Darcy Antonellis, the veteran media technology executive who led Amdocs-owned media services shop Vubiquity since 2014, will step down and take an advisory role, according to Deadline. 

No replacement has been named. 

Vubiquity performs a range of video technology tasks for clients including WarnerMedia, Disney, ViacomCBS, Verizon and Charter Communications. 

“I cannot say enough about the talented and dedicated group of people that I’ve had the privilege to work alongside as we’ve reshaped the company through some of the most dynamic industry periods of our time,” Antonellis said in a statement provided to Deadline and only Deadline ... exclusively. 

“From a U.S.-centric, licensing focused company to a now global scale distribution and platform provider, every member of the organization contributed in some way to these successes," she added. "I am confident that this team will continue to achieve new successes always with an eye towards the future.”

Antonellis, a former Warner Bros. engineering executive who was a Multichannel News Wonder Woman in 2018, continues to serve on the boards of theatrical exhibitor Cinemark and TiVo owner Xperi. 

Cord-cutting has primarily been characterized over time as the path to less cost and more relevant content. So why is it still proving to be so difficult for consumers to create and manage their ideal multiscreen experience?

According to Parks Associates, over a quarter of millennials subscribe to three or more over-the-top video services, and more than half use at least two. However, a separate U.S. survey from Vanson Bourne claims that 68% of all viewers still aren’t satisfied with the range of content currently available to them, even though they are paying an average of $86 per month (not including the cost of broadband) for access.

With new direct-to-consumer entrants about to hit the market, the options to personalize the viewing experience, and potential complexities, will only increase.

The Millennial Factor

When it comes to millennials, they’ve made clear their willingness to pay for their “perfect bundle” — especially offerings that integrate premium live events (like sports) with a customized on-demand “binge” offering.

However, paying for live a la carte content, on top of recurring over-the-top subscriptions and broadband, begins to reach customary pay-TV cost levels. The further multiplier to this complexity quotient is the management of these bespoke, one-off signups and cancellations, often done to see a particular event or during trial periods that automatically renew.

Without user-friendly ways to manage these subscriptions, customers are more likely to try these services once and avoid them later.

How Can Service Providers Make Sense of This?

It’s clear today that our physical and digital life has become one. Think about the course of your day and the limited number of instances where a connected device, app or other digital tool isn’t part of your routine. From the time you wake up, work out, check the news, schedule meetings, make a reservation or rent a car, it’s all through a digital, connected lifestyle. And managing it can be complicated.

Tools that allow consumers to manage their digital lives, subscriptions, terms, trials, content and valuable data within simple-to-use solutions will become increasingly vital. The same goes for their media and entertainment offerings.

In the case of service providers, combining a unified carrier experience that caters to the consumer’s digital life, and integrated with first- and third-party brands, creates stickiness and value. It creates a platform to try and offer new, contextualized services.

There is an appetite for this approach, too. Almost 70% of consumers surveyed in the Vanson Bourne research stated that they would be prepared to pay (a premium) for a unified and personalized service bundle option. And 69% of consumers said that they would shift services and, in some cases, longstanding brand alliances for this type of package and experience.

Preparing for New Content Business Models

On the content side, the market is filled with new opportunities. Whatever solutions put forward to help consumers manage their digital content need to support the yet-to-be-offered business models of major content providers. After all, a transactional player today could be a subscription player tomorrow, or a subscription service could suddenly offer an ad-supported option.

New approaches, which can also include share of subscription revenue opportunities with service providers, can provide even more content options and solutions for millennials to consider.

Bringing Simple Back to the Content Experience

While cord-cutting was supposed to create an ideal content experience, it’s only becoming more complicated for consumers. To best manage this, we need to give consumers a reason to stay within a single ecosystem. Partnerships, better digital lifestyle management, flexible cost-of-entry, and revenue sharing opportunities are crucial to keep subscribers engaged across a highly dynamic landscape.

Darcy Antonellis is head of Amdocs Media and CEO of Vubiquity.

NAME: Darcy Antonellis
TITLE: CEO
COMPANY: Vubiquity

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Prior to joining Vubiquity as CEO in late 2013, she was president, technical operations and chief technology officer at Warner Bros. Entertainment, where she played a key role in the studio’s transition to digital technologies and automated distribution systems.

