ott state of play1804_ott 19/04/2016 12:04 Page 1
“At Sky, our goal has remained
the same: to be at the forefront of
innovation, finding new and
exciting ways to deliver great
content to customers,” he advised,
familiar with traditional TV but
his advice was simple. “Great
content is great content and great
content will find an audience
whatever the means of
distribution. We’re platform
neutral at BBC Three which is
clear from what we have made to
date, who we’re working with and
who we are looking to partner
with. We want to work with
people that share our spirit of
adventure and want to innovate.”
“We have a huge amount of
support behind us with the reach
of BBC TV, Radio and Online and
we are putting a huge amount of
effort into reaching new
revealing that he was keen to
embrace the opportunities
presented by social media. “With
viewers consuming more and
more content across lots of
different devices, and with a reach
in the hundreds of millions, it
makes sense for us deliver more
of our content in this way. It’s
something that the teams in Sky
News and Sky Sports have been
really quick to exploit, and the
response from consumers has
been phenomenal.”
One of the best examples is the
work Sky had been doing with
Facebook. “We’ve partnered with
them on ‘Instant Articles’
to exclusive access to American
cops training with their British
counterparts,” he said, confirming
that in the coming months, across
news and sports, Sky planned on
live broadcasting a great deal of
content on Facebook Live,
providing a unique behind the
scenes look at some major
sporting events, and breaking
news stories.
Discovery Networks’ free-to-air
factual entertainment channel
Quest is now being streamed
online. Already available on
Freeview, YouView, Sky and
Virgin, the channel’s online launch
coincides with the start of the FIA
World Rallycross Championship.
Tablets and mobile phone users
will be able to watch via QuestTV
dedicated apps soon. The live
streaming will sit alongside the
channel’s existing on demand and
catch up service which is available
via its website as well as some
connected TV platforms.
audiences in new ways and being
less reliant on traditional media.
Like I say, these are early days
enabling us to host articles from
news and sports teams on
Facebook, as they’d appear on the
“This is a further evolution of
our digital presence that allows
our audience to watch what,
web. By working with them, we’ve
seen more views, more shares,
and more interaction,” he
reported.
“Increasingly though, and I’m
sure this won’t come as a surprise
from a broadcaster, our digital
strategy has been geared towards
video. We’ve seen an incredible
response to some of the videos
we’ve uploaded to our own social
media channels, with millions of
people watching Thierry Henry
drop in on a South Wales school,
where and when they want,” said
Simon Downing, SVP, head of
Quest. “Streaming Quest live
online to complement our linear,
catch up and on demand services
is a milestone in the continued
growth of the channel which will
pave the way to reach even bigger
audiences. The start of what
promises to be a thrilling
Rallycross season is the perfect
occasion to go live online, bringing
all the action direct to your
devices.”
OTT goes mainstream
From being the
‘elephant in the
room’ feared by
broadcasters and
pay-TV platforms
alike, OTT TV is
now being
embraced by an
ever-increasing
number of industry
players, TV
Everywhere looks
at recent
developments.
lsewhere in these
pages, both in news
reports, research
round-up and the following
exclusive analysis from IHS,
the extent to which OTT
television has been adopted
by operators and
programmers is evident,
with the oldest established
broadcaster, the BBC,
transitioning its digital
channel BBC Three to online
only in February, with
iPlayer now the main source
of access.
Reviewing the move in early
April, Damian Kavanagh,
Controller BBC Three, revealed
that the broadcaster’s
contemporary British drama
Thirteen currently stood at 2.4
million requests on iPlayer.
“Numbers will not define BBC
Three’s success - appreciation,
engagement and impact with
young people are as important but it’s an indicator that BBC
Three’s content is cutting through
with young people online,” he
noted.
According to Kavanagh, the
BBC was taking risks which could
be scary for people who were
E
18 TV Everywhere
British drama
Thirteen
currently
stands at 2.4
million requests
on iPlayer.
but we are ahead of the game,” he
concluded.
Lucien Bowater, Digital
Director at Sky, has also revealed
that the broadcaster is
experimenting with more ways to
reach viewers, noting that over
the last 10 years, the video
industry had changed beyond all
recognition. “As broadband has
become more widely available,
and the number of connected
devices has exploded, the
landscape has changed,” he said.