As the regional sports network business continues to evolve, pro teams are looking to maximize local TV revenue by making a play to offer fans live game content across multiple platforms, according to executives speaking at the “TV Sports: Checking In on the Post-RSN Revolution” panel at the Next TV Summit on Tuesday.

As viewers continue to migrate from cable TV bundles to digital platforms, panelists said more teams are extending their reach beyond the traditional regional sports networks by moving to a hybrid of broadcast TV and direct-to-consumer services.

“We don’t think the RSN part of the ecosystem is dead; it is simply going through enormous changes,” ViewLift co-founder and CEO Rick Allen said at the summit, part of NYC TV Week. He pointed to successful RSNs like YES Network that are bucking the trend of the otherwise-struggling business, led by the bankrupt Diamond Sports Group, operator of the troubled Bally Sports RSNs.

ViewLift, which provides a direct-to-consumer offering for live, local games from such NHL teams as the Florida Panthers, Vegas Golden Knights and Washington Capitals,  has been able to create partnerships with the teams that includes distribution on local-market broadcast stations and the digital platform, he added.

“It’s a very powerful model which brings in an enormous amount of data that allows teams to know who their specific individual viewers are and how best to move them through a 360-degree relationship with the team and monetize in a whole range of ways,” he said.

The latest DTC service to market is  A Parent Media Co. Inc.-owned Victory Plus, which launches this week with digital distribution of Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks NHL games alongside local broadcast channels, as well as ancillary content from the teams on a national digital platform, according to Victory Sports chief strategy officer Narendra Nag. 

Distributors and teams must work together to generate revenue across various platforms, Kiswe co-founder and chief marketing officer Wim Sweldens said. “What sets us apart is that we think of ourselves as the partner of the sports team,” said Sweldens, whose company has built DTC streaming platforms for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz, among other pro-sports franchises.

“To win you have to maximize the revenue from your content by reaching as many people as possible, “ he said. “You want to create a destination.”

As for the future, LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media president and CEO Lee Berke said teams will have to work with distributors across multiple platforms to effectively reach both hard-core fans as well as young, potential fans coming up. 

“The opportunity is not necessarily to abandon pay TV, but ultimately working to reach your next generation of fans across platforms,” he said. “If your signage can only be seen by only three out of 10 homes and fans are not exposed to your brand at an early age, then ultimately the value of your franchise suffers.”

The opening keynote at the Next TV Summit featured Michael Pachter, managing director of equity research, Wedbush Securities, interviewed by Jeffrey Cole, founder and director, Center for the Digital Future, discussing “Streaming Subscriptions: Winners and Losers.” 

The conversation began with Netflix, and Pachter touched on how broadcast and cable networks used to be a little quicker to license their hit shows to the streaming giant. 

“Netflix pulled the wool over the eyes of the media companies,” Pachter said. “They’re so far ahead now.”

Leslie Moonves, former CBS chief, offered that network’s programs to Netflix soon as their season ended, Pachter said, while Richard Plepler, former HBO chief, did not. HBO has proven adept at making a hit show last for months, keeping audience churn down. 

“You never quit,” said Pachter. “That’s the right model.” 

Pachter believes Netflix does not charge consumers enough. “Netflix broke the model,” he said. “They gave us too much content for too little money.”

Among that content, Netflix movies are not working, he added, because top Hollywood talent is reluctant to partner with the streamer as those films do not get full-blown awards consideration. “That’s a persistent problem for Netflix,” Pachter said. 

The conversation moved on to the more traditional networks launching their own costly streaming products. “Media companies stupidly followed Netflix into the crevasse,” said Pachter, who singled out Paramount Plus, which he said “doesn’t have enough content–they can’t compete.”

On the cable front, Pachter sees that side of the industry coming back, at least to a degree. “Old people aren't cutting the cord — they’re just dying,” he said, and young consumers just have too many viewing options to consider signing up for cable. 

But the cable bundle does continue to be a draw for part of the population. “You do need the bundle, you just don’t know you need the bundle,” Pachter said. 

Smart cable operators will make Netflix, Prime Video and other streaming players part of the bundle they offer subscribers, Pachter believes. 

The convo moved on to broadcast, and how much longer those networks can afford major sports rights. “The sports leagues are going for the dollars and not thinking about the long-term consequences,” Pachter shared. “The leagues hurt themselves if they make it hard for the fan to find content.”

The Next TV Summit is part of NYC TV Week, hosted by Broadcasting+Cable, Multichannel News and Next TV. The Advanced Advertising Summit happened September 9, Next TV Summit takes place September 10, Hispanic TV Summit is September 11 and 40 Under 40 happens September 12. The first three events are at etc.venues in midtown Manhattan, and 40 Under 40 is at 230 Fifth. 

Visionaries and leaders from throughout the video industry gathered in New York on September 12 for the Next TV Summit, a daylong event featuring panels and keynotes on the latest trends, challenged predictive models, success stories and insights into the continued navigation of a historically disrupted TV content industry. The event is part of NYC TV Week, a full slate of events that also includes the Advanced Advertising Summit, Hispanic TV Summit and the 40 Under 40 New York gala. Click below to view event photos. 

FAST channels are on the rise, but executives speaking at the “What Makes FAST Go” panel at Tuesday’s Next TV Summit said that the platform’s fast growth has created some business challenges for distributors and content creators.

With more than 1,800 free, ad-supported TV (FAST) channels currently in the marketplace and a projected universe of 2,000 by the end of 2023, according to panel moderator and Rasenberger Media president Catherine Rasenberger, it’s becoming more difficult for content to stand out, panelists said. 

“The competition is so fierce that we won’t bring a channel to market with fewer than 1,000 hours of programming,” said Stuart McLean, CEO of FAST Studios, which distributes sports-themed FAST channels targeting NASCAR fans, women’s sports and sports lifestyles. “Now that you see the major media companies rolling out their products, you really have to lean in as much as possible into original programming to make ourselves attractive to distributors.”

Cineverse president and chief strategy officer Erick Opeka added that content originality is vitally essential to distributors and viewers. “We’ve been working on defensible IP [intellectual property], where you use a single brand as a seed to launch a network and build original programming and brand extensions from there,” Opeka said of the streaming platform’s 36 FAST channels.  

While FAST channels are surging into the marketplace, panelists said the advertising revenue model is still a work in progress. McLean said relying on programmatic ad sales for the bulk of a FAST’s revenue is a mistake, given the uncertainty of the market. 

“If you’re relying on programmatic for your business, you don’t have a business,” he said, adding that his channels rely heavily on programming sponsorships to generate revenue. “Our ability to create custom content for brands is really our top strategy right now.” 

Yet for FAST operators like Plex, which doesn’t own or create content, programmatic ad sales are very important to the bottom line, Plex VP of operations Todd Hay said.

“My costs are in the distribution deals and the revenue-sharing deals I have with the content partners,” he said. “Since I don’t own the IP, it's hard for me to package and sell that so we’re 100% programmatic.”

With large media companies like A+E Networks, NBCUniversal, AMC Networks and Warner Bros. Discovery now getting into the FAST business with the launch of dozens of new, branded channels, several executives expressed concern that smaller companies may find it more difficult to get their channels distributed and recognized.

But Cineverse’s Opeka said that it should be technology, rather than a heavy reliance on legacy brands, that should drive the distribution of content to consumers. 

“We’re literally using touchmarks from the past like brands to determine how we’re going to entertain people in the future, and the reality is that the technology is far better than that,” he said. “The whole notion of using brands is a shortcut to help people find what they really want. Instead, let's use technology to help people find what they want.” 

Fuse Media senior vice president of digital strategy and operations Patrick Courtney added that FAST channel content featuring linear TV brands might not play as well with viewers in the FAST space. He added that Fuse’s FAST channels, such as Shades of Black, Latino Vibes and OUTtv Proud, have unique brands for the platform that will not be confused with the Fuse linear brand. 

“What we came to understand is that Fuse is a very strong brand in pay TV, but it is not a FAST brand,” he said. “We put a lot of effort into making sure that those are extremely good, well-curated products that are effectively monetized for our partners for the FAST platform.”

Eric Berger, CEO and co-founder of kids-targeted Common Sense Networks said that big media brands don’t resonate in particular with younger viewers, who are more interested in user-generated and shortform content that showcase people who look like them. “The content we’re pulling for the FAST platform is not library content, but it's current and new and they are important brands to those that are watching because they can see themselves in it, and I think that’s why we’re continuing to gain carriage the way that we are today,” Berger said. 

The Next TV Summit is part of NYC TV Week, which continues Wednesday morning with the Hispanic TV Summit. NYC TV Week is produced by Future plc, parent of Next TV, Broadcasting+Cable and Multichannel News. 

“Incremental enhancements really add up,” John Jelley, senior VP of product and user experience, Peacock and Global Streaming, at NBCUniversal, said in a keynote interview opening up the Next TV Summit on Tuesday. 

He gave as an example a “watch now” button on the Peacock streaming service that has rounded edges versus an earlier one with square corners. As it does routinely before making changes, Peacock tested different designs for the feature and saw “a significant lift in usage” for a rounder button that “feels a bit more buttony” to viewers. The new rounder-designed button came in as part of a brand refresh of Peacock.

“Whenever we're thinking about product development, we think about big features, but we also think about small enhancements,” Jelley told interviewer Kerry Flynn of Axios at the summit, part of NYC TV Week.

Live sports is a big category for Peacock, which in addition to rugby, English Premier League soccer and NFL and college football carries the Olympics. A lot of work is going into enhancements for next year’s Summer Games in Paris. 

“We've observed that our competitors and some other players in the market are starting to think about how to showcase multiple live events in one screen,” he said, “and that's something we're working on and thinking about very carefully right now. As you can imagine, for the Olympics, you have literally thousands of events and multiple, you know, up to 20, 30 at once.” Having ways to easily see what are the trending events, what are the events that are the most popular events right now or the ones that have Team USA would be helpful for viewers, he said. 

“We're starting to think about how could we create an experience that really allows you to discover, using multiple views of content,” he said. “We're testing out and experimenting with that right now.” 

