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Articles for Steve Nathans-Kelly

Roundup: Streaming Industry Predictions for 2025

In the last few weeks, my own editorial inbox has filled to bursting with unsolicited but much-welcomed season's greetings from a disparate array of industry experts and thought leaders ringing in "End-of-Year Prediction Season" with all manner of prognostications about what's to come in 2025. Here's a quick roundup of the most intriguing, thoughtful, and surprising ones, organised into some rough categories.

Sneak Preview: Removing the Friction of Content Discovery on CTV

On Tuesday, November 12, media and entertainment technology strategist Chris Pfaff will moderate the panel "Removing the Friction of Content Discovery on CTV." Incorporating viewership data into the content discoverability process can remove the pain points that have bubbled up in the new streaming landscape, lead to more engagement with the content, and open up more opportunities for advertisers to reach their target audiences. This panel of experts from NBCUniversal, Pluto TV, Revry TV, and Gatsby TV looks at the success of genre channels and provides attendees with insight into how they help their viewers find their content faster.

What Is Contextual Advertising and How Is it Changing TV?

"Contextual advertising is a really hot topic in TV advertising right now," declared TVREV's Alan Wolk at Streaming Media Connect 2024. But what exactly is it, and how is its growing presence in CTV and streaming changing the TV experience and particularly the way advertisers buy media? Wolk, Estrella MediaCo's Christina Chung, and Mad Leo Consulting's C.J. Leonard explore these issues in this clip from their panel at Streaming Media Connect.

IBC 2024: 5G and Live Sports Contribution

Many have made the case for 5G-in-the-sports-arena around in-game sports betting, and lamented the less-explosive-than-expected growth in that area as a lost opportunity for 5G to demonstrate its prowess. While 5G and prop bets remain a well-matched pair, much of the 5F buzz at IBC2024 concerned the ways 5G is enabling live sports streamers doing cloud production to bring in multiple feeds and deliver more dynamic and engaging streams and quick-turn highlights.

IBC 2024: The Future of Content Viewing

Women in Streaming Media presented a fascinating panel on "The Future of Content Viewing" at IBC 2024 that kicked off with some striking data, courtesy of Omdia Senior Research Director Maria Rua Aguete. With the M & E market poised to top $1 trillion in overall revenue in 2024 and 61% of that coming from advertising, "everyone knows you can't make money just from subs anymore."

IBC 2024: Capturing Customers in a Crowded Streaming Marketplace

Much of what I saw at IBC 2024 focused on various new and nearly new strategies for solving one of the oldest problems in the M&E and OTT world: capturing and retaining customer attention in a constant and crowded battle for eyeballs.

The Streaming Media European Innovation Awards Winners

The 16th annual Streaming Media European Innovation Awards competition - formerly known as the Readers' Choice Awards - returns with 12 categories. With more than 9,000 votes, who are the finalists? And who are this year's winners?

Talking Localisation

Today, localisation remains a critical budgetary line item for content owners delivering shows to diverse and transnational audiences, and it is probably one whose typical costs have not, until recently, changed considerably in quite some time. The increasingly prevalent use of AI in content localisation, subtitling, and translation promises to change all of that—particularly through the controversial and ethically fraught use of imitative synthetic voices.

Are FAST Bets Paying Off for Independent Streamers?

Now that FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) has arguably moved past the "landgrab for distribution" phase and matured well beyond its initial preponderance of legacy content, are independent streamers' investments in FAST proving worthwhile? Execs from Crackle, Tastemade, and DangerTV—all members of the Independent Streaming Alliance (ISA)—discuss the challenges overcome and the challenges ahead in this discussion with Streaming Made Easy's Marion Ranchet at Streaming Media NYC.

