The urgency for broadcasters and programmers to reach viewers who reside in streaming, multiscreen TV ecosystems has already pervaded IBC. The giants in that industry still loom very large.
Both Netflix and YouTube, two world powers of streaming video, will play significant roles at IBC’s annual show in Amsterdam. Maria Ferreras, vice president of business development EMEA for Netflix, will be on hand to talk about how her company is partnering with pay-TV providers and telcos to continue fueling growth, while also innovating the service. Neal Mohan, chief product officer for YouTube, will be sharing his vision of the future of television and how broadcasters can use tech to reach more people in new ways.
Those two talks alone could inspire any number of broadcasters and programmers to either launch new or upgrade existing OTT plays and during the show, loads of vendors will be on hand with solutions built for that purpose.
Tektronix will be at the show demoing its Sentry QoE video stream monitoring solution that live sports products like FuboTV have begun using. Synamedia, the company born from Cisco selling off its Service Provider Video Solutions business, will be on hand to discuss anti-piracy tech for streaming video, multicast adaptive bit rate streaming and low-latency video streaming technology. Muvi will be showing off its hybrid OTT platform. Kaltura will be introducing its content-as-a-service platform as a hub for centralized video content management and distribution. And hundreds of others will be lining the exhibition halls with more new streaming tech.
Meanwhile, some of the smaller challengers to the likes of Amazon and Netflix will be talking about how to do battle with global SVOD powerhouses. Executives from Britbox, DAZN and FilmStruck will be talking on Friday about differentiating in the growing OTT market and overcoming remaining technical challenges. On Monday, the direct-to-consumer trend will be discussed by Michelle Munson, CEO of Eluvio; David Kline, CTO at Viacom; and Enrique Rodriguez, CTO of Liberty Global.
This year, IBC’s Content Everywhere Hub will also concern itself with OTT distribution and host 10 panel discussions featuring speakers from companies including Google, Alibaba, CSGi, Telia, Ooyala and Roku.
The world represented at IBC—where broadcasters, telcos and streaming companies struggle to coexist—can be contentious at times. As the cost of OTT entry continues to drop, as more broad and niche streaming services enter the market, and as live streaming steers closer to broadcaster quality and reliability, more and more companies will look to cash in on the VOD gold rush sparked by Netflix’s success.