--
Unpacking the global VOD content flighting debate --
Tue, 22 Nov 2016 10:43
--
Video on demand (VOD) is not just about having the latest or the most programmes on a service on-demand adds a wealth of new entertainment options and ways to access these entertainment options, personalised to unique market segments.
As VOD goes mainstream across the world, objections emerge from some consumers globally about perceived delays in flighting the very latest episodes, or around the size of the selection of movies and series on offer.
Taryn Uhlmann, executive head of Operations and Marketing at Discover Digital, a digital entertainment and video on demand services company, says judging an on-demand service just on volume and newness of titles is a mistake.
VOD services are coming to market as a digital, more convenient version of the physical video stores of the past. This means that each one will be subject to rights restrictions and forced to wait a certain amount of time before it may release new programming.
A movie for example, will usually be released to theatres first, then it becomes available for purchase online known as Electronic Sell Through (EST), followed by DVD retail and rentals and Transactional Video on Demand (TVOD the pay-per-view option for VOD, for example iTunes). It then goes to the first and second pay-rights holders, either to TV or to a SVOD (subscription video on-demand) catalogue - although in South Africa this is usually TV first, and then into Free to Air (FTA) or library SVOD.
TV shows run through similar windowing and in the case of most big shows, the first rights to screen TV series will be bought by a particular network or media company, who will then often take the life of series rights for as long as the show is produced. Good examples are the Netflix-commissioned original productions House of Cards and Orange is the New Black distributed by Sony and Lionsgate respectively. Both titles first run rights were bought by DSTV before Netflix started its global rollout strategy, so even when Netflix came to South Africa, they couldn t show the current series until the 2nd run window opened after DSTV has screened it.
In the case of both TV shows and movies, they can be snapped up by a major media company, forcing others to wait months or even years before they can screen them. But this should not detract from the huge range of benefits VOD services can offer, says Uhlmann.
Uhlmann points out that much like a traditional video store VOD allows viewers to pick and choose from a large range of entertainment options, to catch up on series they may have missed on TV and to view these shows when and how they like. This means that new audiences discover older content for the first time, instead of waiting for it to be scheduled on their TV, and they have the added benefit of experiencing it on a device of their choice. It further allows viewers to go back into the archives and revisit evergreen classics like the TV series Friends, which tends to get re-watched time and again, despite an already long life span on free to air channels.
Where viewers discover a series for the first time, they now don t have to come in at the end of the series they can go back to Series 1 Episode 1 and binge watch from the start if they like.
The latest episodes of any series are typically licensed to the pay-TV players with the largest budgets. These pay-TV services are often limited to a relatively small premium audience with the spending power to subscribe to pay-TV in the first place. Lower cost VOD may bring certain programmes to market later than pay-TV can do, but for lower income groups and non-pay-TV subscribers, VOD services are often the first and only opportunity to catch up on the entertainment everyone else is talking about.
Moving away from the traditional video store model, subscription video on-demand (SVOD) services gives viewers access to a huge range of entertainment at a set price, far lower than viewers might pay to subscribe to pay-TV or to rent individual titles.
Importantly, because subscription video on demand services are run on advanced digital platforms, they can personalise the viewer s experience and offer add-on services, says Uhlmann.
Follow me technology allows the viewer to pick up where they left off watching, even if they re logging on with a different device. Analytics helps SVOD services to understand exactly what viewers want to see, at what time of day, and customise and promote their offerings accordingly while recommendation tools present new content for discovery. Kids can watch their favourite shows repeatedly at no extra cost, because the programmes are freely available for them to revisit.
When choosing a SVOD service, viewers should not just be looking at how many programmes the service offers. The service might claim thousands of titles, but it s more important for viewers to choose their SVOD service based on how it is curated how many of the shows appeal to their particular taste, how well the technology delivers the programmes to the device of your choice laptop, phone, Smart TV or IPTV box - and how effectively it recommends other shows you ll like.
Uhlmann says on-demand entertainment is supplementary to TV services and should be seen as a way to broaden and enrich our options for entertainment. But as the on-demand entertainment market becomes more mainstream, she expects to see VOD operators start to differentiate from each other by emerging to focus on particular target markets with particular content focuses.
Uhlmann also believes on-demand entertainment companies will invest more in producing their own unique shows in future; and more short-form entertainment will come to market for mobile viewers. We expect to see more exciting programming emerging that runs for between 30 seco
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...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
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...
-- 