Zixi CEO Gordon Brooks Talks Zixi-Clearhaven Partnership and IP-based Streaming Growth

On June 14, scalable IP-based media transport software supplier Zixi announced that it had secured a significant strategic investment from Clearhaven Partners, a Boston-based software private-equity firm. At the time of the announcement, Zixi CEO Gordon Brooks described the partnership with Clearhaven as a "natural fit" for Zixi, and one that would enable the company to "double down on product innovation" and "pursue the significant opportunities" in the fast-growing market for IP-based video systems. We spoke with Gordon to get more insight on the Zixi-Clearhaven partnership and what's ahead for Zixi.

Securing Streams: What Are We Trying to Protect?

Few streaming stakeholders, from entertainment to enterprise, would deny that stream security and anti-piracy matter, but what are we really protecting when we apply DRM or other methods to curb the inappropriate appropriations of streaming content? Are we protecting user experiences? Profitability? Proprietary content? An international panel of industry experts from Synamedia, EZDRM, Vindral, United Cloud, and Help Me Stream weigh in on this critical question in this clip from Streaming Media NYC 2024.

Nominate Now for the 2024 Innovation Awards

We're accepting nominations now in 12 categories for the only awards in the industry chosen by the people who actually use the products and services. Nominations close 26 June.

Post-Peak Performance in the M&E Universe

The recent Subscription Wars report commissioned by U.K.-based digital payments tech company Bango points to consumer dissatisfaction with the fractured state of subscription services in general and the increasing appeal of indirect subscription options and super-bundles of aggregated services sold through telcos like Optus in Australia. Perhaps it's another sign of less-than-inspiring times that the best thing consumers say streaming services can do for them is to stop standing out from the crowd and start disappearing into it.

Leveraging Metadata and User Data for OTT and FAST Monetisation

Nothing makes recommendation engines—and every other means of profit-making leverage—go, go, go like data in its many varieties. Metadata in particular is the key to personalising viewer experiences and optimising content portfolios. AI plays an ever-greater role in enhancing the metadata quality and improving recommendations. As analysts focused on the M&E industry and insiders at major media companies playing critical strategic roles agree, data is also essential to understanding customer journeys and making informed decisions on how to reach and retain subscribers and, on the ad-supported side, deliver the right ads to audiences and the right audiences to brands.

The State of FAST Markets: Europe vs. US

It's well-established that the FAST market matured in the US years earlier than in Europe and other parts of the world. But as the European market grows, is it evolving along the same lines as the US market, and are there lessons in where the US market stumbled that inform FAST strategy in Europe? Streaming Made Easy newsletter author Marion Ranchet and ESHAP's Evan Shapiro discuss the state of the FAST ecosystem in Europe in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2023.

HEVC vs. H.264: Bandwidth and Cost Savings

The case for moving from ubiquitous older video codecs like H.264 to newer codecs like AV1 or HEVC (H.265) is typically expressed in terms of encoding efficiency that translates to bandwidth and cost savings. For major content companies like Warner Bros. Discovery that have adopted H.265, how much has their experience borne out that hypothesis?

The State of FAST: Around the Horn with Fubo, Estrella Media, and HARTBEAT

With all the talk of FAST 2.0 and the explosion of FAST channels to the point of approaching market saturation, is FAST's self-reinvention a foregone conclusion, or even advisable at this juncture? What are the new and emerging FAST growth strategies that are driving growth today, as opposed to a year or two ago? And how have the strikes in Hollywood that consumed at least 2 quarters of the year impacted channel and content development?

Robert J.L. Moore Talks Avanci Video Codec Patent Pool Launch

What is the new Avanci Video codec patent pool, who is involved with it, what codecs does it cover, and what does it mean for OTTs and other streaming content companies in terms of paying for codec usage going forward? Should the streaming industry be bracing for a sea change when it comes to codec royalties? In this interview with Streaming Learning Center's Jan Ozer, Volpe Koenig IP attorney discusses these implications and more based on what we know so far.

