The ITVT editorial team develops the agenda for our TV of Tomorrow Show events through an extensive dialoguing process with the readership of the ITVT newsletter (which includes many key industry players), in order to ensure that each show covers all the issues that are currently of most pressing importance to the industry. As a result, we typically announce the agenda just a few weeks before each show. However, some of the issues that we expect to explore at TVOT LIVE! New Year 2022 include:

• The ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the television, advertising and audience-measurement industries: what has changed permanently, what will return to normal, and what new challenges and opportunities are emerging for the various stakeholders?
• ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV), 5G, 10G, addressable (linear and non-linear), programmatic, audience-based-buying and selling, AI/ML, Blockchain, the “metaverse” and more: Identifying and understanding the emerging technologies, methodologies and media that will impact the television/video/advertising space going forward.
• Reports from the field: How recent deployments of addressable TV, DAI, programmatic advertising, audience-based buying and selling, creative versioning, ATSC 3.0/NextGen TV, vMVPD/”skinny-bundle” services, direct-to-consumer OTT S/AVOD and FAST offerings, interactive programming and advertising formats, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), Blockchain, tcommerce, social TV, programming-discovery technology, measurement and analytics techniques, social-video storytelling and marketing, virtual/augmented reality experiences, and other advanced-TV/video innovations are faring in the real world; and what the success or otherwise of these deployments tells us about the business models for the TV of tomorrow. Which advanced-TV platforms, technologies, services and content offerings are attracting audiences and generating revenues today, how and why?
• The ongoing challenges involved in accurately measuring and understanding TV viewership on non-traditional platforms; and how advertising and audience measurement are being reinvented in order to take into account the growth of cross-platform viewing, time- and place-shifting, and other ongoing changes in viewer behavior.
• Ongoing disruptions and disputes in the audience-measurement space.
• Understanding the emerging CTV advertising ecosystem.
• The increasingly important role “Big Data” is playing in television advertising: the new forms of data that are being generated by interactive, connected and social TV/video, and how brands and agencies can take advantage of these data to make their campaigns more targeted, more accountable and thus more effective.
• New developments in advertising attribution.
• The significance of new industry-wide initiatives in the advanced-advertising space.
• The new ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) standard, and its potential to enable local broadcasters to generate new forms of data, offer new kinds of video and advertising services, and adopt new business models: will ATSC 3.0 put local broadcasters at the forefront of TV/video/advertising innovation?
• The role that broadband will play in the implementation of ATSC 3.0.
• New advanced-advertising and streaming initiatives from local broadcasters.
• The impact of new D2C streaming services from broadcast networks on those networks’ local affiliates.
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in the advanced-TV space.
• The role that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will play in the evolution of TV/video advertising, content discovery, and the viewing experience in general.
• The emergence of “virtual MVPD’s” and unbundled programming services that are seeking to take advantage of TV delivery over-the-top (OTT); how effective these services’ business models are proving to date; and their implications for content providers, operators, marketers, advertisers, and other players.
• The roles that subscription-based, advertising-based and hybrid business models will play respectively in the future of VOD.
• How subscription-based OTT services can best address customer churn.
• “Re-bundling” and other potential consequences of the increasing cost to the consumer of cord-cutting.
• The role that in-car entertainment will play in the future of TV and video, as ridesharing and autonomous-vehicle technology become more widespread.
• The significance for the TV industry of voice-assistant technology.
• New developments in native advertising, branded content, influencer marketing and episodic marketing.
• The new programming formats and genres that are emerging natively on social-video platforms.
• The potential of tcommerce/shoppable TV–whether on pay-TV systems, connected TV’s, second-screen devices or social-media platforms–to change the economics of television and advertising.
• The impact of “TV Everywhere” on viewing habits, audience measurement, advertising strategies, network and pay-TV business models and more; and how best to improve content discoverability and personalization, subscriber-authentication, and other elements of the TVE user experience in order to foster the medium’s continued growth.
• The impact of new technologies (including deepfakes) and social media on the TV/video news business–and thereby on the body-politic at large.
• The new kinds of news programming and reporting that are emerging on social-video and OTT platforms.
• Understanding the respective roles now being played by Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, TikTok, Snapchat, Rumble and other social-video companies in the television and advertising spaces–what are those companies’ TV/video goals, how likely are they to achieve them, and what do other stakeholders need to do in order to survive and thrive alongside such powerful companies?
• The implications of 5G mobile technology for the future of TV and video.
• The impact of YouTube’s monetization policies on the platform’s creator community.
• Understanding the role that TV and video will play in the Internet of Things (IoT).
• The implications of the incorporation of ACR and other “intelligent” technologies into connected TV’s–and the increasing role of intelligence in the TV ecosystem in general: What kinds of opportunities does truly smart television make possible?
• The impact of SVOD services’ massive original-programming budgets on the production, distribution and consumption of content.
• How MVPD’s are revamping their platforms, services and business models in order to counter the threat posed by cord-cutting.
• The changing nature of TV sports, including the implications of sports-free “skinny bundles” and of subscription-based sports programming services targeted at cord-cutters. What are the prospects for televised sports—and for regional sports networks (RSN’s) in particular—in an increasingly OTT TV ecosystem?
• The implications for the television industry of the US Supreme Court decision that invalidated the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), thus opening up new opportunities for sports betting.
• The validity and implications of the argument–originally espoused by FX CEO, John Landgraf–that we are seeing “peak TV in America” and that there is now “simply too much television.”
• How questions of content discovery, navigation and personalization have become central to television’s future.
• How to provide viewers with a simple, consistent and functional TV experience, across the multiple subscription-based and ad-supported, linear and on-demand, streaming and OTA services they are using.
• The emergence of virtual, augmented and mixed reality as platforms for storytelling and news reporting, as well as for advertising and marketing.
• The future of TV design: How to ensure that usability and high-quality design become a core element of the advanced-TV user experience, and not just an afterthought; strategies for designing consistent, cross-screen and cross-platform interactive video experiences; making the business case for good design; the complex and evolving relationship between design, data and content discovery/navigation; and the impact of new technologies and emerging consumer behavior on TV user interface design.
• The emergence of natural user interfaces, including gesture- and voice-controlled interfaces, interfaces powered by facial recognition, and more.
• Understanding international advanced-TV markets: opportunities and risks in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and beyond.
• The impact of GDPR, CCPA, CPRA and other data-privacy initiatives on the television/advertising/data/audience-measurement industries.
• The current state of investment in the interactive/advanced TV space. How are new investment trends, such as crowdfunding and accelerators, impacting the industry?
• The impact of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) on the television business.
• The latest tools for creating, delivering and testing interactive and multiplatform television.
• The impact of video streaming on the Internet infrastructure; the significance of such issues as bandwidth caps and interconnection deals for the broadband video industry; and emerging standards and technologies for enabling high-quality streaming in low-bandwidth environments.
• The increasingly importance of fan communities in the development, promotion and monetization of programming.
• New developments in content distribution.
• The significance for television of the eSports phenomenon, and the emergence of eSports as a medium for advertising.
• How to reconceptualize advertising campaigns so that they engage viewers whose attention is dispersed across multiple screens.
• How to ensure that programming, advertising and the institutions responsible for them reflect and are responsive to the emerging viewing habits and increasing diversity of today’s Millennial and Gen-Z audiences and cultural influencers.
• The new advertising formats that are emerging in response to ongoing changes in how we watch television.
• How to address the problem of CTV ad fraud.
• The future of the Upfront model—are we seeing a fundamental and permanent shift in how television advertising is bought and sold?
• How to identify, manage and monetize new social-video talent.
• The growing popularity of co-viewing during the Covid-19 pandemic, and its long-term implications.
• Recent and pending developments in interactive and advanced TV standards, and how these standards need to evolve going forward.
• The ways in which the ongoing evolution of the TV/video industry is impacting the role of the showrunner.
• The implications of the recent resurgence of interest in “choose-your-own-adventure”-style interactive TV programming.

