Podcasts & Debates

Our annual conference, OTT Question Time Live, takes place in London every January. For the rest of the year – during the spring and autumn – I host online debate shows with senior industry execs, and podcasts with Lydia Fairfax.

In these sessions, we discuss industry news and developments, analyse data, and try to explain why broadcasters, streamers and film studios have made the decisions they seem to have made (and the ones they haven’t) across everything from advertising models and technology budgets to product launches, partnerships, and market dynamics.

Watch all episodes, free and on-demand. And join our mailing list to find out about upcoming sessions.

  • OTT Question Time #16 – The Future of BBC iPlayer

    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 of RampRate …

  • OTT Question Time #15 – Building an OTT Service from Scratch (Part 2)

    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 and form …

  • OTT Question Time #14 – Building an OTT Service from Scratch (Part 1)

    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, film studios, …

  • OTT Question Time #13 – PVOD & The End of Pay Windows

    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 of over …

  • OTT Question Time #12 – Is OTT UI / UX Now Fully Evolved?

    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 OTT Question …

  • OTT Question Time #11 – The Environmental Impact of OTT Streaming

    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 the past few …

  • OTT Question Time #10 – Taking Stock as Lockdowns Ease

    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 RampRate IT, …

  • OTT Question Time #9 – The Content Aggregators

    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 and whether aggregators need big …

  • OTT Question Time #8: Lessons Learned from the ANZ OTT Experience

    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 / SVOD …

  • OTT Question Time #7: Building a Profitable AVOD Business

    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.