08:30 – 09:15
The Changing Face of OTT Viewing

BREAKFAST PANEL

Opening the show at OTT Question Time Live 2024, Julie Mitchelmore, VP Digital at A+E Networks UK, asks her panel about the demographic shifts in OTT viewing over the past few years.

Are younger viewers – whose early buy-in can lead to years of loyalty and repeat visits – watching as much TV as previous generations? Are older audiences – whose greater spending power might mean a bigger, more stable, ARPU – converting from linear to on-demand? And what of the competition from the rest of the attention economy – from editorial, gaming, music and social media platforms who are all vying for the same eyeballs?

Dan Diton, Head of Digital Research at A+E Networks UK, Matt Hill, Director of Research & Planning at Thinkbox, Matt Simpson, MD of Candyspace, and James Loveridge, Managing Director – Entertainment at Little Dot Studios provide some answers.

09:15-09:45
Google: Meeting Challenges by Leveraging New AI Powers 

FIRESIDE CHAT

Faz Aftab, Director, International M&E Partnerships at Google TV, talks to Minal Modha, Research Director & Consumer Research Lead at Ampere Analysis, about how Google’s new AI tools can help the OTT industry meet some of its most pressing challenges: user engagement, monetisation and relevancy. 

09:45-10:15
Monetising Your Platform – Lessons Learned from TiVo 

FIRESIDE CHAT

In this session Joanna Burton, adviser, will discuss with TiVo’s Lisette Preston-Barnes, Business Development Director for Monetisation and Data Optimisation, and Patrick Byrden, VP of Business Development and Strategy, insights from their experiences of helping operators, content providers, TV OEMs and brands create new revenue streams from their platforms and products.

10:15-10:45
BBC iPlayer: Staying Relevant in a Competitive Market 

FIRESIDE CHAT

Kerensa Samanidis, GM of BBC iPlayer, talks to Ben Keen, OTT expert and member of multiple industry boards, about the position that BBC iPlayer holds in the British streaming market today, how iPlayer has responded to challenges and changing market dynamics and the things that help ensure iPlayer remains a top choice for British audiences.

11:15-12:00
OTT in the Nordics: Local Heroes Thrive

PANEL

What Streaming Wars?! Local content and services reign in the Nordics. In Sweden, SVT and Viaplay command over 50% daily viewing time. DR in Denmark boasts an 85% reach for national news. And in Norway, NRK’s gripping dramas keep audiences glued to their screens.

Our panel – Annika Bidner, Product Owner at SVT Play, Casper Hald, Head of Strategic Distribution & Partnerships at DR, Bjarne Andre Myklebust, Head of Distribution at NRK, and Stein Erik Sorhaug, SVP Americas at Vimond Media Solutions, together with Ben Keen – discuss the characteristics of this unique market, and outline strategies to help local broadcasters in other territories thrive.

12:00-12:45
Building FAST Brands

PANEL

Yannick Ferrero, SVP Digital Distribution at Hasbro Entertainment, Anthony Layser, Executive Director, Content Acquisitions & Programming Strategy at Xumo, Paul Hastings, SVP Global Sales at Whip Media, and David Urgell, MD and founder of Neosmedia Consulting, together with Marion Ranchet of The Local Act Consultancy, explore the importance of brand-building when creating FAST channels nationally and internationally.

They’ll discuss:

– Hasbro’s experience of distributing content across platforms and making the most of its brands and IP
– Xumo’s perspective, as a platform, of on-boarding FAST channels since 2019
– The pivotal role of data in producing and maintaining successful FAST brands
– And FAST’s place in the wider mix of monetisation strategies open to broadcasters, content owners and streamers

13:45-14:15
How YouTube supports the Broadcast & Creative Industries 

PRESENTATION

Rob Pilgrim, Head of Sport & Primetime Channels at YouTube, believes YouTube and Traditional Media organisations are better together. This talk will share how companies in the room can leverage the latest product changes to reach new audiences and grow their businesses through the platform.

Rob will also talk about how YouTube is adapting to the changing media landscape by focusing on innovation and providing new opportunities for partners. He’ll delve into the platform’s evolution from a horizontal, long-form video platform to a mobile-first, vertical video powerhouse, showcasing the success of YouTube Shorts and its potential for Gen Z audiences.

And Rob will explore how YouTube is creating a bridge between short-form content and traditional media through Primetime Channels, allowing users to discover, subscribe, and watch content from their favorite streaming services directly on YouTube. This provides partners with a new way to harness YouTube’s scale and drive discovery for their paid offerings

14:15-14:45
What is The Metaverse & How Can Content Companies Use it?

FIRESIDE CHAT

In this fascinating session, Cyrus Saihan, Head of AR/VR/Metaverse Partnerships at Meta, talks to Gulliver Smithers, member of multiple boards and former SVP Technology & Product at Sony Pictures Entertainment, about the evolution of the Metaverse, its key building blocks, current developments and trends and the opportunities it offers to content companies. 

