OTT Hits the Fast Lane the Race Is on for the Future of the Industry

OTT Hits the Fast Lane The Race Is on for the Future of the Industry

Quality of Experience OTT Monetization Is “Broadcast-Like” Even Possible? Navigating the New Wave Facebook Live Cloud and Virtual A Step-By-Step Guide for Reality Broadcasters An OTT Mirage?

OTT Case Studies A Vision For OTT National Hot Rod Association; An Interview with Piksel’s Footprint.TV Fabrice Hamaide

Inside this Issue Customer Case Studies 14 New MCN Footprint.TV Goes All in with OTT, by Paul Hamm 16 Are You Collecting the Right Data from Your OTT Video Streams?, by Steve Chung 20 National Hot Rod Association Proves that OTT Investments Are Worthwhile, by Gilles Domartini Trends & Analysis 18 The Success of OTT Depends on This One Thing, by Jason Thibeault 24 Pricing And Packaging Video For A Content Everywhere Culture, by Jake Katz Q & A Executive Q&A 13 How are the Cloud and Virtual Reality Driving the OTT Industry Forward? An Interview with Viaccess-Orca’s Sefy Ariely by Nichole Janowsky 28 A Vision for OTT, An Interview with Piksel’s Fabrice Hamaide by Brian Mahony Executive Insights 5 Navigating the New Wave of OTT Monetization, by Gene Hoffman 7 The Impact of Device Fragmentation on Multi-DRM Ownership, by Steve Christian 8 The Quest for OTT’s WYN WYN, by Kurt Michel Tech Tools 10 How Broadcasters Should Be Using Facebook Live To Promote Their Content, by Chad G. Abbott 22 Top 5 OTT Audience Acquisition Mistakes, by David Wiesenfeld 26 When Commercial CDNs Are not the Answer, by Pete Mastin 29 Metadata Strategies for the Modern Streaming Player, by Andrew Jones & Elijah Atkinson

OTT Executive Magazine Volume 1, Issue 1 - Spring 2016

Published by: Trender Research Inc., 24 Village View Road, Westford, MA 01886 • [email protected] staff Copyright 2016: Trender Research, Inc. Brian Mahony niChole Janowsky The contents of this magazine may not be reproduced in whole CEO, Trender Research Publications and Research Manager or in part without the expressed written consent of Trender Research, Inc. Founder, OTT Executive Magazine OTT Executive Magazine Editor Editor in Chief Subscriptions: www.OTTexec.com/magazine Yearly printed/mailed subscription in the U.S.: $39.95 andrea ChaMBers andrea nelson Business Development Manager Advertising: [email protected] Director of Operations Disclaimer: Some submitters may be charged an editing fee to [email protected] ensure articles are well-written and not overly promotional. ann Czado www.OTTexec.com/magazine Operations Manager Printed in the USA

OTT Executive 3 Summer 2016 Magazine Insightful Analysis of the OTT Industry By: Brian Mahony

elcome to the re-launched print and digital format of OTT WExecutive Magazine. Last year we began with a blog-like digital issue, so we are excited now to provide this more in-depth magazine to our growing community of 45,000 professionals across email, web, and social channels. You have the option to download a free PDF version or pay for a printed version that we will mail to you. I know it’s old school, but in this digital era, the physical, tactile, printed version of things still has huge shelf-life and pass- along value. Sign up at www.OTTexec.com/magazine. OTT Executive Magazine is a quarterly publication that brings together the best minds in the television and video industries Brian Mahony is the CEO and Prin- cipal Analyst, Trender Research. He to cover over-the-top (OTT) technology, trends, and business is also the founder, OTT Executive models. Our content combines contributions from OTT corporate Summit & Magazine. leaders including executives from service providers, broadcasters, programmers, and enabling technologies. Each issue is dedicated to providing thoughtful analysis and useful advice for improving the ROI of your OTT strategy. Our goal is to help keep you informed of the strategic opportunities, key challenges, and major trends shaping the industry. This Summer 2016 issue is a good example of what you will get each quarter. We have some great technical advice, such as Chad Abbot’s step-by-step guide for how broadcasters can use Facebook Live. Or The Stream Guys advice for the evolving use of metadata in modern streaming players. We also have some great case studies on companies that have adopted new OTT strategies, such as the National Hot Road Association and Footprint.TV. Some articles are a little longer and contain industry research and analysis. In some cases, several authors take different perspectives on a similar topic, such as the QoE-themed contributions from Jason Thibeault, Kurt Michel, and Pete Mastin. Finally, we have profiles and discussions with OTT industry leaders, such as Nichole Janowsky’s Q&A with Viaccess-Orca’s Sefy Ariely or my interview with Piksel’s Fabrice Hamaide. We are open to contributions from all players in the OTT ecosystem— analysts, consultants, content owners, broadcasters, service providers, and OTT technology vendors. Since our goal is to provide a forum for strategic analysis and insight, we will do our best to make sure all articles and submissions are well-written, informative and not overly promotional. Thank you to all the contributors to this issue and thanks for reading. We hope you enjoy it.

–Sincerely,

www.OTTexec.com/magazine 4 Executive Insights Navigating the New Wave of OTT Monetization By: Gene Hoffman he over-the-top (OTT) video services based monetization makes OTT similar market is well underway. In order to traditional broadcast television or Tto successfully navigate this disruptive radio. The consumer receives content in wave, content distributors, owners, and exchange for hearing or watching an ad. curators must find new ways to monetize But there’s a problem with the ad-based OTT delivery. Consumers are ready, formula. Consumers have little patience but they’re not waiting patiently. As for ads in an OTT context. An ad- the availability of broadband Internet based model might work for occasional expands, the world’s appetite for OTT users, but ads are likely to drive away consumers who want more content or who are willing to pay a premium for a better user experience.

Come Again Soon Content has value. OTT providers may Gene Hoffman, CEO of Vindicia, is want to charge customers for each unit a serial entrepreneur with experi- consumed—just as one might charge for ence in cryptography, online music, a ticket to a show. If the content is based internet advertising, and digital e- around special events, such as concerts, commerce. He has built and grown this method of monetization may work. visionary technology companies. However, this pay-per-unit model content is growing at an ever-increasing makes high customer acquisition costs pace. The OTT wave represents an inevitable. After acquiring customers, choose to be customers on an ongoing unprecedented opportunity to offer and the service provider will have to acquire basis. Just as crucially, subscription monetize direct-to-consumer content. them again in advance of every purchase. provides a foundation on which to build But how? A number of viable options the multi-device user experience that have emerged, several of which present Subscription Services consumers expect. Following an initial their own unique challenges. A subscription-based monetization signup, the content follows the consumer model enables consumers who want the across whatever devices they use. OTT as Feature OTT content to establish a relationship Some pay TV operators have turned to with the service provider. They cease Why subscriptions? the concept of “TV everywhere,” making to be just viewers or listeners; they • Predictable revenue streams: the content people have subscribed to available OTT. While this strategy turns OTT content into a feature of the multi- system operator (MSO) distribution model—it fails to monetize OTT delivery. The idea is to stem the flow of paying customers away from traditional pay TV, but a feature is not a product. Cord cutters want to make more granular choices about what content to pay for. They want standalone OTT services.

Wait for the Content You Requested Some content providers make their content available OTT without any type of sign-in or credentials—consumers just need to listen to or watch ads that accompany the desired content. Ad- Continued on next page... OTT Executive 5 Summer 2016 Magazine • Control over the customer experience: Subscriptions allow the service provider to build stronger relationships by improving the way subscribers access content across their devices. The option of ad-free content offers a superior experience for which consumers are willing to pay a premium. Subscription and other automatic recurring revenue models, such as memberships, present many advantages. Consumers have already shown that they value—and are willing to pay for— subscriptions to OTT content. In order to implement a subscription-based business model to successfully navigate the OTT wave, a robust subscription billing system—such as the solutions available from Vindicia—should be deployed. That way, OTT services are enjoyable for Consumers who subscribe pay for Provides the ability to continuously refine consumers and profitable for vendors. services automatically on a regular basis. pricing and promotions to maximize That’s the point with OTT after all, isn’t customer acquisition and retention. it? � • Less upfront commitment for consumers: Many OTT subscription • Long-term relationships with services start with a free trial and let consumers: Once consumers have subscribers cancel at any time. This subscribed, they are less likely to switch makes the initial signup low-risk for the to competing offerings, provided that the consumer. service provider delivers a high-quality user experience and continues to offer • Price and promotion flexibility: appealing content.

Trender Research™ Inc. is a consumer technology market research firm that combines expert analysis with the voice of everyday people. Trender Research is dedicated to capturing the voice of various demographic groups with different levels of technical proficiency. Trender Research's expert analysis is supplemented by the contributions of bloggers, called Trenders, who write about their use of tech gadgets and services. The Trenders, who come from all walks of life, share unique perspectives about how technology helps or hinders them in their everyday lives. Through virtual focus groups and surveys, Trenders also serve as a source for quick and candid feedback for clients looking for input on new or existing products or services.

