{"id":32385,"date":"2019-07-30T09:03:23","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T08:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/?p=32385"},"modified":"2019-08-01T13:31:18","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T12:31:18","slug":"broadcast-industry-in-focus-the-ultra-low-margin-for-error-to-streaming-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/2019\/07\/30\/broadcast-industry-in-focus-the-ultra-low-margin-for-error-to-streaming-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Broadcast industry in focus: The ultra-low margin for error to streaming success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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\u2019s media landscape according to Lars Larsson, CEO at Varnish Software. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The water-cooler effect has evaporated. In fact, it\u2019s 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\u2019s TV mega-moments. There\u2019s no more debate over who shot JR \u2013 or who shot Mr Burns if that\u2019s more your cup of tea. No more gushing reactions to Rachel getting off the plane or Deirdre Barlow being released from prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our appetite for content has become insatiable. With so much\nto watch and so many places to watch it, second chances for content owners are\nat a premium. Content delivery has to be immediate and reliable regardless of\nwhere the end-user is tuning in from and what device they choose, otherwise\nthey might not come back. Nobody wants to spend a day with fingers in their\nears avoiding the spoiler-spilling Gary from accounts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flood of streamers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital players like Netflix, Amazon and Facebook have\nchanged the way we perceive television. This has put pressure on traditional\nbroadcasters to adapt, with many consequently launching their own OTT platforms\nto keep pace. BBC iPlayer, 4OD and Sky Go have become common ways to access\ncontent, and the recently announced BritBox hopes to become the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Telecoms giants \u2013 notably BT – are also exploring ways, most\nlikely through M&A, of joining the party and owning the content their\ndevices and networks stream. Then there\u2019s the content owners themselves, who now\nrealise the opportunity of delivering content direct to consumers and have\ninvested in building their own content delivery networks and streaming\nplatforms. We\u2019ve already seen this in sports, where the likes of the NFL, MLB\nand the WWE all have their own OTT networks, but Disney\u2019s entrance into the\nstreaming market later this year might be the biggest indication yet that the\nlandscape has shifted dramatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking ownership of the content delivery network offers\nsignificant efficiencies and reductions in operational expenditure. It also\nallows content owners to establish or strengthen a foothold in different\nmarkets through direct relationships with consumers. This is particularly true\nfor mobile-first or mobile-only countries in Africa and Asia, where content\nconsumption is almost entirely through portable devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media CIOs understand IT\u2019s 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\u2019t load are unforgivable experiences on a cut-throat consumer battleground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technical teams are acutely aware that for any platform to\nemerge as a global content champion, the ability to track consumer behaviour,\ntake advantage of cutting-edge tools and ensure content can be targeted at any\nnumber of different devices is important. The make or break factor for success,\nhowever, is a content delivery infrastructure that can stream content, without\nfail, to any device, in any market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Achieving low-latency: What\u2019s the cache?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But how important is ultra-low latency content to a brand\nreally<\/em>? Beyond reputational damage, it can be the key to survival in the\ndigital age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t return to a service that\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how does a brand ensure they meet the needs and expectations\nof streamers on a global scale? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, content distribution needs to be optimised by\nputting streaming servers exactly where they are needed to give the best user\nexperience and lowest possible latency. These servers need to be configured to\nmeet the needs of the specific audience. The UK\u2019s requirements are very\ndifferent to mobile-first markets like India, so \u2018off-the-shelf\u2019 solutions\nwon\u2019t suffice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caching was once only discussed in relation to web domains,\nwhere it\u2019s used for site acceleration. However, caching has moved into the\nvideo streaming space as a means of delivering content fast, on-demand and at\nscale. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A well configured CDN with intelligent caching rules in place not only handles the \u2018day-to-day\u2019 demand – if there even is such a thing anymore \u2013 but crucially, those unexpected peaks in activity. It\u2019s no surprise that so many people streamed Stranger Things season three on launch day, but predicting the success of a show isn\u2019t always so easy in a social media age where content can \u2018go viral\u2019 overnight and gain momentum through word of mouth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A prime example is BBC America\u2019s \u2018Killing Eve\u2019, which was\nreleased in the UK in one fell swoop and became a hit once word spread.\nVillanelle might be a deadly assassin in the show, but even she is no match for\nthe \u2018spinning wheel of death\u2019. Having a flexible infrastructure that\u2019s designed\nto cope with these peaks and troughs in demand is vital in today\u2019s media\nlandscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next challenge \u2013 the same solution<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Achieving reliable, ultra-low latency should be the goal for\nall content owners, but the media industry is constantly changing. Technical\nofficers know that getting the delivery network right will pay dividends for\nthe next wave in streaming advancements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the industry approaches another IBC in Amsterdam, talk is\ncentring on how to maintain optimised distribution when providing better\npersonalisation and moving to 4K and 8K streaming in future. This level of\npicture quality is already being touted by TV manufacturers, and just as with\n1080p HD before it, it\u2019s not long before it will be customary on mobile devices\neither. If consumers want it, OTT platforms have to be able to provide it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The battle for eyeballs is more contested than the climax of\nAvengers Endgame; there will only be more brands moving into streaming in\nfuture. Whether it\u2019s an all-encompassing content library, superior picture\nquality or personalised content that allows a victorious brand to emerge, the\nfact remains that if a platform can\u2019t deliver content reliably with as low\nlatency as possible, consumers will disappear quicker than Thanos can snap his\nfingers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s media landscape according to Lars Larsson, CEO at Varnish Software. The water-cooler effect has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":32393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1489,93,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights","category-top-stories","category-used"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32385"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32438,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32385\/revisions\/32438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}