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September 2014 www.tvbeurope.com


TVBEurope 33 Special Report: OTT Multiscreen


The business of OTT content Mastering multiscreen


By Miles Weaver, product manager of Piksel’s second screen application, 2Si


T


he last 18 months have been pivotal for the OTT and multiscreen space, and the industry has moved from strength to


strength in terms of public perception, content deals and platform presence. There has been a fundamental shift in the way that the global population consumes video, as connectivity rates have steadily increased and connected devices have further penetrated the mainstream. The biggest driver of this change has been content itself. From the culmination of Breaking Bad in the latter half of 2013, rapidly increasing numbers of movies and TV shows have shown up on OTT services around the globe. From theatrical movies receiving simultaneous releases on iTunes, to Game of Thrones being shown on Sky Go at the same time as airing on linear TV, content has become far more easily and legally available. Users are fl ocking to services that put the control of ‘when, where and how’ they view at their fi ngertips.


The next big consideration for operators is how best to get their message out and stand apart from the competition when it comes to their multiscreen offering. There are so many offerings in the market right now – how does one set itself apart from another? Piksel believes that any offering needs to put consumer needs at the heart of its pitch. All the technology in the world is useless unless users genuinely want to use it, and as such, focus needs to remain on content and device support. There should be a strong content offering on show, with marquee name titles or cult hits to attract eyeballs, and the widest possible range of devices and operating systems supported. The continuing trend of downloading content for on-the-go viewing also should not be overlooked.


Of course, none of this matters if what is on offer isn’t available for a price or in a model that suits the consumer. To this end, we see two major competing models that seem to be vying for


dominance in the space. The fi rst is the straight- up subscription service, a la Netfl ix. For a monthly fee, users get access to all the content in a service’s offering to stream (and occasionally download), as much as they like. Hulu has also pioneered this business model with great success, to the extent that these two companies are arguably the two biggest streaming services in North America. However, there are drawbacks to the subscription model, namely that the services that use it are usually independent entities.


The other side of the coin is what could be called the ‘value add’ model, where a user already has a subscription with their cable provider, and an OTT multiscreen offering is made available to them as, essentially, a deal sweetener. In 2014, there are few major cable companies on the planet that would consider putting out an offering without some sort of multiscreen solution to stand alongside it – it has become something that most users expect to have. Thus, we have the two major models that are driving the industry right now, and yet, strangely, a great many users seem to be signed up to both of


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