The 2023 Streaming Media Innovation Award Winners

The 15th annual Streaming Media Europe Innovation Awards competition—formerly known as the Readers' Choice Awards—returns with 13 categories. With nearly 10,000 votes, who are the finalists? And who are this year's winners?

Synthetic Scabs Are Awful: Netflix, AI, and the M&E Industry's Ongoing Labor Struggle

Somehow, greenlighting "Joan Is Awful" has made Netflix look oddly actor strike-sympatico, via its winking endorsement of a show that warns against a writer-less, actor-less "profits without people" media and entertainment future from whose realisation they stand to benefit.

Voting is open for the 2023 Streaming Media European Innovation Awards

Cast your vote today in the Streaming Media European Innovation Awards. Voting closes 27 July.

Streaming Media’s Trendsetting Products and Services of 2023

A detailed guide to Streaming Media's Trendsetting Products and Services of 2023.

Nominate Now for the 2023 Innovation Awards

We're accepting nominations now in 14 categories for the only awards in the industry chosen by the people who actually use the products and services. Nominations close 26 June.

Scale Matters: How to Deliver Five-Nines Streams to Global Live Audiences

Any streaming workflow is only as strong as its weakest (or least-tested) link. The more massive the stream, unfortunately, the larg­er the opportunity and the smaller the margin for error. So, what do the experts say about the architectural demands and challenges of main­taining five-nines uptime and broadcast quality when the stakes are too high to let either suf­fer? And what solutions do they recommend?

Via LA's Heath Hoglund Talks MPEG LA/Via Licensing Patent Pool Merger

Following on the news that Via Licensing has acquired codec patent pool administrators MPEG LA to form Via LA as a "unified entity," Via LA President Heath Hoglund discusses how the pool will operate, as well as resulting synergies including streamlined IP distribution and economies of scale in this interview with Streaming Learning Center's Jan Ozer.

NAB 2023: Datavideo Talks iCast 10 All-in-One Streaming Switcher

Datavideo's John Devries and Streaming Media's Shawn Lam discuss the iCAST 10 NDI, an NDI-based switcher in this interview from the Datavideo booth at NAB 2023.

NAB 2023: vMix's Tim Vandenberg Talks NVIDIA GPU Unlocking, SRT, and vMix 26

vMix Operations Manager Tim Vandenberg and Streaming Media's Shawn Lam discuss multistream encoding via GPU unlocking, SRT output, new mix effects and more in vMix 26 and more in the vMix booth at NAB 2023.

Talking the Future of FAST at NAB 2023

A session on The Business of FAST: The Challenges in Monetization, Market Saturation and Viewer Engagement in the Streaming Summit at NAB 2023 brought together panelists from Brightcove, Gusto TV, Plex, Samsung TV Plus, SlingTV, and Vevo to discuss the surging FAST segment of the streaming market and strategic approaches to maximizing revenues and enhancing discoverability and personalization as more viewers tune in and new channels increasingly glut the market.

Streaming Sustainability and Imaginary Bridges in the Cloud

Only time will tell how successful new sustainability reporting standards ESRS E1 (European) and the SEC (US) mandate will be in the near-term in curbing greenwashing and improving sustainability requirements and adherence in the streaming industry, or how much of the long-term their failure might costs us.

The 2023 Streaming Media Europe 51

Our annual list of the most cutting-edge, influential, and dynamic technology companies in the European online video market.

Supply Chain Barriers to Streaming's Great Rebundling

Is a Great Rebundling upon us, with all-encompassing über bundles of once-disparate streaming services with cable-high price tags soon to engulf the OTT world? If so, the biggest barrier might not be cost or lack of choice. According to Ateliere CEO Dan Goman, the content companies involved lack the infrastructure or head count to pull it off.

Advertising, Bundling, and the Future of Premium Streaming

With the arrival of lower-priced ad tiers for premium streaming services, increasing aggregation and shape-shifting bundling options, ongoing changes to the streaming landscape are transforming consumer behaviour and adoption of pay TV and streaming services. But what do the numbers say about emerging market trends? How are platform providers interpreting evident shifts, and does that translate into user experience innovation? And is there really a "Great Rebundling" afoot, as so many pundits have claimed over the last 6 months?

