The Great Disruption: OTT and the future of the European TV industry

Around the world, TV markets are being disrupted by the growth of premium OTT offerings and multi-platform TV services, with incumbent broadcasters facing growing competition for audiences, subscribers, ad spending, talent and rights. TV markets are becoming increasingly crowded, as OTT providers make their way onto TV screens and leverage their international scale to invest heavily in content, technology, distribution and marketing. National and international broadcasters are responding by launching their own services, in many cases with considerable success, and shifting investment towards more premium, global content, but many industry participants believe that the market is facing a long period of change – viewing behaviours and audience preferences are shifting rapidly, traditional channel brands and industry revenues are under pressure, and broadcasters are racing for scale, through co-productions, partnerships, alliances and acquisitions.

How will the growth and development of OTT services disrupt the TV market during the next five to 10 years – and what does this mean for incumbent broadcasters, nationally and internationally? Will OTT continue to stimulate investment in premium content – or will the bubble burst? Will viewing continue to shift away from traditional broadcast services – apart from news and sport? What steps do broadcasters need to take to reinvent and re-position their brands, service portfolios and operating models to compete in a fast-changing market? How will the growth of OTT impact the UK and international TV production sectors? Will investment in UK content inevitably suffer? Can national broadcasters compete with Netflix and Amazon – and do they need to? Can broadcasters successfully grow their own large-scale subscription OTT offerings – or will they become content providers for the big international OTT providers?