Maintaining user interest is a constant challenge for broadcast operators in the digital age as platforms such as Netflix are introduced to the market. A flexible infrastructure designed to cope with these peaks and troughs in demand is vital in today’s media landscape according to Lars Larsson, CEO at Varnish Software.
The water-cooler effect has evaporated. In fact, it’s been cooling off for quite some time. Long gone are the days when office workers would gather in the mornings to frantically discuss their reactions to the previous night’s TV mega-moments. There’s no more debate over who shot JR – or who shot Mr Burns if that’s more your cup of tea. No more gushing reactions to Rachel getting off the plane or Deirdre Barlow being released from prison.
Appointment-to-view television is quickly becoming a thing of the past in an OTT-universe. While some juggernauts like Game of Thrones can still pull in broadcast viewers week-to-week, other mainstream successes like Stranger Things have been produced and released precisely to satisfy our desire for a binge. As soon as we discover a new hit show nowadays, somebody else in the office has already discovered it, streamed it and made it their next fancy-dress costume.
Our appetite for content has become insatiable. With so much to watch and so many places to watch it, second chances for content owners are at a premium. Content delivery has to be immediate and reliable regardless of where the end-user is tuning in from and what device they choose, otherwise they might not come back. Nobody wants to spend a day with fingers in their ears avoiding the spoiler-spilling Gary from accounts.
The flood of streamers
We’re now able to achieve cinema-quality pictures on a pocket-sized device and the growing pervasiveness of connectivity means we can connect those devices wherever we are (on the most part at least!). This changing pattern of content consumption has dramatically changed the media and entertainment industry, with the result being an overload in over-the-top platforms.
Digital players like Netflix, Amazon and Facebook have changed the way we perceive television. This has put pressure on traditional broadcasters to adapt, with many consequently launching their own OTT platforms to keep pace. BBC iPlayer, 4OD and Sky Go have become common ways to access content, and the recently announced BritBox hopes to become the same.
Telecoms giants – notably BT – are also exploring ways, most likely through M&A, of joining the party and owning the content their devices and networks stream. Then there’s the content owners themselves, who now realise the opportunity of delivering content direct to consumers and have invested in building their own content delivery networks and streaming platforms. We’ve already seen this in sports, where the likes of the NFL, MLB and the WWE all have their own OTT networks, but Disney’s entrance into the streaming market later this year might be the biggest indication yet that the landscape has shifted dramatically.
Taking ownership of the content delivery network offers significant efficiencies and reductions in operational expenditure. It also allows content owners to establish or strengthen a foothold in different markets through direct relationships with consumers. This is particularly true for mobile-first or mobile-only countries in Africa and Asia, where content consumption is almost entirely through portable devices.
Media CIOs understand IT’s pivotal role in content delivery. The benchmark for content libraries and user interfaces has been set but has also become standardised. Focus has now returned to the backend and ensuring quality and reliable playback. Buffering, poor picture quality, or content that simply won’t load are unforgivable experiences on a cut-throat consumer battleground.
Technical teams are acutely aware that for any platform to emerge as a global content champion, the ability to track consumer behaviour, take advantage of cutting-edge tools and ensure content can be targeted at any number of different devices is important. The make or break factor for success, however, is a content delivery infrastructure that can stream content, without fail, to any device, in any market.
Achieving low-latency: What’s the cache?
But how important is ultra-low latency content to a brand really? Beyond reputational damage, it can be the key to survival in the digital age.
This is increasingly the case for live streaming content in genres where real-time user engagement is critical to revenue. Live shopping, gambling or auction-type programmes are moving to OTT platforms. A drop-off from frustrated viewers, roughly three-quarters of whom won’t return to a service that’s faced multiple buffering issues, could be enough to send a business under. Think of a YouTuber whose revenue is dependent on them holding viewers during a live stream but amplify it to an entire channel dependant on real-time engagement to drive sales.
So how does a brand ensure they meet the needs and expectations of streamers on a global scale?
Firstly, content distribution needs to be optimised by putting streaming servers exactly where they are needed to give the best user experience and lowest possible latency. These servers need to be configured to meet the needs of the specific audience. The UK’s requirements are very different to mobile-first markets like India, so ‘off-the-shelf’ solutions won’t suffice.
For content services to perform seamlessly and deliver content reliably, they must also be able to handle massive amounts of data. “A video content platform with an intelligent cache allows content providers to offload traffic that would have previously hit the back-end. The result is reduced latency and the elimination of the dreaded buffering wheel.
Caching was once only discussed in relation to web domains, where it’s used for site acceleration. However, caching has moved into the video streaming space as a means of delivering content fast, on-demand and at scale.
A well configured CDN with intelligent caching rules in place not only handles the ‘day-to-day’ demand – if there even is such a thing anymore – but crucially, those unexpected peaks in activity. It’s no surprise that so many people streamed Stranger Things season three on launch day, but predicting the success of a show isn’t always so easy in a social media age where content can ‘go viral’ overnight and gain momentum through word of mouth.
A prime example is BBC America’s ‘Killing Eve’, which was released in the UK in one fell swoop and became a hit once word spread. Villanelle might be a deadly assassin in the show, but even she is no match for the ‘spinning wheel of death’. Having a flexible infrastructure that’s designed to cope with these peaks and troughs in demand is vital in today’s media landscape.
The next challenge – the same solution
Achieving reliable, ultra-low latency should be the goal for all content owners, but the media industry is constantly changing. Technical officers know that getting the delivery network right will pay dividends for the next wave in streaming advancements.
As the industry approaches another IBC in Amsterdam, talk is centring on how to maintain optimised distribution when providing better personalisation and moving to 4K and 8K streaming in future. This level of picture quality is already being touted by TV manufacturers, and just as with 1080p HD before it, it’s not long before it will be customary on mobile devices either. If consumers want it, OTT platforms have to be able to provide it.
The battle for eyeballs is more contested than the climax of Avengers Endgame; there will only be more brands moving into streaming in future. Whether it’s an all-encompassing content library, superior picture quality or personalised content that allows a victorious brand to emerge, the fact remains that if a platform can’t deliver content reliably with as low latency as possible, consumers will disappear quicker than Thanos can snap his fingers.
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