[Included in Workshop Attendee Pass only.]
Parks Associates Research Workshop at Pay TV Show: Survivor’s Guide to the New Video World
New competition and changing consumer habits have reshaped the marketplace for pay TV, OTT services, and the content industry. Join Parks Associates and key industry leaders as we explore the trends that are defining success in the new landscape for video services.
1:00PM Welcome and Overview of Pay TV
Parks Associates’ Senior Director of Research, Brett Sappington, provides an overview of the pay-TV landscape and examines how the increasing availability of alternative paid video options has driven a decline in pay-TV subscribers.
1:10PM Video Disrupted: The New Landscape for Video Services
This isn’t your father’s pay-TV marketplace. Competitors, partners, and distribution channels are evolving, forcing a re-examination of everything from branding to service offerings to roles within the industry. This research presentation outlines the new ecosystem for video services and the trends shaping the landscape for video.
Presentation by Brett Sappington, Senior Director of Research, Parks Associates
1:45PM Video Insight: Operating in the Age of Data Ninjas
In today’s video service arena, data is a critical element for success. Companies like Netflix, Google, Amazon, and Facebook are accustomed to using data to shape their services and user experiences. In this session, industry leaders will examine the competitive advantages available through use of viewer data and how pay TV must change to achieve success in a data-driven world.
Presentation by Brett Sappington, Senior Director of Research, Parks Associates
Mrugesh Desai, Head of Sales Engineering, Accedo
Kristin Dolan, Founder & CEO, 605
Blake Sabatinelli, CEO, Newsy
Jeff Shultz, Chief Business Officer, Pluto TV
2:45PM Video Streamed: Lessons from OTT Video
Over the past three years, hundreds of OTT video services entered the market, offering consumers new choices in original content, business models, and user experiences. This research presentation will examine the successes and struggles among OTT video services, outlining the key learnings that today’s video services are leveraging to better attract and retain users.
Presentation by Hunter Sappington, Researcher, Parks Associates; and Brett Sappington, Senior Director of Research, Parks Associates
3:15PM-3:45PM Networking Break
3:45PM Video Potential: Habits of Millennials, Cutters, and Nevers
Understanding the perceptions, values, content consumption, and spending of young consumers will be important for future video service success. This research presentation will examine the behavior and attitudes of young consumers, including the video services and experiences that best capture their interest.
Presentation by Brett Sappington, Senior Director of Research, Parks Associates
4:00PM Video Tomorrow: Innovations Fueling Future Video Services
Technology and service innovations continue to reshape user experiences and redefine video services. This panel of industry leaders examines the innovations that will fuel the next generation of video services and how today’s operators and content producers can best prepare for the road ahead.
Panel Led by Brett Sappington, Senior Director of Research, Parks Associates
Mark Jensen, Exec Director, Video Product Mgmt & Strategy, ATN International
Chris Thun, VP of User Experience Product Management, TiVo
Clayton Wagar, Vice President of Advanced Technologies, Espial
Mitch Weinraub, Director of Product, AirTV
5:00PM Closing Comments and Key Takeaways
Parks Associates’ pay-TV research team provides top takeaways and recommendations for service providers navigating the changes in the pay-TV industry.
Brett Sappington, Senior Director of Research, Parks Associates
Hunter Sappington, Research Analyst, Parks Associates
In our opening main panel session, we’ll discuss the innovative strategies and technologies operators are using to reduce churn and cord cutting, while sustaining and even growing margins on their video businesses. How impactful are next-generation user interfaces? Why is integration of popular OTT services suddenly a must? How can advanced advertising be a game-changer for ARPU? And what are the features that consumers just can’t live without?
Now that MVPDs have grown accustomed to incorporating Netflix and other leading SVOD services into their UIs the next logical step is to exploit the appeal of other digital content outlets offering original programming with appeal to niche audiences, often numbering in the millions of users. How far should MVPDs go in the direction of making third-party OTT content part of their user experience, and how can they make it easier to accommodate such integrations? This discussion will address both questions.
