At NEM Dubrovnik, Jan Frelek, Chief Commercial Officer at Backscreen, discussed the challenges of content discovery in an increasingly fragmented media landscape, the evolving role of FAST services, and how the company is developing cross-generational OTT experiences to help operators engage audiences across Latin America and beyond.
Produced by Luis Cabrera, from Croatia
As the media landscape continues to grow with more and more entertainment options, helping audiences find the right content has become a major industry challenge.
Present at NEM Dubrovnik, Jan Frelek, Chief Commercial Officer at Backscreen, spoke to ttvnews about how his company aids in this regard, with an approach to content discovery that lies in combining the strengths of traditional TV curation with the flexibility of modern digital platforms.
The executive also highlighted Latin America as a key growth market for the company, pointing to opportunities among operators looking for scalable OTT solutions and new ways to monetize content in an increasingly competitive media landscape.
How do you promote content discovery in such a fragmented market?
Content discovery is an issue, yes. However, AI may not necessarily be the answer. Because AI creates bubbles that are even more sealed from the environment than former technologies.
So people basically get blinded from the outside world. I would even call it a kind of censorship, just automated. Because the essence of the censorship is to basically make people blind from the global perspective and focus on one certain thing.
I think for content discovery what really needs to be reconsidered is a role of a really good editor, program director, human factor, who can lead and manage dialogue with the audience. So the role from the old days of live TV, just taking advantage of the delivery capabilities which are broader now.
Because the problem of live TV was that it was a very narrow channel, where you couldn’t push lots of content at the same time. But actually this scarcity developed the skill of programming director to a very high level. Because you have to optimize the channel. So you have to understand the audience, the patterns, just to put the proper programming in place.
But also reconciling with some cultural interest, political interest, wider interest, but leading some kind of dialogue with society. Of course, live TV has its limitations, so it led to broadening media delivery channels in the digital world. It started with digital TV and lots of channels. Then portals, selection, demand, all these things. So the choice has broadened.
People basically get drowned in this ocean of titles, oceans of options, when the program director role is lost. So we need to restore this role, that’s my belief. We need to restore this role, to be a navigator, a guide, which really can again lead the dialogue with proper fractions of the society, proper audience profiles, recommending the proper content to these people.
And also applying time division recommendations. So, a combination of the old patterns, which were good, and capabilities which digital environment offers, to a little bit broaden the choice. But a little bit, meaning not to make people drown in this.
What is your evaluation of the FAST situation in Latin America?
The size of advertisement market, or the size of content funded by advertisement is not derivative to the number of content, to the volume of content, but to the size of the economy. If economy does not grow, there is no chance it can sustain more and more content offers. It’s a closed pool, the cake is fixed. And there are more people to serve. That’s what we are experiencing now.
I think we should step out of the box and read the message from the fans. Make it simpler. We want a simple leisure experience. And I think FAST is just one of the answers to this. Because it uses some franchise, some brand, something which is familiar to people, which serves as a kind of authority, and then follows this path in a simple way.
I think we should read from this thing, the message that we need simplicity, and we need to reinvent how to navigate people through the content. So the industry in a way needs to limit itself to read the message from the fans, not that people want more and more live channels, but people want simplicity in leisure and redefine content discovery from scratch. Abandoning the portal paradigm, Netflix type of navigation, but taking also the best from it. A little bit abandoning live TV, but taking the best of it and figuring something new.
And how can Backscreen help?
We as Backscreen, our core value is user experience. Because we are a white-label OTT platform, but technology is just a kind of machine, meaning that back-end, front-end applications are just physical entity of the real value, which is user experience which we design.
And it is on our roadmap to redefine the portal experience. Currently, we need to follow, because market expects it, so within our user experience we provide portal experience. But we also gave back value to live TV experience and also we have noticed that people, especially young people, consume vertical content in a swiping form.
Does user experience change by generation and do you adapt your solutions accordingly?
