OTT Executive Podcast with Brian Mahony Brian Mahony

1) Paul's career background-- Technicolor, Disney, Discovery, Struum; 2) Paul's mentor and move into strategy; 3) Getting the call from Disney; 4) The 
"moment when my career trajectory changed"; 5) How to use viewer data to be cool at cocktail parties ; 6) QuickPlay's focus on Tier 1 customers; 7) QuickPlay's USP: architecture and culture; 8) QuickPlay's new AI programmer tool; 9) Paul's passion for tennis and his beef with the Tennis Channel bundle; 10) Meet Paul's puppies Betsey and Sophie.
Also watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ottexecutive

1) Kevin's background at Lucasfilm, Electronic Arts, Walt Disney Pictures, and Zynga; 2) Learning about merchandising, gaming, and communities when launching the Pokémon franchise to the USA; 3) Why EA (Sims franchise) and Zynga (Words with Friends) highlighted the powerful combination of content, gaming, and communities; 4) Genesis of Bold Baking Network; 5) How "baking" is different from "cooking"-- it's about joy and love; 6) 500 million video views and 8 million monthly unique viewers; 7) What does it mean to build a content "universe"; 8) How Star Wars created a "cross-generational" community; 9) Role of mobile for building out your community; 10) Bold Baking Network's plans for a new FAST channel; 11) Working with SpaceMob for OTT platform and distribution; 12) Viewer acquisition strategy; 13) Importance of including live content for the baking audience; 14) Gamification of the UX; 15) Kevin's passion for cinema.
Also watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ottexecutive

1) Scott's career background starting with device drivers at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC); 2) Current role leading SeaChange's advertising team; 3) SeaChange's end-to-end streaming platform; 4) Advertising solutions including pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll and creating custom FAST channels on the fly; 5) Innovations such as side-by-side advertising, clickable events, and QR codes; 6) Trade-offs of server side vs. client side advertising solutions (or both); 7) Role of big data to match ad inventory to user behavior; 8) Scott's 22-year support of the Pan-Mass Challenge (192 mile bike ride) to benefit cancer research. PMC this year will hit the milestone of $1 billion raised for cancer research.
Also watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ottexecutive

1) Steve's career background- "Silicon Valley meets Hollywood"; 2) The problem to solve-- universal search within the OTT operating system; 3) How is it possible your title doesn't show up in search even if it's in your library? 4) Why/how the search algorithm optimizes the platform's monetization-- not the apps; 5) Search vs. CTV/platform marketing- what has better ROI? 6) How Steve's team works to index/optimize your content library; 7) In an ideal world, who's job is it to optimize search results to maximize UX, engagement, monetization? 8) "The search engines and CTV OS wars are obfuscated and secret..."; 9) How to optimize your title names/tags for search; 10) Sometimes it's better to negotiate a bad deal so the streaming platform optimizes your content in their search algorithm; 11) Why you might need a search partner to get access to CTV/OS engineering teams; 12) ROI = 500% to 1000% increase in app downloads and titles watched.
Also watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ottexecutive

1) Evan's 2023 wrap up; 2) The media universe "death stars" getting bigger; 3) Consolidation of advertising market under Google, Meta, and Amazon (60%); 4) Why are the media giants getting into sports in a huge way? 5) "We left the last era of media four years ago when Disney went to DTC.... chasing Netflix towards a business model that doesn't work."; 6) Good churn vs. bad churn; 7) The paradox of consumers wanting choice-- AND bundles; 8) 2024 M&A predictions-- Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox, Disney; 9) Data/identity will trump content in 2024; 10) Additive role of Gen AI in 2024; 11) 2024 investment best bets- Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, NVIDIA-- be careful of AI bubble.
Also watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ottexecutive

1) Keith's background in theater and film; 2) Moving into digital media and then streaming media; 3) Space Mob's focus on creating FAST channels and creating series; 4) FAST market under pressure as platforms are cutting back channels; 5) Focus on entertainment sports streaming such as pickle ball; 6) Minimum viable FAST channel needs 150 hours to start; 7) Revenue share model with content partners; 8) Merchandising opportunities; 9) Smaller production companies will likely exit the business; 10) Keith supporting his kids' Pokémon passion. 
Also watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ottexecutive