Can Data Normalisation Fix FAST?

Arguably, the two biggest challenges in the FAST ecosystem are managing the ad experience and delivering ROI for the brands that support the platform. Experts, from Fremantle's Laura Florence to Fuse Media's Patrick Courtney to Media Cartographer Evan Shapiro, agree that standardising the data they collect and delivering on the promise of programmatic advertising is the key to making it all work. But as this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2024 reveals, it's easier said than done.

How Premium Sports Streaming Licensing Will Shake Out in 2024 and Beyond

As the prices paid for top-tier sports streaming rights continue to reach astronomical levels, and the potential disruption created by the blockbuster ESPN/Fox/Warner Bros. joint venture (popularly termed "Spulu") teased in February, what sports licensing will look like as 2024 rolls on and who will be able to afford it is anybody's guess. Will it play out differently in the U.S. and Europe? And as costs are passed on to users, why wouldn't sports fans just stick with cable? Find out what top analysts like ESHAP's Evan Shapiro, Erickson's Paul Erickson, Dataxis' Ophelie Boucaud, and TVREV's Alan Wolk, say in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2024.

How to Solve Interactive Streaming’s Latency Challenges

What are the biggest challenges to delivering successful large-scale interactive live streams, particularly achieving the requisite low latency, and what technology solutions apply? Nanocosmos CEO Oliver Leitz, Help Me Stream's Tim Siglin, and Motoworlds' Darcy Lorincz identify real-world interactive streaming problems and how to address them and deliver high-quality user experiences from traditional streaming to the metaverse in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2024.

Are Super Bundles the Future of Subscription-Based Streaming?

Churn is an unavoidable fact of life for streaming services, and much of the strategic thinking that goes into trying to make SVOD profitable focuses on how to minimise its impact, whether by offering more content, incorporating ad tiers, or entering into various bundling scenarios. So what's working in 2024 and what isn't? Five leading M & E analysts—ESHAP's Evan Shapiro, Erickson's Paul Erickson, Dataxis' Ophelie Boucaud, TVREV's Alan Wolk, and Hub's Jon Giegengack—discuss current strategies to ward off churn-pocalypse in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2024.

Synchronization vs. Latency - Which Matters More in Enterprise and Sports Streaming?

Chris Packard, Global Live Operations Lead at LinkedIn, discusses the role of interactivity in enterprise streaming, what the essential elements are of a successful user experience, and striking a realistic balance between ultra-low latency and synchronization, in this discussion with nanocosmos' Oliver Lietz and Help Me Stream's Tim Siglin from Streaming Media Connect 2024.

Google's Take on What CTV Viewers Want

The CTV viewing experience continues to evolve as new UX developments arise. Still, many experts and users agree that the experience is essentially broken, with too much choice and too little personalization as users' #1 complaint, far from where it needs to be. According to Google TV Senior Director of Engineering Shobana Radhakrishnan in her Streaming Media Connect Keynote, the critical challenge is understanding what viewers want and letting that drive other decisions.

How DAZN and TAG Approach Failover, Sync, and Stream Resiliency

For high-stakes, large-scale streams, redundancy is critical for ensuring smooth and reliable delivery. This means careful monitoring, sound decision-making, and seamless network switching-also known as hitless failover-and making sure streams are precisely synced so the switch is invisible to the end user. In this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2023, DAZN's Bob Hannent, TAG Video Systems' Michael Demb, and CDN Alliance chair Mark de Jong discuss the challenges of ensuring stream resiliency and strategies for maintaining it.

How OTT and CTV Platforms Monetise First-Party Data

Is zero-party and first-party data emerging as a new revenue generator for OTT platforms and in the CTV landscape in Europe and the U.S., and when it comes to collecting data for monetisation purposes-particularly for addressable TV-where do we draw the line vis a vis consumer privacy? ESHAP's Evan Shapiro and Dataxis TNT Market Analyst Ophelie Boucaud discuss in this clip from Streaming Media Connect.

The State of FAST Markets: Europe vs. US

It's well-established that the FAST market matured in the US years earlier than in Europe and other parts of the world. But as the European market grows, is it evolving along the same lines as the US market, and are there lessons in where the US market stumbled that inform FAST strategy in Europe? Streaming Made Easy newsletter author Marion Ranchet and ESHAP's Evan Shapiro discuss the state of the FAST ecosystem in Europe in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2023.

