Make Media Personal

The following is the third in a series of three blog posts from Adrian Drury, Lead Analyst, Media & Broadcast Technology & Services, Ovum Research, that will cover some key findings from a survey conducted in August 2012. Ovum, in association with Avid, conducted an independent survey of 200 senior broadcast, pay-TV and studio technology and operations executives to take a reading of where these industry leaders saw the industry going, and how fast.

Many key broadcast ecosystem players are making strategic moves to take a position in a market moving towards increasingly personalized content creation, delivery and measurement. A vital catalyst, as many readers of this blog will be aware, has been emergence of a rich source of viewer engagement data from the major social platforms. It is no surprise therefore that Nielsen has moved to cut deals with the major social platforms. In the latest in December, it announced the signing of an exclusive multi-year agreement with Twitter to create the “Nielsen Twitter TV Rating” for the U.S. market.

As the Ovum survey has clearly indicated, it isn’t just about the television anymore.  It’s about the content service provider’s ability to deliver an integrated, well-packaged, personalized viewing experience across multiple devices and exploit measurement potential of second screen engagement to deliver better services, make smarter content acquisition and programming decisions, and create a proprietary audience data asset that can support the GRP and ROI arguments for broadcast ad spend.

We are seeing greater acknowledgement of this trend by the networks. To quote David F. Poltrack, Chief Research Officer at CBS, in a comment related to the Twitter, Nielsen deal “the proliferation of smartphones and tablets has generated a substantial ‘connected’ TV audience that is simultaneously watching television and accessing the Internet through these devices.  As this form of viewer engagement evolves into a mainstream activity, it presents ways for CBS to enhance the viewing experience for our viewers and our advertisers.” Likewise, Chloe Sladden, Twitter’s vice president of media states that Twitter users “love the shared experience of watching television while engaging with other viewers and show talent.”

The statistical methodology behind panel-based ratings exists because traditionally there been no explicit technical feedback loop between channel programmer and audience. Now not only does the market now have household-level STB data, but it now has named individuals logging into catch-up services on personal devices such as smartphones, and likewise named individuals with rich social, preference and behavioral graphs effectively “logging-in” to individual shows on a social network and providing feedback. This is inevitably moving the industry towards more personalized service delivery and audience measurement. The challenge is now for the industry to put the systems and processes in place to make full use of this data.

Fortunately, multi-platform distribution and asset-based workflow orchestration tools with the cost and access advantages of a cloud infrastructure model are no longer on the horizon, but actually available here and now.  They are key to the ability of the industry to profitably deliver personalized, experiences drawn from TV, online, mobile, and social platforms.

To learn more about the Ovum/Avid survey, please go to: Avid.com/OvumReport.

Adrian

Lead Analyst, Media & Broadcast Technology & Services, Ovum Research

The following is the second in a series of three blog posts from Adrian Drury, Lead Analyst, Media & Broadcast Technology & Services, Ovum Research, that will cover some key findings from a survey conducted in August 2012. Ovum, in association with Avid, conducted an independent survey of 200 senior broadcast, pay-TV and studio technology and operations executives to take a reading of where these industry leaders saw the industry going, and how fast.

Broadcast content is getting personal. It’s one of the key observations of producers, broadcasters and pay-TV operators during 2012 and the primary conclusion in Ovum’s recent survey of 200 media executives.

According to the survey, 79% of respondents believe that 10 years from now, both content services and the content itself will be personalized.

As multi-platform viewing grows and audiences are offered more opportunities to engage with content on web, mobile, and social platforms, they are demanding to be in more control of when and how they consume and the ability to engage with it in a more personalized way.

This is particularly relevant for youth programming. As an industry, we know that this is an audience it is increasingly difficult to reach via traditional broadcast programming.

Offering this segment the ability to view content on the new devices of their choice (smartphones for the 12-17 years old segment, tablets and PCs for 17 to 28 years old segment), as well as social interaction via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube will bring them back to the traditional TV screen. This, in turn, will make broadcast the key activation point for audience generated, branded stories custom-tailored for advertisers looking to optimize GRPs and effectiveness of their ad dollars.

