Stephen Meyer, VP of video strategy and analysis for Comcast, said in-season stacking rights and the tech innovations of the X1 system are pushing the top cable operator to new heights.

Netflix “seemed to come in with a little more elegant product,” Meyer conceded during a keynote conversation at the eighth annual On Demand conference, presented by B&C and Multichannel News.

As Netflix grew and “created this consumer appetite” for on-demand streaming, “in some ways we were following to catch up," Meyer said. "But in other ways we’ve been prepared.”

The main fruit of that preparation: the X1 system, which is now in 40% of Comcast homes and gaining steadily. The company handles some 40,000 installations a day, Meyer told moderator Mark Robichaux, editorial director of B&C and Multichannel News.

“X1 was the culmination of getting the tech, content and user experience right," Meyer said, adding that 85% of X1 users are using video on demand monthly, racking up an average of 24 hours per month. Cox Cable in the U.S. and Shaw in Canada are among the operators that have licensed X1 technology for their own offerings.

The volume of content made available is enticing customers, Meyer said. For example, X1 features the entire 600-episode library of TheSimpsons.

Another major draw: in-season stacking rights, which have been gaining currency as media companies air more shows that their studio arms have produced and success stories like Fox’s Empire attest to the upside.

“When you look at the shift toward on-demand viewing, TV series are becoming more like novels,” Meyer said. “When you’re thinking of reading a book, no one is going to start on Chapter 3 or 4. … Customers are increasingly turning toward things that are complete.”

In just the last two years alone, stacking has exploded. The Big Four broadcast networks, Meyer said, will offer in-season stacking on roughly 58% of their 2016-17 programming, up from 23% in 2014-15. Major cable networks will hit 78%, also up sharply from 53% in 2014-15.

“It used to be that when you said you watched a lot of TV, it wasn’t a good thing," Meyer said. "Now, you actually sound smart if you say you watch a lot of TV shows.”

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New York -- Presenting an overview of changing viewer trends in the multichannel universe, Magna Global's Brian Hughes said certain trends in over-the-top viewing are encouraging for providers that rely on ads for their businesses, competing against ad-free video behemoths such as Netflix and Amazon Video. 

"I think a lot of people, even young people, accept the idea that nothing is free,” Hughes, who is senior vice president, Audience Intelligence & Strategy, at Magna, told questioner Bruce Benson of FTI Consulting at the On Demand conference today. Most of Hulu's subscribers, it would appear, accept ads in order to pay a lower monthly fee for their subscriptions, Hughes noted. CBS All Access also has a pricing structure that offers subscribers a lower-cost version that includes ads. Hughes said Magna is keeping a close eye on both services, noting that the CBS service's pushing back the launch of the new Star Trek: Discovery series was "a bummer."

Viewing trend charts Hughes displayed showed clear trends toward on-demand viewing growing at the expense of live TV. Even live events and sports, "the bastion of linear TV in this changing world," are being affected by viewers who expect to watch what they want when they want to. The live audience for the MTV Video Music Awards, he said, declined by 51% from 2014 to 2016 among persons ages 12-14, he said, but streamed views of the VMAs in that period have surged. For MTV, the live-stream views on PC and mobile are up 461%; Facebook streams of the event rose 704% and Twitter views rose 190%, according to Magna charts he presented, sourced from Nielsen and MTV.

RELATED: Amazon’s Streaming Partners Program Clicking With Content Makers, Consumers

The VMAs draw a younger-skewing audience, Hughes noted. Similar trends are in play for the Olympic Games, though, too. Live viewing was down on NBC for the recent Rio games versus London four years ago. But live streaming of the Rio games hit 2.7 million minutes, surpassing the 2.6 billion minutes drawn by the prior record holder, the 2014 FIFA World Cup.  

Hughes showed Cisco research that indicated by 2020 video will account for 82% of consumer internet traffic globally -- and noted an interesting aspect is that 26% of that traffic will be delivered to TV sets.

Other statistical nuggets:

• By 2020, about 43% of time spent watching video will come via streaming (as opposed to live TV) for adults ages 18-34, up from about one-third of the time in 2014. 
• In early 2016, subscription VOD services surpassed digital video recording playback as the preferred method of on-demand consumption, vs. a 49%-41% split in favor of the DVR in 2014, per Magna estimates.
• By 2020, households termed as "cord cutters" should reach around 9 million, from about 2 million in 2014 -- but "cord nevers" will remain an even bigger group, rising to about 26 million households from about 19 million in 2014.  

On Demand is an annual conference produced by NewBay Media's Multichannel News and Broadcasting & Cable.

New York -- Amazon’s Streaming Partners Program, an  initiative launched last year for the company’s popular Prime service, has been a hit with consumers and content partners that are filling it with specialized SVOD-OTT services as the offering nears its first year on the market.

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“The demand has been incredible,” Michael Paull, vice president, digital video at Amazon, said in a keynote conversation here Thursday at the Multichannel News/Broadcasting & CableOn Demand conference. “It’s been a great year.”

Amazon launched the program in December 2015, offering easy access to a wide range of SVOD services from partners such as Showtime, Starz and Seeso (from NBCU) that is available on top of Amazon Prime. Paull said 75 partners are now on board with the program, which handles key elements such as billing, customer care and the streaming platform that underpins the delivery to a wide range of devices and platforms.

When Amazon approached programmers and other content suppliers about joining the program, Paull acknowledged that the initial conversations were sensitive because they were concerned about how the new offering would respect their brands.