14:45-15:15
Driving SVOD Growth in a Challenging Market

FIRESIDE CHAT

The last couple of years have seen seismic change in the streaming landscape, with mergers, competing platforms and changing business models. How does a speciality service drive forward and what are the tools to continue to rise above the crowd?

Kerry Ball, Chief Commercial & Strategy Officer for BritBox International, is in conversation with Atonik Digital’s Nathalie Lethbridge to discuss the evolution of the streaming service over the last six years.

They will analyse how it has continued to forge ahead through the initial boom and changing market dynamics, the importance of knowing your target addressable market (as well as how to tap into adjacent ones) and of distribution and partnership strategies and being a good collaborative partner; and all whilst keeping an eye on evolutionary change and the medium to long term.

15:45-16:15
An Overview of the Indian Media & Entertainment Sector 

FIRESIDE CHAT

With 180 million TV households, 538m smartphone users, 1.2 billion telecoms subscriptions and an M&E sector worth 2.1 trillion INR (or 26.2 bn US dollars), India is surely one of the most fascinating and diverse OTT markets in the world.

In this fireside chat, Neeraj Arora, Head of International Business at Sony Pictures Networks India, and Pranab Kapadia, Bollywood producer and Director of Moviegoers International, tell us more about it and discuss: 

– The typical mindset of the Indian Consumer
– How Amazon and Netflix (rank outsiders to Indian media until five years ago) have taken over Indian consumers
– Why other streamers have failed to crack India
– The impact of new technologies on the Indian OTT industry
– And takeaways for those watching on how to enter and survive in India

16:15-16:45
Mastering the OTT Revenue Game: Embrace Complexity, Boost Growth!

FIRESIDE CHAT

During this fireside chat, Jonas Engwall, CEO of Bedrock Streaming, discusses with Andrew Ladbrook, Head of Strategy at Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates, the increasing complexity of OTT revenue streams and the need for broadcasters to continually adapt to the latest innovations to ensure profitability.

16:45-17:15
Making NOW as Entertaining as Possible 

FIRESIDE CHAT

Jacob Bridges, Managing Director of NOW, talks to ex-BBC journalist Peter Nunn about his first six months in the role. He also tells us about the trends in the streaming industry he’s seeing and the role of Sports on NOW.

08:30 – 09:15
How AI will Affect the OTT Industry

BREAKFAST PANEL

Maureen Kerr, Partner at Arthur D Little, talks to an all-star panel about how AI will affect the OTT industry across its various sub-sectors.

Gulliver Smithers, former SVP Product & Technology at Sony Pictures Entertainment, Maria Ingold, founder & CEO of Mireality, Joe Ward, CEO of EDGE and Kristan Bullett, founder and CEO of Humans Not Robots, will tell us about how AI might revolutionise content production, the changes that the tech will make on OTT user interfaces as well as in the back office, and the possible costs, human and financial, that implementing AI solutions may incur.

09:15-09:45
The Personalisation Journey at ITV 

FIRESIDE CHAT

In this Q&A session, Deep Bagchee, Chief Product Officer at ITV, talks to Renato Bonomini, VP Sales Engineering at ContentWise about ITVX’s evolving journey in viewer engagement, product development, and monetisation.

Key topics include the uses of personalisation in user engagement and retention, measuring the success of personalisation, vendor-provider relationships, unique industry insights, valuable lessons, and forward-looking strategies in the field.

09:45-10:15
From Corrie to Convergence: An Update on ITV’s Pathway from Broadcaster to Contemporary Multidimensional Streaming Business

FIRESIDE CHAT

10:15-10:45
Warner Bros Discovery’s Big Year for Streaming 

FIRESIDE CHAT

2024 is going to be a huge year for Warner Bros Discovery and streaming, with Max successfully launched in the U.S. in 2023 and further strengthened with the addition of live sports and news. Next, Max is set to roll out in LATAM, EMEA and APAC starting this year.

This session – with Leah Hooper Rosa, SVP, Head of Streaming EMEA, at WBD and Lydai Fairfax, MD and Founder of Triple Crown Consulting – will give a status update on Max and the processes behind the EMEA launches with just months to go, discuss how streaming fits into WBD’s broader media and content ecosystem, and explore the role of strategic partnerships, innovation, and experimentation to drive further growth.

11:05-11:50
The OTT Scene in Germany

PANEL

With almost 40m households and more than 500 TV channels, Germany is one of the biggest and most diversified TV markets in the world.

Add to this a booming OTT scene (40+ streaming services), a growing trend toward cord-cutting (nearly 8% of households now exclusively access TV via the internet – up from 0.5% in 2018) and the willingness of local broadcasters like RTL to experiment with bundling (the new RTL+ incorporates video, live sports, music, podcasts, audiobooks and a suite of digital magazines in a single monthly subscription) and you have a dynamic and rapidly evolving TV landscape that reflects the changing preferences and behaviours of German viewers.