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6 Executive Insights The Impact of Device Fragmentation on Multi-DRM Ownership By: Steve Christian

he perceived high cost of a commercial while also harmonizing rights and user digital rights management (DRM) experiences across DRM systems can Tsystem and the perceived low complexity become an overwhelming and error- of building DRM in-house are compelling prone process. well over half of video service operators For example, different DRM systems (VSOs) today to attempt to build their often utilize different rights languages, own security platforms. But such requiring proper expertise in order to approaches beg the question: Is the do-it- ensure that a system translates a given yourself DRM really cost effective in the set of rights equivalently across the long run? rights languages of all DRMs. Without Emerging research from Frost & that expertise, different devices deliver Sullivan suggests that experimenting in differing rights and privileges because of DRM is a risky business strategy that can limitations of the underlying technology actually hinder service growth and limit components, and as a result, users consistency of consumer experience. become confused and frustrated. Steve Christian, CEO of Verimatrix, In a new paper, the analyst firm reveals A mature multi-DRM solution, is responsible for product strat- the most misunderstood aspects of in contrast, unravels this exponential egy, marketing programs and man- the treacherous landscape— many of complexity into an automated, uniform agement of brand equity. Prior to which are the direct result of device interface that ensures transparent joining Verimatrix, Steven was VP fragmentation. consistency in user experience and glitch- Marketing at streaming media spe- free service upgrades and expansions. cialist Nine Systems and has also Establishing Consistency Amid run his own “virtual VP” technology Technology Disruptions Managing the Monetization Layer marketing consultancy. 2016 is expected to see the shipment of Even for VSPs that are effectively able to nearly 2.5 billion connected devices across establish consistency in their custom- nine device types. Although delivering a built DRM frameworks, the in-house more scalable infrastructure and consistent, high-quality user experience approach nearly always degenerates significantly more agile services than what across all devices, screens and networks once services enter the next phase of could be built and maintained in-house is a non-negotiable requirement that expansion. Frost & Sullivan research for a comparable investment. Simply put, finds that the average cost of porting what is technologically revolutionary With an in-house solution, a secure player to a new platform is with an in-house implementation can managing fragmentation in the range of $100,000 to $250,000. become simply evolutionary with a reliable partner. � while also harmonizing Services must support a minimum of 10- 12 devices to be considered viable and rights and user experiences ideally should be supported via browsers across DRM systems can or apps on more than 40 devices (with that number growing every year) in order become an overwhelming to be competitive. The R&D investment and error-prone process. required for upfront development alone can quickly run into the millions of must be achieved if a service is to break dollars. out of the noise to achieve significant Since multi-DRM specialists can growth and retention of subscribers, amortize development and upgrade costs keeping track of new devices, platforms across a number of customers, savings can and technologies places significant strain be passed on to customers. Accordingly, on player and server teams. With an in- with a high-quality commercial solution, house solution, managing fragmentation VSOs can expect stronger protection,

OTT Executive 7 Summer 2016 Magazine Executive Insights The Quest for OTT’s WYN WYN By: Kurt Michel

et’s think about the “perfect” network The network operator/infrastructure for delivering video (and now virtual) vendor is challenged to cost-effectively Lexperiences to meet what I refer to as the meet these needs while also meeting “many-any” challenge: any device, any regulatory requirements, quickly network, anywhere. identifying and fixing problems when It starts with video consumers, they occur, and accurately making who want immediate responsiveness, the right investments to maintain a regardless of service: videos that “goldilocks” network that matches start immediately and play—without capacity with demand. Unfortunately, a buffering, in sufficient, non-blocky “right-sized” infrastructure for streaming resolution. 24/7/365. Think: The Super the World Cup finals is likely massive Bowl, a live World Cup match, the season overkill for the other 99.99 percent of the premiere of the hottest new show, or a year. favorite old cult movie. Viewers don’t The goals of these groups are often Kurt Michel is Senior Marketing Di- care how big or small the audience is, in conflict with one another, pitting the rector of video analytics company or whether they are at home, in the car consumer, broadcaster/service provider, IneoQuest. He has over 30 years’ (passengers only, please!) on a train…or and network operator/infrastructure experience in telecom, datacom, a Wi-Fi-enabled airplane. vendor in a win-lose relationship. It does and networking, in development, The perfect network must not only not have to be this way. sales, product management and meet viewer needs. Service providers/ Agile networks built on cloud-based marketing roles. His prior experi- broadcasters and network operators/ virtualized functions (NFV/SDN) have ence as Akamai’s media global infrastructure vendors also have a stake. been proposed to address the problem, product marketing director provid- Broadcasters and service providers and IneoQuest is a strong advocate of ed a solid perspective on the OTT want their customers engaged for as long that concept. However, in order for industry and its need for more ro- as possible, and to return often. They those future agile networks to meet that bust analytics solutions. want to provide the same experience the lofty goal, improved video Intelligence is consumer wants, but at a cost they can needed so that all of that agility can be support. properly directed. We must recognize when the viewer is having a problem that will discourage further engagement, and quickly 1) prioritize it in context of other issues, 2) take short term action, and 3) prevent its future occurrence. Engagement discouragement is emphasized, because it is a moving target. Viewers will tolerate lower quality video for free content – lower resolution, a little buffering here or there. When it comes to premium content, however, their tolerance is lower, and most probably declining. This moving target for “sufficient quality” adds yet another complex dimension to the OTT quality challenge. The foundation for meeting all of these challenges is better video intelligence. When a subscriber experiences quality issues, the people responsible for customer experience need to know - now. The root cause must be

8 identified quickly. At that point, business 1. The 800 lb. gorilla model: A market infrastructure vendors can make these decisions can be made about what to do. leader with deep pockets and influence performance statistics available to their But without that info, the video business will dictate de-facto standards, and gain customers (the service providers) in is flying blind. the substantial business advantage that real time. Real service level agreements I refer to this kind of information as it will provide. This leader could be a (SLAs) can then be defined, wasteful “What You Need, When You Need it” service provider, broadcaster, or even finger pointing can be eliminated, and (WYN WYN). With intelligence that is infrastructure vendor (a CDN perhaps?). quality can be improved. WYN WYN (iWYN2) an agile, scalable Netflix has already done something The choice is ours. We can work together virtualized network can be automated to similar in SVOD, but has little incentive to improve quality, or we can wait for the respond automatically to address the root to share. I would expect this to lead to gorilla to decide the future of OTT. My causes of problems that reach business- market consolidation, as those without personal preference, both as a viewer and defined response thresholds. iWYN2 would be quickly left behind. industry participant, is to be part of the Without iWYN2, the OTT industry “Quest for iWYN2”. � will never achieve the “broadcast 2. The “Quality Evolution Standards quality” that was made possible with the (Quest)” model: A group of industry homogeneous, purpose-built television leaders, including content owners, networks with integrated measurement service providers, and infrastructure that remain the quality benchmark. With vendors (CDNs, encoder, app, storage, iWYN2, the OTT industry will be able to etc.) collaborate to define how quality exceed it. is to be measured, diagnosed, and There are two basic ways that our reported at many discrete points across industry will get there. the video distribution infrastructure. In addition, open APIs can be defined, and

OTT Executive Magazine Editorial Submissions

If you are interested in providing editorial content in our next issue, please contact Nichole Janowsky at: [email protected]

Types of Articles: Customer Case Studies: Feature an example of an OTT implementation. Trends & Analysis: A piece formed through research and analytical data. Should include quotes, lists or relevant imagery and graphics from experts in the field to validate the material. Executive Q & A or Interview: A series of questions and answers, used to communicate important information to readers.

Executive Insights: Your thoughts, your words, your perspective.

Tech Talk: Profiling of a vendor/company’s newest technology.

OTT Executive 9 Summer 2016 Magazine Tech Talk How Broadcasters Should Be Using Facebook Live To Promote Their Content By: Chad G. Abbott

ver the past year, livestreaming has With the wide release of Facebook Live allowed content-creators an unpar- earlier this year, familiarity with—and Oalleled doorway into the lives of their fans. affinity for—livestreaming from the user The interactions that result allow for more perspective has never been greater. Pow- meaningful and engaged conversations erful livestreaming platforms have exist- ed for years (perhaps even more powerful), but none of them could offer what Facebook has: the largest user base in the world. Almost every business (and certainly every broadcaster) has a presence on Fa- cebook, and Facebook Live allows brands to take their established network and create an entirely new marketing channel. By leveraging Facebook Live, broadcasters Chad G. Abbott is a digital media can, I will argue, rapidly grow their social executive at the forefront of the media influence, and, by extension, drive discussion about how to put cut- an unparalleled interest in their broad- ting edge technologies to use for than ever before. Marketers, for example, cast content. brands. He is the CEO at Abbson are using streaming to rapidly shrink the I want to share three cases in which Live, a company that provides strat- distance between brands and consumers. broadcasters strategically used Facebook egy, marketing, and production for Brands of all types are taking advan- Live to explosively promote their content the highest quality livestream cam- tage of the power of livestreaming, but online: paigns in the country. oddly, one of the most reluctant indus- First, in the days of infancy for Face- tries to partake is perhaps the most logi- book Live, HBO inked a partnership with concert completely free of charge for cal fit: broadcasting. Facebook to livestream a Foo Fighters their fans on Facebook. The network Perhaps from a fear of cannibalizing other product offerings, or perhaps from a hesitancy born of misinformation, broadcasters have been slow to adopt livestream platforms, especially those that dwell on social networks.

