Cablefax The Magazine - March 2017 - 22

ever, Strauss has his eye on superserving customers'
needs across screens. " People typically default to the
best screen available to them at that time, " he says.
" Ultimately a TV is just a piece of glass, and we want
to provide customers the ability to consume on any
size screen they chose. "
Sruta Vootukuru
VP OF BUSINESS OPERATIONS
& DEVELOPMENT, SLING TV
DISH
Vootukuru has negotiated numerous
distribution and platform partnerships
for Sling TV that were key as the
platform grew from a startup to a formidable pay-TV
provider. She has been instrumental in understanding
the risks involved in growing the OTT space and has
helped Sling TV to mitigate those as the service gains
scale. Despite the rapid growth in the multiscreen space
in the past year, the missing component has been live,
local channels via OTA signal, according to Vootukuru.
And she is very bullish that the launch of products like
DISH AirTV Player will close that gap this year.
Rachel Webber
EVP, DIGITAL PRODUCT
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
PARTNERS
If you want an important documentary
dealing with the environment to garner
as many views and connect with as
many people as possible, you would do well to engage
them across multiple platforms. Webber did just that,
leading the charge into linear, streaming, and social
platforms to make " Under the Flood " the most watched
documentary in National Geographic history. She sees
more connection to those viewers in the future, pointing
to new live streaming services such as Facebook
live as having " played an instrumental role in enabling
us to build deeper relationships with our communities
of fans, and create immersive experiences to augment
and grow our storytelling. "
Jeff Weber
CEO
ZONE TV
It's often said that content is king.
And with online content so abundant
and popular, it was only a matter of
innovation and engineering before
someone found a way to bridge the gap between
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cablefaxmag.com
March 2017
Cablefax: The Magazine
online content and pay TV channels. Enter Weber
and Zone TV. Cloud based, interactive and delivered
through the electronic programming guide, it brings
the best of the digital world to linear. No surprise that
when it comes to monetization, Weber sees the need
to " lower the barriers that exist between the traditional
pay TV space and the online/OTT world. Business
models and consumer experiences that merge pay TV
and online/OTT are the starting point. "
Ben Weinberger
SVP/CHIEF PRODUCT
OFFICER, SLING TV
DISH
Weinberger, the fearless innovator,
is unafraid to push the industry
forward. Earlier this year, his team
unveiled a new Sling TV user interface that revolutionized
the way consumers discover content within
a live OTT service. The new design creates a more
personalized experience and simplifi es search for
popular content. " The set-top box is dying a slow
death in its 1990s version. A device that delivers video
through Internet protocols and combines inputs
from multiple providers-such as Sling TV, Netfl ix,
over-the-air signals, etc.-is alive, well and growing, "
says Weinberger.
Michael Willner
PRESIDENT/CEO
PENTHERA PARTNERS
The Cable Hall of Famer began his
career in 1974 as the program director
and news reporter for a small
suburban New York cable system
after graduating from the Boston University College of
Communication. He founded Insight Communications
in 1985, sold it to Time Warner Cable in 2012 and now
leads a company intent on facilitating the delivery of
TV shows, movies and other video content over wireless
networks to mobile devices. That said, he doesn't
think set-tops are dead. They are just in transition,
becoming smaller and IP-focused and less complicated,
and probably a whole lot less expensive, he says.
" TVs are being built with (STB-type) functions built in.
But we live in a world where the STB-which I defi ne
as any device needed to receive and decode video
-will continue to be needed to solve some delivery
challenges in some homes, " says Willner.
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