Appetite For On-Demand Moving Media To The Cloud
By The Console Connect Team|9 May, 2019
You could be forgiven for thinking that on-demand is already the de facto method for TV and movie consumption. The truth is, it’s not, yet. But the media sector is undergoing transformation at a blistering pace and viewers are switching off from the old model of one-to-many broadcast.
According to a forecast by Enders Analysis, less than half of video consumed in the UK will be from traditional TV platforms by 2026. Traditional broadcast still accounts for around 80% of viewing in the UK, while Netflix and Amazon account for around 7% of UK viewing. But these cloud-based on-demand platforms are growing fast and meeting a rapidly growing demand.
Broadcast must make way for on-demand
Analysts at Enders say that the ‘old’ economic model of TV production, which relies upon a vibrant market for back catalogue content, is being disrupted by new release strategies and hyper-concentrated viewing encouraged by video-on-demand. This round-the-clock availability of shows calls the longevity of the value of content into question and Enders proposes that programmes that previously would be leisurely distributed through broadcast could now be “worn out” more quickly.
This puts an increasing focus on the distribution model, as consumers shift to cloud-based providers with a wealth of content available on-demand 24/7/365.
In an opinion piece for the International Broadcast Convention (IBC), Yeming Wang, Senior Director at Alibaba Cloud, suggests that digital consumption of content opens up a wealth of new opportunities in terms of insight into the viewer.
Content consumption is data driven
“There is no shortage of data already pouring into big media companies and TV networks. Set top boxes have captured data for years,” Wand said. “The challenge has been fragmentation. But the rise of streaming digital video on demand has taken data to a whole new level where the provider has a direct relationship with the viewer and can see their behaviour in real-time.”
Like with many industries, content providers are building data first cultures and increasingly decisions are becoming data driven. Content providers are becoming reliant not just on the cloud connectivity solutions for delivering content but also for understanding their audience.
“The cloud is meeting the infrastructure challenges of capturing, moving, storing and analysing data at scale. Once solutions are in place, it becomes a battle of ideas and of acting on the data,” Wang said.
