OTT Pay Model Innovations
Until now, at least here in the UK, OTT pay models have remained relatively simple. We have PVOD, TVOD, SVOD, AVOD and paid-by-licence-fee. Am I missing any? None of the biggest players have experimented with AVOD-lite like Hulu. Companies like Channel 4 and ITV have, instead, encouraged viewers [...]
OTT Question Time #62 – The Economics of FAST
It’s easy to think of FAST as simply a nice-to-have mezzanine floor between legacy scheduled programming and true on-demand viewing. After all, aren’t FAST channels – which are pre-programmed “linear” streams delivered OTT – mainly used by cord cutters who want to retain the experience of having “TV” [...]
OTT Question Time #61 – Subscribe – Churn – Resubscribe
A recent consumer survey by Omdia (free with registration) found that in the USA, the percentage of users that permanently cancelled at least one online video subscription within the previous 12 months has nearly doubled over the past three years, from 18% in November 2018 to 34% in [...]
OTT Question Time #60 – Paramount+ SWOT Analysis
With Paramount+ now live in the UK, and already boasting 40m subscribers at the end of Q1 2022, we did a SWOT analysis of the new service on this week’s OTT Question Time (Thursday 7th July, 4pm UK / 8am PST). Together with Allan McLennan, CEP/Media, Head of [...]
OTT Question Time #59 – EPGs in an OTT World
In the days of linear-only TV, the EPG (electronic programming guide) was the easiest way to find out what you might like to watch. Presented as a simple grid, or even just a list, it would tell you what’s on now, next and, if it was very sophisticated, [...]
OTT Question Time #58 – Disney+ & Netflix Going AVOD
On the one hand, last week’s news that Disney was planning to launch an ad-supported tier for Disney+ came as a bit of a surprise. After all, the SVOD, which has only been live since 2019, is still growing strongly and is forecast to overtake Netflix – in [...]
OTT Question Time #57 – The Return of Bundles
In the old linear-only world, the proposition from Pay-TV companies was attractively simple. Join us and we’ll give you everything you need. Broadband! Landlines! Mobile! And as much television, from regular channels and premium providers, as you could ever hope to have. Problem was that customers were paying [...]
50 VOD Professionals 2022 – 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 2022! Nominations are now open and we’d like to hear from you about the brilliant people that power VOD services all over the UK: [...]
OTT Question Time #56 – Aggregators vs. D2Cs
With the launch of Peacock last year, the further rollout of HBO Max this spring, and Paramount+ coming soon to the UK, D2Cs (direct-to-consumer OTT services) are massively in vogue. At the same time, aggregators seem to be falling out of favour. NBCUniversal, for example, has pulled streaming [...]
OTT Question Time #55 – OTT Product Development 2022
Take a look back at the history of OTT product development and you can see distinct cycles in action. 2005 to 2012, for example, was the pioneer phase which saw broadcasters setting up systems and workflows, digitising back-catalogues and launching their first-gen VOD services. Many of those services [...]
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