Why US and UK Streaming Models Diverge and How AI Reshapes Global Monetization | Rahul Bhatia & Hemant Soni, Cloud and Media Experts

Big Questions For Streaming’s Future

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 0:45

Is the US built-to-monetize streaming model outpacing the UK's built-to-balance public broadcaster system? Or are strict privacy regulations giving European platforms an unexpected advantage as AI takes over? On this episode, we run a special panel with cloud and media experts Rahul and Hemant to compare how AI, regulation, and cloud architecture are shaping streaming on both sides of the Atlantic. We cover agentic AI and ad tech, Netflix's massive ad tier expansion, and where streaming monetization is headed over the next three to five years. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button to keep up with the global media trends now. Let me hand it over to the panel. Rahul Hemant, I'm excited to have both of you here today to have a conversation about how cloud, how AI is ultimately driving the future of streaming television. So we're going to get, we're going to do something a little bit different here. We're going to have a panel style conversation. We're going to get, Rahul, we're going to get your perspective, the UK perspective on how these dynamics are unfolding. And then Hemant, I'll ask you to react and to share some of the US perspective. All right. So if that sounds good to you guys, we'll kick it off here. All right.

UK Public Service Vs US Monetization

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 2:07

So, Rahul, the first question for you is the US and the UK have evolved differently. I think that often we pay a lot of attention to what's happening here in the States, but we miss maybe what's happening overseas and abroad. So, what would you say is the biggest structural difference shaping innovation and growth in the UK streaming market?

Rahul Bhatia 2:30

I think the biggest factor, what I've witnessed in the market is that the UK industry is probably uh, I would say public sector driven. That's what I would call it. Whereas in the US, I've seen, you know, it's more private, you know, there are a lot of private companies, you know, they are enhancing in this media and streaming opportunities and the streaming industry is very much funded by, you know, private equity companies, etc., or private streaming companies. Whereas in the UK, it's more public sector, you know, like broadcasters such as BBC, ITV, um, I think they are big stream players here in the UK.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 3:00

And how, Hemant, hearing that, how would you how would you compare that to the US? How is that the same or different? Does the incentive structure change? Is there are there limitations presented or or how do you see that?

Hemant Soni 3:14

The way I can uh phrase it, uh, especially being in US, and uh I think US is more of built to monetize. We have more of the scale, advertisements, sports, and telecom be the aggregator out there. The critical element out here, out here, I would say, is the question in terms of how to make money from all that retention. Whether you take Netflix as an example, Amazon, Disney, they all compete on subscription plus uh fast growing ad business. I believe UK, I can put it as it's built to balance. It's more of a commercial market which sits uh, or I would say which is placed on top of a public serving broadcasting, which has a licensing fee. US has more of built to monetize, and UK in terms of built to balance. To summarize, I can I can say is that it's commercial versus public service as a DNA. Again, regulations come into the design as input, and uh it's not an afterthought.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 4:11

Commercial versus public service, who would we say is doing a better job of servicing the public, servicing the customer? You guys have thoughts there?

Hemant Soni 4:21

I wouldn't compete on both those markets, both are very different, and again, just to reiterate in US, like streaming is more commercial game, subscription, as I mentioned, largely advertising, sports, first party data. UK is more of a commercial engine with its stop on, as I mentioned, strong uh public service or public core. Uh as Rahul mentioned, it's BBC ITV or Channel 4 plus certain tighter regulations.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 4:49

Rahul, what's your take?

Rahul Bhatia 4:50

Yeah, the UK is pretty much public sector driven. You know, it's publicly funded uh the streaming media opportunities that we have in the UK. They are partially, I would say, publicly funded. Um, obviously, government is playing a big part here in the UK streaming activities, you know, such as you know, the BBC is obviously partially funded by the government itself. So, yeah, it's pretty much publicly driven uh streaming opportunities in the UK. That's my take, especially you know what I've seen in the UK

Cloud Architecture Under Scale And Rules

Rahul Bhatia 5:16

market.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 5:17

Second question here, Hemant, let's let's come back here stateside. As streaming becomes increasingly what we're seeing cloud native, that really streaming exists on the cloud or or needs the cloud to exist. What architectural decisions are you finding to be most critical for balancing scale, reliability, and then ultimately regulatory requirements? What do you see there?