10 livestreamed an intimate concert with the preview the draft on Face- band at a party in Chicago to great suc- book Live. cess. Chad Ford is a re- Why do this? HBO’s eight-part do- nowned sports journalist cuseries, “Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways” with a loyal online fol- was debuting, and the publicity from the lowing. By inviting him to host their pre-show Facebook Live broadcast, ESPN took advantage of his celebrity, automatically picking up viewers who were interested in Ford. The broadcast on Facebook live took place two hours before the linear broadcast on the ESPN network. Ford’s significant personal following coupled image: Step 5 with his professional cre- and previews of what was coming up live image: Step 2 dentials created buzz for ESPN’s audi- on their broadcast channel. ence, driving both engagement online livestream made for unmatched earned and viewers for the network broadcast. media. Livestreaming promoted the ca- Third (and you knew I’d get to this ble network’s Foo Fighters docuseries, one eventually), ABC took advantage of and also created content that could be Facebook Live’s reach to create a never- used at a later date either over the air, or before-seen conversation at this year’s on social. Academy Awards. In this case, Facebook Live provided Undeniably, the most talked-about an opportunity to do content marketing part of any Hollywood awards show is in a more powerful way than ever before what goes on backstage. In a new experi- for HBO. ment, ABC launched a Facebook Live Second, when ESPN aired the annual exclusive broadcast backstage during the NBA lottery on their network this May, 87th annual Academy Awards the global cable and satellite television The livestream boasted 20 cameras channel had a leg up from the public- throughout the backstage of Dolby Theat- ity they garnered inviting Chad Ford to er in Los Angeles, allowing viewers to image: Step 6 ask their favorite celebrities questions, as well as watch These three use cases highlight how several celebrities host the forward-thinking broadcasters have tak- backstage experience. In en advantage of Facebook Live, but this this way, the awards show is just the tip of the iceberg. During the was able to drive an excep- tional amount of traffic to their network broadcast. Similarly, FOX took advantage of Facebook Live to provide backstage access to their critically-acclaimed “Grease: Live” broadcast earlier this year. During the live broadcast, FOX used Facebook Live to give viewers unprecedented access to secondary angles on the set, cast members backstage, image: Step 4 image: Step 7 OTT Executive 11 Summer 2016 Magazine Step 3: Allow Facebook to access your Step 9: Click “Finish” to end your live camera and microphone. Don’t worry, broadcast. Once your live video is over, you’ll only be prompted for this permis- it will appear on your Timeline just as a sion once. traditionally uploaded video would. Also, be sure to save the video to the camera Step 4: You’ll want to set your privacy roll on your device by switching the tog- option to “public.” This will ensure all gle for safe keeping. of your fans the ability to tune in! If you want a practice run, you can select “Only Step 10: You’re finished! Once a lives- Me” by clicking “more” and scrolling all tream has ended, the post can be edited the way to the bottom. in the traditional fashion. You can also delete it just as you would any other un- Step 5: “Describe your live video…” favorable post. This is your chance to tell people why they should stop scrolling and tune in! Remember, most live viewers will start watching partway through your broadcast, so make sure and describe the nature of your content so potential viewers know what they’ve stumbled upon, and if they should stay and watch.

Step 6: Check your camera view! Once you click “Go Live,” whatever your camera is capturing will be live, so make sure it’s pointing in the direction you want. image: Step 9 Also, keep in mind that, for the time being, Facebook Live videos are square, image: Step 10 remainder of 2016, I predict that lives- meaning you can hold your device por- treaming will explode as the preeminent trait or landscape. You can also click the To use Facebook Live with profes- way to deliver content online, and brands rotate arrows in the upper right corner to sional camera and audio equipment, as of all types will have no choice but to find switch between front and rear cameras. well as plan for potential problems with ways to keep up with the competition. internet connections, lighting, and more, Interested in taking advantage of Step 7: Click the blue “Go Live” button! consider working with a livestream part- Facebook Live for your audience? Here’s Facebook will give you a 3, 2, 1 count- ner like Abbson Live. a step-by-step guide to getting started down before you go live, but be ready! with Facebook Live today. Your broadcast will show up in News How are you using livestreaming already Note that at this time, only verified Feeds in the same order that any other with your brand? I’d love to hear from Pages on Facebook as well as select Fa- post would, and anyone who scrolls past you! More questions? Send me a tweet at cebook Live partners can broadcast on it can stay and watch for as long as you @ChadAbbott. � their page, but everyone has access to Fa- are broadcasting. As of now, there is a 90 cebook Live via their personal profiles. minute broadcast limit. (These steps show you the simplest and quickest way to get started broadcasting Step 8: Promote engagement by interact- today using just your iOS device. Face- ing with viewers and commenters. After book Live offers more advanced tools for all, you’re livestreaming to communi- those who want to take advantage, and cate a message, and by listening to your Abbson Live can help you if you need a live viewers, you can tailor that message deeper dive into them.) to whoever is tuning in live at the time! Encourage them to interact with you by Step 1: After opening the Facebook app speaking directly to them, reacting to on your device, go to your profile or page comments, and even taking suggestions and start by creating a new status, just about where to steer the content. Com- like you would do to post anything else. ments will appear in reverse chronologi- Step 2: Find and click the “Live” button; cal order, so advance the conversation by it’s second from the left. continuously reading them.

12 Q & A Executive Q & A How are the Cloud and Virtual Reality Driving the OTT Industry Forward? Interview by Nichole Janowsky with Sefy Ariely, Executive Vice President Americas, Viaccess-Orca

s part of our series interviewing lead- and marketing, the cloud makes it pos- ers in the OTT industry, I recently sible for them to differentiate themselves Ahad a chance to catch up with Sefy Ariely, within the marketplace, opening up new Executive Vice President Americas, Viac- monetization opportunities. cess-Orca. Viaccess-Orca is a global leader in the protection and enhancement of Nichole: What are the hot trends in the content services at the cross-section of OTT market right now? Pay TV and OTT services. Sefy: Big data and analytics is a major Nichole: What are the main challenges area that is gaining traction in the OTT that OTT pay-TV operators currently market. Leveraging data related to the face? television subscriber profile, operators can provide their customers with con- Sefy: While consumer demand for TV tent that is more contextually relevant, Everywhere services is high, these offer- increasing their satisfaction with the ser- As EVP, Americas at Viaccess- ings are complex and expensive to set up, vice. Data can also be used to boost con- Orca, Sefy Ariely is responsible for taking months, if not years, for operators tent efficiency and prevent piracy. expanding the company’s activities to launch. If operators want to gain an Virtual reality (VR) technology is in the Americas and especially in N. edge over the competition, they need to also making an imprint on the OTT America. Sefy has been involved in be faster, smarter, more innovative and world, allowing operators to provide an the media and Pay TV industry for cost-efficient. In short, a simpler method immersive, engaging, and personalized the past 15 years, specializing in for launching and managing video ser- television experience. IPTV and, later, OTT video services vices on every screen is required. The Finally, the cloud is significantly and the evolution of personalized, traditional approach of building out big impacting OTT service management engaging “Multi-screen TV”. data centers and technology platforms is and delivery. Recently, Viaccess-Orca no longer effective. launched a cloud-based service called Recently, cloud-based service deliv- Voyage – TV Everywhere as a Service ery has emerged as a valuable solution, (TVaaS) so that operators can take full Sefy: Cloud and virtual reality technology advantage of the monetization opportu- are not just a fantasy. In fact, they’re suc- nities, cost savings, and efficiencies of- cessfully being tested and used by leading fered by the cloud. Cloud-based services pay-TV operators to provide the ultimate such as this help simplify OTT opera- content experience on every screen. tional workflows, enabling operators to Recently, we were involved with the manage, publish, personalize, and mon- broadcast of the world’s first live stream etize content securely on multiple devices of a football match in 360 degrees and via cloud infrastructure. Since the cloud UHD with French TV channel TF1. VR is based on an OPEX model that requires technology is also being tested by satel- no infrastructure on the operator prem- lite operator Sky Italia for live and on- ises, it increases flexibility and agility, re- demand streaming of premium sporting duces costs and improves viewer engage- events in 360 degrees. increasing operators’ business agility, re- ment, leading to quicker service launch We’re also seeing tremendous inter- ducing upfront investments, and speed- times. est in cloud-based service management ing up time to market for OTT offerings. and distribution, so we expect that plat- By enabling operators to focus on criti- Nichole: Is the business case for cloud form to grow over time. � cal tasks like content acquisition, service and virtual reality services strong, or management, UX, customer engagement will it take time before they’re adopted by OTT operators? OTT Executive 13 Summer 2016 Magazine Customer Case Study New MCN Footprint.TV Goes All in with OTT By: Paul Hamm

nline video has been fast and with MCNs in a few short years. Several furious in the past decade and has companies have quickly built 100s of Odefinitively become a disruptive force in millions of dollars in market value, the TV industry. The total OTT market in including Fullscreen (bought by AT&T the US is expected to exceed $40 billion and Chernin Group at $300 million by 2019, according to a recent report by value) and Maker Studios (bought by Informa. More evidence from Interactive Disney for $900 million). Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) “2016 Footprint.TV is a new multichannel Original Digital Video Study” reported OTT network, formed by a handful of a significant increase in the number of highly-experienced digital media and viewers of original digital video content production executives from Georgia and in 2016-- 63 million, up from 45 million New York, who joined forces to capitalize in 2013. Helping to drive the growth of on the major shifts occurring in digital OTT, millennials are clearly watching entertainment to fill a niche market more online video than traditional TV. opportunity. Footprint.TV has identified Paul Hamm is CEO of Endavo: He’s Variety research in 2015 revealed that 8 of a still-underserved market by seeking to a “sleeves-rolled-up” executive who the top 10 stars, according to millennials help local, independent, digital content has seen and helped drive the dra- surveyed, were YouTube celebrities, not creators find new OTT distribution matic evolution of the online video traditional TV and movie stars. channels, build digital audience and industry over the past decade. His A new industry of multichannel revenue streams, and even help them experience in this new frontier has networks, or MCNs, has emerged quickly with content production. While many been primarily through the eyes of over the past few years to leverage and local content creators use YouTube as a start-up online media company facilitate the massive changes occurring a sole distribution channel, Footprint. (Endavo), continuously facing the in both video content consumption and TV sees the opportunity to help creators challenges of an industry moving production. Initial MCNs came about to find revenue-generating OTT network at lightning speed. provide important enabling technologies distribution outside of YouTube. Serving and services to original digital video as its its launch pad in 2016, Footprint. creators who were producing content for TV has already become active in the New Atlanta area, which has emerged over YouTube. If anyone needs proof that the York media and entertainment scene, recent years as a vibrant market for TV online video world is a highly dynamic pulling together over 20 OTT channels and film production. place and that major companies can still thus far. This summer, the MCN plans In addition to aggregating premium emerge, consider what has happened to launch similar activities in the local OTT content, Footprint.tv also plans to roll out a “Feet on the Street” UGC service that allows mobile device or desktop users to upload self-produced news and event video through a branded mobile application or through the Footprint. tv website portal. Footprint.tv network administrators and distributors will then moderate, curate and publish contributed UGC through Footprint.tv destinations, or content may be introduced into broadcast news production workflow through the platform, if licensed as such. Footprint.TV executives believe that adding high quality UGC to the mix will further strengthen the “local” nature of the MCN brand.

