M+E Daily

M&E Industry Execs: Future of Television Promising, But Expect More Cord-Cutting

NEW YORK — The future of TV is promising, but we can expect cord-cutting and cord-shaving to only grow as non-traditional platforms continue to gain popularity with viewers, according to media and entertainment (M&E) industry executives who spoke Sept. 27 at the New York Media Festival.

While “skinny” bundles and other over-the-top (OTT) TV streaming services pick up steam, we can also expect virtual reality (VR) and other immersive viewing experiences to become increasingly popular with viewers, the executives said during the Festival’s Future of Television conference.

One key takeaway: These trends are creating challenges for traditional TV networks, pay TV service providers, advertisers and even consumers, but they are also providing new opportunities for the M&E sector.

The business models of cable and other traditional multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) are “clearly going to change,” Peter Phillips, who most recently served as EVP and GM of interactive and distribution at Marvel Entertainment, told the conference during the session “View from the Top: The Future of Television.”

“The stock market doesn’t like” the uncertainty surrounding these companies and the important questions we need to ask in each case is how big is that business now and “what is that business going to become,” he said, adding these companies must all figure out what their priorities are going forward.

“Obviously, cord-shavers and cord-nevers [are] really going to impact their business. I don’t think anyone’s going to argue with that,” he said.

Although viewers have been given a wider selection of options to view TV content across multiple platforms, services and devices, he said: “I actually don’t believe that it’s great for the consumer yet. I think that the options for the consumer right now can be very confusing.”

As an example, he noted that a consumer may be a Netflix subscriber who can watch the first season of a show on that service, “but then if you want to watch season two, you might have to go out and buy it” if you want to watch it immediately, which can be a costly proposition. He added: “We’re a long way away from actually making this really easy for the consumer.”

For TV networks and cable channels “to remain relevant, they will need to kind of innovate and go with the times,” Floris Bauer, president and co-founder of digital media production and distribution company Gunpowder & Sky, said. If they don’t innovate and change with the times “a lot of them will decline or die,” he predicted.

For one thing, these companies “really need to see themselves as brands versus channels,” and those brands that “mean something to a consumer” will be the ones that most successfully “transition to the new world,” Bauer said. He also predicted that we’ll be seeing services offering smaller bundles of TV networks.

Gunpowder & Sky views TV as “one of the key distribution platforms to do business with,” he told the conference, noting TV represents about one-third of its business, with digital and film accounting for the rest.