worth exploring the concept of the ‘weathered interface’, where things we often return to carry the marks of our history with them, rather than resetting to pristine neutrality every time. There’s something weird in the way a favourite record sleeve softens at the corners but a streaming library never does.” Interestingly, Bango’s research has found that a third of consumers would consider letting AI decide what they watch, and almost half think it would do a better job than they can. Around a third would even let AI automatically subscribe, manage and unsubscribe them from services. “The operators who are pulling ahead are using AI-powered, intent- based search rather than keyword matching,” adds Nelson Hulett, regional VP for the Americas at Setplex. “This allows viewers to simply say what they’re in the mood for and be guided to it.” In these days of wandering eyes and itchy feet, the actual viewing experience matters like never before. “Metrics around quality of experience are fast becoming critical,” says Jacob Arends, senior product manager for playback and AI at Bitmovin. “If a stream buffers, lags or delivers poor quality, it directly impacts how the viewer experiences the service, and a dissatisfied viewer is never far from churn.” Nothing undermines a live event like learning from your phone that a goal has gone in before you see it on-screen, so latency is a key issue, adds Hasson. Advertising needs to be as carefully curated as content. “What I see moving the needle for operators is automated, AI-driven ad detection and replacement, ensuring that a viewer in one market sees an ad that’s actually relevant to them – a local snack brand, say, rather than
a car insurance spot clearly made for somewhere else,” says Hulett. “That kind of cultural fit is what keeps free, ad-supported viewing engaging for audiences and valuable to advertisers.” If ads need to be relevant to viewers, so the viewer needs to be relevant to the ad. “When we plan streaming TV campaigns, we’re
no longer buying a slot in a linear run, we’re bidding, impression by impression, for a specific household at the moment it chooses to watch something,” says Chris Cochrane, chief strategy officer at Plug Media. “The urgent question for broadcasters is whether their advertising is as addressable as their content. The platforms winning ad
FAR OUT UVOtv (above) is a free ‘community-driven streaming platform’ for multicultural audiences. GBN’s continuous live viewing and discovery (below)
CONQUERING THE NEW WORLD
Established broadcasters have a real opportunity to turn audience fragmentation to their advantage, believes Nikita McKnight, marketing director at ZYMIX. “Audiences increasingly expect a complete digital experience around content,” she begins, “including discussion, community, behind-the-scenes access, creator interaction and live engagement, and they’re tired of moving between multiple streaming platforms, social apps and websites just to follow the content they care about. “So forward-thinking broadcasters should focus on building ecosystems rather than simply broadcasting content. That means combining trusted journalism with community, personalisation, interactivity and creator partnerships.
“The BBC has invested heavily in short-form explainers, podcasts, TikTok and YouTube, allowing its journalism to meet younger audiences where they already spend their time. Sky News has expanded its digital-first reporting and social journalism, creating content designed specifically for mobile audiences rather than simply repurposing TV broadcasts. “We’re also seeing individual journalists become trusted brands, with BBC, Sky, Telegraph and ITV journalists building substantial audiences on TikTok. That’s a significant cultural shift because audiences increasingly connect with people before institutions. The lesson isn’t that television has become irrelevant. It’s that successful broadcasters now think beyond it.”
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