14 Since Footprint.TV sees an opportunity to leverage OTT technology to support and power local content creators, one of the early challenges that Footprint.TV faced was the need for a technology platform that could enable them to efficiently aggregate, manage and distribute content creators, including user-generated content, who would be uploading or syndicating their digital channels over the Internet from disparate networks, locations and technologies. The platform would also need to be able to easily and cost- effectively scale as distribution and the business grows. Footprint.TV either needed to begin developing or piecing together its own platform or it would need to find a partner who could provide all the necessary components of this new digital video network. Building their own of course would require a significant capital investment and would likely take months or years to build. Therefore, the company’s founders began their search for the right technology platform partner. Fortunately, they did not have to look social media marketing and track their interest in participating in the network. very far. Footprint.TV partnered with my success across distribution channels. It’s a Footprint.TV is now approaching company Endavo Media, which has been one-stop OTT syndication shop for most local TV broadcasters and pay TV building a MCN platform specifically everything you need as a content creator. service providers across the U.S. with designed to enable the aggregation and Footprint.TV has been able to a new source of “millennial” content OTT distribution requirements held by quickly show a working proof of concept and potential revenue streams, as the MCNs like Footprint.TV. Endavo later for its new MCN to content creators traditional TV providers are also seeking bought Footprint.TV in 2016 to facilitate (www.footprint.tv) without having to to adapt to the significant shifts that the MCN’s rollout. spend months or years and hundreds are taking place in video entertainment Endavo execs have recognized that of thousands of dollars to build their consumption. the recent emergence of multichannel own technology platform. This allowed OTT is certainly changing the networks on YouTube would likely Footprint.TV to focus on the plan of business models for all the players in the become yet another disruptive force to the aggregating original digital video content industry. To capitalize on opportunities, TV industry as they are helping to create, for the network. While Footprint.TV has vendors need to explore the best ways curate and package premium content an in-house team who identify and reach to bring the right content to the right and entertainment completely outside out to upcoming talent, the network audience, and do it nimbly and profitably. of the traditional TV ecosystem. MCNs also accepts incoming inquiries. Posting Sometimes that requires backwards, are capturing an increasing amount of consistently, engaging with the fans, forwards, or sideways integration with the attention of so-called “cord cutters” creating strong content, establishing likeminded partners. At the end of the and “cord nevers”, who largely avoid the an identity, and developing a winning day, it’s all about the consumer, and they traditional television. format are all the hallmarks of an have less and less of an allegiance to the One of Footprint.TV’s biggest content attractive content partner. status quo. � partner assets is the MCN Platform itself. In the first few months, Footprint. Creators in the Footprint.TV network TV has aggregated over 30 digital video- can log in and access a variety of tools to on-demand channels from various easily manage their content and channels, New York based content creators, including metadata and marketing assets, in addition to producing their own such as channel and title images. They content. Content creators from outside can also use the platform to conduct of New York have also begun expressing

OTT Executive 15 Summer 2016 Magazine Customer Case Study Are You Collecting the Right Data from Your OTT Video Streams? By: Steve Chung

edia companies that invest in in- nected TV devices like Roku, Apple TV, sights and data are the ones who and Amazon Fire. It’s hard to keep up, Mwill come out on top as the industry shifts but they’re trying to meet their users on to OTT video. This becomes increasingly every phone and TV. They also custom- complex as consumers stream video to ize native apps and responsive websites to many devices, so it’s crucial to have an make the most of each platform. early strategy to collect cross-platform But even if they’re doing it right, they data and analyze it holistically. might be shooting themselves in the foot. Smart content providers are building Media companies that want to be device- apps and streaming video to iPhones, An- ubiquitous often build a patchwork of droids, and the changing roster of con- web, mobile, and TV experiences that

Steve Chung is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Frankly Inc. After holding an analyst role at Goldman Sachs in NY, he has held senior leadership roles in the technology sector, including Chief Strategy Officer of CDNetworks, Executive Vice President of KIT Digital, Inc., Investment Director of BlueRun Ventures and Chief Oper- ating Officer of We Heart It.

collect viewership data in silos. These fragmented metrics are difficult to rec- oncile and paint a muddy picture (if any) of how content performs and how individual users jump between devices. It also prevents them from personal- izing content and ads: 53% of US marketers recently surveyed report that they do not personalize content because they don’t have the data they need, according to eMarketer. At the same time, they recognize that personalization brings value to the bottom line, with over half of senior marketers polled worldwide saying that it leads to higher response and engagement rates, as well as boosting timely interactions, customer affinity, and word-of- mouth. Content companies like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube are actively investing

16 in recommendation engines across all their apps (for TV, mobile, and desktop) to increase engagement. In fact, You- Tube’s entire homepage is dedicated to recommended videos, and in April 2016 it updated its recommendation algorithms and mobile app home screen to focus on serving personalized video selections. So media companies who insist on a unified data system (across device platforms) arm themselves with a clear map of the OTT battlefield and collect the necessary tools to serve competitive programming, hyper-targeted advertising, and more perspective on market segments to invest in. Conversely, patchwork datasets are born when content providers hire multiple teams of experts to build their platform experiences. For example, an original in-house team may have built a broadcaster’s desktop website, while a new in-house team codes a mobile- friendly site. They hire a vendor to build their iPhone and Android native apps, while another agency tackles set-top boxes and smart TV apps. And all the while, they may use different vendors for their CMS, video systems, and advertising programs. Even if a media company manages to reach device ubiquity with a consistent user experience (a feat in itself), the backend is usually anything but unified. Fragmented datasets make it difficult to compare apples-to-apples data and accurately measure how a video story performs across platforms. Most third-party analytics systems report data in aggregate: averages and medians. This makes it impossible to see the pathway an individual user travels from one device to • Identify the most valuable customers, one platform that brings together their another and to truly understand their content, platforms, and markets to invest CMS, cross-device distribution, data preferences and serve them personalized in analysis, and even advertising under one programming and advertising. roof with one workflow. This standard- A content provider that focuses on • Build interest graphs to recommend en- izes data collection, allows for user-cen- the individual user journey across plat- ticing content on the right device at the tered data analysis, and creates feedback forms will no longer use vague clues for best time loops to improve content curation and ad their programming, marketing, and ad- targeting. This is a reality that Frankly is vertising plans. This lets executives and • Hyper-target ads and see which plat- working towards, because we believe that their teams: forms elicit the most ad engagement insights gathered in one place is the best way to get a clear picture of what view- • Analyze real user personas and create In order to achieve this, media com- ers do and want. Without this integrated accurate user segments panies must lay the groundwork for uni- data, the true potential of OTT— tar- fied data as they develop their platform geted content and ads to the right audi- • Calculate CLV and ROI on marketing apps, housing metrics for all devices un- ence— will never be achieved. � campaigns der one roof. Another possibility is to use OTT Executive 17 Summer 2016 Magazine Trends & Analysis The Success of OTT Depends on This One Thing By: Jason Thibeault

here’s no question that over-the- of anytime, anywhere, any device access, top (OTT) video is exploding. As you would think people would be lin- Tevidenced by data from Limelight Net- ing up in droves to sign up. Only that’s works’ State of Online Video report (see not exactly the case. In fact, according to Figure 1 below)1, an increasing number Parks and Associates3, the popular OTT of consumers are adopting multiple OTT services experience a fairly high level of services. They aren’t just subscribing to annual churn (on average). Netflix, though. They are subscribing to The reason why OTT hasn’t yet dis- two, three, four, even five services (espe- placed traditional television might seem cially Millennials). obvious—it’s all about content. Even as But why, then, hasn’t OTT overtaken incumbent broadcasters like ABC, NBC, broadcast television? According to Niels- and CBS bring their video streaming ser- en2, the average American watches about vices online, people still look to their ca- five hours of television a day compared ble subscriptions for the majority of their with only one hour of online video. De- shows, especially from niche providers Jason Thibeault is the Principal spite cable operators continuing to lose (like AMC, HGTV, and USA). Why? Be- Technical Evangelist for Limelight subscribers (according to that our re- cause the content is still airing first on Networks. As a key strategist and search, approximately 91% of consumers those networks (where all the ad dollars principal evangelist for Limelight would cut the cord to their cable sub- still are) while consumers have to wait Networks. Jason is the co-author scriber under the right circumstances), it for the content to appear on OTT offer- of Recommend This! Delivering would seem that online video, right now, ings. Sure, TV-E services, like Comcast Digital Experiences People Want to is just a companion to the linear TV ex- Xfinity, provide viewers the opportunity Share (Wiley) and an inventor on a perience. But with the value proposition to watch their shows from wherever they number of technical patents with Limelight Networks.

