Futuresource Consulting, debuted the ‘New Content Horizons’ event on Tuesday 02
June at the stunning Ham Yard Hotel, London. Sponsored by Panasonic, Rovi Corp,
West 10 Studios and Digital TV Europe, the day explored the evolution of TV and
Video content delivery. Key industry influencers (WWE, Eurosport, DTG, Freesat,
MTG, Dolby, BBC, Rovi Corp, Sky, EE, Sony computer entertainment, Glory Sports
and many more) gathered together to discuss the content, service and hardware
drivers that are shaping the future landscape.
Attendees included; Amazon, Apple, BBC, British Video Association, Hasbro, John
Lewis, Lionsgate UK, Livewire Sport, NBC Universal, Nordic Cinema Group,
Samsung, Sky, Sony Pictures, Studio Canal, Talk Talk, Tenshi Ventures, Universal
Music Group, Verrents, Vitec, Warner Bros and many more.
Three panel sessions took place during the afternoon, topics included; OTT
Challenging the Traditional Broadcast Landscape, Premium Sports and 4K, UHD and
beyond. Futuresource also shared their ground breaking research into how studios
are driving digital ownership, the relationship between hardware and content and
consumer insights from its latest wave of Living with Digital research.
Charles Dawes, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Rovi Corp took us down
memory lane from the TV guide to the EPG to the new graph based technology
which is now enabling the Rovi transition to dynamic metadata. He believes that
multiplatform personalization is the way forward with ‘63% of users spending over
10 minutes searching for content today’.
The ‘Premium Sports’ panel led by Richard Gillis, Unofficial Partner, comprised of
David Kerr, Managing Director Eurosports, Alex Chamberlen, Managing Director
Omnigon, David Gibbs, Director Sky Sports Digital and Ivan Farneti, COO Glory
World Sports. One key message to take from this session is that the clear line
between digital and TV is obviously now blurring, Gibbs stating that ‘20% of Sky’s
live sports events are now viewed on the Sky Go platform’.
David Sidebottom presented fascinating Futuresource research on how the studios
are managing their business in the light of the transition to digital, 39% of Global
video revenues will be subscription VOD by 2018.
The final panel session of the day ‘4K, UHD and Beyond’ held by Jack Wetherill,
Senior Market Analyst, Futuresource involved Andy Quested, Head of HD and UHD
BBC, Simon Gauntlett, CTO DTG and Chris Johns, Chief Engineer Broadcast
Strategy, Sky. The general consensus with the panel was that 4K and UHD TV are
‘not like the 3D fiasco’ stated Andy Quested. At the moment there are multiple
standards for TVs, they all agreed that a new standard needs to arranged, a
challenge they have set themselves for the coming year.
Matt Stagg, EE gave a fascinating presentation about the challenges and
opportunities EE faces with TV on the go. Stagg said “all mobile operators need to
separate video streaming from mobile data and ultimately charge for duration and
not MB/GB”.
Finally Sony and Dolby gave us a glimpse into the future with virtual reality demos
and presentations of their latest products. Panasonic demonstrated their P2 cast
solutions, a cloud based news production system that takes full advantage of the
network features of the P2HD camcorders with AVC-ULTRA recording.
