Europe’s plan to require OTT providers to include 30% local content in their programming will have little impact on the major international SVoD providers Netflix and Amazon. Their European strategy is already built around an expanding portfolio of local content partly to appease national sensibilities but also because it wins subscribers and boosts viewing levels. They have been aware quotas were coming for about three years and had time to prepare, even if they had not originally been expecting it to be as high as 30%.
Evertz is demonstrating its latest advancements in Software Defined Video Networking (SDVN), File Based Media Processing and UHD HDR production at NAB.
The number of mobile phone video viewers in the United States is expected to reach almost 170 million this year. An additional 10 million may be added by 2020. With such large and increasing audiences, broadcasters are eager to serve these viewers. As streaming live over LTE networks becomes increasingly common, operators that are prepared by using multicast ABR will be the long-term winners.
Pan African pay TV operator Kwesé has taken a sizeable undisclosed stake in iflix, a leading provider of SVoD services in the developing world, highlighting the rapid growth in video services across the region. This extends an existing relationship between the two companies established in August 2017 with Kwesé’s launch of iflix services on its TV platform, which spans most Sub-Saharan countries.
The Broadcast Bridge assesses how far UHD has come and finds rollout hindered by being inextricably bound up with the complexities of High Dynamic Range (HDR). The industry will be hoping for 4K consumer displays sales to kick off with the UHD HDR broadcast of the FIFA World Cup from Russia this summer.
International research and strategy consultancy, MTM, just released a report exploring challenges faced by the US broadcast industry in an increasingly OTT world. The study concludes that unless broadcasters move quickly to change how advertising is managed and sold, they risk being outmaneuvered by the major internet companies