want, but it’s still according to a linear schedule. A lack of content, though, is really only a small part of the bigger issue. The real challenge for OTT in replacing traditional television is something much deeper— quality. Most consumers today (Boomers, GenX, and Millennials) have grown up, or matured, with cable television. You sit down, push the power button on the re- mote, and, bam, there’s the video playing perfectly on the TV. That’s not the case with OTT video. Today, OTT is in the rabbit-ears phase of adoption. Whether it’s buffering, slow start times, or bitrate shifting, the experience isn’t like broadcast television at all. It’s like the days of smacking the TV on the side to clear the reception. And that upsets consumers. They want “broadcast quality” stream- Figure 1: To how many pay online services (i.e., Hulu, Netflix) do you currently subscribe (Millennials)? ing video experiences (see Figure 3 from

18 there is an increasing amount of conges- tion. One day speeds may be great. Other days, Microsoft may be delivering a patch to Windows users and Sony may have just released a hot game (that’s 50GB in size). This makes it problematic to guarantee consistency which is critical for broadcast quality online streaming, a problem that content delivery networks (CDNs) help you solve. But the other part of the problem lies with the industry itself. There is no agreement on how to measure Qual- ity of Experience (QoE). Some identify rebuffer ratio (the percentage of buffering events to total video watched) as the critical metric while others might focus on bitrate shifts. This means that there is no “standard” OTT experience from one provider to the next. And, what’s more, there’s no real plan on how to fix quality issues when they happen. The only thing that service providers can do today is switch on-the-fly between delivery networks, hoping that one will provide better performance than another. But seeing down to the individual user stream to di- agnose a problem proactively? We aren’t there yet. Quality is the elephant in the room. If the streaming industry wants online video to eventually replace traditional, Figure 2: Annual churn for OTT services linear television, it’s going to have to come together to address QoE, perhaps the State of Online Video report). They through different forums and consorti- want online video to operate exactly the Part of the issue with delivering broad- ums like the Streaming Video Alliance. same way as their traditional TV signal cast quality online streaming lies in the Whatever the mechanism, though, OTT provided by cable operators today. And delivery mechanism— the Internet. With will continue to operate on the fringe of that’s not happening. At all. more people and devices coming online, the television experience until it can provide the quality that consumers demand. �

1 http://delivers.limelight.com/OTTVideo 2 http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/03/15/the-average-american-watches- this-much-tv-every-da.aspx 3 https://www.parksassociates.com/blog/article/ pr-july2015-ott-tracker

Figure 3: What is the most frustrating aspect about watching online video (rank in order of importance)?

OTT Executive 19 Summer 2016 Magazine Customer Case Studies National Hot Rod Association Proves that OTT Investments Are Worthwhile By: Gilles Domartini

oing over the top has been a goal and motorsport gained increased amounts a challenge for many video publish- of commercial success and, eventually, Gers. People involved in online video saw signed a deal with Fox Sports. The deal the value OTT brings to their business, called for the broadcasting of two hours but there were always risks associated of qualifying sessions on each Friday with return on investment. The sceptics and/or Saturday and three hours of fi- claim that the risks lie in viewers’ dis- nals races each Sunday night 24 week- comfort towards change and the lack ends per year on the NHRA’s 2016 Mello of flexibility in their viewing behavior. Yello Drag Racing Series schedule. Each However, it’s only a matter of time before weekend consists of three days of racing the benefits outweigh the risks. preliminaries, qualifying rounds, and fi- One such organization that took nal eliminations for ten or more catego- the risk to go for OTT and succeeded ries of vehicles, and 30 hours or more of is the National Hot Rod Association streaming video per weekend. (“NHRA”). NHRA is a drag racing gov- Eventually, NHRA felt their fans Gilles Domartini is the founder of erning body, which sets rules in drag rac- wanted more options to access their con- internet startup Cleeng, who being and hosts events all over the USA and tent. More specifically, viewers needed came 4 years after inception the Canada. With over 30,000 keen drivers the full weekend show, three days of rac- leading Software-as-a-Service vid- in its rosters and over 1M Facebook fans, ing, preliminaries, qualifying, and finals eo ecommerce platform. A Europe- the NHRA is one of the biggest motor- lasting over eight hours per day. OTT an Tech 5 and Red Herring Europe sports sanctioning bodies in the world. was the perfect solution for distributing Top 100. NHRA was founded by Wally Parks it, and the real challenge was the ROI of back in 1951 in California as a way of such a new venture. organizing and promoting drag racing. Wanting to give their fans more ex- sport, the organization eventually com- Over the years, this adrenaline-fueled tensive coverage of their beloved motor- plemented their traditional broadcasting method by teaming up with Cleeng in a bid to go OTT and offer their fans value- added content.“We’re building the broadcast from the ground up. We’re showcas- ing the great personalities, unmatched on site fan experience and incredible technology that makes up the fastest motorsport on earth,” said Ken Adelson, NHRA vice president of broadcasting and digital content. “NHRA All Access will feature live and continuous coverage of all Pro and most Sportsman races from the qualifying runs on Friday through the finals on Sunday. The live stream of the in venue feed will include audio from track announcers and video from track- side big screen displays. Subscribers will be able to experience all of the racing action as if they were sitting in the stands,” the NHRA announced on NHRA.com in February.

20 The NHRA chose Cleeng’s video • Global reach Ability for fans all over Through a mix of planning, team- e commerce platform and together we the world to purchase a season pass for work, grit and determination, NHRA’s teamed up to take on the challenge to $99.95 in their local language and cur- All Access season pass OTT service was implement and launch their OTT service rency. Data shows that viewers from 30 launched to drag racing fans across the within just one month. different countries already purchased the globe right on deadline – and it really The solution NHRA utilized as part season pass. seems to be picking up pace in the world of their OTT strategy consisted of: of motor racing. Fans now have access • Timely support While NHRA is fo- to all of the action when and where they • Live video channel A new website, cusing on what they do best produce want, and with a shiny new interface. It called NHRA All Access, leverages a spectacular content we tske care of the seems that in the near future, drag racing front end portal as a fully automated customer service, replying to inquiries will go from strong to stronger. And so event management solution. within a 15 minutes response time. will OTT deployments like this. �

• Multi device accessibility Ability to ac- The result was that, after three weeks, cess it from all types of devices along with NHRA was able to achieve a positive re- integrated single sign on functionality for turn on investment, with thousands of a streamlined viewing experience. For fans buying their $99.95 season pass, in NHRA this was a very important aspect, addition to the 20 live events on the Mel- since during the first weekend event, lo Yello Drag Racing Series broadcast the stats showed that 41% of users connected traditional way. from a mobile device.

Congratulations to our past OTT Executive Summit winners!

Past Winners: 1st Place 2nd Place 3rd Place NYC 2015 “OTT Genius”— Brian Balthazar, Scripps Networks “OTT Hero”— Rich Antoniello, Complex “OTT Guru”— Rick Howe, The iTV Doctor NYC 2014 “OTT Genius”— Jean-Michel Planche, Witbe “OTT Hero”— Amit Ziv, EPIX “OTT Guru”— Steve Harnsberger, OTT Digital Services Boston 2014 “OTT Genius”— James Norman, Pilotly “OTT Hero”— Jim Turner, Net2TV “OTT Guru”— (Tie) Gabriel Dusil, Visual Unity; and Jason Thibeault, Limelight Networks

OTT Executive 21 Summer 2016 Magazine Tech Talk Top 5 OTT Audience Acquisition Mistakes By: David Wiesenfeld

ver the past 18 months, the global stead of media behavior. OTT compa- OTT landscape has transformed nies, like most advertisers, typically rely Ofrom frontier settlement to boom town, on cookies to target digital ads. Cookies with both traditional and new media tell advertisers which websites a consum- companies seeking to stake their claims. er has visited and how often. This infor- Penetration of Connected TV’s* has mation can then be used to infer whether crossed the 60% mark in the U.S., with a consumer is likely to be interested in no slowdown in sight. Whether an OTT a new network’s content, or in accessing service is subscription-based or ad sup- content on an OTT platform. ported, mainstream or niche, audience A better approach for OTT brands acquisition is the key to success. is to construct target segments for audi- Connected TV’s include “smart TV’s” ence acquisition based on actual digital with built-in Internet access and tradi- consumption of long-form profession- tional TV’s augmented with a Roku box, ally produced content. This eliminates Apple TV, or other Internet-connected the need to infer program or genre pref- David is the Chief Strategist at Tru streaming device. erence, and assures that prospects are Optik, responsible for aligning Tru As more offerings rush in, it is increas- already in the habit of accessing enter- Optik’s services and deliverables ingly important for an OTT network to tainment “over the top.” Instead of aim- with marketplace needs related deliver a compelling, differentiated mes- ing the hose at the smoke, you’re aiming to the measurement, monetiza- sage to consumers who are most likely to it at the fire. Some of the fastest-growing tion, and activation of OTT audi- sign on to its platform. Many, however, OTT networks are piling on viewers by ences and assets. David has over are not taking full advantage of the op- identifying digital media consumers who 20 years experience in consulting, portunity to reach the right consumers have a proven interest in relevant con- strategy development, and digital with the right message. Following are tent, and targeting them directly, at scale. media with both brand advertisers five ways OTT providers sell their audi- and service providers. ence-acquisition efforts short along with 2. “One size fits all” creative. Content is recommendations for acquiring more a key selling point for any OTT offering, for your OTT anchor service, but not so viewers in less time without busting and most OTT packages provide a range much if you hit them with creative featur- budgets: of programming. So it’s no surprise that ing celebrity chefs and kids shows. Like- ads for OTT services often feature avail- wise, a stay-at-home parent who enjoys Top Five Mistakes: able channels or programs. Cord-shaving cooking may not be all that impressed by 1. Targeting based on web activity in- sports fans may very well want to sign up the ability to stream live sports 24/7 from four continents. Modular campaigns that highlight content based on the preferences of pro- spective customers are easy to produce and highly effective. OTT companies can dynamically target campaign execu- tions to prospects based on actual media consumption behavior. Does this really matter? Well, one OTT provider saw conversion rates triple when the content highlighted in its ads aligned with the media-consumption behaviors of targeted consumers.1 The bottom line: OTT companies that target based on media interest and behavior gain a powerful competitive edge when it comes to audience acquisition.

