Posts

  • OTT Question Time #23 – Addressable Advertising

    It’s been nearly two months since ITV launched its new addressable advertising platform, Planet V, and at this week’s OTT Question Time (Thursday 26 Nov) one of the architects of the service, Rhys McLachlan, joined our panel. Together with Leon Siotis, President EMEA of SpotX and John Tigg, VP &

  • OTT Question Time #22 – Are We at the End of Peak TV?

    We’ve undoubtedly been living in a golden age of television. The number of original scripted series in the USA has more than doubled since 2010 (from 216 to 532 in 2019). The range of platforms we can watch on – both in terms of hardware (TVs, phones, tablets) and services

  • OTT Question Time #21 – Content Recommendation Vendors

    OTT viewing has boomed during this crazy year and as a result, content discovery and recommendation has never been more important. How are audiences finding TV shows and movies to watch? How do they access hidden gems or titles they might have missed? How are they made aware of both

  • OTT Question Time #20 – Talking Disney+

    Disney has played a long OTT game. Through the last decade, the company monetised established distribution channels and pay windows – cinema, DVD / TVOD / EST, SVOD, free-to-air – whilst continuing to make mass audience TV shows and movies. It acquired the Marvel and Star Wars universes and developed

  • OTT Question Time #19 – Sweden OTT Special

    Sweden – in common with its Scandinavian neighbours – has long led the OTT charge. SVT, the national broadcaster, launched its first VOD product, SVT Play, in 2007, HBO Nordic and Netflix have been active in the region since 2012, and Disney+ went live last month. Now, the country has

  • OTT Question Time #18 – Assessing OTT Pay Models

    All the world seems to be moving to a subscription model – music, editorial, books, gaming, groceries and now even coffee (with Pret a Manger), furniture (with John Lewis) and cycling (with Brompton Bikes). And, of course, TV and movies. But as more film studios, cable channels and broadcasters launch

  • OTT Question Time #17 – OTT Piracy & Content Protection

    As viewers increasingly shift from watching linear to OTT, piracy and content protection become ever more important topics of discussion for broadcasters, film studios, operators and service-providers. This isn’t just an “interesting” conversation – one industry vendor, for example, told us that “In some countries, the scale of piracy is such

  • 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,