Top Asian OTT leaders explored the potential of OTT in supporting businesses and enterprises in the Asian market

The inaugural edition of World OTT Show – Asia gathered business leaders across industry sectors from ASIA such as technology experts and leading technology solution providers, to discuss macro issues, strategies and challenges in the burgeoning OTT space.

The difficult year of Covid-19 pandemic had just seen economies suffer, markets getting crashed and some of the burgeoning industries wiped out entirely. But for OTT industry, Covid-19 was a blessing in disguise, a kind of a banner year you may say. Particularly, because OTT viewing had an upward pre-Covid growth.

There is no doubt that consumer consumption patterns have changed in the last 16 months. Over-the-top platforms were already doing well pre-Covid, but lockdowns enforced by the Governments across the globe has given a significant push to OTT memberships.
With people given hardly any choice of entertainment, OTT gave them a never before consumer advantage – choice of content, ease of access, choice of devices/mediums.

To address some of these concerns and changing consumer patterns, top speakers who joined the show included Marc Mulgrum – SVP of Sales, Setplex; Sunil Gupta – Managing Partner and CEO, Yotta Infrastructure; Greg Armshaw – Head of Media, Asia, Brightcove; Paolo Cuttorelli – VP and GM, Evergent; Ashwin Rao – Country Director, Limelight Networks; Andreas Von Maltzahn – Co-Founder, iwonder; Zubin Jimmy Dubash – COO Digital Businesses, Shemaroo; Anna Ysabel F Driz – Director of Advertising Sales and Brand Solutions, WeTV iflix Philippines; Siddhartha Roy – COO, Hungama Digital Media; Ajeng Parameswari – President of Digital Business, Visinema; Shashank – Founder and CEO, Bakstage | FLYX; to name a few.

The show covered key topics such as User Experience with OTT Video Advanced Analytics, OTT Monetization and Content Customization Powered by AI and ML, Mobile future of OTT services, 5G-powered future of OTT entertainment and advertising, Successful strategies for Content OTT planning, High-quality, original content sourcing for OTT platforms, Ensuring best experience to attract and retain subscribers, OTT Subscription Models: Best practices and more.

Mark A. Aitken, SVP, Advanced Technology at Sinclair Broadcast Group discussed at length on the topic – Bright future of OTT in Asia: New standard of entertainment. He stated, “If you think of TV display as nothing more than a browser you suddenly can use all of your OTT excellence, IP experience and provide new services, not just broadcast in itself, but broadcast and the internet brought together in a quite remarkable way.”

In a panel discussion on the topic ‘OTT product and User experience: What makes your OTT platform great for your users?’ moderated by Shabir Momin – MD and CTO at Zenga TV, the panellists discussed key areas such as the Importance of User Profiling and personalization, Data-Powered Media & Entertainment Industry, how to create a unique but unified experience with multiple devices, OTT Content Customization Powered by AI and ML

While speaking about ‘Considerations in Selecting an OTT solution’, Marc Mulgrum, SVP of Sales at Setplex mentioned that, “Engagement is super important, as well as strong user experience. Ability to have content discovered via search as well as personalization and recommendation all are important in terms of getting a user watch that additional show.”

Sunil Gupta, Managing Partner and CEO at Yotta Infrastructure delivered a tech talk on ‘Why Synergies between Application layer + Infrastructure layer, are critical for the growth of OTT services in Asia.’ He stated, “Because of imposed lockdown and people having to stay at home, the consumption of videos is increasing exponentially. And we feel that the habits for work from home have been formed, so many people will continue to WFH even in times to come. So this demand for OTT is only going to increase.”

Greg Armshaw, Head of Media, at Brightcove, while delivering a keynote on ‘A Path to the Future of OTT in Asia’ mentioned that, “There is now product-market fit for OTT streaming platforms in Asia, and Brightcove’s video platform offers multiple ways to grow and monetise OTT apps across a breadth of devices, without the cost and complexity of in-house development.”

A highly engaging keynote addressed by Anna Ysabelf, Director of Advertising Sales and Brand Solutions at WeTv iflix Philippines on ‘Youth and OTT: Future Content Planning for a Younger Generation of Users’ in her discussion she mentioned that, “Mobile phones play a key role in this new wave of retail-entertainment. Online shopping and entertainment continue to be the two fastest-growing mobile segments, making mobile phones an ideal tool for keeping consumers engaged and putting the power of interactive eCommerce in their hands.”

Shashank Singh – Founder and CEO at Backstage/ FLYX discussed at length on the topic ‘Audio OTT platforms: Future of music industry’, he stated, “Audio is the future of social networking, and it presents businesses and creators unparallel potential to grow and expand their reach.”

“During the epidemic, new customers are coming online for the first time, and old users have boosted their content consumption. This provides a separate and distinctive OTT ecosystem in which viewers may choose from a varied range of global, regional, and local operators who offer top-tier local and international content,” says Mithun Shetty, CEO of Trescon.

The show was hosted on the virtual events platform Vmeets which helped the participants to network and conduct business in an interactive and immersive virtual environment. Participants were also able to engage with speakers in Q&A sessions and network with solution providers in virtual exhibition booths, private consultation rooms and private networking rooms.

World OTT Show – Asia was officially sponsored by Lead Sponsor – Setplex; Platinum Sponsor – Brightcove; Gold Sponsor – Evergent; Silver Sponsor – Limelight Networks; Bronze Sponsors – Smartlabs. Benzinga