Peacock is adding a “catch up with key plays” feature to NFL games next month after trying it out earlier on English Premier League soccer and finding that it encouraged users to consume more content, Jelley said. “Users who consume and use this service watch about seven or so clips on average,” he said.

Other enhancements that should be visible on Peacock soon include new ways to “frame” ads that pop up during live sports but don’t block the game action, and targeted product placements inserted into some content. “We are also looking at shopping” and ways to enable viewers during an ad break to “opt in to a shopping experience in a way that just doesn’t interrupt viewing.”

NYC TV Week continues on September 13 with the Hispanic TV Summit and on September 14 with 40 Under 40.

Evan Adlman, AMC Networks executive VP of commercial sales and revenue operations, sat for a fireside chat with B+C Multichannel News business editor Jon Lafayete to discuss his company’s FAST and AVOD strategies, and what is working on the newer media. He described the longtime cable programmer’s shift to streaming platforms as “more of an evolution than anything” as viewers’ consumption habits change. 

“It is no longer delivering to one particular endpoint,” he said during a fireside chat at Tuesday's Next TV Summit, part of NYC TV Week. 

Lafayette asked about AMC shows streaming on Max, both a competitor and a partner for AMC. Adlman said the strategy is to have AMC programming reach viewers and users on multiple platforms, so “they can access it on their own terms.” 

“There’s a lot to learn,” Adlman added. 

One perk of building FAST (free, ad-supported TV) channels is the abundance of user data one gets back, Adlman said. 

Asked what he’s seeing in terms of the upfront, Adlman mentioned “a push from the buying community on transparency,” and noted that AMC Networks has “always been 100% transparent.” 

There may be a glut of programming on streaming, but Adlman broke it down between premium content and “long-tail content” on FAST platforms. AMC programming, he added, falls in the premium bucket. 

Adlman mentioned The Walking Dead: Dead City, which premiered earlier this year, debuting on a Sunday night, with the latest episode on FAST channels the next day along with messages about how to watch the next episode on subscription streaming service AMC Plus. That strategy “has been working for us,” he said, in terms of building subscriber numbers and show buzz. 

Ad-supported AMC Plus premieres in October. Adlman said the company is excited about the launch. “We feel it’s another way for viewers to interact with us,” he said. “It allows our advertisers to reach a new set of viewers, and an incremental audience.”

As VP and head of data science at Comcast-owned FreeWheel, a global technology platform for the TV advertising industry, Bob Bress is focused on the application of advanced analytics to advertising technologies. He has over 20 years of analytics experience across industries including work in hospitality, energy and at GE's Global Research Center. On Tuesday, September 12, Bress will join a panel discussion about artificial-intelligence applications that could have a big impact on the video business — part of the Next TV Summit at NYC TV Week. He answered five questions on industry topics ahead of the event.

Next TV: How is AI reshaping premium video? 

Bob Bress: AI is reshaping premium video content by not only enhancing how content is created but how advertisers operate in the ecosystem. AI will drive the industry’s advertising capabilities in many ways, including through: greater audience segmentation and targeting, cross-channel optimization and yield management and dynamic content targeting with enhanced metadata.

How video content is made and discovered itself will also be impacted.  Some key applications of AI across content include: automated video and music production, enhanced recommendation engines and automated language translation and dubbing. As AI adoption grows, we can expect accelerated improvements in video content development, content discovery, and in video advertising capabilities.

NTV: What are the best applications for AI in CTV? How has FreeWheel been thinking about it? 

BB: FreeWheel is focused on the development of industry-leading technology in support of the video advertising ecosystem. For us, leading applications of AI drive advertising effectiveness not only on CTV but however consumers are watching content. This includes other digital formats as well as traditional broadcast TV.  For us, the best applications happen behind the scenes of what a traditional advertising or publisher might see. These include: audience modeling for ad targeting, viewership and demand forecasting using advanced machine learning concepts and automated metadata generation to allow advertisers to target ads in the most relevant content.

The applications for AI in CTV will grow to automate media workflows, inspire and create new content and advertising, and allow for greater discovery based on a variety of data sources. There won’t necessarily be one "best" application but an expansion of AI across all aspects of how video content is created and consumed. 

NTV: What would you say to those in the industry who are hesitant to explore or adopt AI? 

BB: The great thing about AI today is that you don’t need an advanced degree in it to experiment with it or begin to leverage it in your day-to-day job. Large language models like ChatGPT can easily be used to draft communications, outline presentations, and create technical documentation. APIs are available to explore how these technologies could be used as part of chatbots or in other customer service applications. Software packages and cloud computing platforms are increasingly building AI-based capabilities to allow for custom application development. It has never been easier to get started in this space. There is also motivation for companies to push AI education and training as they risk being left behind. Companies are scrambling to innovate in how they use AI. AI may not take our jobs in the short term but it will dramatically shift the skills and training we need to be competitive in the industry. 

NTV: What’s your favorite place to visit in NYC? 

BB: Madison Square Garden! I am a big fan of the New York Rangers and there’s nothing like watching them play at the Garden. 

The 2023 Next TV Summit L.A. explored streaming industry trends and the category’s future, discussing most critically-timed and cutting-edge opinions and insights of the industry’s leading minds. The June 20 event, held at the Sofitel Los Angeles in Beverly Hills, was part of Future’s L.A. TV Week. 

Chris Ottinger didn’t exactly go all out on a media blitz in May after he was given the distribution reins for Amazon and MGM’s combined libraries. 

But Next TV was more than happy to host the longtime MGM distribution executive Tuesday afternoon at the Next TV Summit, part of Future’s two-day L.A. TV Week event, held at the Sofitel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills. The events continued Tuesday with the Advanced Advertising Summit and 40 Under 40 Awards.

Interviewed by The Ankler's Elaine Low, Ottinger gave us a unique perspective on how the occupied southern ranks of the conquered operate under the rule of their strange northern technology overlords.  

The values differ profoundly, but the good news is that basic content distribution instincts and skills are still useful to these bloodless, binary benefactors of the digital future. 

For now. 

Here are excerpts from the discussion between Ottinger and Low. 

Elaine Low: Chris, tell us how it's all been going for you.

Chris Ottinger: Sure. It's been a crazy year and a half. We closed the merger with Amazon, I think it was in March of last year. And, uh, in that time we’ve become ‘Amazonian,’ which is saying a lot more than it says in just those words. It’s a wildly different corporate culture than what we were exposed to in any of our prior roles at studios. I've worked at MGM, I've worked at Fox, I worked at CBS, I worked at Paramount. Nothing was remotely similar to working at Amazon. Really, really different company.

EL: Has anything surprised you? I wonder, being under the Amazon Studios umbrella now, culturally, how does it vary in a legacy story space like MGM? 

CO: Yeah, I think the biggest kind — and I’m sure everyone here will understand when I say the biggest changes with — you know, Amazon is a giant global, I think the biggest employer in the world. It is a tech-driven company, that it comes out of Seattle, but it comes out of Silicon Valley culture. And that culture is just a lot different. A lot of the things that we assumed coming out of the studio space, everything was driven by our catalog and our legacy. At Amazon, it's really driven by an obsession with our customers. So it’s really how do we, as quickly as possible, drive value for customers inside our service? It’s a really different viewpoint.

EL: Tell us a little bit about your work at Amazon MGM Studios distribution, now that it’s not just distribution of the more than 4,000 film titles and 17,000 TV episodes under the MGM catalog, but now also inclusive of Amazon Originals — which, as I understand it, are now able to be licensed to third-party platforms?

CO: Absolutely. So it has been, it’s a change, I think, in the business. One of the main reasons that Amazon bought MGM was to get distribution. We didn't understand this when we were being purchased, but it's become clear on the other side of the deal. Our work in the last six to nine months has really been driven about, how do we bring Amazon original programming out into the third-party distribution environment? And that’s been a giant challenge. They always had their fingers in it. If you go back and look at some of the decisions they made, they’ve been touching distribution, but the mandate going forward is very much to build a proper distribution business around all of the Amazon original content. And it’s a shocking amount of content. I had no idea the catalog was as big as it is.

EL: Tell me about any other kind of, are there any other interesting business experiments that you’re looking at, especially now that you’re looking at a screening environment? I know we talked a little bit before this panel about, uh, sort of the test and learn environment and I’m sure everyone would want to hear more about that.

CO: Sure. You know, one of the key things that Amazon is really into is this concept of test and learn. And we love two-way doors, and test and learn is part of that same concept. So we’ll do stuff where we know that if it’s a mistake, it’s a mistake and we can just move on. We’re not going to have committed the company in a way that there could be a lasting challenge. So most recently, we had two really, I think, interesting examples. One was Air. 

EL: I think I find the valuation question so interesting. Because especially when you see all these other streaming services out there that are starting to cull content, a lot of that based on the valuation and how they’re performing. So when you are having conversations with your peers, what is the vibe right now? 

CO: I think it’s the Wild West, I really do. I think everybody is interested. The level of interest from clients in our original product was incredibly high and that was super encouraging. But we’ve got to expect that these models have [to be] tested and we just don’t know, right? We’re looking for a breakout story. What's that story that performs really well? I think there’s a really positive view of the future of, you know, what kind of product can work and different launching methodologies. My real hope and my expectation is that things like Air, this hybrid model where we’re doing a theatrical release, tells the consumer that this is a real movie. It's not a direct-to-service title, and there's real long-term value with that. That's really the model that I'm most hopeful about. But it is a really big market. There’s so many buyers with so many different interests. Everything will find its home and will find its place. But what I’d love to see is real success with some direct-to-service originals.

EL: I think business model-wise we're in for an interesting couple of years.

CO: Yeah. We’re not gonna know the answers. Maybe this time next year, we’ll have a good idea of what it all means, but we’re not gonna know for a little while.

The three-dimensional chessboard of the media-technology business has never been more complex for decision-makers, who are caught between fast-eroding linear channels and next-generation digital platforms that need time to grow into their revenue potential. 

