#ooyala

We are a generation that is lucky to have access to our favourite TV shows, movies, and networks as long as we have access to internet. Traditional broadcasting landscape is changing, and so are our TV viewing habits. Some of us are parents that are opting out for cord-cutting options, which means the children will be growing up as cord-nevers and will not know the difference between cable networks and app driven programming.

Another thing to keep in mind is that location matters for all parties involved in the OTT industry. If you are a content producer, know which regions your content can be delivered to. Think about expanding to many regions to attract more viewers, to grow your audience, and to win over their hearts and minds with your unique content.

A great example of aiming for as many regions as possible is Netflix, and their recent expansion to over 130 countries around the world.

With improvement in quality and sizes of screens on mobile devices, not only the viewer experience becomes better, but networks and content creators gain more traction with larger inventory of devices.

According to Ooyala’s presentation, about 30% of people in North America enjoy full-length TV, and 20% full-length movies on their mobile screens. These numbers are making it clear that viewing habits are changing.

However, with changes in viewing habits and broadcasting come changes in the advertising industry. It is heavily influenced by the switch from traditional cable-driven TV to subscription and web-based video options. Hence, a closer attention will be paid to tracking such metrics as viewer behavior and actions. Despite significant revenue losses in advertising revenue, the advertising industry keeps innovating and solving such problems in various creative ways, relying increasingly on data-driven models.

OTT has influenced broadcasting positively because it allows viewers to no longer feel restricted by scheduling, locations, and devices. Producers are encouraged to explore innovation and to experiment with social features and on-the-go options. Internet connectivity in a video making business opens doors to creative and original content — for example new and authentic productions with branded content, specific to networks or events. Video libraries also keep growing based on opportunities and customer demand.

Numbers presented by Ooyala showed that around 10% of Americans stream videos on TV-connected devices daily. And this trend is going to keep growing; hence, the prediction of total video sharing traffic to be 70% by the year 2021.

A growing popularity of linear and live video is also connected to the population’s mobility on a global scale. People move and change connection providers, which drives demand for more broadband access across the world. Therefore, OTT driven technology and information about networks travels freely around the world attracting more attention and interest. In turn, the growing audience requires changes in broadband regulations for wider and more open access to informational and entertainment content.

All this said, there is a lot of good things to come in the future of OTT. Programming trends and discoverability of original content, big demand for specific content (such as sport and political events), as well as the need to fill niche OTT spots (for example, children specific content) will remain in the spotlight. One of the most important issues to remain in focus will be figuring out the best monetization models for both content and ad producers. The webinar touched on some points about ad blocking global costs that averaged to $41 billion by 2016. However, there is hope that with more data-driven approach, appropriate ad targeting, and personalization of ad content, favorability of commercial content is estimated to be at 40%. We also want to highlight, that networks should have strong strategies in place regarding branding content accordingly and successfully, focusing on audience’s needs, consumer education, and finding the right market, along with not being afraid to start small.

All we can say is good luck to all of the producers out there! Go out into the Odd world of video, and make your audiences happy! As for us, we will keep working on our cutting edge platform to help developers around the world build custom, state of the art video applications!