About Brett Jenkins
In a September 2018 appearance, Brett Jenkins, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology & Digital Officer at Nexstar Media, discussed the uniqueness of over-the-top (OTT) television. Jenkins stated that OTT's distinctiveness lies not in its distribution path but in its delivery over IP, which enables nonlinear, on-demand, unicast, and bi-directional connectivity. He said that this method of delivery is "revolutionising the way consumers are interacting with content."
Jenkins noted that some observers predict over-the-air, cable, and satellite delivery will disappear in favor of internet-based distribution, while others argue OTT is a temporary phenomenon that will fade. He offered his own prognostication that "eventually there will be equilibrium reached," with multiple forms of distribution continuing to coexist and traditional methods innovating to become more like OTT in what they can offer consumers.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Brett Jenkins's recent appearances.
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Transcript (1 segments)
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Brett Jenkins0:02
The thing that is unique about OTT, I believe, is not just that it's coming through a different distribution path. Again, I don't think consumers really care about that. What is unique about it is it's delivered over IP, right? And it can be delivered nonlinear, it can be delivered on demand, it can be delivered unicast in a one-to-one fashion, and frankly it has bi-directional connectivity embedded into it, right? So not only can I receive content, I can send something back over the pipe that I'm receiving the content through. So again, as I think about the way traditional television is changing, it's not so much just that the distribution is changing, it's that the method of delivery by enabling distribution of content over IP is really revolutionizing the way consumers are interacting with content, delivering content, watching content, and interacting with content. By the way, if you look at statistics, there's a lot of prognostication about where all these things will end up, right? There are some people who will tell you right now that these other three forms of ancient delivery—over-the-air, cable, and satellite—are going to disappear and everyone will eventually connect to the internet. There are other people who will tell you still to this day that OTT is a blip, that it's going away, it won't survive, eventually it will fade away and the industry will re-equalize. I actually, since we're here to talk about the future of television, my prognostication is eventually there will be equilibrium reached, right? That multiple forms of distribution are going to continue to survive in the ecosystem, and the traditional ways of distribution are going to end up finding ways to innovate and be more like OTT in terms of what they can deliver for the consumer.