Why the Via LA Streaming Codec Pool Merger Matters

Via Licensing shook the MPEG licensing world in May 2023 when it acquired MPEG LA to form the Via LA juggernaut. And how is that deal shaking out now, six months on, as licensors and patent holders alike survey the landscape? Sisvel Group's Mattia Fogliacco and patent attorney Robert J.L. Moore of Moore IP Solutions discuss the implications in this clip from November 2023's Streaming Media Connect.

Avanci vs. Other Streaming Codec Pools

Avanci Video launched in October 2023 as the latest patent pool contender to stake a claim to a piece of the streaming codec pie. Avanci isn't new to licensing; just to streaming. So how does it impact other existing patent pool players? Two leading patent attorneys with expertise in this market, Garrard R. Beeney of Sullivan & Cromwell, and Robert J.L. Moore of Moore IP Solutions explore what it meant when Avanci joined the patent pool party in this clip from November 2023's Streaming Media Connect.

How to Deliver Resilient Streams at Scale

Guaranteeing a satisfying end user experience, whether you're delivering content live or VOD, requires resiliency, ensuring that the stream doesn't break down regardless of the scale, bursts, or other fluctuations in delivery demands. And the challenges are different for live and VOD, with live proving significantly more challenging in most instances. TAG Video Systems' Michael Demb, DAZN's Bob Hannent, and the CDN Alliance's Mark de Jong discuss the key challenges and how to address them in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2023.

Metadata and the Battle for Streaming ROI

Whether your game is FAST, AVOD, SVOD, hybrid, or premium or longtail content, leveraging metadata intelligently is a critical component of monetizing your offerings. Warner Bros. Discovery's Dan Trotta, TVREV's Alan Wolk, Vevo's Bethany Atchison, Erickson Strategy's Paul Erickson, and Chris Pfaff Tech Media's Chris Pfaff break down current and emerging stratagems in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2023.

How AI Helps Solve Streaming Content Monetization

Much discussion of AI and streaming relates to streamlining and automating workflows, but how content companies can leverage it to personalize their content and target ads more efficiently, among other monetization strategies, is another question the industry is examining closely. Chris Pfaff dives into this question with Vevo's Bethany Atchison, Warner Bros. Discovery's Dan Trotta, TVREV's Alan Wolk, and Erickson Strategy's Paul Erickson in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2023.

How YouTube Connected TV Is Transforming Television

As YouTube Connected TV grows, and arguably emerges as the world's predominant channel, is the model for TV monetization changing as a result? ESHAP's Evan Shapiro and Common Sense Networks' Eric Berger discuss YouTube's impact on the CTV landscape in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2023.

HEVC vs. H.264: Bandwidth and Cost Savings

The case for moving from ubiquitous older video codecs like H.264 to newer codecs like AV1 or HEVC (H.265) is typically expressed in terms of encoding efficiency that translates to bandwidth and cost savings. For major content companies like Warner Bros. Discovery that have adopted H.265, how much has their experience borne out that hypothesis?

The State of FAST: Around the Horn with Fubo, Estrella Media, and HARTBEAT

With all the talk of FAST 2.0 and the explosion of FAST channels to the point of approaching market saturation, is FAST's self-reinvention a foregone conclusion, or even advisable at this juncture? What are the new and emerging FAST growth strategies that are driving growth today, as opposed to a year or two ago? And how have the strikes in Hollywood that consumed at least 2 quarters of the year impacted channel and content development?

Where Will Content Delivery's Edge Be in 5 Years?

The edge in content delivery is by definition a moving target; CDN Alliance chair Mark de Jong suggests that the ultimate definition or destination of the edge might well be the end user themselves. Where do leading content companies see the edge today, and where do they expect it to be in 5 years? De Jong raises the issue with Warner Bros. Discovery's Subhrendu Sarkar and Starz' Rob Collins, who offer their best guesses as to where content delivery is going in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2023.

Telcos and Streaming Service Super-Bundling

How significant will telco-centred superbundles-where the likes of T-Mobile or Verizon package streaming channel subscriptions with their services-prove in the expansion of the streaming ecosystem in the years to come, and what types of partnerships is it likely to include? Bango's Anil Malhotra, Starz' Rob Collins, Revry's LaShawn McGhee, and Reality Software's Nadine Krefetz discuss in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2023.

Why Doesn't the M & E Industry Embrace New Ways of Thinking?

Are media and entertainment executives listening to the wrong people, and not bringing younger and more diverse voices into the conversation, and is it holding the industry back? While valuing the expertise of boardroom inner circles, are there ways to expand the table to encourage more forward-looking thinking? Peacock TV VP Quincy Olatunde and Media Industry Cartographer Evan Shapiro debate these issues in this clip from their keynote at Streaming Media Connect 2023.