Creating the UK’s largest on-demand TV streaming service with Chief Product Officer at DAZN, Ben Lavender #7
With streaming services increasing their viewership by 71% this year, the likes of BBC iPlayer and DAZN have kept viewers around the world entertained through some particularly trying times. Who better to offer insight into the world of online video content than the creator of iPlayer and Chief Product Officer at DAZN - Ben Lavender.
Having changed the way that most of us consume our online media, Ben gives us a look behind the curtain on how TV streaming was born, the resistance he had to overcome along the way, and what it’s like to be at the forefront of sports streaming at DAZN. All this and more on episode 7 of Extrology.
Lee & Ben discuss:
Overcoming resistance to a novel idea
The early days of content piracy
Balancing thorough testing with gut feelings
Sports fans’ passion
Generating ideas from boredom
Links & references:
Lee Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leecooperrecruiter/
Ben Lavender: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benlavender/
Get in touch: lee@extrology.com
Episode highlights:
“I just got this eureka moment for the idea of a catch-up TV service, where you could go backwards for the last seven days, and originally it was going to be all public service broadcasters all in one place. When I got back to the BBC in January, I started trying to get some enthusiasm for the idea. The first person I spoke to was the Head of Strategy at the time, who told me I was an idiot, I was wasting my time, the BBC’s job was to provide programme support material on the website, and no one would be interested in watching TV on a computer.” - 7:35 - Ben Lavender
“We had to rewrite every single rights contract going forward. So initially, the rights didn't allow us to have the content on iPlayer. So we had to rewrite and pay a percentage fee to all the rights holders on the new contracts going forward. So it was a huge exercise, just to actually get rights holders’ heads around it, and to do all the contracts.” - 17:06 - Ben Lavender
“Everyone wanted a piece of it. Initially, I was running on a small skunkworks team and people left us alone. Then suddenly it became the biggest thing in the BBC, and everyone wants to be involved. So from a personal perspective, it wasn't quite that much fun anymore and after about four and a half years of pushing this thing forward I was ready to do something else. Then I got a phone call from a headhunter about doing something for LoveFilm. So I decided it was time for me to move on literally just about the time of iPlayer going live.” - 19:17 - Ben Lavender
“We were working away on LoveFilm and eventually, Amazon said ‘We'd like you to start working on building TV apps for prime video’ then eventually we were fully absorbed into Amazon. Basically, Prime Video is pretty much built on the foundations of LoveFilm. A lot of the LoveFilm staff are still there today.” - 22:11 - Ben Lavender
“My time at Amazon was probably my most formative time in terms of product management. I can't say it was necessarily always an easy ride, it's definitely not. What you actually learn is really about very customer focused, data driven product management. So when you make decisions, you have to make sure you can justify them with data, you have to be laser focused on customer metrics.” - 25:36 - Ben Lavender
“Sport has a lot more that you don't think about because if you are getting buffering and you're watching a match, if you've missed a goal fans go utterly ballistic. So it’s just got to work. If a fan sees on Twitter that there's been a goal before they see that on screen, they also go berserk. If you can't see the number on a shirt, fans go crazy. If the picture quality is not good enough, if the ball is going too fast and you start seeing that it's juddering because the frames per second aren’t good enough, they go crazy. They're very emotional, so much more so than with the likes of Netflix - it's the passion.” - 35:42 - Ben Lavender
“What I like to say - if content is King, distribution is Queen - so you can basically watch it anywhere. We've managed to get onto more devices now than Amazon Prime, and we did so in about 18 months which is no mean feat. We did that on a much smaller tech team, so that is something I'm proud of.” - 38:49 - Ben Lavender
“It's really difficult to try and innovate unless you can actually allow some time for free thought without judgment. Boredom, frankly, really helps. iPlayer came to me when I was really bored, and I was just kicking around a few ideas, then boom. It almost came as a fully formed idea and I just had to just write it down because it was just there.” - 49:16 - Ben Lavender
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