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Starz: The next OTT wave will be providing value to consumers not simply being content aggregators

June 22, 2022

Maribel Ramos-Weiner

Panel MVPDs NEXTV Series USA

The next OTT wave will be providing value to consumers, more than simply being content aggregators. “More complicated models are coming” expressed Stefanie Meyers, Senior Distribution VP at Starz, in the context of the MVPDs as the ultimate super-aggregators panel by Nextv Series USA, held by Dataxis. The topic came up as an answer to the question if the shared profits model is the dominant business model used by content aggregators.

Jake Cohen, Director and Head of Business Development and Content Strategy at Verizon expressed that for the company, the shared profits model “works well and is aligned with their strategy”. He recalled that Verizon is not in the content purchase or production business, therefore, revenue share is ideal.

Patricia Kellaghan, Senior Consumer and Business Products Director at Breezline, and Lars Lofas, Residential Product VP at Cox Communications, were in the discussion along with Cohen and Meyers. Juan Pablo Conti, Director of Events for North America at Dataxis, was the moderator.

A point on which all the panelists agreed was customer service. For Lofas from Cox Communications, customer service is “crucial”. Kallaghan from Breeziline mentioned that it is vital to understand and cater to consumer needs. She explained that customers hope everything will work perfectly well. She said Breezeline offers an IPTV solution called Stream TV with TiVo that has been well received by users and has been successful with other operators. “To be successful, we must provide a flexible platform and an unbeatable experience for users” she emphasized. Kallaghan added that they chose Android TV for the platform because “the Android ecosystem with Google is huge. It complements perfectly well our strategy of first being broadband providers”.