ENDAVO BLOG

OTTCon East: Timing and Trends

By Shaun Pope

OTTCon East was buzzing with energy and excitement last week. The show was brimming with OTT innovators and vendors, as well as telcos, content producers and broadcasters—all searching for answers to some of the industry’s biggest questions.

So what were they saying? Here’s a look at some of the top points of discussion:

Timing (Connected TV). There was a lot of debate on when all this OTT content and interactive TV technology would actually become commercially available to the consumer in a seamless home-viewing experience.

Some said it would be 5 to 8 years, while others argued it’s already here. From my point of view, the “here now” crowd is really saying the technology is available now, but the market and the service providers that control it are moving at a slower pace. Question is: How long can incumbent SP’s hold back the flood?

Consumers. Many are betting on the next wave of consumers. It was interesting to hear several speakers talk about “cord cutters” almost as if they needed to reassure themselves that the trend is real. Unfortunately, it’s not (at the moment, see: http://shar.es/miuNY).

Point being, many in the space are making wide, generalized assumptions on both market trends and shifts in consumer behavior (e.g., some making the point that the expectations and content consumption habits of the 18-24 crowd will eventually lead to explosive adoption of pure OTT video services as those consumers move into adulthood).

I’m not saying they’re wrong—just pointing out that many are stating it as fact when it’s actually only prediction.

Google TV. With the recent announcement of the Google/Sony/DISH/Intel (aka Google TV) solution, many were asking if this was a positive or negative development in the OTT space. Will Google dominate the market, or will it accelerate it to the benefit of multiple OTT players?

From the show, however, one thing is clear. The time is now for telcos, content producers and broadcasters to forge the right alliances and go for that long-term win.

OTTCon East: Observations and Opportunities

By Ryan Busing

OTTCon East may be over, but let me tell you -- after a busy couple of days of our team presenting and demonstrating at the show, everything OTT is just getting underway.

The industry’s top performers and innovators filled the Atlanta Capitol Conference Center this week, sharing their views of multiple screens, content discovery and hybrid IPTV/OTT TV. The fact is, television is changing quickly, including how people view it, all thanks to OTT.

Channel Surfing. As OTT video begins to work its way into the screens of consumers, content discovery will need to evolve as TV lineups go from hundreds of channels to potentially thousands. Just as we’ve seen the old TV Guide evolve first into electronic and now interactive program guides, future “OTT Program Guides” will need to develop new features.

Soon, users will be able to view seamlessly between broadcast and broadband content, as well as discover broadband content and advance metadata search capabilities—all while watching TV. Consumers, when faced with this unlimited programming, will expect (and rely) on discovery and recommendation processes—providing ease-of-use in building personalized viewing options.

Hybrid IPTV/OTT TV. While many of the technical aspects of the hybrid IPTV/OTT TV model are being addressed, delivering content to three screens (outside of traditional managed TV networks) raises issues for content producers and service providers beyond just the platform integration.

The advent of OTT presents multiple opportunities for content providers to consider as part of their business strategy. Should they deliver their content directly to consumers? Strike deals with service providers with their own OTT solution? Integrate content with one or a number of consumer electronics companies with OTT devices? Most likely, the answer is all or some combination of these or even others still yet to be defined.  And of course, there are many related issues such as how to preserve brand quality, control the experience of the audience, protect content from being pirated and determine the best combination of monetization services across multiple devices.

To this end, many vendors are concentrating on one aspect of the value chain and expecting the service providers to pull all the pieces together for delivery to the consumers. Finding an end-to-end technology that has a complete solution, including content management, monetization, multi-screen distribution, all wrapped with the capability to deliver a quality user experience, is a must for any successful OTT video services solution for anyone delivering OTT Video services to their customers. And if OTTCon East is any indication, the level of interest in the emerging OTT opportunity is growing fast.