Joining OTT Question Time Live 2024 to tell us about – and help us learn from – Germany’s OTT environment are: Linette Zaulich, Director Unscripted, from ZDF Studios, Gereon Joachim, VP Automotive Sales & Strategy, from Xperi, Oliver Taprogge, Director of Digital Sales at Off The Fence, and Ralph Wagner, CEO of Axinom. Marion Ranchet, MD and Founder of The Local Act Consultancy, asks the questions. 

11:50-12:15
Waking up to the New Streaming Reality

PRESENTATION

Ben Keen, OTT expert and member of multiple industry boards, provides a provocative perspective on the dynamics of the global market calling out the winner of the ’streaming wars’ and the opportunities arising from ‘glocalisation’ of content.

12:15-13:00
The Future of OTT Pay Models

PANEL

For a while in the last decade, it looked like subscriptions were going to take over the world. Netflix, Amazon and Sky (via NOW TV) led the SVOD charge and there was a sense that streaming may have decisively broken with the old broadcast advertising revenue model. We even talked about “the renaissance of AVOD” as if it was a historical curiosity like vinyl records compared to Spotify!

And then the pandemic, soaring inflation, cost of living crises and a crowded OTT market meant that as consumers looked for more cost-effective ways of watching TV, AVOD started to gain traction again.

What then does the future hold for OTT pay models? Will SVOD make its own comeback and resume its former dominance? Is advertising (Broadcast 2.0?) now just as important as subscriptions to streamers? And what place do PVOD, pay-per-view and bundling have in the mix?

Discussing this with Kauser Kanji, MD of VOD Professional and host of OTTQTL are Kate Dean, VP Direct-to-Consumer, Universal Pictures, Julie Mitchelmore, VP Digital, A+E Networks EMEA, Jonas Engwall, CEO, Bedrock and Paolo Cuttorelli, SVP Global Sales, Evergent.

14:00-14:30
Turning Audiences into Fans – What can we Learn from the World of Sport? 

FIRESIDE CHAT

With the focus more than ever on growing sustainable streaming services, what different tactics should we use to acquire new audiences in an increasingly competitive market, and extend the time they spend with us? How can we grow the top of the funnel and then optimise it to acquire and retain our next set of ‘super fans’ at a reasonable cost? And what practical examples can we take from the world of sport to increase fan lifetime value, including growing first party data and the use of new AI tools?

Three industry veterans provide some answers and share their insights:

 – Simon Danker, Founder of Glandore Consulting, who has worked on multiple projects advising major sports broadcasters, leagues and streamers on their OTT growth
– Gerry O’Sullivan, most recently Director, Digital Product Development at FIFA+ and previously in senior roles at Eutelsat, Deutsche Telekom and Sky
– and Victoria Davies, now Managing Partner at Davies, Stoychev & Partners, and a former GM and SVP at Discovery where she looked after, amongst other things, the digital revenue transformation at Eurosport

14:30-15:00
In Conversation: Katie Coteman & Lydia Fairfax

FIRESIDE CHAT

Katie Coteman, GVP, Head of Ad Sales & Partnerships at Warner Bros. Discovery speaks with Lydia Fairfax, MD and Founder of Triple Crown Consulting, about WBD’s ad sales offering in the UK & Ireland.

Focused on discovery+, the conversation will delve into the rise of SAVOD services, the importance of relevancy and reaching WBD’s audiences wherever they are.

15:00-15:45
Do You Believe in FAST?

PANEL

In this session, our moderator, Kasia Jablonska, Director of Digital & On-Demand at BBC Studios, plays devil’s advocate with her panellists and asks whether FAST really can and does work as a monetisation strategy for broadcasters, content owners and streamers.

Together with Stephen Byrne, CEO Nordics & VP Partnership Development at RTL AdAlliance, Valerio Motti, formerly VP FAST Channels, Fremantle, Maria Rua Aguete, Senior Research Director, M&E, at Omdia, and Andy Jones, Head of UK Sales at Samsung Ads, they’ll also discuss:

– Linear and BVOD viewing trends on Samsung and why FAST works on CTV platforms
– What consumers think about FAST as it evolves
– Hybridisation and where FAST fits in the mix with other pay models including AVOD and SVOD
– Related data privacy and security challenges
– And accurately measuring FAST viewing across platforms

15:45-16:15
Amazon FAST Channels: Live Linear Television in the Age of Streaming

FIRESIDE CHAT

In this fireside chat, Lisa Rousseau, Head of Amazon Freevee UK, will discuss the growing free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) Channel offering from Amazon, why customers are so drawn to this “live” experience in a world of on-demand, and the future vision for FAST Channels on the service.

The conversation will be moderated by Gary Woolf, EVP Strategic Development at All3Media International.