OPINION AND ANALYSIS
Maximising broadcaster revenues via data driven decisions By Märta Rydbeck, managing director, EMEA, Switch Media
D
ue to the changing demands of today’s viewers, the business of broadcasting is evolving rapidly. With the move from traditional linear TV to on-demand addressable video delivery, consumer expectations have skyrocketed. They expect content to be available on a vast array of devices, meaning broadcasters are now faced with a complex set of challenges in publishing to these devices. These problems arise across areas such as content preparation, encoding, delivery and monetisation. Broadcasters are faced with investing significant capital in projects to address this changing landscape. Meanwhile a unique opportunity has arisen whereby using the right tools, managers can make informed, data-driven decisions generated from processes and systems across the entire video ecosystem. Similarly, a benefit of delivering to internet connected devices is that broadcasters can gain extensive real-time data on content performance and consumer behaviour. By analysing this information broadcasters can rapidly form a view on what is working and what is not, and act accordingly. Broadcasters can now embrace tactics that big data companies have been using for years, such as leveraging real-time dashboards and alerting in order to drive business decisions and maximise revenues. Using a powerful workflow engine, broadcasters can get a view of the time taken for content to pass through each step of the process, identify bottlenecks and expediate publishing processes. Broadcasters often receive content files close to when the rights window opens. With these valuable insights, managers can ensure their teams are focused on the right tasks to get priority content online ASAP. In our experience using these insights to prioritise tasks can cut content turnaround time in half, meaning rights holders get maximum value from their investment. Additionally, trending this data over time means businesses can gather insights on team performance, allowing for decisions on process improvement. In this 24-hour news cycle world we live in, fast turnaround time of breaking news and events is critical to broadcasters.
Using an enhanced and highly tuned live-to-VoD workflow, linear content can be available as catch-up across a wide range of platforms within moments of the event occurring. Used across a wide range of premium news, TV and sports broadcasting including the likes of the Olympics, Game of Thrones and Grand Slam tennis, Switch Media were one of the first to execute this in such tier one events. The enhanced workflow is based around pre-processing content during the event, to make catch-up content available within minutes of conclusion. To add to the user experience, broadcasters’ editorial teams could mark interesting moments such as big match plays, crashes or medal ceremonies as they happened. This feature proved popular with viewers as they could jump to the most interesting sections of the event. It also meant that the broadcaster gained greater viewer engagement. Viewer engagement data originates from the video player and is posted back to a data warehouse with app and user data information. In the most basic of forms, these analytics provide facts on viewer engagement with programming; how many are watching, on what device, their location and when they drop off content. At Switch Media, we understand broadcasters require flexible solutions that fit seamlessly with their business processes. Over time we’ve developed tools, modules and solutions that have been used to build multi-award-winning apps and services. The next logical step for us was to productise this experience, hence our product suite, MediaHQ. Our mission is to provide flexible, lightweight components that seamlessly integrate with existing systems and can be adapted for a range of requirements. MediaHQ embraces data in a highly granular manner, captured from within the workflow engine, MediaHQ components or third party integrations. These dashboards reveal valuable information via widgets which functional teams can use in day to day activity, enabling broadcasters to maximise revenue via data-driven decisions. Information and data are crucial to keeping up to date in this in this fast-evolving and ever-changing market. ■
TVBEUROPE JUNE 2019 | 07