M+E Daily

M&E Journal: It’s a Data-Driven Content World

People have constantly changed the way they consume content over the past 30 years, with OTT-driven technologies and unbundled streaming being just the latest examples.

In response to this trend, content owners have fortified their content libraries and streamed content directly to their customers, disintermediating the cable and satellite providers.

The COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted most M&E companies’ revenue sources, closing movie theaters, theme parks, sports venues, and content production. In response, these companies resorted to much more significant uses of data-driven decision-making, from content to business models, to personalize their customers’ experiences.

These trends have been supported by recent advancements in data analytics, including improved customer data collection, AI-based predictive analytics, and online data security.

Here are industry trends accelerated by the pandemic:

Productions and Acquisitions

Competition for content is more intense than ever and has evolved from movie libraries to other forms, including popular franchises, individual channels, and live events.

The use of data has provided support for content investments. Content players spent tens of billions to acquire and produce content, using predictive analytics to make many of those decisions.

Today’s streaming productions rival the quality and budget of studio films, and advanced analysis of customer sentiment and other indicators is being used to determine the ROI of content acquisition decisions.

Marketing and Targeting

M&E companies have access to an unprecedented amount information about customer behavior and contact information, using that data to reach out via targeted e-mail campaigns to drive traffic to their content.

After customer sign-up, M&E companies continue to stay in touch with customers to make special offers based on predictive analytics, all in the name of improving adoption and retention.

Customer Experience

Many M&E companies start by enrolling customers using sites supported by an intelligent data-oriented platform. From there, they solicit customer preferences, and determine personas. This approach gives M&E companies opportunities to interactively suggest content that users may enjoy and builds on the selections users make on an ongoing basis, using AI to elevate recommendations and predictions.

Other best practices to improve site usability include improving navigation with an easy search experience, present content recommendations more effectively, build excitement by billing future availability of content, offering parental controls, and increasing multiple language capabilities.

Related content based on genre/cost can be tested for subsequent content acquisition purposes. Null searches suggest opportunities for new content, and search order provide additional insight on content popularity.

M&E companies are investing a lot of resources to optimize their customer experiences to improve service usage, revenue and retention.

Customer Engagement

M&E companies use data to improve connections with their customers. Accurate responses to customer preferences improves ease of use and customer retention. In addition, real-time feedback from the viewer base to live performers improves their connections and excitement.

Customers have so many content choices, and are subject to subscription-fatigue, challenges with streaming quality, and can be turned off by upsell content offers behind the paywalls. Understanding customer concerns, and responding accordingly, can do wonders.

Digital Transformation

Data-driven automation throughout the M&E value chain enables improvement of every customer touch point, from increased usability to relevant content at reduced cost. System integration enables M&E companies to leverage their spot improvements together and provide customized responses to customer preferences. With quick AI-driven iteration on learnings, M&E companies can manage the shortcomings of a hit-driven business with ongoing course corrections.

Competition

With improved customer access, many companies that formerly supplied the endpoint of the value chain can provide services directly to customers. This has vastly increased the number of competitors in the industry, from traditional M&E companies to movie studios, media channels, device makers, sports organizations, and video game eSports leagues.

This will continue to drive innovation in M&E.

CONCLUSION

Customers clearly benefit from more choices and accessibility of streamed content. Data-driven personalization remains the most effective approach to achieve desirable business outcomes.

It’s a never-ending quest to increase revenue using digitization, data analytics and high-quality content that uses all available technology to enhance the viewer experience.

In the end, customers will reward these companies by adopting services that bring them closer to their likes and preferences.

** By Kurt Nipp, SVP, High Technology, Entertainment, Softtek Integration Systems **

=============================================

Click here to download the complete .PDF version of this article
Click here to download the entire Winter 2021 M&E Journal