On June 20 at the Sofitel Los Angeles in Beverly Hills, the Next TV Summit L.A. will dive headfirst into the pain points and opportunities that await, with an afternoon full of panel and keynote sessions featuring some of the most influential thought leaders in the TMT industry. 

The afternoon event is part of the two-day L.A. TV Week conference produced by Future plc, publisher of Next TV, Broadcasting+Cable and Multichannel News.  

At deadline, producers were still actively booking speakers. But here’s who’s confirmed so far.

Longtime MGM distribution executive Chris Ottinger, recently put in charge by Amazon of the newly formed MGM Studios Distribution unit, the group responsible for the global proliferation of such landmark shows as The Handmaid’s Tale and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, will kick off the Tuesday-afternoon Next TV Summit portion of L.A. TV Week with a fireside keynote.

Following Ottinger’s keynote, a panel including Reny Díaz, VP of audience strategy and content development, Hispanic streaming for NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises; Will Gurman, VP, global partnerships and content strategy for Paramount; and William Morris Endeavor partner Chelsea Radler will discuss the seemingly never settled debate between traditional weekly series releasing vs. binge-minded bulk distribution. 

Then, with Netflix and The Walt Disney Co. integrating ad-supported mechanisms into their subscription streaming businesses, the Next TV Summit will veer into a discussion on hybrid monetization models, led by Kevin Cross, distribution executive for Condista; Scott Ehrlich, chief innovation officer for Sinclair Broadcast Group; and Laura Florence, senior VP and GM of Redbox. 

Late-afternoon panels will include a high-level discussion about streaming consumer behavior trends featuring Samuel Harowitz, Tubi VP of acquisitions and partnerships, and Tania Missad, head of global corporate research data and insights for Warner Bros. Discovery. Also, Next TV lead editor Daniel Frankel will lead a discourse on the unbundling and rebuilding of the video business, amid rapid decay of the incumbent pay TV infrastructure. 

The event will wrap with the presentation of the “FAST Five,” honoring executives and creatives developing the most innovative, cost-efficient original programming in the ad-supported streaming ecosystem. 

“This might be the most volatile period in television history, with new delivery and consumption patterns emerging every week,” Next TV’s Frankel said. “Those who wish to survive and thrive in the video entertainment industry must find ways to expose themselves to the latest ideas and strategies, and Next TV L.A. provides an excellent forum to do just that.”

Distributors of live sports programming need to be willing to play on both linear and digital TV platforms in an effort to effectively reach sports fans and maximize revenue opportunities, according to executives speaking at the Next TV Summit.

With live sports programming continuing to drive ratings for linear broadcast and cable channels, executives speaking at the “Live Sports: The Last Unbundle?” panel Tuesday — part of NYC TV Week — said that high-profile sports events will not aggressively migrate to streaming services in the near future. That doesn’t mean that streaming services aren’t a suitable and lucrative destination for live sports programming in an effort to reach cord-cutting sports fans.

“There will continue to be this hybrid; there’s not going to be a single solution for any league or broadcaster,” FIFA Plus head of audience Laura Andriani said. “I think there’s going to be a figuring out process of what’s best for each proposition.”

Also: More Coverage from the 10th Anniversary NYC TV Week

Indeed, Bally Sports chief product officer Michael Allen said that while the company offers live, compelling pro sports programming through its 19 linear-based regional sports networks, later this month it will launch Bally Sports Plus, a subscription digital service that will allow consumers to purchase content from their respective regional networks outside of traditional MVPDs and satellite distributors.

“We see Bally Plus as complementary to what’s already in the market,” he said. “If [customers] are cord-cutters or cord-nevers, we now provide a new way in which they can consume this content.”

The recently launched free FIFA Plus digital service will offer more than 40,000 live soccer matches from around the world this year as a complement to the World Cup TV rights deal FIFA has with Fox Sports through 2026. Andriani says the streaming service allows the organization to superserve rabid fans with both live and originally produced content that’s translated into 10 different languages.

“Fans want to see different things, so [FIFA Plus] is really a test-and-learn [service],” she said. “There’s a need for FIFA to have a more constant touchpoint with fans, not just every four years [for the World Cup].”

Ultimately, big-ticket sports properties like the NFL, NBA and MLB will continue to have a major presence on broadcast television, but for second-tier sports like rugby, track and field or bowling, the digital platform can provide opportunities for fans to consume content from their favorite sports, according to FloSports VP of global operations Michael Levy. The FloSports subscription streaming service offers more than 200,000 live sports events across more than 25 sports.

“I see an ongoing conversion of tier-1 sports-TV rights going to the biggest players in the market, and I see more and more of that tier-2 sports-league rights being underserved and set aside,“ he said. ”Someone is going to have to fill that void.” ■ 

Some of the video industry’s leading executives gathered at New York’s etc.venues on September 13 for the Next TV Summit, where they discussed the most pressing economic, operational and technological issues facing the streaming business while offering valuable insights into how to succeed in today’s unprecedented disruptive times. The event, part of NYC TV Week, also honored the inaugural winners of the Next TV Innovation Awards. Here are some snapshots from the daylong affair. 

With streaming video companies looking for ways to stem the slowdown in subscriber growth, a panel of experts at the Next TV Summit said using an old cable tenet — bundling — could help attract more price-conscious consumers into the fold. 

At the “Recession Realities” panel at the gathering Tuesday, part of NYC TV Week, Weather Group senior VP and chief marketing officer Fred Bucher said the same economic forces and price sensitivity that killed the cable bundle are apparently making a comeback with streaming. Already streamers like Disney, with its Hulu, ESPN Plus and Disney Plus bundle, and others are repackaging services to make them more attractive to consumers. 

“Economic forces and price sensitivity is what killed the cable bundle, and that’s continuing,” Bucher said, adding that price sensitivity and churn are driving the creation of different tiers of pricing and services like ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) and free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) services.

Weather Group launched its own streaming service — Local Now — to address cord-cutters who missed local news and entertainment content.

“A lot of the answers for the future are in the past,” Bucher said, adding that what built the cable business — aggregation, better pricing and bundling — will likely be cornerstones of SVOD and AVOD models in a few years. 

Panel moderator Jon Geigengack, founder and principal of Hub Entertainment Research, said that as the bundle grows, consumers will crave a way to make finding content easier, and aggregation is one way to satisfy that need. 

DirecTV Advertising Group VP, client success, programmatic and ad operations Rose McGovern agreed, adding that aggregation is what DirecTV does best. Citing recent Nielsen research, she said about 64% of customers wish to have a bundle that includes as much or as little content as they want. 

That includes live and local programming as well, McGovern added, with about 67% of people nationally watching live content every day. 

As content streaming choices grow, Bucher said it is imperative that content companies get the word out, and that means marketing becomes more important than ever. 

“The biggest threat is underinvestment in marketing,” Bucher said. “It starts with great content, great product experience, and great marketing. If you don’t have those three things, you’re not going to win.” 

Bucher added that critical to the marketing effort is that streamers really know their consumers. 

“You have to understand who your consumers are, understand who your hard core users are too  and make them happy,” Bucher said.

And once you’ve hooked a viewer, the trick is keeping them. At AMC Networks, executive VP of performance marketing Sylvia George said engagement is a critical part of the equation. 

“What is so critical is your audience,” George said. “The relationship with the audience, super-serving the audience, making sure that you’re segmenting your audience based on data, based on what is your audience engaging with once they come in — not just the first thing they watch, what’s the second and third thing they watch. Getting people engaged within a specific time period is critical to ensuring retention. If you don’t get your subscriber engaged within a few weeks, you’re at risk of losing them. You can’t get complacent.”

The panel also was encouraged by Netflix’s plan to launch an ad-supported version of the service soon. The company has already partnered with Microsoft to provide the tech infrastructure for the AVOD service. 

“In some ways, they could help re-energize the advertising business,” Bucher said, adding that Netflix doesn’t have the “institutional inertia” of some other companies that have long been in the ad business. “It’s kind of cool to take a fresh look.”

Bucher was especially encouraged by the vast amount of data in Netflix's arsenal, adding that the ad business may never get this chance again. 

McGovern also was encouraged by the potential for more innovation that a Netflix AVOD product could bring. For example, a departure from the traditional 15-second to 30-second ad spot.

But Bucher warned that whatever comes out of the Netflix AVOD experiment will depend on outside pressures. 

“There’s a lot of stuff they could do that could be an enormous amount of fun… but what it’s going to come down to will be how much pressure they’re under to deliver a number of revenue,” Bucher said. “If there are huge revenue expectations, that’s going to diminish innovation, because they are going to default to what they know, and agencies will say, ‘Just make it easy for me.’ That, to me, will be a shame. 

“The irony is that Reed Hastings, who was so dogmatic for so long about advertising, can actually become the person to really reinvent the space,” Bucher continued. “I hope they’re given the time to do that. “ ■ 

The Next TV Summit panel “RIP Broadcast TV?” looked at the viability of the original TV platform in the era of streaming TV. It also discussed how broadcast TV is extending its reach on newer platforms. Rob Weisbord, chief operating officer and president of broadcast at Sinclair Broadcast Group, spoke about the importance of the broadcast “ecosystem” in retaining its relevance, including diginets and mobile apps. “We look at everything as spokes to a wheel,” he said. 

That includes Sinclair streaming network Stirr and news app NewsOn. 

As much as the major subscription streamers dominate the traditional primetime, Weisbord said consolidation is inevitable for that sector. Programming costs, he added, mentioning Netflix movie The Gray Man, are not sustainable, and perhaps the streamers will consider licensing content to station groups. 

Also: More Coverage from the 10th Anniversary NYC TV Week

Jim Long, CEO of LocalBTV/Didja, said Sinclair has the right idea about connecting with viewers on all platforms. “Sinclair is doing exactly what they should be doing,” he said. “Be where the consumers are.”

David Bloom, senior contributor, NextTV, moderated the panel, part of NYC TV Week. 

The panelists made the point that, as much as viewers rely on Netflix, Hulu and other subscription streamers, those platforms don’t provide local programming. “Localism is the most important thing to us,” said Kevin Dunaway, VUit VP, affiliate relations & content development, adding how VUit has 300 station partners. “We want to partner with [stations] because that content is important to all those areas.”

