Gerry OSullivan is outgoing SVP Global TV and Entertainment, Deutsche Telekom and is chairing the debate Are Telcos the Transformers of the Future of TV? on Sunday 15, at 13:00. He has had executive management of commercial, editorial, creative, operational and technical teams for leading broadcasters and MSOs across three continents and offers a unique perspective on how digital content and new technologies can support and create new revenue streams for the business.
Q: You are chairing the debate Are Telcos the Transformers of the Future of TV?' Without wishing to pre-empt the session, what is your opinion? Are they? Are you?
A: I think they could be, they have the large customer bases already in place, they generally have the deep pockets required and understand the technical and marketing challenges in communicating with their customers. The issue is do they want to be the transformers by being prepared to commit themselves to invest in content and innovation for the mid to long term.
Q: When it comes to competing with broadcasters, is it about offering premium content or is it about offering services?
A: This is one of those it's and' not or' answers. So yes it's about offering premium content and services...oh and by the way and clever marketing and providing choice for customers and attractive price points and 1st class customer care and a constant stream of innovative experiences etc.
Q: What remain the barriers to entry to those wishing to enter the broadcast' space?
A: Getting all of the above correct all the time and doing it better than your competitors.
Q: How much of a concern is the uneven broadband landscape in Europe? What, if anything, should be done about it?
A: It will need to evolve naturally unless certain governments can push it forward which is unlikely in the economic times we find ourselves in. However, there is a great opportunity for the Telcos and the Pay TV providers to bring bundled TV and Broadband services across Europe which hopefully will accelerate broadband. The Telcos also have the new emerging mobile spectrums which may become the primary broadband service in parts of Europe.
Q: At the IBC Leaders' Summit you're on the panel discussing engaging the connected viewer. Is it still correct to be talking about the second screen, or should we now be simply talking about multiple screens?
A: It's an easy to use term that everyone has picked up, but to me we now have an increasing number of glass screens in the home (presently six in my house) from 4 inches to 50 inches all needing amazing content, fantastic easy usability, connectivity and each needs to be able to serve as a companion to the other.
Q: As audiences get more demanding and apps etc get more complex and fully-featured, is monetisation of companion screen content a problem?
A: Those who do it well, get everything right, the content, the usability and a real understanding of how customers want to interact with digital content will have no problem monetising these experiences. Unfortunately, like the internet in total there will be a lot of rubbish out there. Also it depends on your definition of monetisation, everyone wants to see direct revenues from these services, and if you can get it fine, but many of these services monetise by being excellent marketing tools for acquisition and customer loyalty.
Q: The number of people actually using the connected aspects of their connected sets is still rather small (around 5%). Is this a developing problem? Or is such tentative consumer behaviour expected?
A: So far, I haven't been impressed with what I've seen with what the user has been presented in terms of experience on the connected TVs. Some look like my four year old would have done a better job. The intelligence, customer understanding and attention to detail required for a good experience is very underestimated, I've been privileged to work with the best in the business during my career.
Q: Stereo 3D. Dead, dying, or just resting?
A: None of the above. It's evolving and remember has arrived five to ten years before many of the industry experts' predicted it would be in peoples homes. The content is now catching up with the technology and the user experience needs to be continually improved. But its here, and if you choose to want to see how Andy Murray's serve actually bends as if you were actually there at Centre Court Wimbledon or how that twenty foot putt actually made it into the hole, you now have a choice its always been about choice.
Q: Finally, what future developments in television technological or otherwise excite you?
A: 3D Printers. MIT research into holographic screens. Musion' experiences.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
28/08/2025
IBC stand 5.F81
Wowza to Reveal Next-Gen Video Streaming Innovations at IBC 2025
Amsterdam, August 28, 2025 Wowza, a leader in video streaming infrastructur...
Gerry OSullivan is outgoing SVP Global TV and Entertainment, Deutsche Telekom and is chairing the debate Are Telcos the Transformers of the Future of TV? on Sunday 15, at 13:00. He has had executive management of commercial, editorial, creative, operational and technical teams for leading broadcasters and MSOs across three continents and offers a unique perspective on how digital content and new technologies can support and create new revenue streams for the business. 