QUOTABLE: “You want to avoid trying to boil the ocean to solve a multitude of problems. Think about your core and the company’s areas of expertise and where you can really bring value and enable new opportunities for your customers.”

Darcy Antonellis, CEO of Vubiquity, understands that a combination of hard work and determination is always required to successfully climb the corporate ladder.

But she’s eager to point out that this climb, typically a more difficult one for women in male-dominated fields, also requires the help of mentors and advocates who make their decisions without self-centered motives, but instead “pay it forward.”

“I feel very strongly that nobody makes their way completely on their own,” Antonellis said. “Recognizing those contributions and how you can learn from anyone on any given day is extremely important.”

Many Mentors, One Most Important
Antonellis noted several mentors who have contributed to her career, but gives much of the credit to her father, who is technically trained and worked in the broadcasting arena. He had some influence on Antonellis’s decision to focus her efforts on technology and engineering, she said.

Watch MCN: 12 Takeaways From MCN's Wonder Women Class of 2018

The importance of mentorship also ties into how Antonellis operates Vubiquity. A prime example is the “VUer Choice Awards,” an annual internal program that recognizes employees who are nominated and selected by their peers for exhibiting one of Vubiquity’s core values.

“Paying it forward is certainly one of those,” Antonellis said.

It’s been an interesting journey for Antonellis, who initially embarked on a career in journalism, including a post with the CBS News bureau in Washington, D.C.

“I later realized that I had a much greater aptitude and passion for math and science, and that ultimately spurred my interest,” she said.

Jim Riley, a former colleague of Antonellis at Vubiquity and now chief revenue officer at Mediamorph, said she possesses a unique blend of knowledge that is critical in the ever-evolving video and media business.

“Darcy is driven, strategic, tenacious and technically savvy,” Riley said. “She’s got a deep technical expertise that she marries with her enthusiasm about the future.”

Riley said he believes Antonellis got ahead of that curve working as a top engineering executive at Warner Bros. Entertainment, which she has parlayed into the leadership role she has today. “She has the technical acumen to handle the challenges of this new world we’re all living in and working together to bring to fruition,” he said.

As a global media distribution technology and services provider, Vubiquity, like other companies in the sector, has been required to evolve, going beyond securing rights and the tech required to distribute premium content to a wide range of screens.

These days, the turf of traditional pay TV operators is being invaded by content owners and new distributors that can tap into high-speed broadband connections to deliver over-the-top content directly to the viewer.

“The video space is incredibly dynamic,” Antonellis said. “The trend we’re seeing is of content owners becoming more direct-to-consumer distributors, and video distributors becoming content owners. We’ve made a lot of investments to enable and support new services rapidly.”

Knowing how to support those trends while also implementing a range of advertising, subscription and transaction-based business models, and doing it on an increasingly global basis, has been a major focus for Antonellis and Vubiquity.

“There’s a great opportunity for premium content to be shared and enjoyed, and that crosses a lot of borders,” she said, referring to the company’s international expansion (now at more than 120 countries and support for about 80 languages).

As CEO, Antonellis is tasked with maintaining a balance on the “here and now” of the business, as well as preparing for what’s to come. “I think the biggest challenges are really just around the raw, dynamic nature of the video landscape and consumption patterns,” she said. “The challenge for any executive team is to maintain discipline to stay focused, but not at the expense of adjusting to these relative changes.”

Finding the Time for Family
Antonellis also tries to strike the right work-life balance. Outside of work, her focus is on her two children, Andrea and Sebastian, who were born in Bogota, Colombia, and did not speak English when they were adopted as teens. Antonellis’s daughter is getting ready to graduate from college; her son is now working full time.

“They’ve really worked to find their way in the world,” Antonellis said. “I look at them as being my greatest inspiration. I think about the beginning of their lives and the challenges that they’ve overcome, and those are pretty good goal posts for me.”

Antonellis is also into sports — among them tennis (she played in college under a scholarship), golf, skiing, participating in triathlons and boating. “Probably everything except curling, maybe,” she said.

She’s also a big Philadelphia Eagles fan, and scored tickets to watch her team defeat the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship.

Her passion for sports also translates to her interest in women’s health, as she is chair of the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women Los Angeles chapter.

And speaking of sports, regarding advice for other women interested in pursuing a career in engineering, technology and operations, she’d say the same thing cheering on her favorite teams. “The best thing I can say, and in all caps, is: ‘GO, GO, GO!’