Reporting from the Future of Television
I’ve been working in OTT for over 15 years and started VOD Professional in 2011 with the aim of understanding how to build brilliant online video services. I conduct research and analysis, write reports and whitepapers, and help bring clients and vendors together. Catch me on our weekly debate show, OTT Question Time, or at our upcoming The Business of Future TV conference.
Featuring ITV, Sky, SVT, A+E Networks, Foxtel, Blockbuster, Nordic Entertainment Group, BeIN Media, BritBox and TVNZ, we’ve recently discussed topics including content recommendation, metadata, the evolution of video UI / UX, addressable advertising, OTT pay models as well as India, Sweden, Australia and NZ specials.
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I stream and write about broadcasters, film studios, operators, service-providers and technology vendors: OTT products, solutions and strategies.
If you’ve ever found yourself confused about content rights, you’re not alone. I’ve been working in OTT since 2005 and I still don’t really understand why, for example, the Tom Holland Spiderman movies aren’t on Disney+ (Disney owns Marvel, right?), why I can’t find the 2019 season of Masterchef UK , first aired on the BBC, to watch on any platform (AVOD / SVOD / TVOD) or why Usain Bolt’s 100m from the Beijing Olympics...
“Content is king” – the idea that OTT services need to consistently replenish their catalogues to attract (and retain) customers – is a phrase repeated so often that it’s almost become hackneyed. And yet, for broadcasters, film studios and service-providers, it’s never felt truer. Over the past sixteen months, while lots of us have been stuck at home, we’ve been watching more “TV” than ever before. At the same time, the pandemic has meant that...
Following the huge upheaval in the television and OTT advertising market last year, broadcasters and AVOD service-providers are now cautiously optimistic about the prospects for recovery and growth. ITV, for example, reported that its total ad revenue was down 11% in 2020 despite a 17% rise in VOD advertising. The company is now “seeing more positive trends”. EMarketer estimates that Hulu’s ad revenues will hit $3bn in 2021, up 31% on 2020. And GroupM has...
Consolidation isn’t new in the OTT industry – think AT&T and Time Warner (2018) or Comcast and Sky (also 2018) – but the last couple of weeks has seen a flurry of activity including the AT&T / Discovery deal, the acquisition of MGM by Amazon and the coming together of France's TF1 and M6. The UK’s competition watchdog has also recently (and provisionally) cleared the proposed merger between Virgin Media and O2. What’s going on?...
If not quite as riveting as the latest Netflix blockbuster, the evolution of OTT products – and related technologies – has been a fascinating watch. Over the past 15 years, we’ve seen broadcasters launch their own on-demand services, join forces to form aggregators like Hulu and BritBox and, more recently, split off to create their own D2Cs. At the same time, independents like YouTube, Netflix and Amazon have become superpowers in their own right, shaping consumer’s...
