If you
haven’t got
the content
deals yet,
you’re not
ready to
build
blockbuster movies or watching
premier drama like
Game Of
Thrones
or
Breaking Bad
. You can’t
get away from the fact that it’s
bigger picture, better sound – and
it’s also a social experience with
people all sitting together on living
room couches and sharing that
experience together.
And the rise of the connected
device is changing the way we
produce content. A lot more content
is falling more into that bite-sized
piece of five to ten minutes, than
sitting down in front of the screen
for an hour at a time. It’s very
much pause/play/rewind viewing.
Do broadcasters need much
handholding or can they point
quickly to the features they want?
It varies. Some are very forward-
focused. Channel 4 [in the UK] is a
great client to work with. They’re
always looking toward the future.
Others are obviously a bit more
cautious. Largely speaking,
broadcasters get the idea that this
video internet thing is here to stay.
It’s not going anywhere. And I
think everyone more or less has
their base points covered, but when
”
“
industry that’s trying to force them
down a method of interacting and
consuming that doesn’t work for
them. The music industry has
learned this lesson in a very hard
way. If we want second screen to be
a thing, we’re going to have to
quickly learn to fit around user
behaviour.
Is the entrenched legacy of single-
screen viewing a barrier to
broadcasters innovating in OTT and
second screen?
You are starting to see a shift,
particularly with the amount of
content that millennials consume
away from a big screen TV.
I hear many second-hand stories
where people say “My kid is
watching
The Avengers
on an iPad in
the living room with a pair of
headphones on, and there’s a 40-
inch TV across the room, but they
have no interest in watching it on
that.” The current generation isn’t
as married to the idea of a big
screen TV being at the centre of
their entertainment experience. To
a lesser degree, it’s always going to
have a place when it comes to
playing video games or watching
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you get into the detail some are
more forward focused, others are
not so knowledgeable about the ins
and outs of what it might all mean.
Sometimes we’ll have
broadcasters who will say, “We
have coverage, the market is ready,
we’ve got the infrastructure.” And
we’ll ask, “What about the content?
Have you got the content?” And
they say, “No, we haven’t got the
content yet, but we’ll have it in
time.” Well, it’s your content and
the quality of the content that’s
going to drive that service. And
that’s one of the basic things that
gets overlooked. If you haven’t got
the content deals yet, you’re not
ready to build.
To us as technology people,
those things seem pretty obvious,
but when you’re thinking about a
broader service in a way that you
haven’t before, it’s an easy thing to
slip through the cracks. Part of our
job as industry experts on the
technology side is to maintain an
awareness of that and to work with
you strategically and consult with
you about how you move forward.
Miles Weaver, many thanks.