Dunaway made the point that a local programming event, be it a sports game or a parade, can often get significant viewership beyond the event’s home market. 

With viewers facing so many viewing options, some say there’s greater demand for local content. “We always say that content is king, but maybe it’s even more true than before,” said Stephane Guez, CTO at Dalet. “If you don’t do it well, people are going to click somewhere else.”

ATSC 3.0 looks to enhance local broadcasters’ relationships with viewers, and users, in their communities. Guez called ATSC “just another way to make it easier to combine traditional broadcast and IP distribution.”

Another unique selling point for local broadcast is over the air, and free. “We have a very attractive proposition,” Weisbord said. “We have 50 plus years of heritage doing this and nothing replaces that heritage.”

NYC TV Week continues Wednesday with the Hispanic Television Summit. ■

The Next TV Summit on September 13, part of the 10th annual NYC TV Week, will for the first time include the Next TV Innovation Awards, recognizing CEOs, technologists, strategists, creatives, marketers and other executives leading some of the most innovative companies in the video business. For more information about the summit and the award winners and other NYC TV Week events visit nyctvweek.com.

Todd Achilles
Co-Founder, CEO and President
Evoca TV

Todd Achilles leads a fledgling video company positioned on numerous cutting edges. Boise, Idaho-based Evoca TV is a virtual pay TV operator, infiltrated into 10 markets across five states. The low-priced, skinny-bundled Evoca platform, which is primarily targeted to rural customers, delivers most of its content via ATSC 3.0, not streaming (although there is a lower bandwidth internet protocol component to the service). To provide hardware for the platform, Achilles bootstrapped the manufacturing of Evoca’s proprietary set-tops out of China himself. And as regional sports networks begin to go over the top, Evoca has evolved to package these channels into inexpensive bundles that achieve a largely similar objective for sports fans who don’t want to pay the Full Pay TV Monty. “I think innovation is key to the future of broadcast, and I think the future of broadcast is incredibly bright,” Achilles told Next TV. “The new technology opens up new business models and that’s what we’re experimenting with.” Evoca’s rapid evolution has come despite ATSC 3.0’s slow rollout. “Part of that is regulatory-driven, part of it is broadcasters have lost that innovation muscle, and it’s coming back now,” Achilles said. “I believe the whole broadcast sector is going to transform.” — David Bloom

Meredith Brace
Chief Marketing Officer
Samba TV

Samba TV collects viewer data via a global network of 46 million addressable TV devices, primarily smart TVs, powered by the company’s wholly-owned full tech stack, which includes a multi-source television panel 100 times larger than legacy measurement systems. Samba TV and its solutions are involved in numerous advanced advertising initiatives, but we at Next TV are particularly interested in the company’s program performance metrics for streaming, which provide the immediate third-party audience measurement we’ve been unable to find elsewhere. Meredith Brace, a former Fox Corp. executive and OpenAP board member, is the marketing chief in charge of explaining this innovative company’s brand message.  — Daniel Frankel

Matt Duarte
VP of Strategy and Business Development
YES Network

Matt Duarte might have one of the great jobs in TV. He’s in charge of making the app of the YES Network — the regional sports network owned by the New York Yankees, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Amazon — cooler and more useful to fans of the team and three other pro-sports franchises. “We launched with core functionality delivering the highest-quality video player we could,” Duarte said. “We wanted to make sure when it launched that video quality was top-notch. What we’ve done since is layer on different ways for Yankees fans to engage with the game. We want to keep them in our ecosystem and have that choice of how they want to watch the game.” The continued improvements paid off quickly, viewership jumping 200% after launching in March 2021, and jumping another 35% this year. Among the popular features: a free “pick-and-play” competition awarding up to $25,000 a night for predicting game outcomes, a “Watch Together” function, and increasingly sophisticated live stats. Duarte also customizes the app experience for the very different needs of fans watching YES’s other teams, the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, the WNBA’s New York Liberty and MLS’s New York City FC. — DB

Shalini Govil-Pai
GM and VP of TV Platforms
Google

Two years after launching Google’s second smart-TV interface, Google TV, Shalini Govil-Pai still faces plenty of challenges as a top TVOS operative, leading the company’s troops in the ferocious global battle for market share of connected devices and screens. At the same time, she’s overseeing integrations of those interfaces with Google’s many other ventures and its even more numerous partners. To get there, Govil-Pai has an ambitious vision for the future of “the largest screen in the house” as a central hub for smart homes that integrates with the world’s biggest ad-supported service (YouTube), the AI-powered Google Assistant, third-party hardware and much else. “We expect to see a rise in creative use cases from video providers with shopping on-screen or shared viewing experiences,” Govil-Pai said in a written interview. “The role of the TV will also continue to expand beyond entertainment for other use cases that make sense, like fitness, gaming and video conferencing.” Google TV launched as an upgrade/successor/flashier younger sibling to the widely used Android TV. Since then, Govil-Pai has presided over a string of improvements, including user profiles, an upgraded ambient mode, a virtual remote, new apps and integrations with Apple TV Plus, Sling TV, Philo and Pluto TV. — DB

Geir Skaaden
Executive VP and Chief Products and Services Officer
Xperi Corp.

Xperi purchased TiVo for $3 billion three years ago. Geir Skaaden is a key Xperi architect, helping build a global streaming strategy based on that acquisition. Xperi wants its TiVo Stream TVOS to compete on the global stage with the dominant gateway streaming OS companies, Google, Amazon and Roku. Xperi’s TVOS will be “very different from the big tech platforms, which take away the customer and maintain all the economics that go with that relationship,” Skaaden told Next TV in July, shortly after his company announced the purchase of European video software company Vewd, a key ingredient in its product TVOS plan. Xperi sees its market as being tier-two smart-TV makers in regions like Europe — those that don’t have the wherewithal or desire to supply their own OS, as Samsung and LG do. Xperi’s Linux-based, TiVo-branded software will give these smart TV manufacturers a customizable platform alternative to the big third-party OS gateways, allowing them to maintain their branding and their economics. Xperi already has a deal with an unnamed smart-TV manufacturer to use the software. The product will hit shelves in mid-2023, Xperi said. — DF

William J. Rouhana
Chairman and CEO
Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment

The name Chicken Soup for the Soul conjures feel-good self-help books in big-box retailers. But increasingly, the name should evoke the fast-growing streaming-video company that William J. Rouhana also heads. Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment just pulled off another notable deal, buying struggling Redbox Entertainment to fill in most of what Chicken Soup still needed to achieve Rouhana’s vision of an AVOD-centered powerhouse precisely positioned for the future of TV. The deal has one overlap: It’s adding yet another small AVOD channel. The company already has Crackle, Popcornflix and, yes, Chicken Soup for the Soul. The new channel will expand ad inventory. But the deal also brought 36,000 video-rental kiosks, a transactional VOD service and a loyalty program with 40 million entertainment-loving customers. It also swelled the company’s library to 51,000 assets. In a tech-media market full of giant fish devouring smaller ones, Rouhana finds ways to keep on building. “We wouldn’t be the first company to use a legacy business to finance a new-age business,” he said. “This gives us an underlying stability. I like the combination of underlying businesses, in this case, as a way to reduce risk.” — DB

Erick Opeka
Chief Strategy Office
Cinedigm

Erick Opeka drives Cinedigm’s corporate strategy and M&A efforts and also oversees a portfolio of 20 SVOD, AVOD and linear networks available online and on mobile devices, gaming consoles and connected TVs. He leads strategy, development, programming and operations for these networks, which include Fandor, Screambox, documentary network Docurama, fandom network CONtv, family-centered Dove Channel, Viewster Anime and more. Under Opeka’s leadership, the company has entered more than a dozen channel partnerships with large media players, including Warner Bros. Discovery- and Liberty Global-owned All3Media and American Public Media. Opeka also developed and launched Cinedigm’s proprietary over-the-top software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform Matchpoint. In addition to his efforts at Cinedigm, Opeka is a part-time adjunct professor at the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School and has an influencer presence in the realm of tech-media social discussion. He is a board and executive committee member of OTT.X, the entertainment industry’s largest streaming trade organization. And he’s a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Television Academy. — DF

Future’s NYC TV Week returns with live events on September 12-14, with the Advanced Advertising Summit, Next TV Summit and Hispanic Television Summit, ending with the 40 Under 40 celebration on September 15. 

Some of the hottest topics facining the multichannel industry will get a thorough airing — including connected-TV advertising, FAST (free ad-supported television) channels and the state of Hispanic programming among them. 

The week leads off with Advanced Advertising on Monday, September 12, at etc.venues 360 Madison. Topics covered include local OTT and connected-TV advertising, measuring cross-screen reach, programmatic buying and selling and addressable advertising.

The Next TV Summit is the next day, Tuesday, September 13, at the same venue. Topics covered include areas where subscription streaming can find renewed growth, the prospects for ad dollars across the FAST and ad-supported VOD services and the future of virtual pay TV providers.

The Hispanic TV Summit takes place on Wednesday, September 14, also at etc. venues 360 Madison. The 20th-anniversary edition of the biggest TV event in Hispanic television will tackle the universe of issues concerning Spanish-language television. 

A celebration of the 2022 class of “40 Under 40” closes out the week on Thursday, September 15, at 230 Fifth. 

For more information about NYC TV Week please visit NYCTVWeek.com.

Panel “The Battle for TV’s New ‘OS’”, part of the Next TV Summit in Los Angeles, looked at the competition to control the gateway between content, viewer and advertising. As the amount of programming available to viewers continues to escalate, the panelists spoke of making that process easier for the end user. 

Jamia Bigalow, head of brand and integrated marketing at Amazon Fire TV, spoke of a “content-forward” approach there, with the viewer seeing separate programming rows that are personalized, curated or sponsored. “How do we create a frictionless way for [viewers] to get in to see the content they want to see?” she said. 

Adam Bergman, VP at Vizio Ads, also described his outfit as content-forward. The SmartCast platform powers every new Vizio TV. Bergman mentioned how each TV in a different room in the house provides a different viewer experience. 

