Broadcasters target streaming with contrasting models

Speaking on the Where Next? Innovating Broadcast Operating Business Models panel session, Kerry Ball, chief commercial and strategy officer at Britbox International, said the ‘best of British’ streamer had seen an opportunity to become a leading provider within the SVOD speciality sector, which was now outpacing the premium sector in terms of take-up. 

“We were able to craft a business model with a really authentic product,” she said. 

Achieving near- ubiquitous distribution meant that Britbox had become an important player in getting high value content made, she said, co-financing projects such as Outrageous, a new drama series about the Mitford sisters, in partnership with UKTV. 

Ball said that while Britbox was “always looking “  beyond its existing markets, its main focus was on headroom for growth within its existing markets. She said she believed there was an opportunity for segmentation of its existing audience. 

Seeing the opportunity 

Also speaking on the session, Vanda Rapti, EVP, Viaplay Select and content distribution, Viaplay Group, said that Viaplay had grown out of its broadcast origins to become a leading streamer by seeing the opportunity early while others had taken time to protect their legacy business models. 

She said that Viaplay had thought it better to take a streamer position early enough but had also developed as a 360-degree media business where the legacy broadcast business fed into supporting streaming and vice versa. 

Reflecting on Viaplay’s troubled aggressive international expansion as a broad streamer in some markets a niche player in others, she said that achieving growth had not necessarily covered the costs involved in rolling out a broad-based service, resulting in the decision the company had taken to pull out of most international markets. 

While Viaplay is “the leading streamer in the Nordics” with a broad-based service, in the Netherlands, one of its remaining international markets, Viaplay is a localised sports-first player. 

Elsewhere the company has focused on striking partnerships with existing players via the Viaplay Select model of creating branded blocks for distribution on other platforms. 

A third speaker, Manish Kaira, chief business officer of Indian international service Zee5, said his company had focused first on building a streaming business and then adding advertising-supported VOD and a multilingual app. 

Zee5 was launched internationally in the US a couple of years ago. The service is now available in more markets, including the UK and MENA. 

Kaira said that the company understood the tastes of the Indian diaspora and had been able to deliver a high-quality service. 

Meeting needs of younger people 

Finally, Fox-owned Tubi had taken advantage of the “massive emerging space” in streaming to meet the needs of younger people who were no longer watching broadcast TV with an offering built around personalisation with a very broad content catalogue, according to David Salmon, EVP and managing director, international. He said Tubi now had one of the largest content catalogues in the world, with 10,000 films in the horror genre alone. 

Fox is now taking Tubi international, building on a base of 81 million active users, he said. 

Salmon said the content offering is different in each market, with an ambition to improve the offering with each launch. in the UK Tubi is now available via most major TV OEMs TV. The service also works extensively with content partners including the Hollywood studios and has become the market leader in user acquisition in the US, he said. 

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