22 Figure 1. Efficiency benefitsFigure 1. Efficiency of household-based targeting

3. Over-reliance on display ads. Tru cross-device attribution. OTT subscrip- TV). This enables much more accurate, Optik’s experience with introductory tions are typically purchased at the comprehensive attribution at the same campaigns for OTT services suggests household level. However, because the time as it prevents continued delivery of weighting the introductory media plan to vast majority of digital advertising is ads to devices belonging to households video across devices. Generating interest cookie-based, reach and frequency are that have already converted. in a video-based product with display ads managed against individual devices, and can be an uphill challenge, as display in- cannot be coordinated at the household 5. Combining subscription fees and ads. herently undersells the offering. level. So while reach and frequency may This is pretty much a non-starter for cord- Video and rich-media ads, while pricier, come in on spec, a campaign can be high- cutters, cord-shavers, and cord-nevers, can showcase differentiating features and ly inefficient for two reasons: who have shown disdain for fee-based content more effectively with greater im- services that force-feed advertising. The pact to ultimately convert more prospects • Multiple devices belonging to the same one exception to this rule is live sports into subscribers. individual or household are treated as and other hard-to-find live content. That said, display can be used strategi- unique targetable entities. The result is Most OTT providers need to choose cally to extend campaign reach, and can a campaign that suffers from over-ex- between a subscription model and an be an effective “bottom funnel” compo- posure at the consumer level, driving up ad-supported model. The general rule is nent in sequential-messaging rotations. costs, and sacrificing reach (see Figure 1). that platforms offering niche content are A campaign for a new North American Households that have already subscribed better off pursuing a subscription model, OTT video service tested the perfor- to an OTT service often continue to re- while services with broadly appealing mance of display ads relative to video ads. ceive ads for that service because the programming can attract a large enough Members of the same media-interest seg- conversion occurs on one device, and user base for an ad-supported approach ments were targeted with display ads and that device is not associated with all the to be a viable option. video creative highlighting the same con- other digital devices belonging to that Either way, audience acquisition is the tent. Results underscored the importance household. key to OTT success, and that’s all about of incorporating video in the media mix delivering a compelling message to high- for OTT-service campaigns. Consumers •Cookie-less targeting technologies that potential subscribers precisely and at who only saw video ads were 72% more sync digital devices in the same house- scale. By using actual media behavior to likely to convert than those who only saw hold to an anonymized identifier are now power campaign targeting and ad deliv- display ads. However, those who were available. Using this approach, reach and ery at the household level, while strategi- initially exposed to video ads and were frequency can be coordinated across de- cally deploying ad creative and formats, strategically retargeted with conversion- vices, and managed in a way that aligns OTT providers can substantially boost focused display ads, were over 3 times with the “buying unit,” which for OTT the performance of their audience-acqui- more likely to try the service than those services is the household. By the same sition efforts. � who saw just one type of creative.2 token, conversion on any device (e.g., a desktop pc) can be associated with ads 1Tru Optik campaign analysis – August 2015 4. Inaccuracy in household-level and served on other devices (e.g., connected 2Tru Optik campaign analysis – April 2015

OTT Executive 23 Summer 2016 Magazine Trends & Analysis Pricing And Packaging Video For A Content Everywhere Culture By: Jake Katz

t took over a decade for streaming to complex but even the youngest and most save the music industry, thankfully digitally embedded generation is proving IOTT has arrived much sooner. it is there alright. Year over year, Nielsen ratings are A 17 year old today has never had to down across the board. Networks that buy the whole album to get the hit single. once commanded the microphone of cul- That same behavior is directly mirrored ture are posting mid-double digit audi- in what they want and expect out of video ence decreases in the past five years alone. packaging. Don’t’ be fooled by the headlines, TV isn’t There has been a rise of a sharing dying it’s just having a WTF moment. economy over the past 10 years, from car Did declining record sales mean peo- share services like Zip Car, to home shar- ple lost interest in music? Nope. What ing services like Air BNB, to skill sharing was a renaissance in consumption op- platforms like Task Rabbit. This industry tions should have been an opportunity has fostered the behavior and under- for the music business, but instead the standing that costs can be subsidized Jake Katz is the VP of Audience music industry aimed to preserve its by sharing investment across consum- Insights & Strategy for REVOLT TV, business model rather than create new ers. This is essentially what Spotify does a new multi platform TV network products that fit the changing market. by sharing music fees across a massive created by Sean “Diddy” Combs. This is a lesson the cable industry must population of subscribers, offering a vast In his current role, Katz oversees channel as it pivots from the historical to library at a low price. Cable packaging on the company’s consumer research, future video business. the other hand, charges every subscriber providing input to the company’s To understand the future lines to a fee for every channel in their package. content and product teams. Katz color within for pricing, packaging, and “I’m 20, why am I being charged for began his career at MTV as the messaging premium video subscriptions channels not made for me,” said one par- brand’s in house trend expert. Fol- – look no further than a 17 year old today. ticipant from Ohio during REVOLT’s re- lowing MTV, Katz was Director of They’ve never had to appointment view. search. Trends Research at NBCUniversal TV has always meant the content not the We all know the future of video pack- where he helped found the com- medium. It’s always been on-demand, aging is skinny, but it’s also expected to be pany’s Curve report. long and short form, and on every screen. flexible. According to REVOLT TV’s recent Pro- Just how skinny should we expect to a la carte landscape? Hard to predict, but ject Z, the future of TV consumption is see packaging get? Will we ever see a fully something to consider is that the concept of a “cable bill” has many negative asso- ciations. The future of TV will also be to re-position this cost as an entertainment investment to consumers. Video subscription services aren’t just competing with one another, they’re also competing for dollars with subscription services like Birch Box (monthly curated products) and Jukely (monthly concert tickets). What if video services offered value by subsidizing related costs or other monthly expenses? TV everywhere is sort of a myth. Con- sumers do indeed want multi-platform access to the video content they love, but interest in watching it on-demand far

24 (Figure 1). Messaging was a top-down funnel and its purpose was to convert or retain customers. Here’s what it looks like after the explosion of new media (Figure 2). Brands no longer message, they participate in culture. As a result, we’ve seen the decline in effectiveness of traditional media placements and the rise in cross platform content marketing. That marketing conversation funnel we’ve all seen has radically changed shape and concept, it is now an engagement spiral. In this new normal, it is important that publishers and advertisers Figure 1 articulate the value of their media not by how many people it reaches, but instead how engaged its audience is. There are outpaces how much they care about be- trends start, we should honestly ask our- ing able to access its live feed while on the selves how much the decline of live TV go. That nuance is incredibly important viewing is also the result of an increasing to cable operators investing in related affinity for commercial-free on-demand technology to attract young subscribers. video experiences. The tipping point of These consumers think a cable subscrip- why TV has decreased in popularity is tion’s channel guide should look more often equated to the rise in social media, like Netflix, and less like a schedule. specifically YouTube and Snapchat. Do OTT operators need to remember we really believe people are watching less that the consumer is driving the future TV because they prefer watching video of TV. The very concept of OTT and al- on these platforms? I would argue they few outlets in today’s crowded media ternative, skinny, video subscription ser- are doing that too, but not as a replace- landscape that can stimulate engagement vices are a direct reflection of the unique ment. REVOLT’s research found that at the level of binge viewing in an OTT video consumption behaviors of today’s 62% of teens said, “If a brand abandoned platform can. As the OTT landscape un- younger generations and are now fused TV to exist solely in social media, I’m not folds and establishes, remembering how into the video industry. sure I would notice them in all its noise.” and why we got here is key to its success. Messaging and pricing, are as im- So what to do about the measurement � portant as packaging strategy. Thinking dilemma? through the lens of Malcom Gladwell’s Well, here’s what the world looked “The Tipping Point” approach to how like before the explosion of new media

