Leaders Week 2018 - direct-to-consumer and OTT are top priorities

Deltatre's CPMO, Carlo De Marchis, attended Leaders Week in London and spoke about the opportunities in the OTT world at prestigious panels.

Deltatre was at the Leaders Week, held in London between 8 and 11 October 2018. The annual appointment the gathers the “who’s who of global sport, technology, and entertainment”. Our Chief Product and Marketing Officer, Carlo De Marchis, spoke at prestigious panels across multiple venues in London. Here are his thoughts after three great days of disruptive talks where top priorities emerged.

Broadcast disruptors

On Tuesday we were at Sky Studios in Osterley, fantastic location and interior design if you like huge spaces, for the Broadcast Disruptors Leaders event.

I grabbed a great quote from Richard Scudamore (Premier League) that referring to the transition from free-to-air to Pay TV in the 90s said:

I guess we should do the same with OTT.

It was nice to notice like almost all previous sessions had a Deltatre’s client involved, ATP, HBS, Premier League, etc.. I moderated a short but energetic panel on “The Solution-Finders: Overcoming OTT Challenges”, with Ralph Rivera from Discovery/Eurosport and Marina Storti from Now TV.

Two Italians and an American from the Bronx, a dangerous mix: Ralph coming from a successful first with the Winter Olympic Games on the Eurosport platform with great audience numbers, Marina managing the sophisticated challenges of the young free Sky alternative of the more traditional Pay TV offering.

We got a lot of attention even on the broader media for sports going OTT, not all positive at times, comparing the simplicity of traditional broadcast TV with the intricacies of internet-based services. On the other hand, users love being able to access content anytime anywhere, they demand it, at a level where they will not be able to go back.

I see a very important silver lining in this: sports OTT is going mainstream. I mean, even in countries that are less developed on the digital side, like Italy, the ones that define a nation are going OTT. It’s a sign we matter.

Highlights of the session which I will bring home with me are: Marina’s statement that for OTT “engagement is deeply correlated with retention and the path to immediate watch is critical for success”; Ralph sharing how Eurosport biggest learning was “how to approach and successfully manage the direct-to-consumer relationships in all its aspects”. Noy the complexity of the OTT supply chain needs a company culture that prepares for failures and is ready to act promptly.

Leaders at Chelsea’s

On Wednesday, I was on stage again for the session we sponsored as Deltatre named “OTT vs Linear: Identifying New Global Opportunities”.

That was the last panel of the day and the fact that a full room (and that room is huge) was engaged for 40 mins is a great testimony of how the OTT subject is front and center in people’s mind.

Linear vs OTT and the evolution of how sports properties and media company approach this in a global market, from sell-and-forget to a multi-layer set of relationships and partnerships that need constant engagement.

Ipsita Dasgupta from Star India International, Joris Evers from La Liga and Richard Young from Eleven Networks shared their stories and their approach to OTT from three distinct points of view.

As I was in the UK, with Eleven and La Liga I could not resist but spice up a bit the start of the panel by asking the question that everybody wanted to ask: “What’s going on at _3pm on Saturdays?”. _Richard explained how they believe the rule that forbids to have football shown on “TV” to protect stadium attendance is obsolete and them, with La Liga blessing, want to fight that.

Here are some highlights from the panel.

Next Stop Sportel Monaco then Sports OTT Summit in Madrid. Stay tuned!