Thinking Out Loud

Succeeding in a Ruthlessly Competitive Business

What does it take to succeed in an over-saturated streaming world? According to guest Michael Wright, head of MGM+, it’s focusing on quantity, quality, and value. Michael asserts today’s sophisticated audience determines within five minutes whether they will keep a subscription after the free trial by quickly assessing three important things. Host Vicki Lins and guest Michael Wright discuss chasing people over profit, their recent acquisition by Amazon, and how Amazon’s resources and enthusiasm will guide awareness and subscriber growth.

Turning The Pain Of What-To-Watch On TV Into A Fun, Fast, Free Experience

Guest Stacy Jolna has a long career in changing how people watch TV. He was a founding executive for TiVo and most recently, the founder and CMO of Clix, a multi-platform streaming model. Jolna applies the three C’s to create new viewing experiences for the consumer – choice, control, and convenience. In our discussion, he explains how through human editorial curation and AI machine learning, Clix is providing a personal viewing experience for the consumer, exciting new advertising opportunities and partnerships across the streaming ecosystem.   

Navigating The Steaming Wars With A New, Collaborative Roadmap

As the Streaming Wars evolved, we witnessed business models pull apart, sending parties to their respective corners, all trying to figure out what’s next. It became clear global scale is necessary to stay competitive, making co-productions a priority. Host Vicki Lins and guest Rebecca Glashow, CEO of Global Distribution for BBC Studios, discuss several topics including how through co-productions and partnerships, we are witnessing a resurgence of competitors also being colleagues, where working together can benefit individual businesses.

The Charter Playbook: A Guide to Success

Guest Tom Rutledge, chairman and chief executive officer of Charter Communications, has 45-plus years of industry knowledge and experience. A few of Tom's many leadership accomplishments include successfully merging four legacy cable companies, creating the game-changing Triple Play bundle, and most recently, announcing a joint venture with Comcast to create a new video platform. This insightful conversation covers what it takes to lead through change, how to execute a vision to win in a competitive marketplace, how to drive value to customers, and the challenges of aligning an organization post-merger, new technologies, the streaming business and more.

There’s No Loyalty in The Digital Space

The streaming wars have become a global battleground to reach broader audiences, increase engagement and reduce churn. The major streamers expect half of their revenue to come from the international marketplace within the next few years. Guest Teresa Phillips, Co-Founder & CEO, Spherex, explains why culture plays an integral part in successfully globalizing content and how Spherex’s unique AI supports the ecosystem to help create content that culturally adapts to meet the compliance needs in various countries while maintaining the integrity of storytelling. 

From Heineken to Baskin Robbins: How Brand Integrations Are Boosting Content and Building Businesses

Erin Schmidt, chief product placement officer, BEN, is behind some of the most iconic brand placements, including James Bond switching his favorite drink to a Heineken, Ant-Man working in a Baskin Robbins, and Steve and Nancy from Stranger Things eating KFC’s finger-lickin'-good fried chicken. Erin and host Vicki Lins discuss how entertainment drives cultural conversations and how brand placements are supporting the creator economy. Erin details the value and impact of product partnerships between content development and brands and how the right product placement allows a brand to be an authentic part of the conversation. Join us to explore the dynamics behind several successful integrations, where marrying content and brand ultimately enhanced the viewer experience.

The New Wave of Peak TV is Crossing Borders to Compete

Peak TV has hit a new peak where different points of convergence are driving diverse programming for consumption and streaming platforms have created a space to connect with new audiences. Guest Catherine Tait, the CEO of CBC, provides a glimpse into Canadian viewing habits, examples of how their content has successfully crossed borders, and how collaborations allow them to continue to compete in the content race.

Hollywood 2022: How Will It Play Out?

President & Chief Media Analyst of Variety’s Intelligence Platform, Andrew Wallenstein, recaps the trending topics of 2021 and predictions for 2022. Wallenstein and host Vicki Lins discuss navigating the three-dimensional metaverse experience; and its potential within entertainment, recent pandemic release strategy experimentations, what competing streaming services will have to do to get ahead and recent findings from Variety Intelligence Platform’s market research reports.