Latest from Next TV in Ben-weinberger

Embracing the Enemy

George Winslow — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 13:00:00 +0000

Pay TV operators and programmers have increasingly planted their feet on both sides of the raging debate over shifts in TV viewing, dipping their toes into over-the-top video while continuing to embrace the traditional ecosystem.

“Many operators have decided that they will look beyond TV everywhere to support and offer OTT services, and we’re seeing content producers going direct-to-consumer, rather than working exclusively through the pay TV system, to compete in the OTT space,” Parks Associates director of research Brett L. Sappington said. “That is really changing the economics of the flow of content to the consumer.”

It will also make this year a pivotal one for pay TV, both for some of its older offerings, such as video-on-demand and TV everywhere, and for newer efforts such as Dish Network’s Sling TV or direct-to-consumer products like HBO Go.

“While we’ve been seeing declines in the traditional pay TV model, there are increased opportunities in OTT segment, where there are about 25 million homes that have not been touched by pay TV,” Ben Weinberger, senior vice president and chief product officer at Sling TV, said.

This relatively large market has produced “a very strong year ahead of forecast and budget” for Sling TV subscriber numbers, Weinberger said.

Meanwhile, Comcast, Verizon Communications and a number of other operators have launched bundles for OTT devices or mobile platforms as part of a larger push to revamp their product packages.

“The traditional bundle works very well for many people, but there are also a lot of people who don’t want to pay for things they don’t value,” Ben Grad, executive director of content strategy and acquisition for FiOS TV at Verizon. The telco has launched mobile-video service Go90, the Custom TV “skinny bundle” and expanded TV everywhere content, with live streams of more than 120 services available outside of the home for mobile devices.

But some analysts have worried that the move to embrace OTT services might hurt operators, who risk cannibalizing their traditional bundle, and programmers, who might lose ratings as they sell more content to subscription VOD services such as Netflix.

Turner Broadcasting System’s launch on Sling TV, a virtual MVPD available on a subscription basis, has been a positive experience, executive vice president of brand distribution Jennifer Mirgorod said. “It is very important that our larger networks reach as many people as possible,” she said.

The slimming of the bundle has prompted fears that some networks might not be able to survive. But stronger programmers should continue to thrive, Disney & ESPN Media Networks executive vice president of affiliate sales and marketing Justin Connolly argued.

“The success of packages depends on the channels that underpin the package, and we have a handful of the strongest brands in the business,” Connolly said. “That is why providers like Dish and their Sling TV package took to us to help them build a sub base.”

Operators also view TV everywhere services as a way to improve the value of the bundle. “The price/ value equation is being challenged on the full pay TV bundle for $80 to $100 a month,” Tony Goncalves, senior vice president of strategy and business development for AT&T Entertainment Group, said. “That makes TV everywhere a very, very important component in our business.”

SEARCHING FOR VALUE

A number of other operators are also rolling out advanced set-top boxes that greatly improve the user interface and make it much easier to find content.

“As all these platforms multiply and the content multiplies, search, discovery and the consumer experience becomes everything,” Joe Atkinson, U.S. advisory entertainment, media and communications leader at PwC, said.

“As operators, we also need to recognize that there is a world of content beyond our set of linear offerings and on-demand capabilities,” David Isenberg, president and chief revenue officer at Atlantic Broadband, said. “The more we can integrate all that content together, the better the consumer experience and the better position we will be in.”

To that end, Atlantic Broadband has deployed TiVo boxes, which offer advanced search features and allow users to access both cable networks and OTT services like Netflix, with plans to launch Hulu. “It is not a matter of providing either pay TV or over-the-top services but both,” Isenberg said. “It is natural to bring the two of them together and, since we’ve launched Netflix, we’ve seen a strong and very positive customer response.”

Many of these efforts are in the early stages, but there are signs that a combination of advanced set-tops, improved interfaces and better TV everywhere offerings can pay off in better subscriber numbers.

“Our third-quarter video results were the best results we’ve had in nine years, and we’ve had 20 consecutive months of improvement in churn,” Matthew Strauss, executive vice president and general manager of video services for Comcast Cable, said. Comcast, the No. 1 U.S. MSO, has been rolling up 30,000 to 50,000 X1 advanced set-top boxes per month while expanding its VOD and TV everywhere offerings.

Along with an expansion of its VOD offering, which now has “the 100 top Nielsen shows” and “over 700 series” with a full season of episodes, Strauss said the improved interface and search capabilities of the X1 box have improved on-demand usage. “We now have over 85% of our subs on the X1 platform using VOD and we’ve seen a 40% increase in VOD usage of 40%,” he said.

