By Stuart Kurkowski, PhD, Comcast Incorporated
Ensuring that content is available and that ads can be placed on any screen is table stakes to content providers and advertisers alike. Now, new questions are surfacing like how to keep the quality standards of broadcast on all devices, how to simultaneously deliver to both broadcast and online destinations, how to reach targeted audiences across platforms, and how to see a holistic reporting view of all content? Broadcast and digital destinations are no longer separate in the minds of consumers, therefore backend workflows have transformed to seamlessly serve both. The intelligent merging of broadcast and digital technology combines workflows, delivery, and reporting to get content and advertising to any screen.
Advancements in video quality and global delivery are changing the industry at a more rapid pace than ever before. In today’s data-heavy world of multi-platform video, profitability and quality assurance are hard-won metrics that must be continually reassessed and updated. Providers of every ilk are contending with the squeeze on both sides of the equation – the need for faster operations, real-time advertising, and lower cost in order to divert more resources into what matters most, the creation or curation of compelling content.
More than ever, video service providers are ruled by three masters. At one corner, there’s the fundamental requirement to deliver video at the highest quality, both in picture and playback consistency. At the next corner, dollar signs abound as businesses try to offset ballooning costs of content development and acquisition by streamlining and automating video delivery and commerce workflows. At the third corner is the need to bring learnings from an extremely fragmented media landscape into a holistic view that produces better performance measurements and, ultimately, better commercial performance of every piece of content, be it short-form ad, linear channel, or on-demand.
This paper doesn’t intend to encompass all of the changes and challenges of multi-platform delivery. It does, however, aim to highlight some ways in which the convergence of broadcast and digital delivery is– with growing pains – evolving the way that providers deliver and monetize content, and how consumers consume it.