Hemant Soni 5:44

Don't build the cloud the architecture on what you can rent, I would say. Design on the spike that comes in, not on just averages. And and this is what my understanding like, for example, I believe Netflix runs on public cloud, so it scales for big NFL night games without owning the infrastructure. And again, that again, like for example, another thing that comes to mind is AWS or Netflix or Prime Video as customers are running on public cloud.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 6:14

Rahul, from the UK perspective as a public good, how is that decisioning either the same, similar, or or different entirely?

Rahul Bhatia 6:24

I think UK is pretty much regulated based on uh what I've seen in the last 20 years in uh transformation programs and especially for the media houses that I've worked in some of the critical transformation programs I've delivered on cloud. It's pretty much FCA regulated in the UK. FCA expects in the UK a strict cloud infrastructure to be in place for streaming opportunities. Um that's given uh it's out in the public forum. You know, any company that is doing streaming now, we must have a cloud exit strategy in place. How do you plan to ensure you know your data is secure? GDPR that we have, it's a big hoo-ha in the UK.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 6:56

It's a huge consideration. That's something that that we're gonna get into uh a little bit more here as we move on. Rahul, we'll we'll bring this one back to yourself here.

AI As A Revenue And Operations Engine

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 7:05

Talk about AI for a second. Do you believe that AI is it delivering greater value as a revenue engine through personalization, through advertising, or is it something else? Is it is it that it enhances a service, that it improves the viewer experience, or or is there a different application for AI that maybe the market has missed?

Rahul Bhatia 7:30

I think to start with, it's definitely generating 100% growth for companies on revenue stream.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 7:36

Uh okay, so AI drives growth. We can say that here empirically.

Rahul Bhatia 7:41

It is, it is. Unlike the traditional way of working, I would say companies were relying on you know traditional forecasting models in the past where you know you would forecast something and then you know you will predict your revenue. Now we have AI tools. AI is actually able to predict that you know you don't need a spreadsheet to do forecasting for you. AI actually can do your revenue stream by looking at your forecasting model that you have planned for the next five years, and it can give you what chunks of growth that you will see for your organization in the next five to ten years. So AI definitely drives the revenue stream.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 8:10

So more on the operational side, not necessarily something as a viewer or as a consumer, not something that we're gonna see in a recommendation engine per se generating, you know, tremendous uh enterprise value. You're suggesting it's more back-end, more operational, where the AI creates the unlock.

Rahul Bhatia 8:30

Yeah, I mean, um, I think um uh Tim, it's fair to say that you know companies are obviously focusing on their operational, you know, when it comes to giving products out to consumers, there is a better way of looking at things, you know, how you see an ad. Before, you know, you when you perform an ad in the system, you know, or you probably see an ad in the commercial as it in the TV. You will probably see that you know it's like natural colors and you know there's there's a flavor of you know human touch, etc. Now you don't know that, you know, when you are actually visualizing an ad in the system or even on Netflix when you're watching something, you don't know whether that's AI or you know, uh there is an actual scene that is being predicted. So definitely the way we have seeing things now is different with the help of AI, and consumers are definitely seeing benefits in terms of you know new experiences and new technology that they are visioning, basically.

AI Generated Films And What’s Real

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 9:18

I'm gonna bring something up here. This was just something that I didn't know this was a thing until preparing for this. Are y'all familiar with with Higgsfield Cinema Studio? 100%, yes. 100% like I was not, and holy moly, this is really good. I think that uh if you're watching the podcast, you're gonna be able to see this. This is from a completely AI generated full length. This is 114 minutes and forty-eight second film called the Cully Hill Boys. All right, let's check this out. All AI generated. I mean, that looks like any movie that you've watched popped into the the DVD player back in the day or turned on streaming more recently. Um, it definitely felt very reminiscent of like a of a British UK kind of crime thriller, which is which is the basis of that film. And what's interesting is as you scroll through that, it gives you all of the markdown files, all of the prompting instructions. It gives you everything that you would need to then go recreate elements of that shot list, locations, characters. Is that one of the more customer-facing applications of AI and streaming that you're seeing?

