In an age when "YouTube star" is seen as a top career choice by young people, many over-the-top streaming platforms are still figuring out the right mix of interactive and social elements to incorporate in their content.
Some of the biggest names in streaming, such as Hulu LLC and Netflix Inc.., still offer very little interactive elements. But several streaming video experts at Digital Hollywood, a biannual Los Angeles trade conference on the convergence of traditional and digital media, said interactivity will be important for the future of the medium, though technical challenges remain a problem today.
TV content is getting plenty of viewership, but no digital platform boasts as many views as Alphabet Inc.-owned YouTube. Many of the platform's most active users are kids who aspire to be stars, said Frank Chindamo, digital film professor and entrepreneur.
"We're all talking about a lean-back experience, but the lean forward … that is really growing. Interactivity, that's where it's really going," he said.
YouTube was recently valued at $160 billion by Morgan Stanley, Chindamo noted, roughly neck and neck with Netflix's latest market capitalization. YouTube far outweighs Netflix on users, however: Netflix reported 125.0 million members globally in the first quarter, where YouTube tracks over one billion users.
YouTube was built with social in mind and grew its user base around a social experience, unlike most OTT platforms. Rather than try to build a social engine inside a niche OTT platform, many content companies load videos on YouTube, typically as a marketing strategy, and allow audiences to connect there. Or content creators allow their high-profile talent to lead social engagement through their own social media influencer accounts.
That's not to say the major platforms haven't been thinking about how to better incorporate interactivity into their platforms.
"All the hardware guys are trying to work on this," said Jeff Soo Park, chief technology officer for HDMI Licensing Administration. He said platform operators for years have been working closely with hardware companies to integrate social experiences inside a streaming video feed, allowing users to discuss specific video and story features on Twitter Inc. or Facebook Inc. or any number of social platforms. While some have tried to launch these kinds of experiences, few have succeeded, he said.
"The challenge is: How do you standardize it across the board," he said.
The technical challenges include reaching cross-industry agreement on how videos should be tagged so users can reference not only specific content but specific scenes or snippets of that content. It also requires a new kind of user interface technology that does not rely on the remote-control buttons, he said.
Of course, the first step is producing good content.
"We look at it as a lifecycle," said Jon Cody, founder and CEO of TV4 Entertainment, which operates a range of global niche OTT platforms. Content investment is the first and most important step, he said, and from there the platform owners consider community building and e-commerce strategies.
"It's all nothing without good content," said Rich Affannato, co-founder and CEO of theater-focused niche OTT service STAGE.
