New OTT Use Case: Man-Flu
I've been in bed most of the weekend and today (Monday) with what is almost certainly a regular cold. I am a man, however, and famously we don’t get colds. No. We get man-flu. While the symptoms are virtually the same, our responses – or at least mine ...
New Studios from Channel 4 & Hearst Networks
The TV and OTT world is thrillingly complex. The glass-to-glass process, for example, the chain of events via which content gets from the first glass (the lens of the camera shooting the footage) to the last glass (the screen on which the viewer watches it) contains 30-40 links ...
Riffs Episode #5 – The BBC Licence Fee
At the Labour Party conference last week, Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for the Department of Culture, Media & Sport, said that she was looking at a mixed funding format for the BBC to help protect it from future government interference. Options included a “mixture of licence fee, ...
OTT Question Time Online, S6, Episode #4 – Collaborative Content Strategies
At the recent RTS Conference, the key theme was "Where Do We Grow From Here?". Collaboration between broadcasters was touted as one way of doing this and over the last few months we've been seeing more and more examples of content sharing, FAST channel launches and strategic tie-ups, ...
Riffs Episode #4 – OpenAI & Trump Tariffs
On this week's Riffs episode, Lydia and I discuss a range of topics including Sora 2 - OpenAI's latest generative video AI model, Tilly Norwood - a new AI actor taking Hollywood by storm (or at least exercising human actors like Emily Blunt and trade unions like SAG-AFTRA), ...
OTT Question Time Riffs Episode #3 – RTS Convention Review & Kangaroo 2.0
In our third Riffs episode, Lydia reviews the RTS Convention - an event for the great and the good from the TV and, to a point, OTT industries - which she attended in Cambridge last week (18/19 Sept. 2025). She tells me about: The PSB roundtable (featuring Tim ...
OTT Question Time S6, Episode 3 – IBC Review
This year's IBC attendance was marginally down with 43,858 visitors - a decline of around 2,000 from 2024 - but exhibitors, anecdotally, reported an air of optimism, more customer meetings, and crucially, conversations with serious prospects rather than casual browsers. And, as industry veteran, Ben Keen, observed, IBC ...
Alchemy & OTT Leadership
Last week’s report that Paramount Skydance – which only closed its own merger in August – might be preparing a takeover bid for Warner Bros Discovery got me thinking about how OTT leaders make big decisions. It’s a question I’d asked my panellists during a session at our ...
OTT Question Time Riffs Episode #2 – WBD Paramount Skydance + How OTT Leaders make Decisions
In our second Riffs episode, Lydia and I discuss reports that Paramount Skydance is preparing a takeover offer for Warner Bros Discovery. We talk about the particulars of any potential deal, how it could be funded and which bits of WBD the buyer might get. Lydia - who ...
OTTQT Riffs Episode #1 – Industry Rhythms & The Autumn Term
OTT Question Time Online is our regular debate show, where a rotating panel of senior streaming executives tackle the biggest issues facing the industry. OTTQT Riffs, on the other hand, is me and my new co-host, Lydia Fairfax, having a chat about all things OTT. Riffing, if you ...
OTT Question Time S6, Episode 2 – A Modern Streaming Operation
Two decades ago, OTT teams were often made up of seconded broadcast staff, building the first on-demand services as bolt-ons to linear TV. As streaming grew in scale and profitability, dedicated hierarchies and specialist roles emerged. In 2025, there’s no single recipe for success: today’s VOD organisations can ...
What Would Streaming Look Like if the Pandemic Never Happened?
We’ve been doing the prep calls for this week’s OTT Question Time Online with Leah Hooper Rosa, of Warner Bros Discovery, and Julie Mitchelmore of Hearst Networks EMEA - where we’re talking about the makeup and approaches of modern streaming operations – and an interesting question came up: ...
OTTQT Riffs Episode #1 – Industry Rhythms & The Autumn Term
OTT Question Time Online is our regular debate show, where a rotating panel of senior streaming executives tackle the biggest issues facing the industry. OTTQT Riffs, on the other hand, is me and my new co-host, Lydia Fairfax, having a chat about all things OTT. Riffing, if you ...
OTT Question Time S6, Episode 1 – YouTube & The BVODs
Ofcom’s latest Media Nations report, drawing on Barb data, suggests that YouTube has now overtaken ITV in total viewing, second only to the BBC channels. But is that really the full story? Are we comparing like-for-like when broadcasters and streamers are measured side by side? And what do ...
OTTQTL26 Survey: In-Trays & Out-Trays
Our annual conference, OTT Question Time Live, returns in January 2026 and will focus on two major themes. #1. In-Trays & Out-Trays To get a sense of where the industry is at, we’ll be asking our speakers, panellists, sponsors, and, of course, audience, to share what’s top ...
Are we Creatives?
If you’re reading this you probably work in the OTT industry and on this side of the glass-to-glass process. That is, you’re likely nearer to the final screen on which the end-user watches the content rather than the first one - the camera - where the movie or ...
Broadcast TV Dies in 2045 (Apparently)
YouTube overtakes ITV, but is broadcast TV really dying? We break down the latest Ofcom and BARB data with a critical eye.
ITV, PSBs & The Bouba/Kiki Effect
Two bits of industry news this week got me thinking about perception, bias, nuance. First, Ofcom published new recommendations about the prominence of public service content in the streaming age. In essence: as the media landscape shifts decisively to IP delivery, public service media (PSM) must remain easy ...
50 VOD Professionals 2025 – 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 2025! Nominations are now open and we’d like to hear from you about the brilliant people that power VOD services all over the UK: ...
Trump, Overton & Foreign Movie Tariffs
For good or bad, a typical Overton Window – the process via which an idea might move from unthinkable > radical > acceptable > sensible > popular > entirely unremarkable – used to have a reliable half-life of years. Interracial marriage, for example, in the US was still ...