66 OPINION
Over the top
Words by Neal Romanek CHOOSE NEW PLATFORMS, DON’T CHASE THEM Each new connected device means a new set of deliverables for your company. When do you say NO?
idea what conveyances his customers will be demanding next. This puts big content producers – TV networks, news organisations, movie studios – in the position of trying to deliver everything everywhere, knowing that each year another technology is going to show up that will further extend the list of deliverables. There is a handful of companies with the resources to pull o this ubiquitous content delivery, but most of us eventually have to make a choice. As SimpleStream’s Dan Finch points out in this month’s Your Take (p.10), in the crowded OTT video marketplace it’s niche providers who are finding success. Delivering specific content to a specific audience can be a winning strategy. Applying this selectivity to the tech platforms we use is not a bad strategy. Blindly chasing the next technology is a sure way to burn yourself out – and potentially bankrupt your business. Gather knowledge about your core audience, and incorporate their habits into your strategy. But it’s a partnership you want with them. Adopt new technologies they are using, but only if they are a clear boost for your own specialty. So many companies have wasted time chasing new tech, when they might have better spent that energy developing and innovating in the technologies where they really shine. New technologies should, be a means to expand your company’s vision, not just another set of audiences to chase. Could voice interaction create a whole new layer to your business plans? Could it make your existing services more exciting and useful? Great, then look into it. New technologies get our imaginations going, they suggest new paths our businesses might take. But before you approve that purchase, remember the most important rule in Las Vegas: Know when to get up and walk away.
he Consumer Electronics Show is one of the world’s biggest trade expos, showcasing everything from TVs to mobile devices to personal robots
to UV sensors you stick on your thumbnail. The UK’s Digital Production Partnership (DPP) has been monitoring CES for some years now and sees the show as a significant bellwether of where the content industry is trending. Its latest analysis of CES underlines that the show is much more than just a venue for new TVs and mobile phones. CES is becoming the place where the consumer gets crazy new ideas about where and how they want to experience their content next. The new DPP report highlighted voice integration as the biggest game changer at this year’s show. And if it takes o, voice interaction will be a radically new element added to the content experience. Voice integration is going to mean more than telling Alexa to find the 1984 version of Red Dawn in HD. Eventually, it will mean the production of content which will require an ongoing voice component. User voice data will be incorporated as a separate element in everything from audience analytics to writing. New voice services might include content providers gathering audience attitude based on verbal comments and feedback (‘Our home voice data says the most verbally abused player in tonight’s match was…’), or playing along with a quiz show in real time, or being able to comment on social networks without having to look down at a device. The age old pastime of shouting at the TV will finally yield tangible results. The adoption of each new integrated and networked consumer technology presents a challenge to content producers. New technologies change the way the audiences interact with content, which
THE TAIL HAS BEGUN TO WAG THE DOG then influences the style of the content itself, and in turn further disrupts how content is monetised and inspires new advertising models. And the new consumer technologies are coming faster and faster. Content providers no longer have the leverage they once had in dictating the platforms audiences use. The tail has begun to wag the dog. It’s a peer-to-peer media world with consumers distributing and forwarding content from their devices, and demanding, as a right, the opportunity to comment and feed back to content owners. Even the biggest media company ends up being one more peer among many with content providers now in direct competition with their audience for those valuable minutes of attention. The industry finds itself in the same position as a car manufacturer who has discovered that his consumers actually want motorcycles this year. Then camels. Then jetpacks. The car maker realises he’s no longer in the car business. He’s maybe in the transport business, but he has no
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