Of course, it represents a flip of the traditional model for producers, and changes the relationship between producer and audience. Currently, the producer aims content at a target segment. The audience responds by staying or switching the channel, and is measured through the lens of panel-based rating performance.

In the future, the producer (and all parties in the premium video value chain, including talent) will be in a position to have a direct relationship and understand audience reaction in greater detail.

This new level of insight will enable producer to not just deliver personalized services, but also to make smarter content production or acquisition decisions.

Of course, there are significant technical, business and operations challenges. Producers need media asset management systems and metadata creation and management capability to organize their content assets and serve content up based on individual preferences.

They also need the ability to manage a direct relationship with their audience in scale, securely and efficiently. In addition, they need to have the teams in place that are empowered to use this new level of audience insight to make smarter production and service creation decisions, something we see in few producers and broadcasters today.

And finally, we are going to see a fight for customer relationships in the premium video supply chain. Ultimately, it will be the audience who decides based on who delivers the best customer experience. So, don’t wait. Plan to get personal with your audience sooner than later. Your business may well depend on it.

To learn more about the Ovum/Avid survey, please go to: Avid.com/OvumReport.

Adrian

Lead Analyst, Media & Broadcast Technology & Services, Ovum Research

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The following is a first in a series of three blog posts from Adrian Drury, Lead Analyst, Media & Broadcast Technology & Services, Ovum Research, that will cover some key findings from a survey conducted in August 2012. Ovum, in association with Avid, conducted an independent survey of 200 senior broadcast, pay-TV and studio technology and operations executives to take a reading of where these industry leaders saw the industry going, and how fast.

Do you have an audience or do you have customers? If the answer is the latter, you’re ready for the massive growth in multi-screen video consumption. If the answer is the former, let’s talk.

In July and August 2012, in association with Avid, Ovum conducted an independent survey of 200 senior broadcast, pay-TV and studio technology and operations executives to take a reading of where these industry leaders saw the industry going, and how fast. The good news is that the vast majority of media industry pros understand the change already hitting the airwaves. Over three-quarters of survey respondents say they believe that most content will be customized for individuals over the next decade.

2012 broadcast events such as the Olympics or the US elections have underscored value of live event-based television programming as a core component of the global media landscape. But they have also demonstrated that consumers want to experience these marquee events in a variety of ways and on a variety of platforms.

Net, net, the audience is now in control, with greater choice over what they will consume and at what price – in particular, non-live broadcast and movies. Ultimately, they will reward the broadcaster that gives them a great personalized experience tailored to the screens of their choice.

In the next post we will discuss the architectural impact the emerging world of personalized content has on the media industry and why it makes metadata the new source of strategic advantage.

To learn more about the Ovum/Avid survey, please go to: Avid.com/OvumReport.

Adrian

Lead Analyst, Media & Broadcast Technology & Services, Ovum Research

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Earlier this year, Avid commissioned Ovum, an internationally-recognized marketing research firm, to conduct an independent survey of 200 senior broadcast executives to get their take on where the industry is going. The results were very illuminating.

As expected, the media executives surveyed see consumers moving into a new era of personalized consumption across an integrated spectrum of broadcast, online, mobile, and social platforms. Unexpectedly, though, the conventional wisdom about the death of TV appears to be highly exaggerated. Over three-quarters of respondents believe second and third screens are actually driving more TV viewing.

To meet the rising demand for increasingly personalized viewing experiences, the survey concluded that media producers must deliver integrated content across multiple platforms with a cohesive look, feel, and brand. But it will take a strong investment in next-generation creative tools, collaborative workflows, and media management to make that happen.

With advertising revenues growing at an aggregated rate of 39.5% across TV, mobile, online and social platforms, the onus is on broadcast media producers to develop the system architecture and organizational structure necessary for their businesses to seize the opportunity presented by the challenges and realities of this rapidly-evolving market.

To learn more, get the Ovum survey results at: Avid.com/OvumReport.

Dana Ruzicka

VP, Segment & Product Marketing

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