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POWER TO THE PEOPLE Today, consumers are able to watch an entire season of their favourite series at any given time. If they want to watch on the go, they can use a DVR or download it to their tablet or smartphone. If they love live television, but don’t want the countless channels, they can purchase a skinny bundle that follows the same on-demand mentality of streaming services. And if there’s a game or other live event they just can’t miss, it’s likely to be streaming through a partnership with Facebook, Twitter, or some other platform. Look at this year’s FIFA World Cup tournament, for instance. According to Conviva, the tournament saw 393 million plays of matches successfully streamed during its first week via 59 million unique video streaming apps. Audiences simply have more options to fit their tastes, and those tastes have never been more diverse. JUGGLING AWORLD OF TASTES This digital disruption has been a boon to audiences: according to Cisco, by 2021, video traffic will be 82% of all consumer internet traffic, up from 73% in 2016. There's no question that delivering content globally will be a determining factor for the most successful distributors and content studios. The power of the typical consumer has drastically changed in the last few years. Audiences have more choice, and as has always been the case, consumer choice dictates business models. Successful platforms have embraced the global marketplace and international subscriber growth has fuelled stock prices, but it’s not enough to only have global reach – content has to be localised and also locally sourced. There will likely never be another generational defining comedy exported around the world in the same way that The Simpsons was. The new global audience has diverse tastes, and some otherwise savvy platforms have met stumbling blocks trying to force global audiences to buy into just American content. This new international landscape demands more than just delivering content – whether international or localised – in different places. To succeed, companies will instead need to create more local content to engage these different audiences, and we’re already seeing that in the success of recent German dramas and Korean comedies. There is no ‘universal’ audience, but rather each region has a different approach to the content they watch, and how they watch it. The only thing that seems to be universal is that audiences are shifting from pay-TV towards more technologically
THENEWGLOBAL AUDIENCEHASDIVERSE TASTES, ANDSOME OTHERWISE SAVVY PLATFORMSHAVEMET STUMBLINGBLOCKS TRYINGTOFORCEGLOBALAUDIENCESTOBUY INTO JUSTAMERICANCONTENT
advanced forms of distribution. In 2018, it’s estimated that the churn will eat into 7.2% of Comcast’s subscriber base and 4.8% of AT&T’s, ultimately ending more than 5 million cable subscriptions over the year. The consumer-driven technology shift in the industry is creating rapid change and pushing companies to embrace new ways of appealing to consumers. To reach wider audiences, content creators are increasingly advancing their digital delivery capabilities and leveraging them to ensure that their international and local content attracts large, loyal audiences. Shifting audience tastes means that businesses need to recalibrate their infrastructure to truly differentiate the customer experience for their users around the world. Success in that area lies in having a scalable, flexible and robust supply chain to provide customisation. DO IT ALL (OR NOTHING AT ALL) In the race to become both global and flexible, the lines between creator and distributor are becoming increasingly blurred, driving a new wave of mergers and acquisitions for companies to quickly gain scale and capability. The biggest distributors, content creators and OTTs (both large and small) are starting to do it all – technology, distribution and content creation – to capitalise on the new online and mobile pathways and to thrive in an increasingly competitive environment. Today’s most successful content creators are becoming more like distributors – increasingly advancing their IP delivery capabilities and leveraging them to take advantage of direct distribution technology. By harnessing new distribution methods and supplementing their existing content with local productions, the future of the industry lies in both reaching audiences everywhere and ensuring that they produce what those diverse audiences want to see. Global tech leaders are also bringing disruptive models to the market. Large players like Apple, Google and Amazon ushered in their own online streaming
devices to supplement their video streaming services – and are commissioning and creating original content as well. A small percentage of these companies produce movies, but most are primarily focused on serialised – scripted and unscripted – drama series, the leading drivers of non-linear, online viewing. To address global, diverse viewing habits, content needs to be available everywhere, leading to companies trying to do it all. THE WAY FORWARD If the last century in entertainment offers any lesson, it’s that investing in new technologies is the only way to stay on top of the changing trends of a demanding audience. And just as consumers have increasingly demanded flexibility when it comes to their content, the owners of that content should expect the same of their supply chain services. They will no longer have to send content through monolithic and separated systems, but rather leverage smarter supply chains that are adaptable, scalable and that provide greater insights along with the flexibility to move with the changes those insights demand. The challenge facing content owners today is adapting and developing the capability to deliver the right mix of global and local content worldwide, at high quality and the right price. Consumers have plenty of choices and can access content in multiple ways, and their ultimate decision will come down to ease of use and the ability to find content relevant to their tastes. Giving consumers both those things requires an infrastructure that can deliver globally as well as customise and create content on demand. Companies that stand out from the rest are utilising new technology to reach their global audience with a truly differentiated and quality customer experience.
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