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Video: Why Are Content Owners and Broadcasters Migrating to OTT?

OTT video has come a long way, and one could argue that today we find ourselves in the midst of a great OTT migration that is transforming how viewers absorb video content, up to and including content produced by traditional broadcasters who recognize that agility is critical to their survival. As Machinima's James Glasscock notes in this excerpt from a panel on OTT migration at Streaming Media East 2016, "If you look at all the major cable network groups and their earnings announcements over the past year or so, they've all reported losses. They're asking, 'How do we get back to that audience, that cord-cutter, cord-never audience, or whatever it may be?'"

Learn more about OTT and cord-cutting at Streaming Media West.

Read the transcript:

Jim O'Neill: We've come a long way. It used to be always from OTT friend or foe, right? We're not friend or foe any more. We know it's a great OTT migration. A couple of numbers: 18 to 34-year-olds spend 54% of their TV time streaming. That's up from 15% in 2012. 36% say that Netflix, not TV, is their go-to source for television content. Millenials' TV viewing is only 34% of the time, down from 73% just 3, 4 and a half years ago.

James Glasscock:
In the linear television world, a lot of broadcasters are losing their audiences to other forms of distribution, and so they're shifting over to figure out how to recapture some of that audience. If you look at all the major cable network groups and their earnings announcements over the past year or so, they've all reported losses. They're asking, "How do we get back to that audience, that cord-cutter, cord-never audience, or whatever it may be?"

Also, now that digital distribution has become so easy for a producer to access and a consumer to watch, it's created all these new opportunities for new media producers. YouTube was a great example over the last decade. Now you have these YouTube creators that are making movies, doing all types of licensing deals. The biggest YouTuber on the planet is a YouTube star, not a traditional music or television star. Because content creation and distribution have become so easy, you're going to see the same thing happen on the Facebook platform. I'd say sometime soon thereafter you'll see it happen on SnapChat as well and Twitter video. Twitter already has its own form of celebrities, but not necessarily in the video world yet.

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