Is the era of "cheap, all-you-can-watch content” (for consumers) ending? This is the contention of a recent Guardian article examining challenges telcos face. Connecting the dots between writers’ and actors’ strikes, booming broadband use, increasing infrastructure costs and streaming, the article taps into the old adage: ”Nothing in life is free”. The notion of ”cheap” really depends on where you sit in the value chain and how you can leverage the resources available to you.From the telco perspective supporting the boom in streaming use is not “cheap” but there are strategies that can be applied to regain control.

First, it’s important to understand the economic drivers for streamers and telcos/service providers. The consumer is the source of revenue either directly in the form of subscriptions (for streaming services and broadband) or indirectly from advertising. For now let’s just focus on the supply chain players or the cost of sale elements from the streamer and broadband provider perspective.

When we discuss rethinking broadcasting in a streaming world, we all acknowledge that we’ve redefined what TV really is. It’s now a content-first, consumer-choice smorgasbord, and streaming companies -- whether digitally native streaming behemoths like Netflix, or latecomer niche players or broadcasters who didn’t realize the streaming wave was a tsunami -- exist to cater to them. 

­Now that the dust has settled on this year’s IBC show, we at Varnish wanted to highlight some key trends that we saw and heard being discussed at the conference and on the show floor for those of you who may not have been able to make the trek to Amsterdam. This year, it was just as interesting to see what didn’t end up making a prominent appearance at the event as what did. Here are our five key observations: