Building A Better Streaming Service For Latin American Markets

I moderated a panel this past week for streaming-video trade organization OTT.X as part of a free mini-conference designed to provide nascent streaming services in Latin America with tips, best practices, lessons learned and more from a range of streaming services, OEMs, platform operators with their own AVOD/FAST offering, and other corners of the ecosystem.

Among the lessons:

• Be a good partner with your distribution platforms

• Experiment a lot

• Leverage your data smartly think of it as audiences rather than specific programs or channels

• Keep your ad loads low so ad prices can remain high premium.

And don’t forget the immortal line, “Make me a vegetable,” the cry of frustrated steaming viewers wanting a simpler, easier experience than the industry is giving them now. Sometimes, even 50-year-old shows such as Bob Ross’ old PBS painting series have found loyal and long-lived audiences in the FAST world.

My panel featured four notables from across the industry:

• Adam Waltuch, SVP Streaming Partnerships, TelevisaUnivision

• Srinivasan “Sriini” KA,, co-founder of broadcast tech consultancy Amagi Corp. and OTT.X board member. (Not to mention sponsor of TVREV’s new FASTs Are The New Cable report)

• Elana Sofko, Chief Strategy Officer, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment

• Nash Herrington, Director of Supply Partnerships, Vizio

Here’s a link to the audio from the panel. The conversation opens with introductions from OTT.X executive Eric Hanson.