Emerging Content Trends - The Drum's Social TV Panel Discussion

CBS's DebEvoise highlighted the move by the broadcaster to offer even more On Demand TV content across the country, claiming that the CBS All Access service was available in 95 markets with a live feed available to over 79 per cent of subscribers.

"We think getting that on every device is the key step for us, which the Netflix, Hulus and the Amazon Primes of the world are a little bit ahead of us," he continued. "We'll probably be there in the first quarter of next year. That's the key for almost everyone out there - be ubiquitous; how do you get your brand [out there], which is going to be very important going forward, in terms of aggregating viewers and audience for how you sell to advertisers."

He also stated a need for patience in the TV sector in reaction to all of the emerging platforms and not to overreact: "It's all a little nuts. TV is not dead. There are more people watching TV than any other medium. The measurement may not have caught up to the ways viewers are viewing their content across devices...but the content is the same. It's still long-form, high quality, multi-million dollar content that you want to watch. It's just how do we get it to you and get credit for getting it to you with our advertising partners and how do we build better sponsorships to integrate those advertisers. That will be the challenge over the next two-to-four years as we figure out measurement for that 30-day window of content and we find new models like building a 24-hour news channel rather than the two-and-a-half hours we used to be on air. Devices are playing into measurement and how we build sponsorship. It's going to take some time but we are in a good position."

Under Armour's Mollica picked up the conversation around trends and paid respect to content makers, recognising that creating what people wanted to watched was "super difficult."

He continued to highlight measure as the key to all of the issues and said that it was the end of the period where marketers were "ignorant" to what was happening with their marketing while noting that viewers hav more control than ever over their content consumption.

"As we develop that magic in the middle it will be necessary for all of these investments that we keep talking about, whether it's integration of content or any of these other pieces that have greater impacts. As far as technology and trends that are happening, there's a whole lot of things that are interesting but if you focus on that tactic you get lost. All of these new technologies, all of these delivery vehicles are providing you with a sense of control around the context, the delivery mechanism and the data and if I have that and I work with fantastic creatives to build these interesting stories and connections with deep context, that stuff should empower our level of communications and storytelling to become so deep that these serendipitous moments just happen and you can't put a price in that. For me that is what is most exciting. Being able to architect those types of stories at a level of depth and impact that we have never been able to do before."

Scripps Networks Interactive's Parizman also spoke about content distribution and the fragmentation of platforms for consumption, comparing it to when HGTV debuted 20 years and needed to find distribution across a number of small cable operators. Consolidation between networks over that period has changed everything.

"We only have to worry about getting our network across essentially less than 10 places and we really want to focus on that. On the digital side we not only have to worry about getting our content on Hulu, Amazon and Netflix but we are also a launch partner with Snapchat Discover, we launched on Apple News two weeks ago, so the difficulty there is being on more places but also crafting content appropriate for that place. So what I put on Snapchat and the way that I integrate a sponsor with that is going to behave very differently with what I do with my linear network. What I might be doing on OTT play is definitely not what I am going to do in Apple News. We can do that, but there is a lot more heavy lifting now and it's taken a lot more time and crafting to find out how to get the right message and bringing the advertiser along appropriately on those different platforms that everyone has to play in now if people are to consume all of this."

Of Snapchat itself, he claimed that it was being looked upon as a supplemental part of a distribution strategy rather than a single channel.

"What Facebook was two years ago, it was the cherry...TV is still ice-cream but now it's Facebook, Snapchat, Apple News and Twitter amplifying, it's like a banana split now. We were really good at selling ice cream but everything has to have the toppings now and that is what I'm playing in and it's where the fun stuff is as well," he continued.

Found Remote's Edelsburg also highlighted another emerging platform, The List, which asks celebrities to upload lists of things which can be followed by users.

JPMorgan Chase's Sheehan concluded the discussion by picking up the conversation around the use of social platforms such as Snapchat.

"Content is always going to be king, you really have to appeal to emotions and it's those videos with content that really pulls at the heart strings that sees more hours and gets more followers. Snapchat has been very interesting, she added.

"It's a new way to digest content, it's fast and it's fresh, it's now becoming part of the ecosystem where you have to think about placing your content. Another thing that has been on the rocket ship over the past two years when you think of all of these different platforms is how you must speak on each of these platforms and what kind of content resonates with the audiences on them. That's a big challenge for marketers right now with the amount of content people have to come up with and tweaking and tailoring for each of these different platforms, it's growing exponentially."

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