In five years’ time no one will talk about OTT, it will all be just TV by 2022, according to the people attending this morning’s panel at Cable Congress on OTT.
Asked about other issues, one third of the audience was convinced that skinny bundles will drive churn, with a 20% decline in revenues in five years time; one third of the audience did not believe this, while the remaining third did not have an opinion.
A great majority of the people at the session believed there will be 500 million subscriptions to SVOD services by 2022, but only about half the audience thought there will be 1,000 niche OTT channels with at least 50,000 subs each. About three-quarter was of the opinion that Netflix content spend would be 8.5 billion in 2022.
Alex Green, managing director of Amazon Video, said the company is not “out to disrupt the traditional pay-TV market. Our objective is to do better for our customers. Amazon and Netflix can easily co-exist with traditional players. Actually, we already do.”
Amazon is open to work with cable operators. “We can be a partner of cable, we are open to partnerships, but we haven’t done as much as Netflix has done. We have our own devices, but also work with a huge range of manufacturers.”
Working with content partners is high on the list for Amazon, as Green believes there is room for a lot of niche content. “But the big challenge will be marketing, customers acquisition, and technology. By taking care of that we allow people to refocus on content. Amazon Video is backed by massive e-commerce, and there is room for for plenty, but know your audience.”
Amazon is not looking at exclusivity when it comes to content. “We encourage partners to go direct, HBO is a great example, they go direct to the consumers, but are also on Amazon Channels.”
