Aggregation, Security Challenge OTT Pay TV as Market Surges, Conference Told

said Ben Grad, fuboTV head-content strategy and acquisition, saying over-the-top video customers will “continue to flock” to services that offer a wide range of content “all in one place, on one platform, on devices they already have in their home.” Consumers don’t want to split their viewership among a dozen different apps, he said. More viewers are moving to aggregation platforms for streaming channels to simplify billing and access services through a single interface, said Parks analyst Kristen Hanich. Content aggregation will be “interesting” amid a fragmented OTT market, said Lu Bolden, Verimatrix chief revenue officer. It’s a challenge for the industry when a customer searches for content to “figure out what that end user’s authorized for through what platform,” he said. “Did they sign up through fubo for this particular piece of content, or this channel, or through Philo?” Services will want to keep subscribers in an environment that gives them access to applications and content “so that everyone can monetize this along the way,” said Bolden. That requires “complex insight” into data, authorization information and agreements among intermediaries. Voice control has an essential role in helping consumers find content in a fragmented space, panelists said, though Megan Dover, Cox executive director-video and entertainment product management and development, sees it as evolutionary technology. On whether far-field mics might be built into a set-top boxes vs. integrated into the handheld remote, Dover said Cox is studying the possibility as an “ideal” offering for the future. “It would be great to be able to not touch a remote control and say, ‘I want to watch …,' and it starts playing,” she said, but customers are also used to being able to pause, rewind and fast-forward within a program. Those commands are still cumbersome for voice control, Dover said. Sports betting is also becoming more popular on TV services, and security will be important as that segment expands, said Verimatrix’s Bolden. Implementing monetary transactions on platforms previously used only for viewing entertainment will be an issue, he said. It’s challenging to tie in authentication of users “as they’re moving from platform to platform” and make it easy for them to move from a smartphone to a TV to another device while having to remember passwords, Bolden said: “You want to make the experience for the end user easy, so they’ll stay on your platform -- but still secure.”