There was a further panel discussion on the future of video everywhere and the measures needed to improve the delivery on every screen. The title of the session was “Technology Improving Video Delivery on Every Screen and Device”. The panellists were Jeff Baumgartner (Multichannel News), Jeff Allen (Clearleap), Michael Bishara (Synacor), Yosi Glick (Jinni) and Alan Hoff (SeaChange).
The topic of video everywhere is about changing the TV industry and it raises many questions in the minds of the industry players. While the title indicates some interest in the technology delivering the video to the device, this was actually not the topic of the discussion. As the Next TV Summit is the conference for the content creators, producers and networks, it comes as no surprise that the title indicates a discussion on how to address video everywhere from the perspective of business platforms.
With the changing business landscape, many networks and distributors wonder where this will lead to. Business strategies are changing and different players are looking for different solutions. Most see that these changes will lead to a power shift to the consumer in terms of content and platform choices.
While today content is often bundled, this model may give way to more a la carte programming for consumers. Some of the panellists argue that bundling has some advantages for the content producers, especially for the lower rated content. The most popular shows will always find their audience and can command a premium, however the shows with lower ratings may not be able to find a buyer and are better off selling in a bundle. As one panellist pointed out, it took video on demand 10 years to create an audience which was interesting for advertisers. However, all seem to agree that the coming changes will happen faster than that.
With OTT channels gaining ground, the panel agreed that content is still king. Having the right content will always attract advertisers.
Alongside changes in the TV programming world will also come some changes in the inventory sales. Less desirable content will cause the producers to become more aggressive in selling their content.
Of course, more digital TV platforms will increase the data that the advertisers expect from the networks. So far Nielsen still rules the realm, but with OTT, mobile and other video platforms becoming more mainstream, the advertiser will get used to the statistical data they get from digital platforms. They will also expect more data from linear TV networks in the future.
Almost as a side note, the panel also discussed that mobile video delivery still leaves something to be desired. This is not as much related to image quality as one may think, but in their opinion has more to do with simplicity of signing-in and accessing the content. With sign-in and electronic signatures being easy to circumvent, they see the need for an easy and secure sign-in process to push faster growth in the video everywhere arena. – Norbert Hildebrand
