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While the OTT world is rapidly changing, Disney says it will be difficult for new players to take a commanding role. Speaking on an OTT panel at the recent Streaming Media West show in sunny Huntington Beach, California, Mark Arana, executive director for strategy and innovation at Walt Disney Studios, offered stern words for companies hoping to become the next Netflix.

"Video delivery is hard -- especially premium content. It is really hard and it's really expensive, so if you want to get into this business be prepared because there are very few successes like Netflix and like Hulu that have platform ubiquity," Arana said. "These are people that have engineering resources built in. The challenge there is it's expensive. If you're going to go with a white label solution, then it becomes challenging because how do you differentiate your product -- aside from content licensing -- from another person that's using that same white label service?"

Looking ahead to the future of TV viewing, Arana said the television will become a second screen, essentially a dumb terminal for content streamed from mobile devices.

"When you're talking about a television set or an embedded CE device…you're going to start seeing the television set as the second screen, because tablets and the interfaces that they provide are going to be much richer, much more fluid, they can be updated based on the OS features that it has," Arana said. "You're going to see big developments between iOS and Android and their UI that they have."

For more on over-the-top video, watch the full panel discussion below.

Connected Device Support: Creating OTT Apps

For a content service to benefit fully from today’s broad connected device ecosystem they must contend with an application support environment comprised of hundreds of disparate platforms, API’s and SDK’s each requiring different technology frameworks and development approaches. This session will outline current platform trends and discuss popular technologies including HTML5, Webkit, Flash and Android. Attendees will hear what silicon vendors and CE device manufacturers are doing to help content distributors facilitate device coverage.

Moderator: Mark Donnigan, GM, Dune HD
Speaker: Kerry Travilla, Senior Director of Technology, MobiTV
Speaker: Imran Maskatia, Senior Director, Product Management, Redbox Instant by Verizon
Speaker: Mark Arana, Executive Director, Strategy & Innovation, Walt Disney Studios
Speaker: Kurt Hoppe, Director, Smart TV Innovation and New Business, LG Electronics