Figure 2

OTT Executive 25 Summer 2016 Magazine Tech Talk When Commercial CDNs Are not the Answer By: Pete Mastin

here is a great deal of misunderstand- terprises that have certain qualities that ing in the Over the Top (OTT) mar- drive them to also build a purpose-built Tket. The basis of the misunderstanding CDN. There are three prime business that people have been told over and over drivers that motivate these companies: is that the only way to deliver quality vid- 1. Accessibility of technology eo over the Internet is to use a commer- 2.Subscription business model and li cial Content Delivery Network (CDN). censed content It turns out that is wrong. While it is 3. Costs true that commercial CDNs do a great 3. Guaranteed quality of experience job of delivering video over a best effort Lets take these one at a time. network, there are other ways to do this. For example, there are “purpose-built ” Accessibility of Technology CDNs, such as what Netflix did. Recent- Technology for building a purpose-built ly at the 2016 Content Delivery Summit, CDN has become far more accessible Dan Rayburn listed companies that have than it was five years ago. There are three Pete Mastin heads up strategy for moved forward with a purpose-built major pieces to a CDN that have all be- Cedexis. Pete has years of expe- CDN for delivery. These include: come far more commoditized in recent rience in business and product years. strategy as well as software devel- • Amazon • Apple opment. His expertise consists of • Facebook • Google 1. Edge Servers / Streaming Servers content delivery networks (CDNs), • Microsoft • Netflix Streaming servers have been on the mar- IP services and Internet and Cloud • Pandora • SKY (regional) ket for some time. Adobe was one of the technologies. He has overseen the • Twitch • Twitter premier servers for years but more re- implementation of numerous high- • Valve cently companies like Unified Streaming, ly scalable, multi-homed, global Wowza and others that have arisen who SaaS systems. This is an impressive list. While not can perform these tasks flawlessly. There all of these are specifically built for vid- are also open source options. The market All that has changed with the pleth- eo delivery, OTT video is certainly well is now mature. ora of low cost clouds that have sprung represented in that list. Dan also points up virtually everywhere. These cloud out that, “Some of these companies 2. Points of Presence (POP) build out services offer both bare-metal and virtual have brought 100% of their CDN traffic Having a lot of distributed POPs has offerings, and can be spun up and spun in-house, for example Netflix and Pan- long been the advantage for Commercial down quickly and efficiently as needs increase or diminish. “Our video streaming infrastructure consists of 3. Routing Engine (to POPs) several dozen media servers at key Internet hubs Some mechanisms to route traffic to the around the world. Every request from a user on a best performing POP must be deployed. This was long the secret sauce of the video stream is automatically routed to the most CDN industry – how one CDN was able to perform better than another was based reliable server to which the ISP can connect. ” on its routing algorithms. Now there are – Alexander McWilliam, Vice President of Engineering at MUBI commercial services to do this routing. Companies like Cedexis, Conviva, Nice dora, while others have brought in three- CDNs. These POPs were strategically People at Work and others provide rout- fourths of their traffic or more.” placed to be closer to the humans in or- ing based on a number of factors such as But there is more to this story. Many der to provide better performance. This geo-location, ISP, latency and other per- smaller players are to follow suite – but was an expensive proposition because it formance factors. for different reasons than scale. required buying or building data centers Specialist OTT provider MUBI, who There are a number of smaller en- all over the place. built their own purpose-built CDN, re-

26 flects this sentiment exactly. start times and sometimes buffering. And Costs sometimes both. “Our video streaming infrastructure con- Cost for any startup is a major concern. By building a purpose-built CDN, MUBI sists of several dozen media servers at key OTT providers are no exception. And the was able to cut costs and provide perfect Internet hubs around the world. Every main costs that most providers run into buffering free service to their user base. request from a user on a video stream is is licensing and delivery. CDN delivery As they grow their business they can automatically routed to the most reliable can be quite expensive for smaller play- market where they plan to expand and server to which the ISP can connect. ” ers. If your business realities allow you to increase infrastructure there as needed – Alexander McWilliam, Vice President build rather than buy then it makes per- - with 0% cache-miss ratio. And great of Engineering at MUBI fect sense to build a purpose-built CDN performance. This is the promise of pur- and avoid the overhead of a commercial pose-built CDN. � Subscription Business Model and Li- CDN. censed Content Another factor that allows an OTT pro- Guaranteed Quality of Experience vider to adopt a purpose-built CDN is The most important thing for an OTT the fact that their business model is sub- startup is quality of experience (QoE). scription based and utilizes licensed con- Without a quality product – people go tent. In the case of subscriptions – you elsewhere and you do not have a com- know where your customers are coming pany before long. In MUBI’s case this was from - which allows you to build POPs even more important. The people that only where you need them. This business subscribe to MUBI really love video. QoS model also allows you to direct market- issues are not acceptable to this crowd. ing to specific places you are trying to sell What MUBI found was that using a services, based on where your content is commercial CDN with slightly long tail licensed to distribute. So you only build content always eventually resulted in where you have to - and you only market cache-miss issues. And when a cache- where you need to. miss happened it resulted in slow video

Congratulations to our past OTT Executive Summit Product Speedcase winners!

Past Winners: NYC 2015 (Tie)

OTT Executive 27 Summer 2016 Magazine Q & A Executive Interview A Vision for OTT An Interview with Piksel’s Fabrice Hamaide Interview by Brian Mahony

got picked up at the Las Vegas Con- On the provider side, he pointed to vention Center by the Piksel limo. I the major cost efficiencies he believes are Iwasn’t too keen about the jaunt down to possible with OTT infrastructure. “Lit- the MGM suites, about as far a meeting tle by little, the workflow for broadcast- place from NAB as you could get. I had ers will collapse into one. Once we can 20+ meetings packed in over two days streamline the process, which today may and the trip in traffic felt like a tour to involve encoding content three or four the Grand Canyon. But I really wanted to times, we’ll be able to reduce the deliv- meet Piksel’s CEO, Fabrice Hamaide, to ery costs by at least 50%.” To get there, learn about the company’s turn-around Fabrice highlighted what he calls a “mi- strategy and his vision for the OTT in- cro-services architecture” which allows dustry. each workflow service to run indepen- To say that Fabrice had a turn-around dently. Different workflow objects can on his hands when he became Piksel’s plug into the legacy broadcasting infra- CEO in July of 2012 would be a huge un- structure to allow a cost-effective migra- Mr. Fabrice Hamaide is CEO of Pik- derstatement. The company had become tion to a more efficient OTT platform. sel. Before joining Piksel, Mr. Ha- stretched, if not bloated, after the roll up As a vendor of an OTT platform, maide served as Chief Financial of 22 different entities. Straining under Fabrice said he has put a lot of thought Officer of ATARI (an Infogrames the weight of 1,400 employees and spiral- into his customer’s cost structure. The company), the global entertain- ling costs, Piksel was hemorrhaging cash. problem in the industry right now, is that ment software developer, where he What’s more, Fabrice faced four class ac- there are too many variables to model, developed and executed a turna- tion lawsuits from shareholders shocked each with its own risks. For example, round plan resulting in a rapid by a plummeting share price, adding a when you are planning your encoding return to positive cash flow and massive legal expense to the growing li- and processing capacity, how many of profitability. Prior to ATARI, he was abilities. As I entered the Piksel suite at hours of content will your subscribers Chief Financial Officer of Parrot SA, the MGM SkyLofts, I wondered to my- and viewers watch? What percentage is a European maker of wireless hard- self, “Who would have wanted that job?” SD vs. various HD formats? How much is ware and software for the mobile I was ushered into a meeting room long-form content vs. short-form? What communications industry. with a very European layout of coffee, devices need to be supported? How big a pastries, and fresh fruit. As I sat sipping library of titles do you need to store and a fee based on the number hours of video. my fourth cup of coffee that morning, the manage? The answers to these questions That includes everything, including sup- wiry Frenchman entered the room and can have a major impact on your cost port for all the major OT devices and sat next to me on the coach. Fabrice was structure, and in the new world of OTT apps that you need. “It should be my job cordial, if not friendly, and spoke with the customers don’t always have the answers. to manage the risk for my customers,” intelligence and passion of a man on a That’s why most OTT/OVP/CMS ven- said Fabrice. “My customers should be mission. For the next 45 minutes we chat- dors price their platforms based on con- focused on their content and their cus- ted about a variety of topics. We covered tent delivery, usage, and storage, coupled tomers.” So why would Piksel want to his engineering of the Piksel turn-around, with monthly fees for specific features take on that risk for the customers? Why culminating in the 2013 Chapter 11 re- and components. would a guy who so deftly eliminated un- organization of a company half the size, But not Piksel. Consistent with his profitable risks from the old Piksel take but cash flow positive and profitable in a willingness to blow apart Piksel’s legacy on a huge one for his customers? growing market. Then I got to ask him the organization and business model, Fabrice Fabrice’s answer is that he does not questions for which I had come— where and his team have decided on a surpris- want any trophy customers. He recogniz- is the OTT industry headed? ingly “old school” pricing strategy. They es that in the OTT industry there will be Fabrice broke down his answer into charge per subscriber. Specifically, for a some major successes but many service two parts. The first having to do with the typical customer Piksel charges $70K up- providers will fail. He doesn’t want to win provider side and the second with the front, $10K per month for the platform, a deal with a customer that doesn’t have consumer. $1 per SVOD subscriber, and for AVOD a revenue plan to support the costs of a