Rahul Bhatia 10:59

Uh again, I won't compare markets on this question. Um, but uh yes, definitely. You know, uh, this is very much common now. You know, you don't know what you're watching is real or you know, it's artificial intelligence innovative. Definitely in terms of you know commercial media space, we are seeing that. But uh, I would say in terms of you know, there are two aspects of commercial media. One is basically the television industry. I have seen in the television industry it's it's pretty much less AI in the television market. Well, it's real time. You know, when you see an ad in the system and you perform you've seen somebody performing an activity, you can actually make it out whether it's AI or not. But in this, it's a movie, right? It's already shot before it's not real time. So, yes, I can say this is not real time, and it was actually, I don't know, who knows how they did it, you know. So they must have actually used an artificial intelligence capability to draw that picture, et cetera.

Netflix Ads And Interactive Monetization

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 11:49

Pretty incredible. Hemant, the last time that we connected, we talked about how specifically telecom is using AI to unify the customer journey to for early warning, for churn signals, to increase retention for different elements related to the customer experience. So, same question for you. Is AI currently delivering greater value as a revenue engine through personalization, through advertising, or is it as a service enhancer or something maybe even more on the back end?

Hemant Soni 12:23

If I compare two different markets, let's talk about UK and again, Rahul, feel free to correct me. I think UK market, if I look into it, is more about AI into discovery and where public value can be there with probably little lesser advertisements. Players like ITV, which run commercial loops but own and control the data, whereas BBC is more on, as I mentioned, public value. But whereas we talk about the US market, I think it both the revenue and experience when you talk about the work in the loop. Recommendation keeps you watching. The same viewer will understand the power of Netflix ad business as well. I was looking into something yesterday now. It was like Netflix ad here passes close to about 250 million monthly at reviewers, and this is all built on a particular recommendation data. To summarize, I can say is that it's it's more about experience and monetization which feed each other in the US market. UK, I would say, is split in between public value and uh more of a commercial version.

Rahul Bhatia 13:36

That's that's how I can say anything you wanted to add to that. No, I absolutely agree with Hemant. I think the British streaming um use cases for AI are pretty much you know commercially focused. We have really focused on the commercial value for public sector, you know, public services. And that's where the interest is in the UK market, you know. I've seen that and uh it's not changed since last 20 years or so. It's pretty much you know, BBC doing that, streaming, ITV following the standards. It's pretty much consumer-centric focused and um uh commercially or commercial aspects. I don't see anything enhancing. Yeah.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 14:11

Do you think that there's an opportunity? Does any of this level the playing field in the UK for a private player to come in and, or maybe there already is, to take market share, to win on customer experience, to do something creative and unique and different than maybe what the legacy players have done or are doing. Do you see anyone kind of shaking it up or being willing to mix it up? Nothing like that.

Rahul Bhatia 14:39

That question I can answer very clearly that no. The answer is no. In the UK, pretty much most of the media share is owned by BBC, and uh that is what it's controlled, and then BBC has its own streaming partners, and you know these companies very well, like Warner Bros or you know, Paramount Pitchers, for example. These guys own most of the market share for streaming in the UK.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 15:00

Very interesting. Hemant, I'd love to hear from your perspective. What are the most transformative AI use cases that you're seeing here in the US streaming market?

