SAN FRANCISCO — With topics spanning over-the-top video, virtual and augmented reality, next-generation interfaces and emerging business models that tie into all of them, this week’s Next TV Summit here will offer an informed view of what’s on the horizon for video and pay TV.

A keynote discussion with Ben Smith will get the conference underway on Wednesday (June 15). The head of experience at Hulu will discuss adoption trends and the OTT provider’s journey into a more personalized experience, and offer some fresh insight into the early results of Hulu’s new VR application.

Also on tap is a keynote with Matthew Anderson, chief marketing officer of Roku, which is also making hay with advanced advertising models that use agile streaming platforms.

Bookmark This:MCN's complete coverage of the Next TV Summit & Expo San Francisco

Offering a view of how traditional programmers are shifting their strategies to take advantage of online viewership trends will be Nick Grad and Eric Schrier, presidents of original programming at FX Networks and FX Productions.

Individual panels will focus on new OTT business models, including the unique approaches being taken by a new class of “virtual” MVPDs, AR/ VR, and how to seek out and keep top talent in the digital age. They include the following:

• The Winning OTT Models, with Celiena Adcock of Facebook, Jennifer Dorian of TCM, Ed Lee of Roku, Michael Tribolet of YipTV and Martijn van Horssen of 24i Media;

• Essentials to Launching an OTT Service, with Dallas Middaugh of Crunchyroll, Stefan Van Engen of Xumo, Christopher Ruddy of Newsmax Media and Ted Malone of Ericsson;

• Transforming TV: Reshaping Business Models, with Rob Gabel of Tubular Labs, Ann Sarnoff of BBC Worldwide North America and Brent Smith of Evolution Digital;

• Transforming TV: The New Viewing Experience, with Matthew Chiavelli of Syfy Digital, Howard Cooperstein of Ericsson, Joshua Danovitz of TiVo, Jenny Ramaswamy of Vrse and Steve Reynolds of Imagine Communications; and

• Talent and Content in the Digital Age, with Bill Bost of Skydance Media, Michael Gaston of Cut.com, Bonnie Pan of Endemol Shine Beyond USA and Daniel Tibbets of El Rey Network.

The day will wrap with an editor’s roundtable on the State of Streaming Video, led by Mark Robichaux, editorial director of Multichannel News and Broadcasting & Cable, with Jeff Baumgartner, editor of Next TV, and Chris Tribbey, contributing editor, technology, B&C.

Watch for coverage from the event online at multichannel.com/nextTVsummitSFand broadcastingcable.com, and in the June 20 issues of Multichannel News and B&C.

San Francisco -- Roku tends to get characterized as a tool for cord-cutters, but the streaming platform is increasingly becoming a friend to cable operators and other traditional pay TV operators that are looking to expand the ways consumers can access their services.

“We get painted with that cord-cutter brush like we’re the enemy of pay TV,” Steve Shannon, Roku’s general manager, content services, said during a keynote discussion Tuesday here at the Multichannel News/Broadcasting & CableNext TV Summit. “But that being said we don’t root for the demise of pay TV at all.  In fact we’d like to see it grow…we just want it to be on our platform."

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That’s already apparent with MSOs such as Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable that have developed authenticated apps for the Roku platform, but have stepped beyond that with more integrated partnerships.  

TWC, for example, is testing a set of IPTV tiers in New York for broadband-only subscribers that use the Roku in lieu of a traditional set-top box. Charter Communications is doing something similar with its trials of Spectrum TV Stream, an offering that starts at $13 for the broadcast TV channels, plus HBO or Showtime.

Charter’s offer is “a crazy good deal,” Shannon said in an interview with B&C’s George Winslow. “I think that kind of value proposition is part of the future.”

“The more money that's flowing through the pay TV ecosystem the better off we are, so we partner very closely with cable operators and cable networks...to help them be successful in a streaming environment and to grow their  business.”

Although the traditional TV ad business continues to encounter rough seas, in part because some viewing being delivered over-the-top isn’t being measured, advertising is Roku’s fastest-growing business segment.

Subscription-based services like Netflix and Amazon Prime are the most popular services on Roku, but Roku’s selection of pure, ad-supported services, such as Crackle and YouTube channels, “are really starting to come on strong,” Shannon said.

The TV has historically been the most powerful ad medium, but it’s been bleeding to the digital side, because the latter can be targeted, is more interactive and provides more granular data and reporting.

