Bob Gives His Executive Prediction in Streaming Media Magazine

TV DISRUPTION: LARGE AND LOUD MAKES FOR LOVELY

In 2016, the biggest stories about new technologies will be created and managed by PR agencies. It will be a major challenge to break out of the cacophony of innovation noise.

Great technology alone won’t change business or consumer behavior, because game-changing storytelling is best told and managed by the pros.

There are a lot of reasons to be motivated—$57 billion to be exact. That’s how far the market capitalization of the largest public US content companies fell in 2015, according to Needham & Company. Cloud streaming has sonic speed momentum and new brands will either enhance your equation or disrupt your old economics.

Here’s what we—along with our clients—will be watching in 2016:

1. Streaming services gaining on cable TV in market penetration.
2. Products from cable companies like Comcast’s Watchable and Verizon’s Go90, or Cox’s Flare, who are all courting cord-cutters. You don’t even have to subscribe to use the service.
3. Content everywhere that will require a download-to-go feature—so the non-connected device connects with the consumer. When video is viewable off the U.S. linear TV ecosystem, it creates a headwind for revenue growth.
4. New virtual MVPDs like Victorious, who will offer streaming packages not based on traditional linear video networks, but rather featuring YouTube stars bundled into subscription offerings.
5. Video as the preferred content format for consumers. If you are reading this and not watching this, you—like me—are a dinosaur.

And most importantly, we are looking for the consummate single app aggregator that can provide access to a world of mobile content and declutter my smart phone. Because anyone who can create
one app to rule them all and reduce clutter, wins!

-Bob Gold
President & CEO | Bob Gold & Associates