“If it’s good for the consumer, then it’s a business choice worth pursuing,” Bergman said. 

David Bloom of Next TV moderated the panel. 

John Gee, chief business development officer at LG Ads Solutions, spoke of the River OS and how it is designed to optimize the viewer experience. He also mentioned the OS recognizing different users, and different user expectations, based on their voices. 

“It’s all about delivering the right message to the right person at the right time,” said Gee. 

Dirk Wittenborg, chairman at Foxxum/rlaxx TV, shared about the TV viewing experience around the globe. The U.S. is dominated by big brands, he said, such as Samsung and LG, while much of the rest of the world is more like half well-known brands and half lesser-known ones. 

In terms of his company’s advertising components, he spoke of finding regional partners country by country. “They just basically market our inventory,” said Wittenborg. 

For Vizio’s part, Bergman mentioned “a completely integrated business” on the ads side.

Asked what TV might look like a few years out, Bigalow stressed the importance of live TV, including Thursday Night Football on Prime Video. “How do we make Fire TV the best place to watch those games?” she said. 

Gee said the future focus will be on “making it much easier to find and discover the content you want.”

TV of the near future, Bergman suggested, will be, in many ways, like the smartphone of today, where you can shop, place sports bets and pull off other tasks while watching. “How does the best screen in my house deliver the same things my phone does?” he said. ■

Virtual Fall TV 2021 has ended but there’s still a way to enjoy all the content, for free, by registering here. 

The TV Tech Summit, Advanced Advertising, the Next TV Summit and the 19th Hispanic Television Summit convened during the week of Nov. 15. All sessions are available on demand in the conference hub after registering for free. 

Highlights included a top-level update on the state of addressable TV, in-the-news keynotes by top executives from Redbox and Fox Weather and a primer on how HBO targets Latinx viewers -- and that is just a sampling of the content produced by Future publications tv tech, B+C, Multichannel News, Next TV and our seasoned event producers. 

Also: Top Five TV Tech Summit Takeaways

If you are already registered and want to see events you might have missed, you can log into the conference hub with the credentials you received when you registered here. 

More information on the agenda, sponsors and available content is available at the main website www.FallTVEvents.com. ■

Keynote conversations with top executives from Redbox and Fox Weather, fresh off new innovative streaming-TV launches, highlight the programming on Wednesday, Nov. 17, at the fourth annual Next TV Summit. With no cost to attend, Next TV Summit is part of Virtual Fall TV 2021 by Future publications including Next TV, B+C, Multichannel News and TV Tech.

Redbox, the kiosk-based DVD rental firm, just went public and is barreling headlong into a streaming future to augment its prowess in physical retail: streaming rentals (TVOD), ad-supported on-demand streaming (AVOD) and even hundreds of ad-supported linear streaming channels (FAST). WarnerMedia and Sony Pictures content have been added to the Redbox offerings, and CEO Galen Smith and chief strategy and digital officer Jason Kwong will discuss the company’s rapidly evolving trajectory with summit producer Tim Hanlon.

For Fox Weather, an unexpected turn into a new content vertical with a paradigm-changing "app-first" strategy (launched with over 1 million downloads), soon to be flanked by linear streaming channel (FAST) and over-the-air diginet broadcast distribution, features state-of-the art local/mobile technology that promises to make consumers' personal weather journeys more direct and relevant to their needs. Fox Weather president Sharri Berg and on-air meteorologist Amy Freeze will share insights about the launch with Hanlon and how Fox Weather plans to shake up the weather space.

"To say that the world of 'streaming TV' is quickly changing is a woeful understatement; in truth, the frenetic evolution of the "medium-formerly-known-as-television" is nothing short of astonishing,” Hanlon said. “Join us online Wednesday for a small sample of the hottest topics and most important issues in the industry at the Next TV Summit.”

Virtual Fall TV 2021 also includes TV Tech Summit, Advanced Advertising Summit and Hispanic Television Summit. Registration is free.

Future’s Spring TV 2021 returns April 26-30 as a virtual event featuring a trio of  summits that takes on the latest developments in three crucial industry segments: the Advanced Advertising Summit, the over-the-top-focused Next TV Summit and a new entry tackling the emerging Free, Ad-Supported Streaming Television category, the FAST TV Summit. The event is sponsored and programmed by Broadcasting + Cable/Multichannel News, Next TV and TV Tech. 

Spring TV will bring together innovators and thought leaders to share insights on the latest trends and developments. This virtual series is designed to help industry professionals gain new perspectives, delivering clear and actionable insights intended to advance careers and companies. 

Here’s a listing of what’s on tap for Spring TV 2021 as of deadline. Not all speakers are listed and panelists are subject to change. For a more up-to-the-minute agenda or to register for free, go to springtvevents.com. 

FAST Summit: Attracting Audiences for Free Streaming Content

The growth in the Free, Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST) space has been phenomenal and is showing no signs of slowing down, as more services enter the ring and audiences accumulate. The FAST Summit provides a timely opportunity to assess the intensifying competition and current landscape, explore where platforms are achieving success in attracting audiences and look to the trends on the immediate horizon.

Monday, April 26
Morning Sessions: Marketing FAST

10:30 a.m - 10:35 a.m. (ET)
Welcoming Remarks

10:35 a.m.-11 a.m. (ET)
Opening Keynote:
The State of FAST in 2021
This leading executive from a streaming service provider shares an insider’s perspective on the current state of this fast-growing, free, ad-supported segment of the connected tv industry, and identifies some of the special characteristics and advantages of FAST. The executive also offers suggestions for programmers and media buyers to leverage relationships with FAST providers.

11 a.m.-11:30 a.m. (ET)
What Advertisers Want
FAST offers advertisers and media buyers affordable opportunities to hyper-target consumers. Hear from a panel of media buyers and ad-sales executives as they discuss the unique advantages that advertising on FAST can offer now.

11:30 a.m.-11:45 a.m. (ET)
What FAST Audiences Want
This data presentation offers recent findings on audience segments and how they consume free streamed content, and makes comparisons to current viewership of SVOD and traditional television programming.

11:45 a.m.-Noon (ET)
Attracting FAST Audience Segments
A panel of promotions and marketing executives from networks, programmers and FAST providers discusses the special challenges of attracting diverse audience segments to FAST services, driving awareness of programming and content viewership among these segments.

Noon-12:30 p.m. (ET)
Partnering with Manufacturers
FAST brings along a set of special challenges. For example, some services work with some smart devices while others require a different smart device to function. Explore the unique relationship between manufacturers and services providers in this fascinating fireside chat with a leading smart-device manufacturer and a top FAST provider.

12:30 p.m.-1 p.m. (ET)
Securing Carriage on FAST
This panel of programming distributors and content executives at FAST service providers discuss the distinct facets of their mutual relationship in delivering free, ad-supported streaming content directly to the consumer. Discover how FAST viewer consumption is redefining the content distribution business model.

1 p.m.-1:05 p.m. (ET)
Acknowledgements & Lunch Break
Afternoon Sessions: Marketing FAST to Hispanics

1:30 p.m.-1:35 p.m. (ET)
Welcoming Remarks

1:35 p.m.- 2 p.m. (ET)
FAST for Hispanics

2 p.m.-2:30 p.m. (ET)
How Advertisers Are Targeting Hispanics with DAR
FAST offers advertisers and media buyers seeking to target Hispanic consumers with affordable and highly effective media alternatives. This panel of media buyers and ad-sales executives will discuss the advantages that media placed on FAST can offer for reaching Hispanics in today’s competitive market.
Moderator: Court Stroud, founder/managing director,
The Cledor Group
Panelists: Karina Dobarro, EVP/managing partner,
Horizon Media; Chris Pizzuro, SVP, Global Sales & Marketing, Canoe Ventures

2:30 p.m.-2:45 p.m. (ET)
What Hispanic Audiences Want from FAST
Be among the first to get these recent findings about Hispanic audience segments and their consumption of free streamed content. This presentation will share data for FAST and compare current Hispanic viewer consumption to subscription and traditional linear television programming.

2:45 p.m.-3:15 p.m. (ET)
Attracting Hispanic Audience Segments to FAST
Increasingly, Hispanics are attracted to watching free ad-supported streamed video content. This panel of promotions and marketing executives from networks, programmers and FAST providers explores how they are each attracting various audience segments among Hispanic viewers and driving awareness for select streaming brands and programming.
Panelist: Adriana Waterston, SVP, Insights & Strategy, Horowitz Research

3:15 p.m.- 3:30 p.m. (ET)
Hispanics as Smart Tech Consumers
Hispanics are tech-savvy especially, when it comes to smart devices. This is where the manufacturer of smart devices plays a significant role in the growth of the FAST business in this market. Explore the unique relationship between manufacturers and streaming services who are targeting Hispanic consumers.

3:30 p.m. - 4 p.m. (ET)
Securing Carriage for FAST Hispanic Content
This panel of Hispanic programmers, distributors and FAST content service providers share differing perspectives on how the dynamics of their mutual business relationship is changing as the demand for FAST delivered content grows among Hispanic consumers.

4 p.m.-4:05 p.m. (ET)
Closing Remarks

Advanced Advertising Summit: Create the Next Generation of Advertising Experiences

The combination of COVID-19 and the recession it caused accelerated the shift to a more digital economy and pushed marketers to be more effective, efficient, targeted and accountable — all attributes promised by advanced advertising. If you are a marketer, in media, work with technology or invest in ad tech, you can’t miss this event.

Tuesday, April 27
12:30 p.m.-12:35 p.m. (ET)
Welcoming Remarks

12:40 p.m.-1:05 p.m. (ET)
Keynote Speaker: John Nitti, Chief Media Officer, Verizon
A top marketer in the competitive telecom category talks about how he uses technology from his own company and from media partners to engage customers and boost sales. As a former top media buyer, Nitti has unique and valuable insights to share.

1:15 p.m.-1:50 p.m. (ET)
Making A Better Supply Chain
With more money and data being managed on automated systems, how can the industry maintain brand safety and avoid fraud while getting a better return on ad spending?