“Really for the first time we are combining those worlds,” Shannon said, noting that the ad story at Roku is being helped by scale – about 7.5 million households used the platform in the last 30 days.

 That's become interesting to advertisers so that ad dollars are starting to pour in…to these ad-supported networks. They’re starting to flourish and grow…We can’t get enough ad inventory…to sell.”

Regarding that portion of Roku’s business model, Shannon said Roku typically gets 30% of the ad inventory.

But Roku also makes money on its hardware and drives revenues from transactional digital video (movie and TV sales and rentals), and some business from subscription offerings. For subscriptions, Roku doesn’t always get a revenue share, but does if it wins/acquires the subscriber for a service such as Netflix, Hulu or Amazon.

Roku also makes money from its audience development initiative for channel partners. He said it’s one of the reasons why CNN has decided to launch an app on Roku’s platform.

Shannon also discussed the increasing role 4K will play on Roku, which supports it today on its new Roku 4 player and on select TCL 4K-TVs that are powered by Roku’s platform.

“We think streaming will be the main way that people enjoy 4K,” he said, noting that Roku is poised to launch UltraFlix, a streaming service that specializes in 4K content.

Shannon reiterated that Roku has no plans to offer its own branded content, leaving that to OTT platform competitors such as Amazon, Apple and Google.

“It’s a differentiator from our competition in that we don't compete with our content providers,” he said. “What that allows us to do is to really focus on  being agnostic and focus on getting the customer to watch what they want to watch rather than getting the customer to watch what we want them to watch."

But he did acknowledge that Roku has been “tempted” from time to time to develop its own content. “Never say never, but so far our credo is really to not compete with our content partners.”

Erin McPherson, chief content officer of Maker Studios, described the outfit as a “next-generation media company that “wants to be the world’s doorstep for creators and creativity.”

Speaking at the B&C and Multichannel News' Next TV Summit San Francisco in a keynote Q&A with B&C Editor-in-Chief Melissa Grego, McPherson said that while Maker, following its $950 million acquisition by The Walt Disney Co., operates as an autonomous entity, the unit is already aggressively collaborating with the entertainment giant. She said she’s spending about half of a typical day working with various Disney/ABC colleagues or brands and that the Star Wars-related project hinted at during Maker’s NewFront presentation continues to make progress.

As a core of its programming strategy, Maker has identified 23 verticals in four major categories, McPherson said: gaming and sports; life and style; family; and entertainment. McPherson shared a graphic that lines up various Disney brands with those verticals, illustrating just how naturally Maker and Disney fit given many of Maker’s 55,000 creators are already making content that synchs up with various Disney brands.

McPherson underscored that Maker continues to collaborate with partners outside of Disney, however the collaboration within the company clearly also is a priority and a pillar of the company’s programming strategy.

“We see an opportunity to take premium Disney content from Pixar, ABC, ESPN etc. and create new short form content,” she said, adding that she sees potential for Maker and colleagues within the Disney/ABC TV operation to share best practices and even some development efforts.

 “We shot a whole season [for a new series of kids shorts] in a week and that really surprised my Disney/ABC colleagues,” McPherson says. “We think there is a lot of opportunity to be found in best practice of digital and TV.”

Maker indeed turns content around quickly and could even serve as a testing ground for characters, such as a Marvel character, for example; or they could test characters or personalities by having them vlog on Youtube. The feedback and data Youtubers naturally gather is another important aspect of Maker.

Naturally, the discussion of OTT is a big topic at Next TV and McPherson said it is one within Maker as well. She said the company does aspire to have presence on OTT services but declined to offer a timeline of when we might see any of the 23 Maker verticals or individual shows make an OTT or VOD debut. Different programs are suited to different platforms and McPherson says Maker endeavors to identify the best fit.

Earlier this year, Disney acquired Maker in a deal that has been reported to involve as much as $950 million with incentives. However, Maker’s management hadn’t been intending to sell the company, McPherson said. But as talks progressed about content partnerships, they realized that the two companies had so much crossover in the 23 verticals that it made sense to expand the talks to the point where Disney eventually decided to acquire the company.

As the growth potential of Maker apparently drew Disney’s interest, it likewise caught the attention of McPherson, who joined the company in late November 2013. She noted that when she joined the company late last year from Yahoo, Maker had an average 5.5 billion monthly views, and it is now up to 8.5 billion and on track to hit 10 billion.

