Prior to Parks Associates’ 1st-annual Future of Video: OTT, Pay TV, and Digital Media conference, Anthony Smith-Chaigneau, Sr. Director Product Marketing, NAGRA shared insights with the analyst team to discuss the fthe future of Pay TV.

Anthony will be participating on the Future Video Services: How VOD, Linear, OTT, and Pay TV Come Together panel on Tuesday, December 11, at 1:15 PM. Panelists joining him on this session include:

Scott Ehrlich, Vice President, Emerging Platform Content, Sinclair Broadcast Group
Scott Maddux, VP, Business Development, TiVo Corporation
Gary Schanman, SVP, Video Products, Charter
Stephen Strong, VP, Strategic Partnerships, Newsy

What is the greatest challenge facing the video industry over the next three years?
Continued fragmentation and the building of a myriad of content silos resulting in a frustrated and disillusioned consumer base.

What is driving growth in video entertainment today? How does that change over the next few years?
A culmination of ubiquitous easy to use video platforms, easy connectivity and growth in great content. It will only get easier, faster and better as transmission technologies improve and morph e.g. 5G, ATSC3.0, DVB-I.

What technology will have the biggest impact on your business in the next 18 months and why?
We are a company that has a worldwide footprint. In some places there is still the shift from Analogue to Digital while NHK in Japan is launching an 8K channel. There are so many new technologies that all have an impact depending on the region we could not select one that stands out on its own. 

What is the top growth opportunity for content producers over the next few years? What about for cable networks?
Content always has a place and as the landscape morphs and grows opportunities abound from the rise of 5G to ATSC3.0. Cable networks have a clear opportunity to offer a great ‘all-in-one-place’ content aggregation business that simplifies consumer access to the content they love.

What is one thing that the pay-TV ecosystem needs to learn from the online giants in video (Google, Netflix, Facebook, and Amazon)?
Aren’t the online giants learning from the TV industry? It appears that business ‘on-line’ is not quite as simple considering fragmentation and the rise in piracy, subscription fraud and massive churn issues. The emergence of on-line AVOD solutions (that include the giants) are mimicking the TV solutions of yesteryear. Who is learning from who?

What will pay TV services look like in five years?
More pay TV services aggregation and the stability of the pay-TV industry business models. The pay TV industry will adjust its consumer facing attitude to ensure that it retains and grows its customer base, with superb subscription plans and increased features and technological advancements. 

With different regions of the world moving along at different speeds we will see a plethora of different solutions from ‘fully-aggregated-all-in-one-place-offers’ to unique OTT offers in Sports and Premium quality content. 

For more information on the Future of Video, visit: www.fov2018.com.