2:40 p.m.-3:05 p.m. (EDT)
Keynote Speaker: Matt Sweeney, Chief Investment Officer, GroupM
A top ad buyer at one of the world’s largest agencies talks about ensuring that clients get the impressions they’re guaranteed in a changing media environment. Sweeney will address what needs to happen to speed the shift of budgets from linear to more targetable video formats, the growth of CTV and the spread of automation.

3:05 p.m.-3:10 p.m. (EDT)
Closing Remarks

Wednesday, April 28
12:30 p.m-12:35 p.m. (ET)
Welcoming Remarks

12:40 p.m.-1:05 p.m. (ET)
Keynote: Marianne Gambelli, President, Fox Advertising Sales
Gambelli is integrating Fox’s broadcast, digital and streaming inventory into a single platform. She will talk about how that move will enable Fox to offer clients more relevant inventory, next-generation advertising products and the ability to reach bigger target audiences as the upfront market approaches.

1:15 p.m.-1:50 p.m. (ET)
How Local Media Profits from Advanced Advertising
Station groups and MVPDs are finding new ways to target their linear advertising and offer complimentary digital inventory in order to drive sales for both national and local clients. Top executives will share best practices for attracting incremental revenues and more effective campaigns.
Speaker: Daniel Church, Head of Advanced TV Product, Beachfront Media

2 p.m.-2:30 p.m. (ET)
Addressing Addressable Advertising
With expanding scale across providers and platforms, additional data sources and emerging identity solutions for a post-cookie environment, addressable advertising is in the spotlight. This panel will look at the technology that’s available, what clients are seeking and what targeted campaigns can deliver.

2:40 p.m.-3:05 p.m. (ET)

Keynote: TBA
A top platform ad sales exec talks about how they are using data to help advertising reach target audiences at scale.

3:05 p.m.- 3:10 p.m. (ET)
Closing Remarks

Next TV Summit: The Business of Streaming Video

 The Next TV Summit is the professional video industry’s authoritative benchmark for assessing the progress and debating the future of television’s digitally driven streaming transformation. Hear current thinking from some of the industry’s leading executives as they discuss the most pressing economic, operational and technological issues facing the “business” of video.

Thursday, April 29

1 p.m.-1:05 p.m, (ET)
Welcoming Remarks

1:05 p.m.-1:25 p.m. (ET)
Opening Keynote Presentation: Jill Rosengard Hill, EVP, Global Media & Entertainment, Magid

1:30 p.m.-1:55 p.m. (ET)
Opening Keynote Conversation
TBA

2 p.m.-2:35 p.m. (ET)
OTT vs. CTV: The Battle for TV’s New Operating System
As traditional broadcast and MVPD television delivery mechanisms give way to an avalanche of direct-to-consumer streaming options, the competition to control the gateway between content, advertising and the viewer is becoming intense. We discuss what’s ahead in the world of devices like pucks, sticks and especially smart TVs themselves.

2:40 p.m.-3:05 p..m (ET)
Keynote Conversation
Interviewer: Tim Hanlon, Founder/CEO, The Vertere Group Panelist: Josh Reader, President, Distribution, AMC Networks

3:10 p.m.-3:45 p.m, (ET)
57 (Thousand) Channels & Nothing On?
With a blizzard of streaming content choices available to even the most basic of U.S. media households, consumers risk being overwhelmed by even the simplest of viewing decisions; we discuss how programmers and consumers can each benefit by coming improvements in content guidance, navigation, recommendation, and search.
Panelists: Ben Maughan, SVP/GM, Consumer & Stream Platform, Xperi; Rose Adkins Hulse, CEO, ScreenHits TV; Eli Chamberlin, Head of Product & Design, Reelgood; Trent Wheeler SVP, Product, Video, Gracenote/Nielsen

3:50 p.m.- 4:25 p.m. (ET)
Skinny Bundles & the Legacy of ‘Linear’
Despite repeated proclamations to the contrary, the “death” of the linear television channel appears premature in the streaming age. The surprising durability of classic channel grids, familiar programmer brands and even a new breed of linear FAST/streaming TV-like channels pose a bevy of opportunities and challenges, which we’ll discuss.
Panelists: Karl Meyer Head of Sales, Media and Entertainment, Samsung Ads; Kristina Shepard, National Brand Team Lead, Roku; Raghu Kodige, Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder, LG Ads

4:25 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. (ET)
Closing Remarks

Friday, April 30

1 p.m.- 1:05 p.m. (ET)
Welcoming Remarks

1:05 p.m.- 1:25 p.m. (ET)
Opening Keynote Presentation: Brian Fiori, SVP, Audience Insights, Nielsen

1:30 p.m. - 1:55 p.m. (ET)
Opening Keynote Conversation: TBA

2 p.m.-2:35 p.m. (ET)
SVOD’s ‘Mid-Majors’
While industry pundits obsess over a supposed zero-sum game of streaming TV dominance between leviathans like Netflix, Disney Plus and HBO Max, we explore a myriad of other premium and specialty content services angling for consumer attention and subscription share-of-wallet.
Panelists: Alden Mitchell Budill, Head of Global Partnerships & Content Strategy, Crunchyroll; Devin Emery, Chief Product Officer & EVP of Content Strategy, CuriosityStream; Erick Opeka, President, Cinedigm Networks; Tara Maitra, Chief Commercial Officer, BBC Studios, Americas

2:40 p.m.- 3:05 p.m. (ET)
Keynote Conversation
Interviewer: Tim Hanlon, Founder/CEO, The Vertere Group
Panelist: Michael Bishara, SVP & GM, OTT & Digital Syndication,
Discovery Networks

3:10 p.m.- 3:45 p.m. (ET)
Broadcast TV in the Age of Streaming
Traditional broadcast television sits precariously between heritage linear OTA and MVPD distribution models and a burgeoning streaming TV ecosystem; we discuss how networks, affiliated stations and groups, and consumer-driven tech intermediaries are helping modernize “broadcast” for the realities of modern-day streaming.
Panelists: Jim Long, Founder & CEO, Local BTV/Didja; Jonathan Barzilay, Chief Operating Officer, PBS; Kevin Dunaway, VP, Affiliate Relations, VUit/Syncbak; Adam Wiener, EVP & GM, CBS Local Digital Media

3:50 p.m.-4:25 p.m. (ET)
Who, What, When & How: Streaming TV Audience Measurement & Analytics
The “mainstreaming” of on-demand TV threatens to upend a fragile ecosystem of audience measurement, already challenged by traditional paradigm changes like cord-cutting, DVR recording and device-based viewing. How can programmers, advertisers and streaming TV operating systems accurately judge “success” in the years ahead?
Panelists: Marty Roberts, CEO, Wicket Labs; Alejandro Rojas, Director of Applied Analytics, Parrot Analytics; Traci Will, VP of Analytics, Gamut; Michael Bologna, President & CRO, HyphaMetrics

4:25 p.m.- 4:30 p.m. (ET)
Closing Remarks

Legacy linear brands bring a sense of credibility and gravitas that will help drive viewers and subscribers to new streaming offerings, a panel of TV executives said at the Future-produced Virtual Next TV Summit event Monday.

“Fundamentally, the value of a legacy brand or a well-known brand is simply trust,” PBS chief operating officer Jonathan Barzilay said during a panel session moderated by B&C contributing editor Paige Albiniak. He added that when the broadcaster started making short-form content for the web, it collectively did so via the PBS Digital Studio name. “By putting the PBS name on all of these independently produced short form series, that conveys something to the audience. ...The trust that people have in the PBS brand and the awareness that people have in the PBS brand, maybe gave us a little head start.”

At The Weather Group, parent of The Weather Channel network, president Tom O’Brien said its streaming offering Local Now benefits from the more established Weather Channel brand.

“The ability, the opportunity, is what you do with that brand. If you use it as an anchor, you use it as a basis of innovation,” O’Brien said.

Local Now is The Weather Group’s local news, weather, sports and traffic streaming service. O’Brien added that the service has added new programming -- a series offering advice and mental health insights during the COVID-19 pandemic called with Canadian author and therapist Dr. Wendy Walsh called Dr. Wendy Walsh Is Here for You, has expanded its American Science Lab science show during the COVID-19 lockdown and is live streaming the May 9 Feeding America Comedy Festival, a fundraiser for charity Feeding America. 

At BritBox, a joint venture between British television icons the BBC and ITV, the focus has been trying to balance those two brands to establish a new digital identity in the U.S., Canada and Australia.

“It’s an interesting balance because we want to build our own brand equity, but do so leveraging that of our parents,” said BritBox SVP and Commercial Head Emily Powers. “The way we do that is, it’s a lot about focusing on a content proposition that is both taking advantage of the vast library of our parents, as well as starting to launch some of our own originals. We convey to our audience, through our marketing materials, a certain tonality and sensibility that is respectful of the parent brands but also reaching a new audience.”

Ampersand SVP Agency Strategy Marion Hargett said legacy brands matter when launching OTT services because it gives potential viewers and customers a base on which to set their expectations.

“Many of the legacy players have a rooted history of delivering news and delivering content with standards to that delivery,” Hargett said. “... I think having a heritage is not a bad thing and I think being able to bring that knowledge to bear in the television ecosystem is really valuable.”

Picking the right distribution strategy also is important when a legacy brand launches a streaming option. At PBS, which is made up of hundreds of individual stations across the country all with a local presence, it made sense for PBS.org and the app to have a geo-location function so when a viewer logged in they were asked to verify their local station, and received information on the offerings on that channel. When PBS launched on YouTubeTV, it used the national feed.

“We do hope to eventually get to a place where that gets geo-targeted or tailored individually, but for right now it’s more important for us to be on the platform with some sort of presence rather than to precisely mirror the local station,” Barzilay said. “We do that wherever we can and whenever we can.”

At BritBox, Powers said that the distribution focus was initially to be on a few key platforms.

At launch, BritBox was available on Apple TV, Roku and also through syndicated channels like Amazon Channels and Apple TV Channels.

