While broadcasters have largely been hamstrung by TV Everywhere’s structural challenges, programmers are now looking to break free and offer content away from the traditional MVPD bundle. This session discusses the rise of virtual MVPDs that have reimagined the traditional cable bundle, as well as a growing array of stand-alone, niche, direct-to-consumer video offerings. Hear what these services look like, the content they offer, and the impact they are having on the traditional pay TV business model.

2015 is poised to be a huge year for OTT, with HBO and Showtime launching their services. These will join full OTT TV offerings like Dish’s Sling TV and potentially new services from Verizon and Vodafone. However, there are still many questions around how the TV ecosystem will evolve in light of these new services and how broadcasters and content owners will add additional revenue streams from new OTT services. This session discusses the best ways to monetize OTT content using the latest technologies, such as time- shifted television, device management, household management, deep personalization, social tools, and video applications for mobile and connected devices.

Time and cost are huge factors when media publishers consider which device platforms they need to support. In this session, a mix of developers and content publishers discuss the strategic view of supporting multiple devices and the realistic cost for deploying across multiple platforms. Learn the logical operations that can easily be repurposed and what must be unique to each platform. Using the context of existing Windows, iOS, and Android applications that the panelists have been involved with, the conversation also covers the most recent Windows 10 announcements and outlines what is required for content owners to deliver their services to connected devices.

Consumers are increasingly using mobile devices to watch professionally produced content, and video distributors are responding with a variety of offers, including TV Everywhere to enhance traditional pay TV, VOD libraries available over the top (OTT), and even live channel packages available OTT. In many cases, these offers are being targeted primarily to mobile device viewing, but may also be complementary to a TV viewing experience. This session discusses these trends and opportunities to monetize multi-screen viewing, including subscriptions, rentals, electronic sell-through, and advertising.

In this special session, Dan Rayburn presents a hands-on comparison showcasing the leading streaming devices and content platforms. Devices from Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Roku, and Sony are compared, along with content services from Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, MLB, YouTube, NFL, and many others. Attendees also get to see a demo of some of the newest content offerings in the market from Sling TV and HBO, and learn how to stream content from phones and tablets and display it on their TVs. (This will take place at the Device Pavilion, on the show floor.)

We’re used to thinking of the OTT technology landscape in terms of technology components—transcoders, origin servers, advertising servers, players, DAM systems, and so forth. But these silos are rapidly breaking down. The need for scalability, agility, and automation, coupled with the demand for continuously state-of-the- art systems in an intensively competitive environment, are forcing a change in how the vendor community should be planning, developing, deploying, and marketing their offerings. This talk discusses, from an analyst’s perspective, how the industry and its needs have changed in recent months and how they will change over the next 2–3 years.

Existing social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are making substantial investments to bring more video to their users. This panel discusses how these new video platforms differ from established online video providers and how measurement and monetization work for both the content creator and the platform provider. As these platforms become the real-time feeds more consumers use, learn how they are integrating video into their platforms, the role of programmatic algorithms, social discovery, and the competition they are giving traditional broadcast outlets.

This session explores the current status of HEVC, identifying options for encoding live and on-demand video using HEVC and discussing player options in the streaming and OTT markets. Topics include the comparative quality and usability of HEVC encoders—including encoders from x265 and MainConcept and techniques for maximizing output quality using both codecs.

It goes without saying that consumption of video is changing as new platforms, formats, and industry dynamics evolve. From the dawn of 4K to Snapchat Discover, the quality, quantity, and sheer variety of video experiences are growing every day. This panel looks at the future of broadcast and video services in a multi-screen world, attempting to peer in to the near future to explore issues both at the fore, such as 4K, and still on the fringe, such as virtual reality.