Other highlights from the panel:

*Maker now has 550 million subscribers and 55,000 creators. About 70% of audience is international and 60% is aged 13 to 34.

*About 50% of Maker’s audience comes from mobile, with an even higher percentage internationally. “It is as much about mobile as video,” she said. 

* Maker differs significantly from traditional media, McPherson said, because they have “sourced” content creation for its targeted 23 verticals out “to audience demand,” drawing on a network of over 55,000 creators.

Television is immersed in the modern, multiplatform age. But when it comes to the way people discover new shows, a decidely old-school method still rules the day, according to a new study from Viacom.

The primary means by which people find about new shows is through friends and family in person, according to research unveiled Thursday by Viacom executive vice president, chief research officer Colleen Fahey Rush at the Next TV Summit & Expo San Francisco.

Fahey Rush, who was joined on stage for the keynote Q&A by Multichannel News editor-in-chief and moderator Mark Robichaux, said that 90% of study respondents indicated they find out about their next must-see program via word of mouth.

TV promos - another old fashioned way as Fahey Rush put it — came in as the No. 2 way people discover new shows with 85% of respondents citing this methodology as how they find new programs. 

The findings are part of a larger Viacom study titled “Getting With the Program,” which was conducted to find out how people watch TV.

“There’s never been a better time to be a fan,” said Fahey Rush, who joined the company in 1996, explaining later in her presentation that viewers have more ways to watch than ever and they will continue to combine how they consume.

But with all this technology she doesn’t see traditional modalities to watch will go away.

“I think it’s [cable] going to last a long, long time,” she said.

Santa Clara, Calif. -- Founder and CEO Anthony Wood credits Roku’s ability to compete with larger companies in the area of streaming television platforms in part with having been an early innovator in the space.

“Being first is actually pretty important a lot of the times,” Wood said Wednesday in a keynote interview with B&C contributing editor George Winslow Wednesday at the B&C and Multichannel News NextTV Summit.

Wood also touted his company’s focus on one service—streaming content to the television screen—as a competitive advantage, saying Roku has more people devoted to that task than larger competitors have devoted to working on similar products.

“If you’re at Google you’re working on searches,” he said. "If you’re at Apple you’re working phones—or watches, I mean.”

Wood noted that the company’s first set-top box was called “The Netflix Player,” and offered access only to Netflix. Today, he said, Roku offers more than 1,600 channels.

He also touted the downward trend of pricing on Roku’s boxes, which used to cost $99 and now cost $49. Wood was dismissive of competition from video game consoles, which he said work not because they offer a great product, but because “people who play games like to watch TV as well.” He added that Microsoft, when it released its Xbox One last year, touting it as a hub for all living-room entertainment, “really fell down and started losing market share until they regrouped and started to focus on games [again].”

Predicting the death of live television viewing except in cases of major events and sports, Wood said that the world of on-demand viewing presents major challenges to television networks, who will not be able to use linear scheduling to help launch and promote new series. He also said in time, that cable providers will no longer provide customers with set-top boxes—citing Time Warner Cable’s Roku app as an example.

“Play TV is not going away but the boxes are going away. They’re going to become apps on platforms like Roku.”

But one thing Wood does not anticipate is a move by his company moving into content production.

“Our whole business model is we are a platform for distributing content,” he said. “We don’t produce our own content. We have no pans to do that, at least not yet.”

CBS Interactive exec Marc DeBevoise thinks CBS’s forthcoming 24/7 digital news network will resonate with consumers. 

“I do think there is demand,” said DeBevoise, CBS Interactive’s executive VP/GM of entertainment, sports & news, during a keynote Q&A Wednesday moderated by Broadcasting & Cable programming & digital media editor Dan Holloway at the Next TV Summit & Expo San Francisco. “I think it’s been underserved by the existing brands."

“Even though there are 24/7 brands, even though there are folks that dove in, they may not have the right mix," DeBevoise said. "We think we do.”

DeBevoise stopped short of revealing any specifics about the digital net, only saying that the company is “pretty far along” in the development process. 

He added that CBS is trying to figure out how to leverage its resources for the digital net, which is out of CBS News and CBS Interactive.

“I’m not sure it’s a real estate war,” said DeBevoise when asked by Holloway if the digital net was an attempt to plant a flag in the space. “I think our brand will resonate. Either it will [resonate] or it won’t with certain users.”

