Streaming Forum Preview: The Building Blocks for OTT Success
The over-the-top video landscape is changing quickly; just when it begins to come into clarity, disruptors change the playing field. It's especially difficult to get a sense of common trends and challenges in such a broad geographical region as Europe, but that's exactly what Futuresource Consulting senior market analyst for content David Sidebottom will do in a session at this year's Streaming Forum in London.
The session, called "The Building Blocks for OTT Success," will address the dynamic digital video and OTT landscape in Europe, with a focus on premium content: movies & TV. "I will review why some countries are seeing a strong appetite for such services and which countries are lagging behind and why," says Sidebottom. "I will highlight some key case studies of leading services and what can be learnt from their digital service evolution."
Futuresource recently released a report called "The Drive for Digital," which shows pay TV still in the lead even as OTT VOD services are making serious headway as technical rollouts continue and consumer attitudes evolve to embrace IP-delivered content.
"Improved infrastructure and growing IP-connected hardware bases have enabled services to provide quality seamless experience for premium OTT content delivery," says Sidebottom. "The session will highlight how the wide appeal of such services will drive significant subscriber growth and with it, the requirement for continued infrastructure investment."
Pay TV/OTT hybrids like BBC iPlayer in the UK and Viasat Viaplay in the Nordics, as well as pureplay OTT services like Netflix, are leading the way, and in their successes and failures are lessons to be learned for anyone who wants to succeed in the space.
"The premium OTT sector is the consumer-facing, headline-grabbing sector that will shape consumers' perception of what can be achieved and delivered in the burgeoning digital video landscape," Sidebottom says. "To understand what works and what does not will be key to success in this sector."
Streaming Forum runs 24-25 June at the Park Plaza Victoria in London; "The Bulding Blocks for OTT Success" will take place on Tuesday, 24 June at 10:30 a.m.