Expanded TV everywhere products are also catching on. “We now have about 7.5 million subscribers using TV everywhere each month, which is over 35% of our subscribers” consuming about eight hours of video per month, Strauss said.

SPEEDING TO IP

Comcast and other operators are also continuing to upgrade their networks to provide faster broadband speeds, new services and expanded Internet-protocol delivery.

“In the past, when you looked at our road map, you might say there was a video lane and a broadband lane,” Cox Communications executive vice president of product development and management Steve Necessary said. “But now those lanes are merging.”

Atlanta-based Cox has rolled out Internet service at speeds of 1 Gigabit per second in a number of markets, with plans to make its G1GABLAST product available through its entire footprint by year-end.

“The G1GABLAST initiative is one of the major initiatives we’re working on to provide a big highway on which can we bring all of those capabilities together,” Necessary said.

But much work remains to be done with TV everywhere and other initiatives. While the number of TV everywhere video streams jumped 104% between September 2014 and September 2015, according to a recent report from Adobe, the share of households accessing the service grew to just 13.6% in the third quarter of 2015 from 12.6% in Q3 2014.

“TV everywhere has a lot of potential upside, but 2016 is the time when the industry has to come together and make it work or [they risk] having Netflix and Amazon become the place where new viewers start to learn to find content,” Adobe Digital Index principal analyst Tamara Gaffney said.

Measurement is another key issue. “I think it is very encouraging to see the products Nielsen and comScore and Rentrak are developing to improve measurement,” Keith Kazerman, head of advertising sales product strategy and development at Discovery Communications, said. Programmers such as Discovery have also bulked up their own in-house data and analytics efforts, he added.

Over time, that could help radically change the way TV inventory is sold. Turner chief research officer Howard Shimmel said a variety of outside and in-house analytical tools has allowed the programmer to sell much more targeted audiences, such as would-be car buyers — something once only possible on digital platforms.

“We were selling TV on age and sex demos from when Lyndon Johnson was president,” he said. “We want to get to a world where we don’t deliver a report saying we’ve delivered the right amount of ratings points, but deliver a report saying how many sales we generated.”

UBS Study Unpacks the Bundle’s Value

Mike Farrell — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 13:00:00 +0000

As distributors and programmers struggle to create packages of programming that will attract the right audience at the right price point, one constant is beginning to emerge: the traditional bundle offers the best value at the best price.

UBS Securities media analyst Doug Mitchelson probably made the biggest case for preserving the traditional TV bundle last week with a comprehensive look at the value of TV networks.

In a 44-page report, Mitchelson and his team combined survey data with algorithms developed by UBS’s Evidence Lab to create a software program that uses data from the survey, average pricing data from networks and its own survey information regarding such demographic and customer satisfaction data like age, size of household, pay TV status, as subscription video-on-demand services and annual household income to determine the combination of a la carte channels that would satisfy the most consumers.

Applying those factors, the UBS software can calculate 288 quadrillion possible bundles.

The UBS analysts concluded what many others also have in the past several months —the best bundle is the one that most distributors already offer.

But viewers didn’t reach that conclusion easily. UBS surveyed 1,855 individuals in April, ranging in age from 18 to 55 and across income levels. Like many surveys of the bundle conducted over the past several months, respondents were a study in contradictions.

For example, in the UBS survey, nearly 70% of the respondents said they were definitely or probably interested in an a la carte offering; 70% of those same people said they were satisfied with the value of pay TV.

Asked to create their own a la carte packages out of an existing 60-channel expanded-basic offering, their average custom bundle cost $127 per month, or about 20% more than the cost of an average expanded-basic package.

“Overall, we believe the evidence shows that the pay TV bundle is nowhere close to a tipping point, while OTT pay TV services will be challenged to offer a low-priced service that would also be popular,” Mitchelson wrote.

The study also found that so-called cost-conscious viewers are passionate about the TV they watch, even the channels they don’t watch regularly. On average, respondents to the study said they watched 17 to 18 channels (six of which were considered “favorites”), but chose 35 channels in their “custom” packages.

On average, respondents were willing to pay $15 more per month to add channels they did not initially choose in their custom bundles.

Age, not household income, played the biggest role in the respondents’ desire for a la carte. According to UBS, about 67% of households with incomes of $55,000 per year or less were interested in a la carte, as were 69% of households with annual incomes of $55,000 to $99,000 and 71% of households with more than $100,000 in annual income.

By contrast, about 75% of respondents aged 18-34 would definitely or probably be interested in a la carte, while 62% of respondents aged 55 or older were interested.

Millennials have long been the target of over-the-top and skinny bundle services, but have been reluctant to pay for TV, instead opting to watch online video and cheaper subscription demand services. While that separation from reality appears to be evident in the UBS survey — younger respondents generally wanted more channels for less money — there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel.

