The shape of things to come.
"The case for Sky demands that Sky be viewed not as a satellite TV distributor,
but instead as a platform-agnostic content provider, one with unique and
proprietary access to high-end including the English Premier League, Universal,
Disney films and HBO."
Exactly. And then, with the new global Internet available, you can drop the old
legacy one-way broadcast satellite medium, moving beyond its constraints.
"At the same time, he points out that OTT is still not very profitable on a
dollar margin basis and that satellite TV, despite its struggles, is far more
profitable over the lifetime of a subscriber."
This odd line of thought again. "Profitable" is a euphemism for "overpriced."
When new technologies make the old way overpriced, in part because it was
lacking in competition, the old ways dies off. It dies off precisely because
the profits were too high. Better alternatives emerge, people drop the old way.
On the other hand, a global OTT offering can bring in a humongous audience. And
too, broadband is not available to everyone yet, so a complete change won't
happen overnight.
Basic economics. Same phenomenon as major league ball players complaining to
management, when management claims their overly-substantial salaries can no
longer be supported. The anomaly was the status quo ante, not today's
realities. The supply side can't fool mother nature.
Bert
---------------------------------------------
https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/comcasts-sky-bid-could-lead-to-a-global-ott-service
Comcast's Sky Bid Could Lead to a Global OTT Service
Analyst suggests Comcast is more interested in OTT possibilities than satellite
Jenny Priestley* 5 hours ago
NEW YORK-Comcast's bid for Sky could be the foundation of a global Over-The-Top
offering, according to an analysis from MoffettNathanson Research's Craig
Moffett.
Moffett suggests the pairing of proprietary and valuable content from Comcast's
NBCUniversal with Sky's would serve as an important enabler.
"Sky brings with it a trove of exclusive content and rights that could be the
basis of an OTT service with a genuine moat, capable of rivaling Netflix
itself," Moffett said.
He added: "The case for Sky demands that Sky be viewed not as a satellite TV
distributor, but instead as a platform-agnostic content provider, one with
unique and proprietary access to high-end including the English Premier League,
Universal, Disney films and HBO."
That, in theory, would "give Comcast the heft and the programming muscle to
create a pan-European, or even global, direct-to-consumer OTT service," Moffett
said, noting that there's some justification in the thought that a mixing of
NBCUniversal's and Sky's unique content could create "something truly
differentiated."
At the same time, he points out that OTT is still not very profitable on a
dollar margin basis and that satellite TV, despite its struggles, is far more
profitable over the lifetime of a subscriber.
But Moffett also reasons that the structural differences between the U.S. and
U.K. markets could make Sky's OTT offerings more profitable down the road,
offering an assumption that Comcast believes it could create a larger, more
scalable service that can transition Sky's satellite service to OTT.
"A smooth and gradual hand-off from one to the other, where OTT growth is so
rapid as to more than offset declines/cannibalisation in the satellite service,
would appear to be a rather optimistic scenario," Moffett explained.
But the access and distribution of valuable and proprietary content holds the
key.
"One can assume that Comcast believes that the combination of Sky's and NBCU's
proprietary content will be enough of a deterrent to ensure that the margins
available to an OTT provider don't simply get competed away."
This story originally appeared on TVT's sister publication TVB Europe.
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