“I agreed to pay the network millions of dollars—tens of millions of dollars, OK—so this better work, or I’m going to be in front of your house in a tent.” — Byron Allen told Entertainment Tonight of his purchase of the time slot that Stephen Colbert will soon vacate.

Greetings from Lisbon, Portugal where TVREV is hosting the opening session with our partners at StreamTV.

It’s an eye-opening experience speaking with TV industry insiders overseas, not just because executives face similar challenges of fragmentation – but because their challenges in many ways are more complex.

• The TVOS is still a critical dimension, only instead of the 4 horse race we have in the states, they fight a global battle to be the gatekeeper for hundreds of OEMs and find footing in a market where Telcom companies have a different role.

• Local is still a critically important dimension of TV, only instead of parsing pockets of red and blue across a collection of states– these media companies and navigating splits between countries and regions, where dialects are distinct and cultural identities and sensibilities defined over centuries.

• Unlike Ads-merica, where we’re trained for TV interruptions, Europeans have found strong value from TV: they pay less, they see less ads and their laws make people much harder for advertisers to target. This complicates traction for FASTs, and gives walled gardens an even more decisive advantage than in the U.S. where opt-ins aren’t as complicated.

Despite all this, optimism and excitement is in the air here in Portugal, as the once locked-down media ecosystem is now a wide open field.

Special thanks to everyone who came out to Andy Waltenspiel’s Connecting the Dots party co-hosted by TVREV. Check out the StreamTV Spotlight for show highlights to keep up with the conversations happening the next few days.