That’s what we mean when we say cross-gen user experience. That’s what we bring to the market. Because I would say, I think every one of our competitors just focuses on the Netflix type of experience, thinking that Netflix type of experience is holy grail, the ultimate way people will consume content.
And we do not believe in it. Because we observe the market and we still see that, especially older generations, still are into live TV, but not only, because it’s about simplicity. I’m not too old, but I also have sentiment to this easiness of sitting on a Sunday night and having my window on my favorite channel, because it is economical for me, it’s a value. I don’t need to waste time searching and I’m pretty convinced that I will get satisfactory piece of culture from it. So we have observed it and in our user experience design, in very practical terms, a user can select what is the preferred way he would like to consume content.
The application will start, the user will see streams, streaming channel, can zap and then use non-linear feature like pausing, rewinding, then contextual recommendations and then ultimately may go into portal. If users say I prefer portal, then Netflix live experience is the option. And that’s valid for big screen, because zapping and this live TV experience is particularly important for big screen. So this is how we cover like older generations with giving back the value to live TV experience.
One same client can offer through you both experience to the same user base?
Yes, exactly. In our solution every consumer can find its sweet spot and it’s not imposed. Because people are different, have different preferences. It is even not to the level of application, but to the level of profile, because in our application there are profiles and each profile can define its own preferred user experience, preferred way the media is consumed. So grandma may be purely live TV, but grandson can be portal type of experience, right? And it’s a single application, single brand, single content management. It’s very easy and effective for service providers, but also for consumers.
On the other side, there are young people who basically are into Instagram and TikTok. And if we see how much time different generations spent on media, then this young generation spent something like six, six and a half hours, depending on the geography. But this data, like plus three hours to, or two hours to the previous generations is in mobiles, is in vertical scrolling. And we need to respect it. We cannot pretend it does not exist.
It’s more important to take care about local specifics. If you’re not going to do this, you give your future to the hands of global giants, Instagram and TikTok. So we are saying, take our application, put vertical short form content and fight for this generation while still you can. While still there is some connection because in another 10 years, the connection may be completely broken and the game may be already lost.
So again, in practical terms, a user, a consumer in a mobile application can again choose the preferred way to consume video. If it’s the vertical short form video or the portal experience. And again, it’s managed from the service provider side in a single content management system with single asset pool. As importantly, with links between short and long forms to improve engagement. Because there is this attention economy game.
What opportunities do you find in the Latam region and other international markets?
Latin America is a region with lots of countries, and each country needs to have its own media ecosystem. So this is why Backscreen is looking into this area, and we are having already certain projects in early stage there. It’s not as safe as Europe, and not as rich as Europe, but Europe is unique in its sense, and we need to also think broader, expand.
Also, because Backscreen’s policy is to focus on tier two, tier three operators, smaller operations. It’s very profound DNA, which enables companies to serve such a segment, because it starts from how technology is designed, how processes are designed, but also ends how management expectations are designed. So we are happy to work with smaller operations, smaller countries, which are happy to also work with a partner like Backscreen to provide world-class product, but not demanding too much of like project engagement, or too much original thinking.
From this perspective, addressing Latin America, where there are lots of smaller countries, or mid-sized countries, or maybe a bigger country, but without the economical power, is very much in our focus. And I think it’s a good match, simply. Company focusing on scaling in product way, focusing on tier two, tier three service providers, which can be found in Latin America.
So it’s kind of a win-win situation. Also, we have noticed that in Latin America, we need monetization partner, because not always service providers know how to really monetize the content in digital area. And we have such partners on the other side of the Atlantic.
So if need be, we are happy to enter in the consortium with a local partner who can take care about monetization. So basically, take inventory, and sell it, and bring money. And we would provide technology, being like a vehicle for this.
So what we bring to the market as Backscreen is this combination of innovative user experience, which covers all generations, especially enabling to capture, to win back young generation, plus scalability, product roadmap paradigm, scalability of our solution. We can do projects very fast, very cost effective. And we are also flexible on business modeling.
