Home Cinema Insight | Interview : Darcy Antonellis
With Prima Cinema all but gone , when will the next day-anddate movie streaming service launch ?.
YouTube TV could threaten legacy players , but they need innovate to stay relevant
So how do the cable companies innovate ? Do they ditch the hardware and offer software-based solutions , such as the Now TV app in the UK or HBO Now in the US ? “ It ’ s ironic , because the guys who started as the pure OTT , moved into the device side . Like Amazon with the Fire TV , Apple or Google . So to me part of it is – what are the devices that are going to bring value into the home ? What we all know is that you ’ d prefer not to have six devices , but how intelligent are those new appliances and if I put one in , what would it be ?
“ Granted , I have lots of stuff in the cloud , and that ’ s fine . But as a utility , at the end of the day , you still need something . And I think the cable guys need to decide whether they want to continue to innovate in that area , because certainly they ’ re doubling down on their datacentric , on their data provisioning fronts . But likewise , do you take that to the natural conclusion that , okay you ’ re just going to be a dumb pipe . That ’ s risky .
“ We like to create the OTT adjacency to their core channel . Obviously is a big trend . Especially across different brands and different properties . On the HBO Now front , that model will go through ebbs and flows because often users will binge watch for a month or two and then cancel their subscription . Is that sustainable ?”
With YouTube ’ s live TV service , and the cable companies needing to innovate in the TV space in order to keep up , are there any big names that could further disrupt the industry ? “ I think it ’ s necessary for further disruption . Carrying around your device and then having frictionless access to video lends itself to standing up and provisioning live streaming . Off of that , giving people the ability to access content via stacked rights , in-window incremental advertising . Yeah I think linear channel proliferation will continue .
“ Look at where Facebook ’ s moving . Snapchat is about to trade . $ 17 a share . $ 24 billion . I think the players sit in that sort of space . I think Snap ’ s going to come out and has the potential to , but there ’ s certainly a lot more discipline and maturity on the Facebook side . I think those will be the players .”
Whether or not Silicon Valley get involved in the live TV sector , expect to see new day-and-date streaming services launching within the next 12 months . Darcy notes : “ There ’ s a lot of debate going on in the US that is causing quite the stir . The Screening Room , ROW8 , there might be something done across Comcast , there ’ s a handful of things going on . The debate is really around A ) Is it something that can be created that is in fact viable for all parties – the exhibitors and the content providers . B ) How do you price it ? C ) Piracy has always been an issue .
“ I think there ’ s an interesting proposition for early window , and I don ’ t think you have to create a scenario – and PRIMA cinema is very different , it ’ s a closed system and it ’ s very expensive . It ’ s intended for the top 1 %. They ’ re struggling .”
With so many throwing the gauntlet down , where does PRIMA cinema find the market ? Darcy continues : “ It ’ s tough because its device dependent , it ’ s an expensive appliance . And technology has evolved and part of the challenge is technology has evolved that proposition which was highly innovative at the time , and it didn ’ t migrate to an wholesale consumer solution . Or it could have cornered the market when the studios were ready to push for early window . So yeah it may have been bifurcated .”
So does Darcy think that we ’ ll soon be able to have a device in our living room that allows us to watch dayand-date ? “ I don ’ t think you ’ ll even need a device . Just a connection ,” she concludes . “ Something will happen this year . The Screening Room was a device and their business model was at time zero , so true day and date , not in-theatrical window but delayed . ROW8 is in theatrical window , but delayed some period of time TBD within the theatrical window , and it uses geolocation to theatres to allocate revenues based on delivery .”
Are streaming services a threat to the movie studios , however ? Darcy comments : “ I think the studios are rightfully viewing them as , certainly notable and credible competitors . I think they ’ ll continue to be consolidation , where assets will come together to be formidable . Time Warner and AT & T is a great example , that ’ s quite an extensive portfolio that will come together . And who knows the assets that Amazon may pick up , or Netflix may pick up . Will there be 4 of the 6 majors five years from now , and maybe from consolidation two of the studios get acquired or rolled up , possibly . And could you see Netflix or Amazon , take their place , or next iteration , certainly .”
Given the changing landscape of the media industry , could we see the end of physical media ? Well , while that could be good news for Vubiquity , it ’ s not something that Darcy sees happening anytime soon . “ This is a heavily debated point . I don ’ t know if I could categorise it as one format taking over the other , however ,” she says .
Whether or not the quality difference between the two will matter to the majority of consumers , well that ’ s another question . “ Certainly the payload and the bitbucket relative to what you ’ re doing on that physical disk is one thing , but if you draw life as a bell curve , the innovation taking place on the network , both on the contribution in the network side , down to the display – think about Apple and their Retina ; I think that we will find ourselves , as we do with HD , quickly at a place where for the masses , because again , human beings are bound by their own visual and aural deficiencies , that the lion share of people will be challenged to discern the difference .
“ In the case of 4K , the quality of the upscalers is so good . Sitting on a chip , in fact I did a demo for Christopher Nolan , we took Batman , it was a section of Dark Knight that he did on 65mm film . We took the native 65mm , we took his Blu-ray , now this had nothing to do with HDR at the time – simply a comparison on SDR . So 4K SDR . We did a comparison and then showed him the energy map , highlighting the difference between the two . So Blu-ray upscaled through the television versus native 4K to the TV .
“ You could not discern , I mean it was so de minimis that the average consumer wouldn ’ t tell the difference . Which is one of the reasons that HDR is so compelling , because you ’ re going beyond just adding bits , which is great for sports , but you ’ re really adding a whole colour spectrum .”
No doubt the media industry will continue to change , so in the next 12 months , expect it to look completely different . Whether Darcy ’ s predictions will come true , well , we ’ ll just have to wait and see .
18 | June 2017