CANNES — Over-the-top TV adoption may be exploding – but that explosion is louder in some corners of the world than others.

In this video interview with Beet.TV, the chief revenue officer of ad-tech firm SpotX explains that his company has seen a swing for its revenue mix toward OTT – but that is not the case uniformly.

“We’ve seen over the past few years, pretty heavy disruption, cord cutting, and consumer behavior beginning to shift toward these new viewing habits,” Buckley says.

“But, if you look at specific markets, like Germany or Japan, the OTT business hasn’t had that sort of turbocharged growth that we’ve seen in the US.

Last year, Ampere Analysis published figures showing how subscription OTT adoption had reached 84% of US households – more than twice the prevalence in the second-placed market, the UK (41%), and far more than trailing Germany (25%) or Japan (18%).

What is the reason the US is so far ahead? A stronger culture of free and linear consumption is one reason, Buckley explains.

He cites “the heavy penetration of free-to-air broadcasts where many folks in the population are actually not even paying for a TV”. “Ad loads (are) lighter,” he adds. “Instead of 14 minutes an hour, you’re seeing something like six minutes an hour.”

Still, what is true today may not be true tomorrow. Buckley, whose company merged with Smartclip earlier this year, says he anticipates the rest of the world may catch up.

“In the long run, especially among the younger generations, I feel like they’re growing pretty accustomed to the app ecosystem, the mobile ecosystem, and I think they’ll drive a similar change in markets around the world,” he explains.

Buckley says SpotX’s “third and newest pillar for the company” is data enablement – helping media companies activate their first-party data in the programmatic ecosystem.

By Robert Andrews on    @robertandrews