Hemant Soni 15:12

Considering I am an active movie watcher, and again, Tim, you know that we have been discussing our movies over spare time. I think advertising and monetization first, that's what US is looking towards. We are having more of generative and interactive advertisements, plus AI that is kind of predicting a demand, let's say before a big game, that okay, how much advertisement it will come because that's where the real revenue is coming from. If I'm right, Netflix is taking AI-powered advertising to next level. And again, on its ad-supported tiers, Netflix is introducing generative AI advertisement, including mid-rolls, which is in streaming world, is in between a program and it's coming, those will come in. That's where it is coming in. So instead of I would say simply showing you traditional commercials, Netflix would create an ad that feels more connected to the program, or it displays an interactive advertisement which you pause for the video potentially with the option to learn more, or basic add a QR code or send it to your phone. Again, that's on YouTube, but just this taking an example. But the moot point out here is that AI isn't generating the Netflix movies or show itself, it's being used to create or customize that advertising around uh potential content. This this is one of the examples that I can that I can talk about. And something which again, uh it's I I won't talk about specifically from a UK, but I think uh IBC is more of a European regulator out there. I and I and if I heard correctly, IBC Accelerator Winner is the first agentique AI assistant for live productions. Uh, again, we can we can always double-click on those those details, but that's what I'd read about AWS from a technology perspective, AWS Bedrock agents kind of auto-handle metadata compliance and highlights out there again. I don't have more details, but definitely we can dwell upon that. But those are certain transformative AI use cases that I've heard

Is Netflix Now A Tech Company

Hemant Soni 17:14

about.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 17:15

This isn't a question that we had outlined for the panel, but I'm curious to reaction to something I've asked a couple guests recently, or who I'll ask you first. Is Netflix really a technology company?

Rahul Bhatia 17:27

They are leaning towards that now. They were not there five years ago, I would say. But now, because the AI use cases have come into picture, like Agent Tech AI, Hemant already Hemant already talked about it with AWS, you know, cloud services, whether you use a software as a service or you know product as service, there are multiple things that even Netflix is now implementing, such as you know, Agent Tech AI. You actually, when you go on your Netflix, for example, you actually get a list of videos based on your likings, yeah. You know, the history that you have seen, the videos, etc. Or you can give a pattern to it and a prompt to it, and now it will basically show you only those videos on sequencing or you know your likes and dislikes. Agent tech AI is a big use case in streaming, yeah, definitely. Database storage at the back end, how the data gets stored, Netflix is heavily investing into that as well.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 18:15

Yeah, I was just had this up on the screen here a few months ago. They they acquired Ben Affleck's AI filmmaking company, Interpositive, obviously making making investments into AI and how that fits into their stack. Let's bring

The Next Three To Five Years

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 18:30

this home. Let's bring it home here, talking about the future of streaming, monetization. Hemant, let's let's kick this off. Let's give you the last round here. How will AI, do you think, how will AI reshape streaming monetization strategies over, let's say, the next three to five years?

Hemant Soni 18:50

Audience is at the center. The critical volume of revenue that comes in is from advertisement, and that's where I would say is the ad reshapes itself without using any first party party or any retail data. Think about Amazon Dynamic TV Creative, can switch streaming ads, calls to action, or add-to-cart using just shopping data. That that would be an example. That's what it is about US from an AI perspective, is ads become a little more smarter with what kind of data is uh fueled into it. That's how I perceive in three to five years the media industry.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 19:29

Very good. In a more regulated UK environment, I think you've done a great job of teaching us about how that is distinctly different. How do you think AI shows up in streaming monetization over the next three to five years?

Rahul Bhatia 19:42

For me, I think your biggest factor will be privacy in terms of you know how streaming activities are being uh outlaid by these companies. Uh, if these companies can actually you know offer privacy, I think privacy will be a big use case for these streaming companies and heavily invest on you know AI use cases by making sure that the privacy is maintained to the highest level, whether that's individual or whether it's data privacy, for example, GDPR, that is what uh I think will be the key focus here in the UK market.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 20:11

So AI actually becoming an enabler of privacy safe data practices is that kind of what I'm hearing you say? Absolutely. Absolutely. Very interesting. So when we look ahead, do we think it's generative AI? Is it aagentic AI? Is it edge computing, something we haven't even gotten into, or is it privacy compliant personalization? What do you think the biggest unlock AI offers for?

