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.
