M+E Europe

London-based MetaBroadcast, a specialist in metadata management for broadcasters, streaming services and media organisations, has debuted a new eBook, one that explores today’s metadata challenges for video service providers.

The eBook, “TV’s IP Future Demands a New Approach to Metadata Management,” offers a series of eight chapters around modern metadata challenges, examining the metadata management processes needed to improve the quality of the data describing content, and looking at scalable solutions to validate, register, consolidate and enrich metadata, among other metadata issues for the content industry.

“With [more than] 800,000 programme titles across linear TV and streaming services, in just the United States alone (according to Nielsen and noting that each title may have multiple series and episodes resulting in millions of records), it becomes clear that content discovery may become the proverbial needle in a haystack if video service providers don’t figure out how to
optimise their metadata strategy,” the report begins.

Calling metadata “the black gold of the media industry,” one chapter in the report notes that for all the work the industry puts into generating content, it means little if the consumer can’t easily find what they’re looking for. “Metadata is a necessity for ‘greasing the wheels’ for discovery of video assets,” the report reads. “Defining the depth and breadth of metadata required to enable video service providers to optimise their content catalogues, means understanding what motivates consumer decision-making.”

The eBook goes into the metadata needs specific to the major ways of content distribution — linear, on demand and FAST — and stresses that “without context, discovery is meaningless.” For example, where should you go to watch the English Premier League? Consumers are left to navigate over-the-air broadcasts, Sky Sports and BT Sport, as well as NOW TV, Sky Go and Amazon Prime, all to find the match they want.

The viewer must be able to search and discover the details for viewing the right game at the right time on the relevant service, something distributors have neglected.

“Similarly, metadata is the means of describing a comedy or drama in such a way, that the consumer knows that they are selecting the show they really want to watch,” the report reads. “The description must help the consumer understand if the program meets ambiguous goals based on criteria such as length, cast, theme, directing style, mood, etc. Providing this level of context is increasingly important to consumers overwhelmed by the range of available content.”

The report argues that metadata uncovers the “needle in the haystack” when it comes to content discovery, and managing the breadth and depth of available metadata requires a thought-out approach.

“Some of the biggest challenges when ingesting and creating metadata are consistency, organisation, and completeness,” the eBook reads. “Poor metadata or insufficient metadata management can lead to inaccurate recommendations, inadequate search and discovery and poor platform navigation. No matter how engaging the user interface looks or how sophisticated a platform’s recommendation engine is, if the associated metadata isn’t good enough, consumers will be frustrated by having irrelevant content suggested to them.”

To access the full eBook, click here.