Olympusat CEO Tom Mohler discusses the future of OTT in the US Hispanic market at INTX 2016

During the Multicultural TV Breakfast at the Internet & Television Expo (INTX) 2016, Tom Mohler, Olympusat’s CEO and president, was chosen to address the current challenges presented to networks, distributors and providers, alike, for delivering relevant content to multicultural audiences.Mohler offered insight into the growth of OTT-fueled multichannel video service in the U.S. Latino market. He also delved into the shifting consumer behavior of Hispanic viewers in a gradually disruptive digital world, as the seemingly insatiable appetite for high-quality scripted content further increases.“First, there were niche networks, now there is OTT, which allows the consumer, especially these relatively young consumers, to pick up the content they want. Now you can look at the creation of scripted content, which is the most popular content on OTT –there are 400 scripted shows being produced right now– so the challenge as programmers, as networks, as distributors, is to think about the creation of content, because ultimately, if you don’t own the content, or are actively creating it, you are going to be out of business. That is where we focus a tremendous amount of our resources, and of course, mastering the technology of delivery of the content,” he stated during the panel “Providing Programming for Multicultural Audiences.”Mohler reminded the breakfast’s attendees that over-the-top-products, such as Olympusat’s Vemox, are flexible solutions for providers and distributors to add Spanish-language programming in bulk without incurring large amounts of capital expenditure.“We want to provide more diverse and exciting programming to our Hispanic customers, but we just don’t have the capital to budget more linear launches, so by doing the OTT, we are able to provide more content via the Internet,” he explained. Nevertheless, OTT is not a replacement to linear packages, Mohler stressed, but an essential complement.The panelists agreed that the Spanish-language media landscape would continue to change in unpredictable ways. “We are seeing some of major broadcast networks in Spanish lose significant ratings right now,” Mohler said. “There is tremendous pressure on the formats. That explains why we are investing on a multitude of scripted and reality content. We are seeing people consume more and more of that, and that being movies and series. They have a choice.”