Roundup: Streaming Industry Predictions for 2023

Predictions gathered here from industry experts and analysts for the streaming industry 2023 in five categories: Monetization, AVOD, Hybrid, and FAST; CTV and OTT; Rights, Piracy, Security, and Privacy; Expansion and Contraction; Gaming and Esports; Content Delivery; and '2023 Will Be The Year Of...'

The Future of Streaming Monetization: Beyond the SVOD/AVOD Divide

All too often, the monetization discussion revolves around a simplistic binary that expands only slightly on the old ad-supported broadcast model for home-based media and entertainment: subscription vs. advertising. Savvy publishers, rightsholders, and streaming services see a more nuanced landscape. Gamification, interactivity, merchandising, and direct-to-consumer apps let both publishers and advertisers super-serve fans with content that goes beyond live linear or VOD.

As Netflix Goes Hybrid, Zype CEO Ed Laczynski Talks OTT's Ad-Tiered Present and Future

As last week brought the long-awaited, and arguably overhyped debut of Netflix's new ad tier, I had the chance to sit down with Ed Laczynski, CEO of enterprise OTT app and platform builder Zype—a perennial Streaming Media 50 honoree—to talk about what Netflix's move means in the context of the ever-evolving OTT monetization landscape, and get some perspective on longtime, current, and emerging trends. We also talked a bit about how will impact the current and coming ad inventory ecosystem.

Q&A: Brightcove CEO Marc DeBevoise

The new Brightcove CEO talks about helping enterprises act like media companies.

The 2022 Streaming Media Innovation Award Winners

We've counted all the votes, and we're thrilled to announce the winners of the 2022 Streaming Media Europe Innovation Awards. This year's 14th annual awards saw more than 1,500 voters cast more than 10,000 votes for products nominated in 14 categories.

The Closed Circle

Long gone are the days of three-channels-only broadcast entertainment options in most countries, yet we remain nations of cord-cutters. Whether we swore off OTA because of monthly costs, fixed schedules, or intrusive advertising, OTT has largely won out because viewers clearly wanted something else.

The Shortlist: Streaming Media's 2022 Innovation Awards Finalists

The votes are in, and we'll announce the winners in September. In the meantime, here's the list of the top three vote-getters in each of our 14 categories.

Submit Your Nominations Now for the 2022 Streaming Media 50 List

Want to make sure your company is considered for our annual list of the most important, innovative, and interesting companies in the online video space? Read on, and send in your nominations by August 1.

Voting is Open for the 2022 Streaming Media European Innovation Awards

Cast your vote today in the Streaming Media European Innovation Awards. Voting closes 25 July.

Vimond's Megan Wagoner Talks Acceleration of Cloud Broadcasting

Megan Wagoner of Norway-based OTT Video CMS provider Vimond discusses the current state of cloud broadcasting and how the pandemic has accelerated migration to the cloud in this interview with Streaming Media's Tim Siglin at Streaming Media East 2022.

id3as' Dom Robinson and Help Me Stream's Tim Siglin Talk Greening of Streaming

id3as' Dom Robinson and Help Me Stream's Tim Siglin discuss the latest Greening of Streaming developments--including taking the conservation case to Parliament--in this interview from Streaming Media East 2022.

OTT Beyond Borders

Expanding into new territories is fraught, but experts from Disney, DistroTV, and BritBox have found a way. Here are their insights into what OTT platforms need to do to make it work.

Blackbird's Moment Arises as Video Industry Embraces Cloud-Based Collaborative Editing

Post houses, broadcasters, and video rights holders are embracing cloud video editing solutions like the popular Blackbird platform or moving once-peripheral distributed production workflows to the center of their operations.