OTT: This Revolution Will be Televised

In a recent issue of Media Daily News, Sam Rosen, practice director of the market intelligence company ABI, was quoted as saying: “Whether it’s Netflix expanding to International markets or ABC and CBS enhancing catch-up services, the building blocks that will restructure the how, when, and where consumers view content are starting to give shape to a new media future.”

All you video leaders out there, struggling to find video strategy sanity (i.e., the optimal marriage of content with audience) in today’s overheated media present, listen up. Rosen is right: the future is barreling quickly toward us. If you think splintering your viewing audience over all those perfect little destinations is difficult now, just wait.

No, don’t wait. The next set of destinations you’ll need to deliver your videos to is already coalescing. It’s the OTT crowd — “Over the Top” TV: the use of broadband to deliver video directly to TV audiences via internet-connected devices including gaming boxes, PCs, smart TVs, streaming devices and more. And in the process, OTT, disintermediates most cable and satellite providers.

According to Forrester’s James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., in “Online Video On TV Leads To Cord-Cutting By 2012,”

“… Online video delivered over the top is so appealing that new players and providers are stepping up to draw viewers away from their traditional linear viewing habits. …”

Forrester recommends that media product strategists of every type start the countdown clock so that they can counter the cord-cutting pressure even before it happens.

The conversations are dominated right now by big players like Microsoft with their just announced Xbox ONE and its “intelligent TV” features, and Sony Playstation 4 as well as up-and-coming streaming devices like Apple TV and Roku (which just received $60M in funding — a big hint this market is hot). The battle also includes cable and satellite TV providers (lots of rumours about DirecTV buying Hulu), television manufacturers baking OTT smack dab into their sets, Netflix, GoogleTV and others thrown into the mix. It’s a veritable olio of competitors and witch’s brew of content sites. You thought YouTube, Facebook, web sites, private sites, Hulu, Vimeo, etc. etc. etc. made your content distribution strategy a nightmare to implement, manage and measure. Just wait.

But there’s good news! Video strategists don’t need to care about who will win the battle. They just need to make sure they’re taking maximum advantage of all of these new engagement channels because, guaranteed, their audience will be watching.

Stay tuned next week for questions you should be asking your video platform provider to be sure you can reach your audience through every channel.