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Digiday Hot Topic Takeaways: The Rise of OTT Content

It seems as though we’ve done quite a bit of recent writing about fluctuations, shifts, growths, rises, and so on. And in the television industry, the biggest conversation currently revolves around the rise of over-the-top (OTT) content consumption.

OTT content is any media that is distributed directly to consumers via the internet – including, but not limited to, audio, video, instant messaging, and phone calls.

The most well-known form of OTT content comes in the form of television and movies, with familiar moguls such as Netflix and Amazon grabbing their respective shares in the market.

OTT content is delivered to a device through a streaming service. In doing so, the content bypasses the telecommunications and cable networks traditionally needed to receive content.

For TV specifically, OTT content can be delivered to a number of different devices:

●  Smart Devices (phones, tabets, TVs)

●  Gaming consoles (Playstation, Xbox)

●  Computers (desktop or laptop)

●  Set-top boxes (Roku, Amazon Fire Stick, Apple TV)

Through a number of different streaming services, like:

●  Netflix

●  Hulu

●  Amazon

●  HBO


In recent years, OTT television content has risen, and sharply so, leading to phrases like “binge-watch” being added to the common American vernacular. But why is it that the new form is moving with such momentum?