With TV channels flowing across the Internet the moment of truth for all who are hoping to leverage addressable advertising to drive new revenue has arrived. Industry executives will deliver experience-based appraisals of the prospects and what remains to be done by buyers and sellers to realize the potential.
Entertainment consumers not only have a vast amount of decisions to make when it comes to content these days, they also have a fair amount of choice in regard to the tools that help them navigate and select shows. On the other end, distributers have more tools than ever to understanding who their audience is and selecting targets on a granular level. From Big Data to advanced analytics to AI, what are the latest technologies and best practices for creating personalized video experiences that draw subscribers in and make them stick?
Stakeholders in the pay TV industry are incurring mounting losses as growing numbers of consumers use IP-connected devices, including TVs, to access illegally streamed programs and movies. This discussion looks at how MVPDs and content suppliers can make common cause against piracy through cost sharing and other approaches to cooperating on use of forensic watermarking and engagement of third parties to track and take down pirate sites.
4K services are close at hand, as reflected in the quickening pace of content development, competitive trends and next-gen TV set sales. Content availability will be top of mind in this discussion, along with monetization strategies and how best to accommodate rollout with respect to CPE, bandwidth allocation, choice of distribution modes and other considerations.
Joel will discuss the dynamics fueling the growth in virtual pay-TV (vMVPD) services, including new primary user research that sheds light on the reasons why customers choose these services. In addition, Joel will provide forecasts for virtual pay-TV households through 2030, as well as strategy recommendations for both hybrid and pure-play virtual pay-TV providers.
The number of virtual MVPDs is growing by leaps and bounds – but the details shaping these virtual MVPDs’ strategies vary greatly. This discussion will explore and evaluate OTT strategies that go beyond traditional SVOD models to deliver live as well as on-demand TV programming, and how both established and upcoming vMVPDs might break out from the pack.
As consumers increasingly find new ways to view television content, cable and telecommunications operators are faced with the challenge of transitioning legacy video delivery networks to IP distribution systems capable of serving video to multiple devices inside and outside of the home. In this keynote, Brent Smith, president and chief technology officer at Evolution Digital, delves into the challenges facing cable operators with legacy video delivery systems and outlines a strategy for the graceful migration to IP distribution that would make any chief financial officer happy. Issues Smith will cover include why it is imperative for operators to migrate to IP video distribution, as well as how providers can launch a phased approach and minimize CAPEX investments by deploying IP hybrid set-top boxes, converting Pay-Per-View and Video on Demand services to IP distribution. Smith will emphasize the financial benefits of working with a managed service provider. Smith will also describe the importance and challenges of streaming IP content to multi-screen connected devices and launching other app-based software solutions to reach the on-the-go and non-traditional viewing households.
Consumers’ expectations around when, where and how they watch TV has forever been changed with the rise of streaming SVOD and dMVPD services. In this talk, Hulu’s Ben Smith will share how Hulu approached designing a TV experience around the viewer and share some key insights, trends and lessons learned a year into live TV.
With no contracts to sign, or equipment to lease, or installation visits to manage, relationships between program distributors and customers come easy in the over-the-top world. Maybe too easy. How do suppliers handle a newly liberated consumer who, in many cases, quits services almost as quickly as they sign up for them, often cherry-picking them to view specific programming? How can services best manage program assets, both to keep subscribers engaged, and to even recommend new personalized offerings? What are the service bundling, pricing and promotional strategies that not only bring customers in, but keep them in?
Developments in content and technology have raised prospects for AR and VR to become real service opportunities. Along with exploring these developments, this session will look at the technical challenges that will need to be addressed by distributors with regard to bandwidth requirements, workflows and much else.
While reliance on in-house facilities to process and deliver content remains the dominant modus operandi among MVPDs, alternative options, many offered by traditional providers of turnkey VOD support, are vying to lower costs of keeping pace with service expansion into UHD, cloud DVR, IP streaming and other components of the new pay TV service paradigm. This discussion offers audience members an opportunity to learn more about these new services.