28 new OTT platform. He wants to make sure Piksel’s success is matched to that of Tech Talk his customers. Plus, there’s a practical reality. According to Fabrice’s model of infrastructure costs and customer viewing Metadata Strategies for the habits, “After 7,000 subs everyone starts to make money.” Modern Streaming Player When asked about the consumer side of the OTT industry, Fabrice said there is By: Andrew Jones and Elijah Atkinson an explosion of content already happening. “You’re going to have a whole slew roadcasters have always been best of new content channels that couldn’t Bwhen focused on the viewer and exist with traditional broadcast,” he said. listener experience, reaching audiences Because OTT opens up micro-segments with free news, talk and musical of niche content to global audiences, we entertainment. Even as terrestrial digital are experiencing a renaissance of pent up TV and radio platforms proliferate demand for content that was not possible worldwide, offering more choices and under the old economics models. And better quality, the OTT and streaming OTT will expand traditional video-based model continues to evolve as a substantial infotainment into completely new ar- element of the broadcast fabric. eas, such as e-learning and telemedicine. Audiences can access more streams What’s more, Fabrice believes many of on more platforms today than ever the regulatory and licensing barriers con- before, and enjoy a richer media straining OTT content are beginning to experience through metadata-driven As the Senior Sales Engineer for come down. He points to next year’s ex- enhancements. Rather than watch a StreamGuys, Andy Jones has been pected opening up of E.U. geo-blocking straight-line player with a station ID highly influential in designing, sell- rules as an example. and a timer, online and mobile-device ing, and supporting solutions for Finally, Fabrice believes that in the consumers enjoy information from clients across a broad range of in- future the way we find and consume con- basic song and artist information to dustries. Andy’s background in In- tent will be totally different. The guided, purchase links, social media activity and structional Technology serves him linear, curated, walled-garden menus of video. well during product training calls today will give way to a far more per- Understanding the dynamics of the with clients. He’s a life-long runner, sonalized experience. Recommendation media player, and how to efficiently pizza maker, and backyard farmer. engines will get smarter and be far more integrate metadata into live streams, predictive. Metadata will move beyond are two components that will help tagging based on the presumed inter- broadcasters elevate the streaming ests of broad groups and instead “slice experience and remain competitive. and dice” content based on a segment of one. Machine learning and artificial in- Audience Expectations telligence will play a big role. “We’ll be To build an efficient metadata integra- a segment of one,” he said, “but we’ll be tion strategy, it’s wise to understand the enriched by the collective knowledge and audience expectations and broadcaster experience of all the others.” needs for today’s streaming media play- Interview over and heading back to er. the South Hall, I thought about what I Online audiences today are far had heard. How much of Fabrice’s vision more sophisticated than five years for the industry will come true and when? ago. Services like Pandora and Spotify Elijah Atkinson is a full-stack web How much of what I heard was wisdom have changed expectations of the user developer specializing in HTML5 versus company spin? I concluded that experience. Naturally, broadcasters media player development. In in the fast-changing OTT world, what traditionally win when it comes to his tenure at StreamGuys, Elijah matters most is having a bold, customer- high-quality video and audio content, has worked on products such as: focused plan and quickly and effectively leveraging truly professional tools on SGplayer, SGmetadata, SGrecast, acting on it. And if you’re wrong, be will- the production and processing side. and the streamguys.com website. ing to blow things up and start over. That’s However, the player today needs to In his spare time, Elijah enjoys what Piksel did. � integrate valuable information around reading, playing board games, and the consumer experience: practicing Cello.

OTT Executive 29 Summer 2016 Magazine • Program name, song title, album and the web browser. That plug-in permits The fact that HTML5 provides no native artist, alongside album art as a basic a specific set of actions that enables the support for in-stream metadata. visual element content to play within the Flash wrapper. This is a problem not only for The architecture’s side effect creates a consumer-oriented data (song/artist, • For music stations: “Buy Now” links scenario where bugs and vulnerabilities social media, etc.) but also stream and “Lyric lookup” to drive purchasing occasionally have a drastic security monetization. To trigger video ads and and further engage listeners impact. switch banners, the stream needs to have Adobe does an excellent job metadata in it; and the player must be • Social media integration (Facebook, of patching bugs, but the plug-in able to read the metadata as it changes. Twitter) to interact with stations and architecture requires the consumer Content delivery networks like other listeners to continuously – and often manually StreamGuys employ a number of – update Flash plug-ins. The number different techniques today to create a • Expanded programming and artist of exploits and vulnerabilities in the solution that gives broadcasters and information, such as a history of format has soured much of the software consumers the best of both worlds with previously played songs or episodes and development community. HTML5: Homegrown innovations that more performer details. The struggle is that Flash continues automatically feed metadata to HTML5 to provide excellent functionality for players to achieve all the ad and data Above all, these experiences must the broadcaster, but shortchanges the triggering of Flash; and support for as be made available on multiple devices consumer. For the broadcaster, Flash many browsers and devices as possible. and platforms. This wasn’t always easy, plug-ins can read in-stream metadata in but player and metadata technology has real-time from the stream. This ensures Scraping, Polling and Pushing evolved. Broadcasters can now efficiently that the metadata is updated in the player The workarounds for solving the HTML5 deliver many of the top features audiences from the same network connection the in-stream metadata are few, with some receive from the Pandoras and Spotifys of stream uses. This eliminates the need more effective than others. Some players the world. for a duplicate connection for metadata, attempt to solve the problem through a eliminating latency and synchronization duplicate connection to the stream. This Building a Framework issues. Changes to artist/title and other architecture provides one connection to Adobe Flash Player has long been the data within the stream are instant. the stream for decoding the audio and leading choice to drive player audio and However, if the consumer cannot video, and a separate connection to the real-time metadata integration in the play the content – or worse, continuously stream to acquire the metadata. broadcast space – and for good reason. struggles with software updates and While technically an effective Flash reliably supports real time, in- security patches – the arguments to technique, it is complicated and far from stream metadata that triggers other retain Flash-based media players quickly efficient. The process uses Javascript, player events. For the broadcaster, this thin. client-side audio decoding to discard the is important when it comes to switching This struggle has paved the way for audio and retain the metadata, which is ad banners on the player or triggering in- HTML5-based media players, which are a heavy burden on client-side resources. stream ads. Flash can read metadata in proving a desirable alternative to Flash The duplicate connections also double the stream and react accordingly. players. bandwidth usage. However, Flash has plenty of Metadata scraping represents a more shortcomings when it comes to the Next-Gen Approach efficient approach. This server-side user experience. Foremost, Flash is HTML5 is the latest evolution of the utility establishes a single connection not supported on every platform. For standard that defines HTML, and with the live audio stream solely for the example, iOS does not support it all, is designed for use by all open web purpose of collecting stream metadata. making Flash streams on iPhones and developers. Audio and video elements Compared to the player-side duplicate iPads absent. Flash streams are also are easily embedded, while supporting connection strategy, metadata scraping not supported on most other mobile the manipulation of dynamic multimedia significantly reduces bandwidth usage to devices – a big hole given the millions content. This open-standards approach minimize network load. The terminology of Android users in the consumer space. lends itself well to software developers represents the process of “scraping” the Mobile device manufacturers have and consumers, as it has broad support metadata out of the stream, establishing put this restriction in place due to the across all mobile and desktop devices. For one connection that all players use as the exceptionally high resource usage of consumers, HTML5’s lack of an external source for metadata. Flash. plug-in enables native, secure playback of There are two ways client applications Security exploits are another streams within any web browser. can get metadata from the server-side downside to Flash, driving software The flexibility of HTML5 is also a win scraping utility: developers and mobile device suppliers for the broadcaster as more listeners can to abandon ship. Flash works on a plug- tune in with less struggle. However, one • Polling, the scraper utility outputs in based architecture that interfaces with shortcoming creates a new challenge: metadata to a web-based file that all

30 automatically push and pull data between the server side and the web browser. Prior to the existence of web sockets, the only way to move data between the two was via HTTP Get and/or Post requests. These methods produced high network overhead, as a full HTTP protocol packet was built for each listener request. The emergence of sockets and push- based metadata also eliminates the need to poll the server every few seconds. This has a significant monetization benefit for broadcasters. For example, the persistent connection enables a tightly coordinated, synchronized banner ad display alongside an in-stream ad insertion – a much trickier endeavor in a short polling scenario. It has the added benefit of pushing these same metadata changes to third-party platforms, such as TuneIn, with the appropriate API integration. StreamGuys is currently transitioning its SGplayer service from a short polling to a push-based methodology based on these recent technology advancements. Regardless of the method chosen, the fact remains that metadata management and integration is a necessary requirement today to both evolve the streaming players can continuously forward. Like short polling, the scraper broadcaster’s online business model; reload utility maintains a persistent connection and to attract, retain and grow audiences to the stream and extracts the metadata and advertisers. It is an ideal time to talk • Pushing, the scraper utility uses web when it changes. to your CDN to learn more about the sockets to support real-time delivery of The difference is that metadata is then options and possibilities for delivering low-latency metadata pushed through an active web socket a richer, more dynamic streaming connection to the player. Once the player experience that will better monetize your Polling is the more prevalent of the is loaded, a single request is made to the efforts. � two today. In this technique, the player metadata server and a full duplex socket is “short polling” a server-side source, connection is established. As metadata automation system output or an Icecast changes occur, they are pushed out in server’s status page every few seconds real-time from the server to the player to retrieve metadata for display within through the active connection. This the player. This technique is easy to eliminates the process of each player implement, and thus widely supported. short polling the server and generating Short polling is not without its frequent, unnecessary traffic for limitations. Every player issues HTTP infrequently changing data. The result is GET requests for metadata every few a highly efficient scraping approach with seconds. Frequent requests have the low network overhead, as dynamically positive effect of improving latency for changing data is pushed directly from dynamic, on-time metadata changes, but the server to the client in real time over a the process can quickly escalate network persistent connection. traffic and resource usage. In high volume The emergence of push-based situations, this approach can crash the metadata directly correlates with the web service that powers the embedded evolution of web sockets, as led by player. organizations like Socket.io. Now The emergence of push-basedsupported in every web browser, metadata represents a significant leap socket connections ensure users can

OTT Executive 31 Summer 2016 Magazine