What would 2020 have been like for the OTT industry if there had never been a pandemic? In many ways it might have been business as usual: VOD viewing – compared to linear – would have gently increased along with addressability and AVOD revenues. Disney+ and Peacock would still have launched. Quibi might have been a success. And PVOD may have remained a greyed-out item on executive wish lists – desirable but with little likelihood of going mainstream.
Of course 2020 turned out to be very different and at this week’s OTT Question Time, the last one before the holidays, we talked about the OTT year in review. Together with Neale Dennett, New Markets Launch Director for BritBox International, Emma Tibbetts, Founder of Chuck Data and former GM of UKTV Play, and Miles Weaver, CMO of Varnish Software, we discussed:
- Our initial reactions (as human beings and OTT organisations) to the first lockdowns in Spring
- How audiences viewing habits evolved over the year
- The knock-on effects for AVOD, SVOD, TVOD and Premium VOD
- Filling schedules and exploiting content catalogues
- And the challenges in making new content
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