Other highlights from the panel included: 

• DeBevoise said that there are no plans to live stream any of the network’s Thursday Night Football games because CBS hasn’t struck any deals for streaming rights.
• College sports are a big part of CBS Sports offerings. The executive said all Southeastern Conference (SEC) games are streamed by CBS. The CBS division also runs sites for 127 schools, where fans can see non-televised athletics and other content.
• When it comes to the concept that video is video, DeBevoise said “mentality matters.” He said “it's just not true” that video is video. Quality and reach make a difference. 
• DeBevoise said he is excited about a number of things on the CBS horizon, including the network’s new shows, Thursday Night Football, the digital news network and the company’s partnership with FanDuel.

Two major former U.S. network and studio executives opened the B&C and Multichannel News Next TV Summit in San Francisco Wednesday by arguing the biggest investment opportunities are in international markets and that the U.S. cable and broadcast business face serious challenges to their business models.

“We are at an inflection point [where cable and TV companies] are valued higher than they have ever been but if you look at the underlying dynamics, it is really not a pretty picture,” Jeff Sagansky, the former president of CBS Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment who is now the co-founder of Global Eagle Entertainment and Silver Eagle Acquisition, said.

Sagansky and Harry Sloan, formerly chairman and CEO of MGM and founder of SBS Broadcasting, and now co-founder of Global Eagle Entertainment and Silver Eagle Acquisition, shared their views on the landscape during the Summit’s opening keynote Q&A, conducted by Multichannel News editor-in-chief Mark Robichaux. The summit, at the Santa Clara Marriott, continues Thursday (Sept. 11).

Sagansky noted that both sides of the dual revenue stream are under threat. This year’s upfront was down, he said, the first time he remembered that happening during a growing economy, and it is increasingly difficult to increase subscriber fees given the high prices many people already pay.

Sloan also argued that “major media companies are terrible at digital investment." He said, "in general their investments in new media have been a total wipeout,” a record that might limit their growth in new media.

Worse, major media companies find it difficult to make the hefty ongoing investments needed in new media companies, Sagansky added. “A $100-million investment can take $1.2 billion off their market cap and they can’t take that short term hit,” he contended.

Given the limited opportunities in traditional U.S. TV and media, Sagansky and Sloan invested in the airline entertainment industry, launching Global Eagle Entertainment, which provides entertainment over WiFi during flights.

“You have 3.5 billion passengers,” Sloan said, who added that the company now has a $1 billion market cap and said investors are up 70%. Looking forward Sagansky and Sloan said they see major opportunities for investments in international markets.

Sloan, who built up a major European broadcaster SBS in the 1980s and 1990s, also cautioned that international markets can be risky. Currently, they are paying particular attention to opportunities in international over-the-top providers, which are beginning to proliferate in a number of markets. Sloan also noted that he was particularly impressed with opportunities in Latin America and India.

The two disagreed about a question from Robichaux about the speed by which programming might be unbundled from traditional pay TV offerings. Sloan felt this would occur fairly quickly. As traditional TV companies come under increased pressure to boost their stock prices and growth rates, he felt they would launch OTT services outside pay TV packages. Sagansky, though, said programmers and operators “have circled the wagons” and that any move to over-the-top distribution would occur slowly “in the margins.”

Maker Studios chief content officer Erin McPherson is set to keynote Next TV Summit San Francisco.

She joins previously announced speakers Anthony Wood, CEO and founder of Roku; David Wertheimer, president of digital, Fox Broadcasting; Marc DeBevoise, executive vice president/general manager, entertainment, sports & news, CBS Interactive; Colleen Fahey Rush, executive vice president, chief research officer, Viacom Inc.; Bonnie Pan, executive vice president, programming, Maker Studios; Will Keenan, president, Endemol Beyond; and Chris Pizzurro, head of product, sales and marketing, Canoe Ventures.  

The two-day event, which takes place at the Santa Clara Marriott in Santa Clara, Calif. Sept. 10-11, will kick off with an opening presentation from media investors Jeff Sagansky and Harry Sloan, who cofounded Global Eagle Entertainment and Silver Eagle Acquisition.

Next TV Summit & Expo is a high-level conference, expo and networking event presented by NewBay Media, the parent of Multichannel News and B&C.

For more information about the event, including the agenda and speaker bios, visit: http://nexttvsummit.com/sf/

To register, visit: http://nexttvsummit.com/sf/registration