Rahul Bhatia 20:44

I think uh aagentic AI and uh the artificial intelligence platforms will play a key part in the front end, whereas in the edge computing uh point of view, I think edge computing will play a big part in terms of how you store your data. Edge computing and uh you know the cloud storage will come from a back-end perspective where subscription-based services will be offered by these streaming companies and you can store your videos, and you know, uh they will. I think soon streaming companies will realize that they are giving a platform where you know they are giving a huge database storage for these organizations for a subscription or these consumers for a subscription. I think soon they will realize that even that will become costly for them to maintain. So they'll actually start charging you for even storage. And I think that is that is going to be the next big change in streaming.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 21:30

Maybe maybe it's it's it's a false positive, but that almost feels like some of what we're seeing in gaming. Everything goes digital, catalogs change. It really becomes kind of about storage. For I'm just thinking about all the games my son has, and there's storage limitations on his console, and he has to delete and remove is essentially paying for storage now on the console side. So interesting. Something that could be coming to streaming.

Rahul Bhatia 21:59

Google is charging you for storage, right? Apple charges you for storage.

Edge Computing And The Coming Storage Bill

Rahul Bhatia 22:02

So I think soon the streaming industry will realize even the storage. Yeah.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 22:07

It's a great point. We're already paying for it. So that I think certainly introduces an interesting dynamic to the streaming conversation of what's it all worth? I've recently I mentioned DVD. I recently went out and bought a DVD player and started uh picking up DVDs from secondhand stores. My son and I have had a great time ripping open original sealed DVDs. What a great deal that feels like finding a sealed DVD in 2026. Hemant, how about from your perspective, looking ahead? Is it generative AI? Is it aagentic AI? Is it edge computing, privacy first personalization? What makes the biggest impact?

Hemant Soni 22:48

I believe it's Agentic AI, which is racing ahead commercially and putting up that foundation in terms of ad buying or campaign operations. I think from a perspective that Agentic AI is moving beyond content creation into business of advertising itself. Instead of simply helping marketers create an ad Agentic AI or AI agents can potentially decide where to place it, buy the advertising space, manage those budgets, monitor performances, optimize campaigns automatically. Again, something which uh I recommended in my DICE platform earlier, which is my original contribution in terms of offering work. Uh, in other words, I would say that AI is becoming an active operator in uh advertising ecosystem and uh not just a creative tool, especially in the UK market. When I talk about there was a media act that came in, I believe 2024, 2025, where again platforms which had that's something which Rahul mentioned about privacy, that platform which has more than about 500k users, they need to look into in terms of what is the context and what is the consent, I would say. The difference between the two markets when you talk about from uh is it a genetic AI or is it generative AI comes in, it's it's it's recommended to act. Privacy is first, and it's it's not a rival trend, I would say it's it's it's it's becoming the foundation. The only difference is the goal. US is more of like ads smarter with your data, whereas US is ad smarter with your content.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 24:24

Well,

Where To Find The Panel

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 24:24

this is certainly a thread we'll be able to come back and pull on again in the future. We'll we'll be able to look back and see how we did. Uh a few trends to keep an eye on here. Hemant, where can folks get in touch with you? Where are you most active on socials? We'll be sure to link everything nearby. But where do folks find you?

Hemant Soni 24:43

I'm very active on LinkedIn. They can reach out to me on LinkedIn, Instagram, those other two, Twitter. Yes.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 24:49

Excellent. Rahul, how about for yourself?

Rahul Bhatia 24:51

Yeah, so people can connect with me. Uh, anybody who wants to connect with me, I'm very much active on LinkedIn. That's the only place where I can, you know, be reached out straightforward. So yeah.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 25:00

Thank you guys both for being here. We're we're gonna make sure to link to both of your LinkedIns so it is easy to find and folks can connect with you. If they've got questions, I'm sure they will get in touch. Thank you both for being here and being a part of this conversation. Thank you, Tim. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you, Hemant. Thanks, Tim. Absolutely. And if you found this conversation to be helpful, please share with a colleague or a client. Start a conversation yourself today. And we'll see you all next time.