The rapid expansion of OTT offerings to the market is creating an abundance of choice for consumers, confusion, content overload and shrinking wallets. This session helps M&E companies and operators understand the software tools needed to build audience awareness and create known users for sustainable economic models. It explores the kinds of systems that companies need to get video to play across all devices, but also to build a sizable userbase and progressively move users smartly from freemium to advertising, pay-per-view, and subscription business models.

Hear from technical and product leaders within the multichannel network community on how to make the most out of one’s relationship with platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Learn how technical meritocracies, bleeding-edge product ideas, and unconventional integrations can lead to closer, more meaningful relationships with the platforms. Attendees hear from those who have successfully partnered with social media platforms and learn how to makes these organizations partners instead of pains.

The way consumers watch video is in flux, but what does that really mean for content producers and service providers? Is the current hot strategy for cable channels to provide streaming options the right move? What types of programming are keeping consumers tied to their service providers? In this interactive session, learn the answers to these questions and others by exploring the latest survey results on cord-cutting/shaving, TV Everywhere, mobile viewing, future viewing plans and more. The presentation breaks down the results by age demographics and features findings not previously released publicly.

We all know that great user experiences are critical to video consumption on mobile and set-top boxes, but how do we go about creating those? And what data do we have to support that investment? This session discusses how content owners can use UI to improve the content consumption experience by focusing on promotion, search and key features such as resume watching. Learn how to tie a multi-platform video experience together, balancing the capabilities of each platform/OS vs. keeping a common brand experience across devices. Data is also shared on the impact of relaunching platforms where the only change was a re-architected UI.

This session discusses how advertisers can more effectively and efficiently reach a buyer of a product or service with OTT than any other media. Over-the-top TV apps have access to an enormous amount of information about a prospective buyer of a product or service. By using real-time analysis of social media, geo-location, keywords, and historical buying habits, the metadata managed by an OTT platform can be used to predict real-time buying. As a result, this predictive buying translates into a higher cost per point/cost per lead that an advertiser is willing to pay for qualified buyers. Hear about some of the technology being used, the advertising research it enables, and benefits and challenges of this new advertising buying process.

From Netflix, HBO and Showtime, to broader offerings such as Dish’s Sling, CBS’s All Access, Comcast’s Stream, and Apple TV, rumored to launch in the fall, there are a lot of OTT options. Are we ensuring differentiated experiences for consumers, or are we building a slew of “me too” services? With reports showing OTT revenues are expected to top $10B within the next few years, are content owners building a healthy marketplace with enough competition and differentiation for revenues to continue to grow? This panel explores the business strategies behind the unbundling and unraveling of the industry as it moves from cable to the cloud and the subsequent sprint to build new OTT experiences.

Many publishers use multiple analytics solutions from various OVPs (client), CDNs (server), or other specialized providers, and thus find their data fragmented into silos and difficult to interpret. This presentation focuses on the software architecture and general approach BYUtv used to create an integrated analytics solution that combines video, page, and app performance data into a single data repository for all TV Everywhere platforms. Learn how to make the challenge of measuring video consumption, user behavior, and app performance easier across multiple devices.

This presentation discusses how TV networks, sports leagues, and MCNs distribute and monetize their content on Twitter. Hear how Twitter is envisioning and enabling the publishing and monetization of video at an even-greater scale going forward. Attendees learn some of the latest video trends taking place on Twitter, how content partners are using the platform, and which type of video content, from short-form video to live broadcasting with Periscope, is having the most success.

OTT service providers have already gone ahead of the traditional VOD providers by providing 4K content to their subscribers. But is it giving the consumers the wow factor that they’re looking for, and is it really ultra HD? Internet deployment models have continued to push traditional broadcast video with more choices and evolved viewer experiences that are deployed quickly and often without heavy reliance on standards. What does this mean for ultra HD in OTT services? How does it scale across the industry and how is the term ultra HD ultimately defined? This panel features senior experts from content owners, studios, technology providers and service operators who give their individual perspectives on how ultra HD will scale across the industry and the evolution of the viewing experience within the next 5 years.

Stream stitching and server-side ad insertion are picking up steam as approaches that let content owners beat ad blockers on the desktop and provide better ad delivery on the mobile web-among other benefits. However, the technology is still early in its adoption curve, with a lot of innovation in the works to drive its deployment across more devices and use cases. This session reviews the data to see where server-side ad insertion and stitching have been helpful to publishers and broadcasters and explore how it is evolving to support analytics, interactivity, programmatic and other components of online video advertising.

For TV Everywhere to reach adoption, the current authentication process needs be made as user friendly as possible, removing any obstacle standing between consumers and their content viewing experience. In this strategic session, we look at the recommended best practices that the OATC (Open Authentication Technology Committee) has proposed to achieve such Friction-free authentication and discuss a set of guidelines that aim to create a seamless user experience in the first instance.

YouTube and Vine stars are rewriting the rules on how audiences discover and engage with content, leading to a swath of non-traditional pathways for exploration by brands, marketers, and fellow creators. It is a world devoid of the gatekeeping that dominates traditional media, allowing creators and brands to build direct relationships with the most engaged consumers. With that opportunity comes all the challenges of social media (community management, publishing strategy), plus an added layer of responsibility to the audience members themselves. In this session, successful creators and business leaders discuss how to work with video stars, what advertising means in this new space, and how the deep connection between stars and their superfans drives engagement with brands.

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.