What OTT means for marketers.
OTT implications
Your current provider loses the default right to the first screen and gets disintermediated, turning the provider into just dumb pipes. While the company will attempt to package content, the content available on demand will far outstrip the pre-packaged choices offered up. The consumer will have a personalized UI and take control over the programming and the packaging.
We've seen user-generated media (UGM) and user-generated advertising (UGA), now we have user-generated programming (UGP). Anybody with a new flat screen and a Vista-enabled computer (containing Microsoft Media Center) or a Mac could program his TV to default to a website like YouTube or GUI Widget. The GUI Widget might be provided by the consumer, the CE company or a third party. Think next-generation video guide+search.
A couple of things to consider here: Taking the default CDN away is akin to taking the dial tone away from the cable or satellite company. This could seriously affect TV ratings.
A battle is brewing for control of OTT between the hardware folks who want to be gatekeepers versus those who believe that hardware is a commodity and over time that the value will come in the form of data mining consumer preferences and linking ads to video. The latter scenario would be executed by service and application providers not by the telcos/MSOs or hardware manufacturers.
Interesting tidbit here: According to Shelly Palmer and his Media 3.0 blog (where you can stay up to date on OTT issues), 23 percent of U.S. TV households are currently OTT enabled.
OTT example
As mentioned above, the Xbox interface is a good example of the future OTT GUI Widget. In addition to the movie deals mentioned above, the Xbox live service offers online gaming, chat and VOD.
Next: OTT in your future