At the Multichannel News/Broadcasting & Cable Next TV Summit in San Francisco last week, Sling TV senior vice president and chief product officer Ben Weinberger said millennials begin to warm up to the idea of paying for television at the ripe old age of 23.

That, said Needham & Co. media analyst Laura Martin, is good news for pay TV providers. “That’s a hugely positive surprise,” she said.

All this leads to what Mitchelson calls the real problem for cable, satellite and telco TV operators.

“Overall, consumers clearly want more choice, but even if they were given greater packaging flexibility we believe consumers would invariably end right back where they are now, in the big pay TV bundle,” Mitchelson wrote. “This suggests the industry has a significant marketing problem more than it has a price/value issue.”

Sling TV Rolls Updated UI toRoku

Jeff Baumgartner — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 00:45:00 +0000

Sling TV, Dish Network’s OTT-TV service for cord-cutters, has rolled out “phase one” of a new and improved user interface to the Roku platform, a move that follows similar UI updates for Sling TV on Amazon Fire devices, the Xbox One, the Android TV platform, Web browsers and Android and iOS smartphones and tablets.

“Similar to our previous UI updates, this means Roku subscribers will experience our new channels guide, giving you faster access to our thousands of hours of on-demand content, plus easier navigation through our live channels,” Ben Weinberger, Sling TV’s chief product officer, explained in this December 1 blog post.

Among the additions is a “filter ribbon” that lets viewers find channels by category from the UI’s mini guide view, and changes and enhancements for the Roku remote, which now features a Sling TV button.

For example, Weinberger noted that Roku no longer allows app developers to assign functions to the remote’s “star” button, so users can now press the “OK” button from the full screen to pull up the Sling TV menu.

Sling TV Updates Guide for Xbox One

Jeff Baumgartner — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 22:15:00 +0000

Calling it “part one” of a new user interface, Sling TV has posted a blog about a new channel guide and some other new features that are part of a UI refresh for the Xbox One and are based partly on customer feedback.

“In addition to greater stability, improved streaming and bug fixes on the front- and back-end, you should also notice that the guide looks a little different,” Ben Weinberger, the former CEO of Digitalsmiths who joined Sling TV as chief product officer in June, explained, adding that the update comes as the OTT-TV service for cord-cutters now offers more than 60 channels and more than 10,000 hours of on-demand content.

He said Xbox One subs this week are getting the "initial phase of our interface refresh.”

The revised UI for the Microsoft console supports a mini guide that will present the schedule and VOD fare for a specific channel. Sling TV has also tweaked the functionality of the “Y” button, taking users to the Search page.

Weinberger said the refresh is one of several planned updates coming to the Sling TV UI. Sling TV also supports Roku devices, the Amazon Fire TV and the Android TV-powered Nexus Player, as well as iOS and Android mobile devices and Web browsers. It is also considering developing an app for the new Apple TV.

Sling TV Names Chief Product Officer

Jeff Baumgartner — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 14:45:00 +0000

Ben Weinberger, a co-founder and the former CEO of Digitalsmiths, has been named senior vice president and chief product officer of Sling TV, Dish Network’s new OTT TV service for cord-cutters that launched nationwide on February 9.

Weinberger reports to Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch and, in the new role, will oversee Sling TV’s product development and product management.

Weinberger’s move to Sling TV comes after TiVo acquired Digitalsmiths, a maker of video discovery and recommendations services, last year for about $135 million. Fellow Digitalsmiths co-founder Matt Berry is currently COO of the TiVo-owned unit.

Sling TV noted that Weinberger and Lynch previously worked together when the Sling TV CEO served on the board of Digitalsmiths. Dish is also one of Digitalsmiths’s customers, but it has not announced any third-party video recommendation partners for the Sling TV service.

“Since Sling TV’s arrival four months ago, we have added more than 40 domestic channels and thousands of hours of on-demand titles,” Lynch said in a statement. “This influx of programming makes it increasingly important that our content discovery process connects consumers quickly and seamlessly to the sports, shows and movies they love. Ben’s background makes him the ideal fit to lead our effort in creating a world class next-generation TV experience.”

“In joining Sling TV, I’ve gained the opportunity to lead a talented team whose entrepreneurial spirit will continue to redefine television,” Weinberger, who also serves on the board or advisory boards of Librestream, MediaShift, T3Media, and Southern Illinois University Alumni Association and Council for Entrepreneurial Development. “Sling TV is the future of television, and we are rapidly growing an organization that will shape how consumers view video entertainment for generations to come.”

Weinberger graduated with honors from Southern Illinois University.