Parks Associates’ 2nd Annual Future of Video Addresses New Content Strategies With Executives From Akamai

20% of OTT subscribers say they would have reconsidered cancelling if they could have put hold on subscription

Parks Associates research finds, among the US broadband households that cancelled an OTT service in the past year, 20% say they would have reconsidered if they’d had the ability to put the subscription on hold to use later.

Parks Associates will host the second annual Future of Video: OTT, Pay TV, and Digital Media, December 9-11, in Marina del Rey, California, featuring industry leaders perspectives on viewer behaviors and preferences and the challenges for the video industry in meeting the expectations of today’s connected consumers.

“While content is still king, the business of funding and licensing content continues to change,” said Elizabeth Parks, President, Parks Associates. “Content windowing, carriage agreements, and other aspects of content monetization are shifting due to evolving business models and consumption patterns. We look forward to hearing from industry leaders discussing these critical issues.”

Two sessions, “Licensing, Carriage, and the Original Content Wars” and “Working Together: Opportunities for Video Industry Collaboration,” feature the following industry leaders:

• Rob Caruso, VP, Device Partnerships, Netflix
• Brian Cavanagh, COO, Omnimesh
• Joel Fineman, Director, Publisher Development, Premion, a TEGNA company
• Erick Opeka, President, Cinedigm Networks, Cinedigm
• Erik Ramberg, VP, Head of Global Business Development, MediaKind
• Sourik Samaddar, Principal, CDN Cloud Services, Akamai
• Jonathan Skogmo, Founder & CEO, Jukin Media, Inc.
• Elana Sofko, COO, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment

“The OTT landscape is evolving quickly with the proliferation of new subscription and ad-supported streaming services, bringing an abundance of new opportunities for content providers and advertisers,” said Joel Fineman, Director, Publisher Development, Premion, a TEGNA company. “This conference comes at the perfect time as we round the corner into 2020. Parks Associates research and the insights gleaned from the conference will help many OTT leaders steer their businesses in the right direction. I look forward to sharing perspectives on the transformation of our industry with other OTT leaders.”

“Users expect streaming video quality to match with the level of traditional broadcast TV,” said Sourik Samaddar, Principal, CDN Cloud Services, Akamai. “That correlates to the impact and measurement of KPIs that are integral to the online video ecosystem.”

“Competing with engaging content is one of the more obvious differentiators,” said Elana Sofko, COO, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, the entity operating Crackle, “but what we’ve yet to see are companies creating original, exclusive content in a fiscally responsible way, or in a way that scales effectively.  When you’re playing a long game, it forces our business and creative teams to think differently about how we succeed.”