Archive for category: News

Source: Mumbrella 09 March 2018

Australian streaming technology business, Switch Media has appointed former Ericsson executive Mark Johns to take over as CEO from Christopher Stenhouse, the company has announced.

The announcement:

Switch Media appoints former Ericsson executive as CEO

An experienced international broadcast and over the top (OTT) executive has taken the reins of one of Australia’s fastest growing streaming technology businesses as the sector braces itself for further growth in the coming years.

Switch Media, one of the world leaders in content streaming, has appointed Ericsson’s former Head of Media and Broadcast Technology, Mark Johns, as Chief Executive Officer, with co-founder and current CEO Christopher Stenhouse stepping into the role of Chief Financial Officer.

Switch Media, which was founded in a home office as a small YouTube like start-up 12 years ago before changing its focus to OTT technology solutions, has worked with most major broadcasters, including Seven, Ten, SBS, ABC and Foxtel, developed the Free to Air Broadcast industry apps for Freeview Australia and Freeview New Zealand, and delivers solutions for Federal Parliament and Melbourne’s RMIT.

Mark Johns, who while at Ericsson headed up the development of its Video On Demand technology platform Nuvu, previously worked for Switch Media when it was in its infancy and has also held senior roles in the radio, television and technology sectors over his 25 year career.

Mr Stenhouse, who founded the business with its current Chief Technology Officer, Luke Durham, said the appointment of Mark would ensure the business leveraged the strong tailwinds that the streaming industry was experiencing to continue its strong growth trajectory.

“Year on year since our inception, Switch Media has delivered more than 40 per cent growth and driven strong profitability to enable us to reinvest into the business and remain at the forefront of OTT technology,” Mr Stenhouse said.

“With the evolution of streaming continuing and showing no signs of abating locally or internationally, Mark’s long-held knowledge of Switch and his experience of the international OTT market will ensure that Switch Media is well placed to grow our slice of the OTT technology pie.”

Mr Johns said he was looking forward to further growing the Switch Media success story that he had been a part of in the early days when he played an instrumental role in securing Foxtel as a major customer for streaming of the 2012 London Olympics.

“This industry keeps evolving at rapid rates – from the participants offering video on demand (VOD) and subscription video on demand (SVOD) services through to the types of devices people want to access services on,” Mr Johns said.

“Switch has kept at the forefront of these changes and developed innovative solutions to some of the key challenges that the content owners face, from quality of the streaming service for the viewer to how they can best monetise their content.

“I am excited about the opportunity to take an already successful business and drive it to its next stage of growth in a market that is growing by more than 20 percent annually and seeing new entrants to the market.

“It is a really exciting time in the industry, with its strong growth trajectory being driven by three forces.

“Firstly, broadcasters want the experience provided by their streaming services to meet and increasingly exceed the experience of traditional broadcast.

“Secondly, we have new content players and owners (such as sporting associations) looking to build their own platforms that they can monetise.

“Finally, we are seeing new fields outside of the broadcast industry, such as the health, education and transport sectors, seeking access to high quality video streaming services.”

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald FEBRUARY 5 2018

The business models for news publishers are expected to undergo rapid changes in the next 24 months, with half of the revenue for media businesses tipped to come from subscriptions.

The latest data available shows that for every $10 in revenue from advertising in 2012, there was only $1 coming into media coffers from subscriptions.

Online news outlets are expected to push for a business model relying more on subscriber revenue in the next two years.

This is expected to shift significantly by 2020, with subscription revenue to match advertising revenue.

By the end of 2018, Deloitte’s TMT (Technology, Media and Telecommunications) Predictions 2018 report estimated there would be 20 million digital-only news subscriptions worldwide.

“We expect news providers to focus increasingly on generating revenue from subscriptions, typically as a complement to advertising, given the challenges they have encountered during years of reliance on ad revenue alone,” the report said.
People subscribing to news will remain far below those signing up to subscription video on demand services, known as SVOD, which is estimated to reach about 375 million subscribers.

The average charge for a digital subscription across platforms is $10.

“However, online news services tend to be among the most expensive individual services, often costing tens of dollars per month, and there are also many tens of millions more subscribers to printed newspapers and magazines,” the report said.

One of the challenges is the growing dominance of digital giants Facebook and Google, with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission undertaking an inquiry into these platforms and how they divert revenue away from traditional publishers.

Research undertaken by Deloitte, including an annual survey of thousands of consumers across the world, found different attitudes to paying for news depending on location.

Deloitte partner Kimberly Chang said Australia “continues to face a clear challenge in terms of monetisation models in news” with most news consumers in the country “overwhelmingly reluctant” to pay for online news.

“Ninety per cent of respondents agreed they were not willing to pay because there is so much information available for free,” she said.

Despite this, accurate real-time news and deeper knowledgeable journalism were both in demand – but she said both were approaches that “require very different business models”.

Those surveyed from the United States were the most willing to pay for their news, and 18 to 34 year olds the most likely to pay.

“Publishers have also become more adept at identifying trigger points that can cause readers to become subscribers and at recognising what type and proportion of content to place behind the paywall,” the report said.

This included techniques like lowering pay walls on big news days, which would see some willing to pay when it was then reinstalled.

The surge in video streaming services was also tipped to continue to grow.

Video marketing specialists Switch Media chief operating officer Mark Wilson said there would be innovation to give users control over whether they wanted to pay or be served advertisements.

Research from the company found the average Australian had used 4.3 streaming services, with Netflix, the ABC and SBS rated as having the best overall user experience.

“Ads aren’t going to go away but more people will be able to choose to have less ads,” Mr Wilson said.