In last week’s pod, Lydia tried valiantly to get me interested in the Media Act and the consultation that is currently taking place between government, Ofcom, broadcasters, streamers and TV manufacturers. It worked! I did some reading. 

And in the course of my research, a wider question surfaced: who really controls OTT? It’s some or all of the parties above, for sure, but there’s also a bigger picture here. For example, the industry is deeply dependent on a small group of US companies:

• Cloud / compute → AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud

• App ecosystems → Apple (iOS/tvOS), Google (Android/YouTube)

• Distribution layers → Amazon Channels, Roku (US-led), Apple TV

• Ad tech → Google, Amazon, The Trade Desk (US-heavy ecosystem)

Given the state of the world right now, what happens if one of those is knocked out for any reason? How might that affect streaming? 

Without veering into conspiracy theories, we thought it made for a strong episode – see video below.

As ever, feel free to reach out to me or Lydia on LinkedIn with any thoughts.

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