OTT Question Time

All the world seems to be moving to a subscription model – music, editorial, books, gaming, groceries and now even coffee (with Pret a Manger), furniture (with John Lewis) and cycling (with Brompton Bikes). And, of course, TV and movies. But as more film studios, cable channels and [...]

As viewers increasingly shift from watching linear to OTT, piracy and content protection become ever more important topics of discussion for broadcasters, film studios, operators and service-providers. This isn’t just an “interesting” conversation – one industry vendor, for example, told us that “In some countries, the scale of piracy [...]

Tim Davie started his new job as Director General of the BBC last week and amongst the many items in his in-tray will be what to do next with the BBC iPlayer. That was the focus of this OTT Question Time too where, together with Gulliver Smithers, CTO [...]

At this week’s OTT Question Time (Thursday 3rd September, 4pm UK) we talked Part 2 of how to build an OTT service from scratch. In the previous session we focused on first principles, backend strategy, building for where the audience is and using data to help make decisions [...]

During this episode of OTT Question Time (filmed on Thursday 20th August 2020) we talked about how to build an OTT service from scratch. Sure, many of the biggest players already have suites of mature VOD products but the subject is still absolutely relevant for, amongst others, operators, [...]

Premium VOD isn’t exactly new (remember Tower Heist in 2011?) but this year’s lockdown may have accelerated a growing trend amongst film studios and content owners to test simultaneous cinema / OTT release or even go VOD-first. NBCUniversal’s Trolls World Tour, for example, has reportedly generated D2C sales [...]

VOD services all over the world are usually built using a toolkit of common features including content discovery and recommendation, personalisation tools (like recently watched, single sign-on and device synchronisation) and player controls (like live restart, forward ten seconds and subtitling / closed captions). In this episode of [...]

At this week’s OTT Question Time we assessed the impact of OTT streaming on the environment. This is a complex, multi-faceted issue and we covered a lot of information including: The current lay of the land: how much OTT streaming is actually going? How has this increased over [...]

In this episode of OTT Question Time we looked at the TV and on-demand industry through a wide-angle lens as lockdowns in many parts of the world started to ease. Together with Gulliver Smithers, former SVP of Product & Technology at Sony Pictures Entertainment and now CTO at [...]

During this OTT Question Time we talked about content aggregators and asked if, with so many movies and TV shows now available to view online, they’re the de facto future of finding and watching titles.  We explored: Aggregator business models (free, freemium, charging SVODs and broadcasters) Building scale [...]

In this episode of OTT Question Time we went down under! Together with Kym Niblock, Chief Product & Information Officer at TVNZ, Holly Knill, Group Director, IP & Content Products at Foxtel, and Sam Hall, Chief Content & Commercial Officer at Fetch TV, we explored FTA / Pay-TV [...]

Together with Kasia Jablonska of Endemol Shine Group, Francesco Denti, formerly of Fox Networks and now advising the Web Stars Channel Group in Italy, and Simon Murray from Digital TV Research, we explored the AVOD market opportunity, AVOD platforms, how commercial deals are structured, how data is used to assess and optimise how content is performing and the role in MCNs in creating sustainable AVOD businesses.

Our guest moderator, Ben Keen, was joined by Louis Kenna of Liontree Advisors, Mike LaSalle from Shamrock Capital Advisors and Timo Argillander of IPR.VC and together they discussed M&A deal flows, funding start-ups and new content, the prospects for global tech players making increasing investments in the TMT sector and whether the industry will inevitably emerge loaded with more debt than ever before.

Together with Simon Murray of Digital TV Research, Maria Rua Aguete of Omdia and Jonathan Broughton of Media Business Insight we talked about SVOD take-up, the average number of SVODs per household, changing consumer behaviours and the elasticity of viewer’s TV / SVOD spending compared to the rest of their entertainment budgets.

Together with Simon Thomas of GroupM, Leon Siotis of SpotX and Alan Wolk of TVREV we talked about why, when TV and OTT viewing is soaring, broadcaster advertising revenues have plummeted. We also discussed regional differences between the UK, Europe and the US and the prospects for an advertising recovery later this year and in 2021.

Together with Bjarne Andre Myklebust of NRK, Kerensa Samanidis of M&E Digital Consulting and Allan McLennan of PADEM Media Group, we discussed the effect of the various national lockdowns on broadcaster, operator, pay-TV and service-provider roadmaps. Specifically, their operational, product, strategic and technical plans and how they've rapidly evolved in Q1 and Q2 2020.

Together with Julie Mitchelmore of A+E Networks, Peter Docherty of ThinkAnalytics and Richard Cooper of Ampere Analysis, we discussed the huge rise in TV and OTT viewing since the COVID-19 national lockdowns started. We also talked about the content that's being watched, the people that are watching it, how titles are presented and surfaced to audiences, the number of SVODs per household and the sustainability of this level of TV viewing.