18th Awards for Leadership in Interactive and Multiplatform Television

 

TVOT LIVE! New Year 2022 will be centered on the presentation of the 18th Annual Awards for Leadership in Interactive and Multiplatform Television.

The deadline for submitting Awards nominations is November 10th, 2021. An online nomination form is AVAILABLE HERE. In addition, supporting materials (e.g. headshots, screenshots, PowerPoints, PDFs, videos or other documentation that you wish to include as part of your nomination) can be sent to tracyswedlow@gmail.com or via a file-transfer service.

The Awards recognize corporate and individual leadership in the following categories (please note that companies/organizations, technologies/products and individuals can be nominated in more than one category):

Most Significant Impact: The company or organization that has had the most significant impact on the interactive and multiplatform TV industry as a whole over the past year (i.e. November 10th, 2020 through November 10th, 2021).

Most Significant Newcomer: The company or organization that was the most significant newcomer/breakthrough player of the past year.

Most Significant Technology—Infrastructure: The company or organization that launched the most innovative and disruptive television/video-infrastructure technology of the past year. This would include, for example, technologies for enabling and enhancing broadcast/OTA, OTT or mobile TV.

Most Significant Technology—Advertising and Commerce: The company or organization that launched the most innovative and disruptive advertising or tcommerce technology of the past year.

Most Significant Technology—Content: The company or organization that launched the most innovative and disruptive content-related technology of the past year. This would include, for example, technologies for programming production, enhancement, presentation or discovery.

Most Significant Technology—Measurement and Data: The company or organization that launched the most innovative and disruptive measurement/attribution or data technology of the past year.

Most Significant Content Offering: The company or organization that created the most innovative and disruptive programming or content offering of the past year.

Most Significant Design, User Interface or User Experience: The company or organization that created the most innovative and disruptive design or user interface/experience of the past year.

Achievement in Advanced Advertising: The company or organization that demonstrated the greatest achievement in advanced advertising this past year.

Achievement in Measurement and Data: The company or organization that demonstrated the greatest achievement in measurement/attribution or data this past year.

Achievement in News: The company or organization that demonstrated the greatest achievement in television/video news this past year.

Achievement in Local Broadcasting: The company or organization that demonstrated the greatest achievement in local broadcasting this past year.

Achievement in Streaming/OTT/CTV: The company or organization that demonstrated the greatest achievement in streaming, OTT or connected TV this past year.

Achievement in Pay-TV: The company or organization that demonstrated the greatest achievement in the pay-TV/MVPD space this past year.

Achievement in Research and Analysis: The company or organization that demonstrated the greatest achievement in television/video-related research and analysis this past year.

Leadership in the Coronavirus Era: The company, organization or individual that has demonstrated the most notable leadership in meeting the challenges posed to the interactive/multiplatform TV industry by the Coronavirus/Covid-19 pandemic.

Individual Leadership: An individual who has demonstrated notable leadership in the interactive/multiplatform TV industry over the past year, and whose efforts helped move that industry forward.

ITV All-Star: An individual who has a long-term track record of leadership in the interactive multiplatform television industry, and who is an appropriate candidate for membership in an Interactive/Multiplatform TV Hall of Fame.