“For us it’s important to balance the business between direct-to-consumer and these channels because the channel gets you into every household, but does so in a way that has a much lower barrier to entry.”

Phase 2, she added, includes getting access to smart TV. BritBox has agreements with LG and Samsung, and expects more such deals in the future. 

The Virtual Next TV Summit is part of Future's Virtual NYC TV Week Spring. 

Broadcasting+Cable and Multichannel News’s NYC TV Week Spring kicks into high gear on March 25 with the Next TV Summit – the professional video industry’s authoritative benchmark for assessing the progress and debating the future of television’s digitally driven streaming transformation.

WRAP-LEFT

A concentrated half-day experience in the heart of the nation’s media industry capital, the Next TV Summit offers attendees a unique opportunity to hear current thinking from some of the industry’s leading executives – as they discuss the most pressing economic, operational and technological issues facing the “business” of video – while offering valuable insights into how to succeed in today’s dynamic and historically disruptive times.

Convening on the eve of the TV industry’s annual Upfront showcases, the Next TV Summit affords presenting sponsors an unparalleled environment to reach and connect with high-level decision-makers across the television and video ecosystems as they seek applied knowledge and tangible solutions in key areas such as:

Related: Verizon, Omnicom, Dish Execs Highlight Advanced Advertising Summit

The summit will open with a keynote from Dave Shull, the CEO of Tivo, a company that is pivoting away from its DVR-centric past to its over-the-top future. 

Panel sessions start out with one about linear TV's legacy in the era of streaming. Panelists include executives from Weather Group, PBS and Locast (speakers are subject to change).

OTT pioneer Farhad Massoudi of Tubi is slated to deliver a keynote, and panel sessions also will explore subscription versus ad-supported business models for streaming services and lessons learned from the field of streaming providers.

"The world of streaming video is exploding, and the business implications for the future of 'television' are both profound and daunting," Next TV Summit producer Tim Hanlon said. "Next TV will feature some of the most pioneering executives across the digital TV ecosystem, as we highlight today's best operational practices and divine tomorrow's strategic directions for video content, distribution and monetization."

For more about NYC TV Week Spring, please visit the events' website.

CBS All Access allows the network to go deeper into its scripted storylines, said Marc Debevoise, president/COO of CBS Interactive, and create programming that is perhaps more in line with what’s being offered on streaming platforms and cable.

During a keynote at the Next TV Summit, part of NYC Television Week, Debevoise spoke of intensely serialized storytelling on CBS All Access, whose originals include The Good Fight and Star Trek: Discovery.

Read More: Complete Coverage of NYC Television Week

“We’re scratching deeper and deeper into those characters,” he said.

Debevoise was interviewed by Elaine Quijano, a CBSN anchor.

He identified cable networks AMC and FX as being peers in terms of originals. “We have advertising—we’re not all the way to the HBOs and Showtimes of the world,” he said.

CBS All Access and CBSN are helping the network reach a significantly younger audience. All Access’ average viewer is 43, and CBSN’s is 38. “We figured out that millennials want news,” he said. “They just want it in a different way.”

CBS will launch an OTT product dedicated to sports and news. Debevoise didn’t provide specifics, but said the launch is coming soon.

Three quarters of CBSN viewership is live, he said. “A ton of people came live,” said Debevoise, “and that was really key.”

Documentaries on CBSN, he added, give CBS news professionals “a little more breathing room” to tell a timely story.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Next TV Summit

For CBS All Access, an upcoming launch is the comedy No Activity, from Funny or Die. “Those guys are great comedians,” he said of Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. “They know how to write, how to shoot, how to make things incredibly funny.”

CBS All Access costs $5.99 monthly. The Good Wife spinoff The Good Fight and Star Trek: Discovery, he said, have All Access’ originals strategy off to a strong start, and have driven subscriptions significantly. Of Trek, he said, “The reaction has been incredible. People love it, they hate it, they love to love it, they love to hate it.”

He credited the CBS broadcast network for helping the shows launch. “We happen to own the largest sampling platform,” said Debevoise. “We’re gonna use it when we can.”

Fox Networks Group has begun selling advertising in the video-on-demand content from its channels that is addressable on an individual household basis through Comcast Cable set-top boxes and streaming via Hulu.

TV networks are looking for ways to create innovations in advertising that can increase its value in an increasingly digital age. Fox has already been selling precision audience targeted ads on its linear network with its AIM solution. It is also a partner in Open AP, which is attempting to standardize selling ads based on specific audience targets rather than the traditional broad age and sex base demographic groups.

Comcast Cable has done addressable ad campaigns using dynamic ad insertion technology with its corporate sibling NBCUniversal.

Working with Fox is part of a trial program to see how the distributor can work with programmers on addressable advertising. A source indicated that Comcast is conducting addressable trials with another, unnamed, network group.

Both Fox and Comcast use Freewheel, a division of Comcast, to handle ad insertions.

Fox’s addressable effort is unique because in addition to working with Comcast’s subscribers, it can also offer viewers streaming on-demand programming from Fox Networks including Fox Broadcasting, FX, National Geographic and Fox Sports via Hulu.

Noah Levine, senior VP, advertising data & technology solution at Fox Network Group says that between Comcast and Hulu and its advertising clients more than 10 million households on an addressable basis.

Levine was expected to announce Fox’s new addressable advertising effort at the B&C/Multichannel News Next TV Summit in New York Wednesday (Oct. 18), part of NYC Television Week.

Read More: Complete Coverage of NYC Television Week

“Our strategy is to continue selling to linear buyer through Fox AIM linear,” Levine said. “Now we can also work with the addressable buyers to pursue the addressable opportunity.” Fox is looking to add cross-platform precision audience targeting.

“Our goal is to be able to provide audience targeting across our very wide portfolio of content regardless of the distribution modality,” Levine said.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Next TV Summit

In addition to working with NBCU, Comcast’s local systems sell addressable ad campaigns to local advertisers.

“We think it’s really important that TV advertising becomes more sophisticated and this VOD trial is one way networks can unify their audiences and marketers reach their targets,” said Marcien Jenckes, president of advertising at Comcast.

With on-demand programming and steaming, Levine said the Fox’s addressable advertising can reach audiences that may not be watching linear.

He noted that addressable would be great for a financial advertisers that uses linear advertising to promote its brand but targets viewers of a different income and lifestyles for particular financial products.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Advanced Advertising Event

Levine said Fox’s addressable solution is different than what most cable or satellite operators can offer because it can be overlaid with precision targeted programming on the Fox networks, which reach all of the markets in the country.

“That’s national scale,” he says. In addition, Fox has all of its national inventory while distributors only have access to two minute per hour.

That should make the Fox offering attractive to national advertisers.

“By combining addressable components with the linear components, we’ll be able to come up with very acceptable CPM ranges,” Levine said. He added that with addressable advertising, Fox benefits financially because there is very little waste once it and the advertisers have agreed on a data set and reporting method.

Addressable advertising is also good for viewers. “It allows is to provide more relevant advertising that s potential more interesting to the audience,” he said.

Amazon is hoping its "Channels" service will provide more value and choice to cord-cutting consumers looking to access traditional cable services, Amazon Channels head Richard Au said Wednesday (Oct. 18) at NYC Television Week.

Read More: Complete Coverage of #NYCTVWK

The service, launched in 2015 to Amazon Prime subscribers, offers access to more than 130 premium channels from cable networks such as Showtime, Starz and PBS Kids as well as to streaming services like Acorn TV and AMC’s horror-themed service Shutter.

Au, who spoke at a Next TV Summit morning panel moderated by B&C/Multichannel News editorial director Mark Robichaux, said Amazon Channels was created to provide increase content selections to consumers beyond Amazon’s original programming and on-demand content available through Amazon Prime.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Next TV Summit

“It’s a great time to be a fan of video because there’s so much great content, but one of the challenges as a consumer is how to find the things that you like,” Au said. “We want to offer all of that content in a very integrated, easy way.”

Along with serving Amazon Prime subscribers, Au said that the Amazon Channels service also provides opportunities for participating cable networks to reach cord-cutting and cord-never consumers.

“We talk to our channel partners like HBO, Showtime and Starz to help them find incremental customers who may not have a cable subscription who have dropped one,” Au said. "We want to continue to make it really easy for our customers to discover new content, whether its Amazon original content or third-party content.”

Digital entertainment network ZoneTV has joined Next TV Summitas a Silver sponsor, NewBay Mediahas announced.

ZoneTV curates, programs and distributes digital content and brands to pay TV.

Next TV Summitis a high-level, executive conference providing insights into the future of TV and video, form the impact of new video devices, technologies, viewing experiences and business models to consumer, content and advertising trends. This year the conference will include topics previously discussed at the former OnDemand Summit. Next TV takes place June 15 at Convene, 237 Park Avenue in NYC as part of B&C parent NewBay Media’s VIDWeek. 

This event features speakers from Showtime Networks, Bloomberg Media, E.W. Scripps, Conviva, comScore, FreeWheel, Univision, and more. Participants have the opportunity to network with fellow attendees, speakers, and sponsors in this full-day program. 

For more on the event, including information on tickets, go to http://nexttvsummit.com/spring.

To learn more about the limited sponsorship opportunities that are still available, contact Louis Hillelson.

Get complete coverage of the Next TV Summit.

NEW YORK – More than year after its initial launch in March, 2015 Sony PlayStation Vue chief Dwayne Benefield said the service is attracting a broad swath of customers, including families with children, a long way from the core gamer demographic the service initially targeted.

At the Next TV Summit here Wednesday (Oct. 19) during NYC Television & Video Week, Benefield, vice president and head of PlayStation Vue at Sony Interactive Entertainment, said that while two-thirds of its audience remains millennial, about one-quarter of subscribers are new to the PlayStation medium. That has been fueled by expanding the platforms that can run on the service.

“The new platforms definitely helped,” Benefield said in a fireside chat with Next TV editor and Multichannel News technology editor Jeff Baumgartner. “Having sticks from Amazon and Roku that are sub-$50 has helped with the ease of access to the service, PlayStation Vue is for the gamer household, including the children, wives and partners of the user.”

