MICHAEL HIRSH
BR-NA : All things considered , what are the biggest trends you see on the rise in the industry ?
MH : With the growth of OTT and decline of paid TV and the decline of video , [ there is ] the cord cutting that ’ s going on where a lot of young people aren ’ t taking cable and satellite . Some are not even subscribing in the first place — it ’ s not even cord cutting , but what we call “ cord nevers .”
That ’ s disrupting the cable and satellite business . We ’ ll have to see how that plays out . In the US , cord cutting is advancing in excess of 2 percent a year — that ’ s a big number , when you think of it year after year . Up until recently we ’ ve had cable and satellite growth , but now we ’ re seeing the reverse .
It ’ s not particularly happening in Europe yet but it will , they ’ re just trailing us . The growth of OTT is trailing too . But overall in the long run , producers are going to be better off with OTT as a customer than they have been with traditional television .
BR-NA : Where does the production and financing industry need to be looking in the future , and where they need to go ?
MH : I think the industry has to be moving where the rest of the industry is going . So we ’ re seeing the development of new content for virtual reality which is going to create a new slew of content , and people are producing more and more for YouTube .
I think there are going to be other disruptors that come along . Facebook at this point is growing quickly in terms of its audience , and I think the production and finance community is going to have to come up with models by which they can finance the new channels of distribution .
The business is evolving . I think we ’ re at the beginning . The book is yet to be writ .
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