• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, June 10, 2016

New OTT platforms might look to meet the challenge of giving digital marketers the TV-like media they want: that is, premium video.

Why? “The truth is, there really isn’t that much video in the digital system,” say media executives. That just really means not enough video for big TV-video marketers to buy -- or at least that meet their criteria.

But OTT platforms have their own issues. A panel at the MediaPost TV Summit notes their many “black” screens, too many repeated TV commercials, and perhaps not enough transparency for marketers when it comes to data that needs to be shared.

That last part is key -- giving marketers the best of digital and traditional TV media, key performance indicators they previously couldn’t get with just regular TV.

What’s missing? Scale, of course. Right now the entire universe of OTT set-top boxes/technologies is around 100 million boxes of around 60 million homes, according to some estimates. But this also accounts for plenty of non-advertising platforms -- especially with Netflix commanding virtually half the market.

And media agencies executives have been whispering -- perhaps hoping -- that Netflix may take advertising, because that would be a tremendous boon to their campaigns.

But Netflix isn’t interested in advertising, and has said so many times.

New OTT platforms, however, are being announced or have launched -- almost three dozen, so far. So there is hope this new digital video niche will gain ground.

And just as reminder -- even as corporate boardroom drama escalates in and around the company -- Viacom now says it is looking to sell a big minority stake, 49%, in Paramount Pictures.

Now, there’s some premium content for OTT or other new platforms to consider.