Benefield said that the typical PlayStation Vue customer is a heavy sports fan – its basic package includes all the Fox and Comcast regional sports networks – adult cartoons and some kids programming are also joining the most-watched ranks in the service.

“Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is one of our top shows,” Benefield said. “Kids’ channels are performing much better.  Families are engaging.”

PlayStation Vue has worked hard to include broadcast content in the service – it has reached deals to carry all four major broadcasters in their respective owned and operated [O&O] markets. While expanding out of that footprint has been more difficult, mainly because local affiliates are owned by several different groups, Benefield said the idea is to make local TV available across the footprint.

In markets where it currently doesn’t offer live local broadcasters, it offers “slim” versions of its three core packages – Access, Core and Elite – that allow users to watch network content on demand the day after original air. An Ultra TV package that includes premium channels HBO and Showtime and more than 100 other channels was added last month.

“The goal is to make all broadcast stations available,” Benefield said. “You will see us bring more and more live and local to users.”

Sony doesn’t release subscriber figures for PlayStation Vue, but Benefield said the service is exceeding all company expectations.  

Xumo, an aggregator of ad-based OTT video for smart TVs and mobile devices, said it has added programs and shows from Fox Sports to its free platform, including The Herd with Colin Cowherd, Skip and Shannon: Undisputed, Garbage Time with Katie Nolan, and Speak for Yourself, among others.

Additionally, the Fox Sports on Xumo channel will feature a mix of game highlights, clips from FS1  studio shows, and Fox Sports Digital originals such as @TheBuzzer, they said.

Xumo announced the content deal in tandem with NewBay Media’s NYC Television & Video Week. Colin Petrie-Norris, CEO of Xumo, is participating in a panel later today at the Next TV Summit, one of the individual events tied to NYC TV & Video Week.

Get complete coverage of NYC Television & Video Week.

Xumo recently launched an app for iOS, and has a version for Android in the works. Those apps complemented Xumo’s presence on Roku devices, smart TVs from Vizio, Panasonic, and Funai Electric Co. Ltd., which sells Sanyo-, Magnavox- and Philips-branded TVs in North America, as well as Channel Plus, an offering exclusive to LG-made connected TVs.

RELATED: LG Tunes In ‘Channel Plus’

“Xumo is building a strong following among sports fans and the addition of FOX Sports takes the platform to the next level,” Stefan Van Engen, SVP programming and content acquisitions of Xumo, said in a statement. “FOX Sports is home to some of the most popular sports shows, events, experts and personalities in the country and now their fans and Xumo’s fans will benefit from access to a ton of excellent sports programming on FOX Sports’ Xumo channel.”

Xumo has content deals with several other partners, including Time Inc., Condé Nast Entertainment, Bloomberg, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed, PopSugar, Mitú Network, Machinima, TYT Network, Reuters, Field & Stream, PBS Digital Studios , Network A, Fandor, Outside Television Shorts, Bonnier, Saveur, and Cycle  World.

New York -- During a keynote appearance at Wednesday's Next TV Summit at NYC Television Week, Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch said the Dish-owned "skinny bundle" service expects to add broadcast networks to its lineup, but not in the short term. "It's a complicated market," he said during a wide-ranging discussion. "To some extent, [networks] aren't ready."

Lynch noted that they hoped to eventually have the local stations but stressed they didn’t want to create a bundle that was too expensive by paying too much for them and that in many ways the broadcast community wasn’t ready to negotiate those kinds of deals.

“ABC can’t do it,” meaning negotiate a national agreement because of all the local affiliate agreements, Lynch said. “Over time, local is something we will offer. But to a certain extent they are not ready”

He also stressed that the deal with broadcasters or any other programmer would have to be priced appropriately. “We are not going to create a bundle that will cause us to miss market,” by paying too much for channels, he said. “We could have launched the service a few years ago but it would have been a big pay TV bundle” and that would have missed the market they were targeting.

Lynch made the comments during a keynote at the Next TV event during NYC Television Week hosted by Multichannel News and B&C that was moderated by Jeff Baumgartner, Editor, Next TV, and Technology Editor at Multichannel News.

During the session, Lynch noted that “pay TV is at a tipping point,” and discussed the experience since the service launched, making a number of important points about how “skinny bundles” and OTT subscription services like Sling TV were moving into the market.

Lynch explained that the pay TV industry was mature but had not seen a segmentation of its services and that were was very little difference in services between major providers. “A lot of that is driven by programming agreements,” he said. “They are required to offer the same channels” and “there is very little difference in term of how it is packaged and priced.”

Services like Sling TV were starting to segment the market to “reach a growing segment of viewers” who found traditional pay TV service too expensive or not mobile enough.

“Over the air is growing and the growth in antenna sales is correlated with cord cutting,” he said.

Lynch provided no subscriber numbers but said Sling TV was very happy with the growth. “When we created the service a year ago we weren’t sure how much demand there would be for a service that didn’t have the major broadcasters, but we now know there is a lot of demand,” he said.

Since launch, Lynch noted that the subscriber profile had remained generally consistent, attracting cord cutters, cord nevers and a surprising number of people who already have a pay TV service. “Why they do it I don’t know….but it is not an insignificant segment,” he said.

The service over-indexed among millennials but it was mostly gaining traction among those in the 23 or 24 year group and older. “Before 22, they are not interested in pay TV,” he said.

Since launch, Lynch noted that one of the key priorities has been to expand the on demand portion of the offering and that this content was likely to become more important in the future. “We now have tens of thousands of on-demand titles,” he said, adding that live viewing would increasingly be on sports and other important live events.

One of the other priorities continued to be on the technical infrastructure and on improving addressable-advertising capabilities. “It is a big opportunity,” he said, noting the higher CPMs for targeted advertising.

The initial focus, however has been a created a good experience for dynamically inserted adds. “We are really at beginning,” he said. “It has been one of toughest things technically” they’ve faced.

When asked about the FCC proposal to classify over-the-top providers as MVPDs so they would have better access to content, Lynch expressed mixed feelings. “It could be a benefit but I worry about unintended consequences.”

Lynch noted that he joined Dish and EchoStar six years ago and that the Sling TV services has been in the works for some time. After being able to negotiate deals with programmers, the company switched its focus and launched an OTT service of international channels about three and a half years ago.

The third annual NYC Television Week, presented by Broadcasting & Cable, MultichannelNews, Next TV and Ratings Intelligence, is back Oct. 20-22 with top executives discussing the hottest topics in the industry.

Here are some of the highlights of the upcoming five events: Advanced Advertising, the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame, The Content Show, the Next TV Summit and the 13th annual Hispanic Television Summit.

• Advanced Advertising kicks off the events on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Headline keynote speakers are NBCUniversal chairman of ad sales and client partnerships Linda Yaccarino and Group M global chairman Irwin Gottlieb. Panel sessions include deep dives into programmatic advertising, new measurement metrics and addressable advertising.

• 25th Anniversary Broadcasting & CableHall of Fame is the evening of Oct. 20 at the Waldorf Astoria. This year’s gala will be co-hosted by TV legend Regis Philbin, ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir and NBC Today co-host Hoda Kotb. Inductees include The Walt Disney Co. chairman and CEO Robert Iger, Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries, Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber, Dr. Phil McGraw and Today co-host Kathy Lee Gifford. The late National Football League Hall of Famer and broadcast legend Frank Gifford also will be honored for lifetime achievement.

• The Content Show is Oct. 21-22 at the Park Central Hotel, with an opening keynote from Deutsch Inc. chairman emeritus Donny Deutsch in conversation with B&C editor Dade Hayes. Wendy Williams Show host Wendy Williams and Debmar-Mercury co-presidents Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein will participate in a keynote Q&A taking a closerlook at the syndication giant. Thursday’s keynote Q&A will feature a discussion with DiscoveryCommunications’s Henry Schleiff, group president for Investigation Discovery, Military Channel and Destination America, led by B&C consulting editor Melissa Grego.

• Next TV Summit at the Park Central on Oct. 21 boasts keynotes from Jonathan Murtaugh, Facebook and Instagram U.S. head of industry for film and television and head of the L.A. office, as well as a talk with Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch. In the afternoon keynote session, United Talent Agency managing director Jay Sures offers a Hollywood insider’s take on over-the-top video and the overall direction of the television market.

• The Hispanic Television Summit is scheduled for Oct.22 at the Park Central, with an opening keynote session with Group M Multicultural president Gonzalo Del Fa and B&C and Multichannel News editorial director Mark Robichaux. Telemundo president Luis Silberwasserwill be interviewed by Noticiero Telemundo co-anchor María Celeste Arrarás about the challenge of creating new content. Hispanic television host, singer and actress Lucero will be presented the award for Achievement in Hispanic Television, while Verizon vice president of cultural engagement Javier Farfan will accept the Leadership in HispanicTelevision award for his company.

For more about New York City Television Week, please visit nyctelevisionweek.com and follow the hashtag on Twitter, #NYCTVWK.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Dwayne Benefield, VP and head of PlayStation Vue, says the rollout of the pay-TV service has "far exceeded expectations."

He spoke Thursday to Jeff Baumgartner, technology editor ofMultichannel News, during a keynote session at NewBay Media's Next TV Summit, offering rare insight into the ongoing Vue rollout. The "skinny bundle" offering has just added Los Angeles and San Francisco, and is now available in several major markets.

Benefield did not divulge subscription numbers but said median viewer engagement has averaged five hours a day, more than an hour longer than traditional TV watched by 18-34-year-olds, according to Nielsen. About 75% of the subscriber base is in that age demo, he noted.

Those users are also watching an average of 25 channels offered in the PlayStation bundle, which costs $50 to $70 a month.

"If you try to extrapolate that to the OTT world" of stand-alone pay services, he said, "it's probably not any cheaper for consumers than in the package. For the bulk of our users, the package makes a lot of sense."

In addition to the new markets, Vue announced this week a suite of OTT offerings, including Showtime and Fox Soccer Plus, available to Vue bundle subscribers but also nationwide a la carte to any PlayStation 3 or 4 owner.