GM of BBC iPlayer, talks to Ben Keen, OTT expert and member of multiple industry boards, about the position that BBC iPlayer holds in the British streaming market today, how iPlayer has responded to challenges and changing market dynamics and the things that help ensure iPlayer remains [...]
OTT Question Time Live 2024 — OTT in the Nordics: Local Heroes Thrive
What Streaming Wars?! Local content and services reign in the Nordics. In Sweden, SVT and Viaplay command over 50% daily viewing time. DR in Denmark boasts an 85% reach for national news. And in Norway, NRK’s gripping dramas keep audiences glued to their screens. Our panel – Annika Bidner, [...]
OTT Question Time Live 2024 — Building FAST Brands
In this session, Yannick Ferrero, SVP Digital Distribution at Hasbro Entertainment, Anthony Layser, Executive Director, Content Acquisitions & Programming Strategy at Xumo, Paul Hastings, SVP Global Sales at Whip Media, and David Urgell, MD and founder of Neosmedia Consulting, together with Marion Ranchet of The Local Act Consultancy, explored the importance of [...]
OTT Question Time Live 2024 — How YouTube supports the Broadcast & Creative Industries
Rob Pilgrim, Head of Sport & Primetime Channels at YouTube, believes YouTube and Traditional Media organisations are better together. This presentation shared how companies in the room can leverage the latest product changes to reach new audiences and grow their businesses through the platform. Rob also talked about [...]