CANNES – No need to fret about Hulu not being available in Canada, Wade Oosterman, chief brand officer at Bell Canada, told MIPCOM delegates on Tuesday in Cannes.
“We’re a Canadian company. We’re not that big on a global basis. But our mobile television business is growing faster than Hulu is in the U.S.,” Oosterman said. “It’s pretty remarkable when we see some of the growth rates accelerating like they are,” he added after Hulu CEO Jason Kilar preceded Oosterman with his own keynote address.
From watching digital platform traffic spike during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and 2012 London Olympics, and now acquiring content from its CTV division to deliver to its own customers and sell to competitors, Oosterman touted the benefits of Bell Canada’s evolving four screen strategy during his own media mastermind keynote address.
From seven live mobile channels devoted to the 2010 Vancouver Games, Bell Canada today offers 26 mobile channels, “and you can watch the shows of your choosing,” he added.
The vertically-integrated media giant has also changed how it bills mobile video subscribers to avoid sticker shock when customers open their cell phone bills after watching a couple movies. Now mobile subscribers are charged $5.00 per month for 10 hours of video viewing (with an overage for of $3 per hour).
“We greatly reduced the rate that we charge for data,” Oosterman said.
That flexibility in offering mobile video content follows drastically changing consumer patterns across multiple platforms. Oosterman pointed to a shift in “product centric” consumption of video away from the traditional TV set to “activity-centric” behavior.
“If any of you have kids, you know. My kids don¹t ask where’s the TV room. They’re as likely to flip open their smartphone or laptop and engage with media,” he continued.
Of course, solving the complexity of digital TV would greatly help Oosterman and Bell Canada monetize content distribution and advertising in the Internet, mobile and tablet space. “It’s difficult. It just isn't taking the traditional TV feed and throwing it across and hope it works in the internet. It gets more and more difficult as we go forward to ensure all the content we have rights to can be delivered on multiple screens,” he insisted.
What’s more, while Bell Canada enjoys faster growth rate to digital screens as subscribers acquire more and more smartphones and tablets for convenience, the carriers’ margins are under pressure. “In my business, ARPU (average revenue per user) is under pressure” as consumers find lower cost platform alternatives like Netflix.
Broadcasters are also impacted as mobile and tablet use grows, and marketers shift their ad spend from print and TV to the Internet or mobile. “That has ramifications for content creators. Everybody needs to have a workable business model, otherwise it doesn’t make sense,” Oosterman argued.
Ditto for content creators, who depend on subscription revenue and advertising to monetize their rights. “Both of those depend on the end user. And end user totals don¹t change, just because the screen totals change,” he told MIPCOM delegates.
But much as Oosterman argued Bell Media was growing its four screen strategy to target consumers, Canadian delegates in Cannes this week were also discussing how to develop and sustain innovative models of distribution of homegrown content so Canada could reap the rewards of a growing digital market.
“He (Oosterman) was right in saying that distribution is key,” Carole Brabant, executive director of Telefilm Canada, said after the keynote address Tuesday. “We need to be more innovative and less one-size-fits-all,” Brabant added when considering how to adapt existing business models to open new distribution channels for Canadian content in the digital age.
The trick is seizing the benefits of emerging digital platforms to better distribute Canadian content and increase its audience, at home and abroad, the Telefilm Canada boss said. “We need to be more focused, because we have the means to do it.”
Etan Vlessing is in Cannes this week covering MIPCOM for Cartt.ca.
