PUBLISHER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Nick Snow nick . snow @ advanced-television . com
MANAGING EDITOR
Colin Mann colin . mann @ advanced-television . com
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Chris Forrester
chris @ forrester-solutions . com
PUBLISHING ASSISTANT
Nik Roseveare
nik @ advanced-television . com
ART EDITOR
Steve Overbury steveoverbury @ yahoo . co . uk
CONTRIBUTORS
David del Valle - Madrid Pascale Paoli-Lebailly - Paris Branislav Pekic - Rome
INSIGHT ASSOCIATES
3Vision ABI Research Ampere Analysis Decipher Media Consultants Digital TV Research Futuresource Consulting MIDiA Research Omdia Parks Associates PP Foresight SNL Kagan
Strategy Analytics
SALES DIRECTOR
Sanjeev Bhavnani
sanjeev @ advanced-television . com
PUBLISHED BY
Advanced Television Limited Unit 4.04 Creative Media Studio 45 Robertson Street , Hastings , East Sussex TN34 1HL
www . advanced-television . com
PRINTED BY
Micropress Printers Limited Reydon Business Park , Fountain Way , Reydon , Southwold IP18 6DH Tel : + 44 ( 0 ) 1502 725800 sales @ micropress . co . uk
© Advanced Television Limited 2021 . All rights reserved . Reproduction without permission is
prohibited .
ISSN 1477-8092
Inside information
In this new edition of Euromedia , we asked if pay-TV was in its deathbed . A trifle morbid perhaps , especially in a pandemic , but it seemed important . Certainly , pay-TV in some markets – the Americas in particular – is in decline , and the absence of some live sports events has not helped .
Broadly speaking , contributors think pay-TV would continue , even prosper , but that relies on it finding more ways work with , not against , new OTT players . Already , a number of major providers have brought the bigger streamers ‘ onto ’ their platforms so that subscribers can access them in one place . Some of our correspondents say this direction of travel needs to continue with pay-TV providers providing integrated UI , discovery and billing .
None of these are impossible technically , no , commercially is the problem . Would an OTT streamer ever give access to the metadata to allow cross service UI / discovery ? Perhaps even allow à la carte choice within the services , with a suitable premium ? Probably not . But if they won ’ t play that game , surely the bigger pay-TV providers can at least negotiate a discount for their subscribers as an alternative ?
Co-existence certainly looks to be the future . Sport will return , and the way the SVoDs have handled their sport offerings makes you feel the sports channels have a sound future . Linear TV also still seems the natural home for Shiny Floor Shows and the news .
Of course , drama is already being produced by pay- TV and FTA broadcasters as if they are SVoDs ; only their strongest offerings are not stacked up ready to binge on their OTT platforms from Episode One . It is noticeable that some shows that start off with weekly showings , then switch to VoD as the ratings come in . It isn ’ t as bad as being cancelled , but the phrase ‘ congratulations you ’ re going to VoD early ’ is now the most backhanded compliment in the business .
With the amount of drama watched by us all over the last 12 months , and the amount of user data collected – much of it laying a false trail , or am I the only one whose standards have dipped ( by which I mean cratered ) –, the challenge will be for creatives to resist spreadsheet scripting and dataset directing .
Inside The Wrap 4-8 Cover Story 10-18
Editorial
EUROMEDIA 3