Cover Story
Finders are
keepers
Broadcasters and SVoD
providers are scoring record
audiences through the
lockdowns. As some degree of
normality returns, users will be
making choices about the value
of their entertainment. With
so much content available, it
is not just about what’s on, it
is also about how to find what
you want, and how you’re
shown what you don’t know
you want. Colin Mann asked a
range of industry experts about
the latest developments in UI,
search and recommendation.
Post-crisis might see some consolidation
of content providers as recessions tighten
household budgets. How important is
UI and discovery when it comes to winners and
losers?
“Service providers need to make their customers
aware of relevant, quality content and make it
easy for them to access. In a more consolidated
world, the fight for a premium spot ‘on the shelf’
will be even greater. Nailing the right metadata
to be there first, and getting the most engaging
and relevant poster so that the user will not
only be aware, but hit ‘Play’, will become ever
more critical,” says Lior Friedman, VP global
partnerships and strategy, Amdocs Media.
“The impact of the crisis has
disproportionately affected certain sectors and
possibly the only sector to benefit from it is the
10 EUROMEDIA
streaming and direct-to-consumer,” notes Guy
Bisson, director at Ampere Analysis. “There
has been greater subscriber uptake and greater
consumption. What we have seen across the
industry is trends that we have been talking
about for the last four or five years have been,
and will continue to be, accelerated. The shift
from linear to streaming are happening faster
than they would have done if we hadn’t have
been locked at home.”
“I have been saying for a very long time
that the next battleground is aggregation and
that encompasses a range of issues, such as
UI and discovery; these are absolutely central
to successful aggregation, because it’s not just
about bringing services together on a single
platform, it’s about cross-interface and service
discovery and navigation. That’s the thing that,
frankly, nobody has solved particularly well at
the moment.”
“It’s the issue that Apple is trying to focus
on. There has been criticism of Apple for its lack
of originals but I don’t think that was ever the
point. Apple TV+ was the icing on the cake of a
strategy that was based on super-aggregation.
The space that we think of as ‘aggregation’
is getting interesting and more crowded and
stimulated by entrants from outside the TV
space,” he states.
CONSOLIDATION. “While consolidation
will ultimately be driven by larger issues,
most notably the need to scale content,
platform, technology and data, companies
will be evaluating their D2C portfolios post
consolidation and choosing winners and losers,”
says Andre Christensen, CEO and co-founder,
Firstlight Media. “The leaders that emerge
will be those that can demonstrate their
ability to innovate and deliver platform
capabilities that have direct impact on the
key D2C metrics: customer acquisition,
life-time value and churn. UI and discovery are
among the key factors in delivering against these
metrics.”
“During the Covid-19 crisis, we are seeing
significantly increased consumption of video
content across the board,” notes Gracenote’s
chief product officer, Simon Adams. “It is
not unusual for TV viewing to spike during
broadly disruptive events when people are
staying indoors. Based on the ideas that more
content choice is better and that familiar user
experiences will keep consumers on their
platforms, consistency of look and data across
these services are the starting points for fulfilling
content discovery.”
“The overarching consumer requirement is
the ability to find relevant content in an easy
quick way. We know that viewers rely on a
number of sources from any combination of
cable or satellite providers, IPTV services and
multiple OTT streaming services to get the
TV shows and movies they want. But the time
“In a consolidated world,
the fight for a premium
spot ‘on the shelf’
will be even
greater,” - Lior
Friedman,
Amdocs
Media