ONCE THOUGHT OF as the video rental store in a box, video on demand is now something completely different.
TV shows, clips, instructional videos, and original content are all growth drivers of the service and while some Canadian broadcasters have been leaders in bringing their product to the video on demand platform, more is required, David Purdy, VP TV for Rogers Cable told the audience at the second personalized programming session on Monday, this one on VOD.
While saying that about the only thing that won’t be available on demand is live sports, Purdy urged broadcasters to take a leap and place more of its prime time episodic programming on the VOD platform. "This can’t happen soon enough," he said, even adding such a move for a broadcaster could be "their salvation."
Claude Sauvé, VP content and VOD with Videotron concurred, saying that original content that can’t be found anywhere else will also be a key driver of VOD.
Daniel Ronayne, EVP and GM at Rainbow Media’s MagRack/sportskool, which is nothing but original on demand programming in the U.S., has found nothing but success on the on demand platform. MagRack adds 40 hours of new programming a month, with several "magazine-style" themes and in three years, sportskool (which offers a number of sports instructional videos and entertainment) is now in 23 million homes. Ronayne also pointed out that Comcast, the largest U.S. MSO has passed a billion VOD transactions in the past year.
Rogers has also dipped its toe in the instructional video on demand waters with its recently launched Golf on Demand.
Astral Television’s SVP marketing and sales Domenic Vivolo said that in two years, its TMN On Demand service, as a free add-on with Rogers has cut the pay service’s churn level and that it has a 75% penetration rate on Rogers (and far less with Videotron, which charges an additional fee for TMNOD – largely because its retail rate in Quebec is far lower than in Ontario, pointed out Sauvé).
If MSOs can’t get Canadian broadcasters to come on board more quickly, more deals like the one Rogers recently cut with CBS Paramount to add Survivor Cook Islands on demand will happen. Both Purdy and Sauvé said they would prefer not to bypass Canadian broadcasters in this way, and the pair urged the broadcasters to make more of their own original content available on demand, too.
All panelists agreed, however, that the thing needing the most repair – and what limits VOD’s further expansion, is the electronic program guide, which has not evolved with the capabilities of VOD content. It’s difficult for consumers to use and must be improved. "It’s like going back to DOS in the computer world," added Vivolo.
"We prefer to think of our guide as retro chic," joked Purdy.
