B&TB&TB&T
  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Technology
  • Regulars
    • Agency Scorecards
    • Best of the Best
    • Campaigns of the Month
    • CMO Power List
    • CMOs to Watch
    • Culture Bites
    • Fast 10
    • New Business Winners
    • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • Jobs
  • Awards
    • 30 Under 30
    • B&T Awards
    • Cairns Crocodiles
    • Women In Media
    • Women Leading Tech
Search
Trending topics:
  • Cairns Crocodiles
  • Nine
  • Seven
  • Cannes Lions
  • NRL
  • State of Origin
  • WPP
  • B&T Women in Media
  • Thinkerbell
  • Pinterest
  • imaa
  • AFL
  • Anthony Albanese
  • AI
  • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • Foxtel
  • Meta
  • TV Ratings
  • Radio Ratings
  • Sports Marketing

  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.
Reading: The Biggest Challenge Facing The OTT Streaming Industry: Switch Media
Share
B&TB&T
Subscribe
Search
  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Technology
  • Regulars
    • Agency Scorecards
    • Best of the Best
    • Campaigns of the Month
    • CMO Power List
    • CMOs to Watch
    • Culture Bites
    • Fast 10
    • New Business Winners
    • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • Jobs
  • Awards
    • 30 Under 30
    • B&T Awards
    • Cairns Crocodiles
    • Women In Media
    • Women Leading Tech
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.
B&T > Media > The Biggest Challenge Facing The OTT Streaming Industry: Switch Media
MediaTechnology

The Biggest Challenge Facing The OTT Streaming Industry: Switch Media

John Hanrahan
Published on: 22nd March 2017 at 9:06 AM
John Hanrahan
Share
6 Min Read
SHARE

Monetising video content while providing audiences the perfect viewing experience is the biggest technical challenge for the OTT streaming industry, according to one expert.

Speaking ahead the 2017 Australian OTT TV Summit in Sydney, Switch Media chief technology officer Luke Durham said this major hurdle is closely followed by the challenges presented with:

  • demographic targeting of the right audiences with streamed ads;
  • the accuracy required of the metadata attached to content; and
  • the ability to keep pace with the proliferation of new devices and platforms.

“The viewing experience is paramount, so the technology to deliver a smooth, TV-like experience which doesn’t annoy or interrupt what a person is watching has been fine-tuned both in terms of managing thousands of feeds and image quality,” Durham said.

“Without the monetisation of streamed content, a significant proportion of content which millions of Australians take for granted would probably not be available.

“Crucial to all of this is the metadata for both the ‘discovery’, or the search and finding of the correct programs, and for the measurement and analysis of audiences who are using various devices. We’re talking literally thousands of programs being accessed by millions of end users simultaneously all over Australia.”

Durham said one of the one of the biggest problems the OTT industry faces is that there are multiple sources of content and ads, a lack of information consistency, and therefore, a lot of integration has to be managed across a number of third-party providers to seamlessly bring it all together in a single solution.

Luke Durham
Pictured: Luke Durham

“Add to that, the issues around digital rights management (DRM) across the various platforms and ensuring they are all correct and up to date,” he said.

“To achieve the best possible outcomes, OTT streaming solution providers need to move quickly and customise the services and tailor the interface for each client.”

Durham said there has to be a fine balance between ensuring client ads are delivered to their target market and not stopped by ad-blocking software, which has become prevalent, while maintaining the consistency and quality of the content we transmit.

“What is not known by the public, and many advertisers, is that to deliver a single ad into a streaming program can require up to five technological ‘requests’ via application programming interfaces – a set of functions which access the features or data of an operating system, application, or other service,” he explained.

“Another element in all of this is the need to keep an eye on the release of new devices and platforms and ensure that we can deliver our client’s content and ads into that particular environment.”

Ability to target and measure

With the metadata, telemetry and analytics available today, media buyers and agencies are able to target and measure exactly the audiences they need to reach, and Durham noted that this needs to happen smoothly and without interruption.

“It was one of the driving forces in the development of AdEase – our server-side ad insertion tool which not only side-steps ad blocking technologies, but delivers a smooth, TV-like viewing experience that integrates ads into program content across any digital device,” he said.

“Unlike other server-side ad insertion products, AdEase does not require full ingestion of a broadcaster’s video library in order to perform ad insertion, but rather, integrates easily into any pre-existing video management system.”

Mr Durham said the industry, and audiences, are going to see further innovation around both the discovery of content and leveraging streamed content onto social platforms.

Using automated metadata capabilities, with voice and image recognition, content and platform owners will be able to identify “live” scenes.

“With the volume of global content rapidly escalating by the week, metadata will be used for micro-genre descriptions content to assist quicker identification. For example, instead of just classifying a program as comedy, it could be romantic comedy, quirky comedy or a black comedy,’’ Durham said.

“Image recognition could also be used to identify products or brands in films or TV shows or find where a particular actor appears in a scene. And if a content developer, broadcast client or platform wanted, metadata could also be integrated with various social media platforms which are now used daily by billions around the world.

“They could relate to issues about ads, regulations or personalisation. For example, they may be used to trigger a health ad if a sequence involving smoking appears on the screen such as an overlay popup for Nicorette or a warning about sports betting during a footy game if it’s likely to have children watching.”

 

Join more than 30,000 advertising industry experts
Get all the latest advertising and media news direct to your inbox from B&T.

No related posts.

TAGGED: birch & waite, einsights, Luke Durham
Share
John Hanrahan
By John Hanrahan
Follow:
John Hanrahan is one of Australia's most experienced business journalists, TV reporters and producers. He is currently a Senior Consultant and Media Director with Lighthouse Communications Group in Sydney whose clients include Testra Business, the Clarius Group of recruitment companies, out of home advertising company oOh!media,eco adventure park TreeTops, the young Australian entrepreneurs organisation, ENYA, Access Digital Entertainment and private equity company Wolseley.. Lighthouse handles the national media for the Telstra Business Awards and the Telstra Business Women's Awards. He has worked for John Fairfax and Sons, News Ltd., 2GB, 2UE, ABC Radio, Channels 7 and 9 and ABC TV. He has also worked in newspapers in the UK and United States. For three years he was managing director of the joint US-Australian television production company Taffner Ramsay Productions. From 1994 to 2003, he worked as a reporter and producer on the Nine Network's national Small Business Show. Prior to that he was Australian editor of the Los Angeles based business daily newspaper The Hollywood Reporter and then editor of Australia's Dynamic Business magazine. He has also worked as a senior account executive for a PR and Advertising company. And has worked in the newspapers in the UK, Europe, Asia and the US. He has also owned his own business communications consultancy - John Hanrahan Business Communications.

Latest News

Patrick Rowe, Mandie Van Der Merwe, Avish Gordhan.
Agency Scorecard: Saatchi & Saatchi
15/07/2025
SCA Chief Content Officer Dave Cameron To Depart After 30 Years
15/07/2025
Harley-Davidson Rallies Riders For Inaugural ‘United We Ride’ Fundraiser Via The Salvation Army
15/07/2025
Agency Scorecard: Nunn Media
15/07/2025
//

B&T is Australia’s leading news publication magazine for the advertising, marketing, media and PR industries.

 

B&T is owned by parent company The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.

About B&T

  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise

Top Categories

  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Opinion
  • Technology
  • TV Ratings

Sign Up for Our Newsletter



B&TB&T
Follow US
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Register Lost your password?