8 December 2014: Sheep people are everything from gentle, patient, elegant and assertive to artistic, creative, curious and compassionate. But, soothsayers point out as the Year of the Sheep (or Goat or Ram, take your pick) dawns in February, they can also run away from problems instead of staying to fix them. The Year of the Sheep is a Yin year, which heralds peace, harmony, tranquility and co-existence, a year infused with the spirit of all that is calm and happy... at least it will be for those who trust that good will triumph. The Sheep's symbolism runs long and religious – as, indeed, does the Ram's. So, good and godly or aggressive and warlike?The good news, if a random survey of online fortune tellers is anything to go by, Yin will win, common sense will triumph over brute force, calming vapours will spread over nations, the good will join forces and war and destruction will be averted in the Year of the Wood/Green Sheep. More good news is that the planets will align to highlight structure and a back-to-basics approach and to focus on finding solutions to long-running problems. Nice, if you can dream it... and maybe we can. Or at least some of it. What do I think is most likely to happen in the content industry in Asia in 2015? • "Everywhere" habits will continue to take root (at least among consumers). Will traditional broadcasters, rights holders and platforms figure out a way deliver content across all platforms, conveniently and seamlessly, with customer service able to offer solutions instead of boilerplate scripts and company-centric attitudes? Maybe. If they do, they will tread the path of the golden Sheep. If not, they will continue to do battle with the Ram of Piracy. And the Ram will win.• Pay-TV programmers will keep thinking about direct-to-consumer services, but probably won't go there in 2015. Or even 2016. And maybe not even 2020, given the massive effort and infrastructure required to do it well. But they will keep thinking. Meanwhile, they will keep pushing platform partners to work with them on branded, stand-alone apps for authenticated pay-TV subscribers. Platforms will push back, insisting that programmers join their own walled-garden online environments. Who will win? Both, if the two philosophies can co-exist.• The focus on content – already strong – will strengthen, although the ability to cover the costs of premium original production in Asia may not be as strong as the desire for it. There will also be an increase in higher-end online originals as connectivity increases and usage rises. Chinese platform Youku Tudou set a new benchmark with the Big Brother and The Voice Kids commissions for 2015. OTT platforms elsewhere in Asia probably won't go this route in 2015. But they will make their own brand of progress. As Singapore's monopoly broadcaster MediaCorp (operator of some of the country's most powerful linear stations) said, when it pulled four poorly performing linear channels off its Toggle OTT platform and signed a major on-demand movie deal with Disney: Online users prefer on demand. I would say that has much to do with content relevance and quality. As always. No crystal ball required.ContentAsia Issue 6, 2014