In July, financial ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service put out a report suggesting that the reign of pay-TV and network TV, normally the most stable, predictable and highest-margin segments of broadcasting, is rapidly eroding. The report was blunt, saying OTT services and digital ad platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Sling TV are breaking down the long-standing practice of contractual aggregating and bundling content for distribution through closed-system set-top boxes.
This is not exactly ‘news’ to IBC delegates where the ‘death of linear TV’ has been debated for some years. But for IBC2016 Niko Waesche, global industry head/media & entertainment at GfK, has assembled a panel of experts to examine the latest state
of play (10 September, E102, 13:30).
Waesche says that the ingredients for Netflix and Amazon Prime’s success are exclusive content, ownership of data and delivery and control of their subscriber bases. “Is vertical integration the industry blueprint for the future?” he asks. “For decades, the industry has prospered with horizontally segmented industry models. If this indeed is the only blueprint, then this has huge implications for licence content owners, broadcasters, networks, cable operators, and even television manufacturers.”
Waesche will present insights from GfK’s Viewscape study which aggregates data about SVOD use in fourteen countries.
Joining him will be Martin Guillaume, head of strategy/business development at Ericsson Broadcast & Media Services; Christian Brent, SVP/global research & audience strategy at Fox International Channels; Efe Cakarel, founder/CEO at cinema-to-subscriber specialists MUBI; and
Francesco Venturini, MD, global industry media & entertainment at Accenture.