“We have leaned into their brands,” he said, noting that a partner’s brand is front and center when Amazon Prime users search for an SVOD offering or an individual show that’s offered therein.

He said the program has not cannibalized the viewing market, but has helped partners add incremental subs. “As far as we can tell, we’ve grown the market,” Paull said in a discussion with Mark Robichaux, editorial director of Multichannel News and B&C.

Paull discussed how the program, and its integration of billing and provisioning, removes friction from the subscription process, noting that it takes just two clicks for an Amazon Prime user to subscribe to a service, while others need between six to 12 clicks.

“We provide one unified experience that was simple and easy to use,” Paull said, adding that Amazon also brings them a massive audience to market to.

Paull also said Amazon’s access to data, used for the main Amazon offerings, is also being applied to video and helping to connect users with shows and movies they might like – and present that to the right person at the right time.

For example, with the third season of Power, Amazon noticed that a huge part of that audience was also watching similar programing like Empire.

“The more time [viewers] spend with us, the better the connection they will have with us, and that will allow us to serve all their needs,” Paull said.

As for what’s on the horizon, expect Amazon, which has been rumored to be pursuing live TV rights for its OTT platform, to continue to expand on the video options it makes available on its platform.

Amazon, Paull said, is looking to offer “a complete digital video experience.”

Staying current with shifting trends in the business of on demand television and video will be the focus of next week’s On Demand conference, presented by Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News. The event is presented only once each year and will be held on Thursday, Sept. 29, at Manhattan NYC – An Affinia Hotel, across from Penn Station on Seventh Avenue at West 31st Street in New York City.  

Attendees at this year’s On Demand conference will hear data and research findings from comScore and MAGNA about changing preferences of viewership. The conference also features a keynote interview with Michael Paull of Amazon who will provide insights into the reasons for the current trends, as well as address timely topics like enhancing the viewer experience and identifying the ideal set of skills required for TV executives, today. Attendees will learn how these industry changes present a challenge for live sports coverage, and how studios are preparing themselves to make wise budgetary decisions for greenlighting original content. They’ll also hear how advertisers and advertising sales representatives are growing a fairly new revenue stream for on demand.  

Participants in this conference will enjoy discussions about traditional pay-per-view and movies on demand, which have long sustained the profitability of this segment of the industry, and how new options are influencing the latest financial forecasts. Those on the distribution roundtable will debate where the profitability will be in the near future, and will argue the long term benefits of current business models. A closing discussion about viewers and content focuses on the amount of content choices, the distinct advantages of linear vs. on demand distribution, as well as the best content to drive transactions. 

The afternoon keynote presentation by Comcast Cable’s Stephen Meyer will present this leading company’s strategy for staying ahead of the trends like “stacking”, new platforms like Comcast’s X1, and the best on demand options from this fall’s lineup of new shows. Hillelson added, “This keynote, plus the other special presentations and roundtables in our program, will offer attendees details, data, ideas and perspective, and hopefully, a plan for next steps, so that they are prepared to leverage the shifting trend towards on demand viewing.”

The conference will also include opportunities for networking as well as smaller group discussions during the “Meet, Greet & Eat” luncheon period. There will be an interactive movie quiz you can play throughout the day, a “my favorite movie photo booth,” plus a chance to win a top-brand, large-screen Smart 4K Ultra HD with HDR TV. Attendees can also meet Melissa Gorga of Bravo’s Real Housewives of New Jersey. She will be on-site to sign autographs during the event's closing reception from 5-6 p.m. Doors open at 9:30 a.m. and the program kicks-off at 10 a.m. See the full agenda and all participants online, and register by visiting https://nbmedia.swoogo.com/ondemand. The On Demand conference is produced by Schramm Marketing Group for Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News. 

NEW YORK – Rentrak vice chairman and CEO Bill Livek believes the difference between video on demand and primetime linear TV is a lot like gap between cooking with a microwave and an oven – food tastes better in the oven, but “you can’t beat the speed.”

Livek, whose company makes its living measuring TV viewing habits, said at the Multichannel News B&C On Demand Summit here that consumers, in an effort to accommodate their busier lifestyles are making the trade off between watching commercials on the VOD platform for the convenience of merely clicking a button to watch their favorite shows when they want them.

 And the numbers back him up. According to Rentrak, a bout 57 million households have access to VOD, up by about 2 million in the past year. More importnatly, he said, time spent watching VOD has risen to 9.3 hours per month, a bout double the time spend just five years ago.

How viewers spend their time is a key metric, Livek added, using the Fox hit primetime show Empire as an example. Livek said that after Empire’s first five episodes, 83% of the viewing was done after day 3 of original air. Toward the tail end of the season, more than 50% of the viewership was done after day 5.

“This is how VOD is changing the economics,” Livek said. “After the third day the majority of viewership is happening; in primetime, content with the Big Five [broadcast networks], five or seven days almost half of viewership is cumed up.”

Livek argued that despite sentiment to the contrary, TV viewership is essentially unchanged. People, he said, are watching just as much or more TV, they are just watching it on different devices and at different times. It is for that reason, he added, that advertisers and networks should look more closely not just at the shows that attract the audiences they want to reach, but the specific times within those programs. According to Rentrak data, different age groups watch primetime VOD shows at different times.

“Time as a demographic does matter,” Livek said, adding that in general, 50% of viewing is occurring five days or more after original air.

Rentrak corporate president Cathy Hetzel said the measurement company is working with cable industry ad consortium Canoe and Comcast to apply age and gender information to VOD titles. That should eventually expand to other distributors.

“There is going to be a lot more talk about this in the near future,” Hetzel said.