Cloud Powered Media and OTT Mean Outsized Advantages

Media has come a long way from the days of “12 channels, take it or leave it.” As technology has transformed consumer expectations, media has become a two-way channel with a massive amount of user data to inform personalization, sales and retention strategy, and R&D.

Cloud technology is ideally suited to collect, process, analyze and store the data driving enhanced consumer experiences. With ever-increasing competition and alternative streams, content creators in the media and entertainment (M&E) sector are under constant pressure to produce and distribute original content more frequently, across multiple channels, and more quickly and reliably than the competition. 

Statista reported that people spent 482.5 billion hours live streaming in 2021, and the market is expected to reach $223.98 billion by 2028. Gaming and esports are perhaps predictably the most popular live-stream subjects, but we also see that 80% of live-stream viewers would rather watch than visit a brand’s blog. 

Back in 2018, Cisco had predicted that video streaming would make up 82% of Internet traffic by 2022 – and that was before the pandemic hit. Fast forward to 2021, and Netflix had amassed a whopping 221.84 million subscribers. It’s not just boredom driving the trend. Video accessibility is playing a part in the increased popularity of streaming, with people watching on multiple devices. 

The improvement in video quality is an important driver, as well, not only for consumers but also for B2B/B2C. Forbes sees live streaming as a way for brands to breach the “divide between the physical and digital worlds.” It provides opportunities for two-way communication, brand engagement, and introducing your brand to prospective buyers who might not seek you out otherwise. 

As anyone who has sat in a glitchy video conference can attest, video and sound quality are essential to delivering a positive viewer experience, whether you are a movie company, a content creator, an “influencer” or a marketer.

The cloud powered platform is helping media brands stay agile so they can quickly recognize and act on new opportunities to connect with audiences. One of the challenges for media content creators is consistently delivering reliable content, regardless of demand. Cloud-native technology is designed to automatically adapt to volatility in demand, providing consistent flexibility and scalability. It can receive, manage, and deliver huge amounts of digital content in a cost-effective, agile manner. 

Hyper-personalization of TV Media

By 2025, consumers will expect white-glove service for all, or hyper-personalized "care of one," as McKinsey puts it, whether that means the freedom of choose-your-own bundles or enhanced service of resolving outages and slowdowns before customers are even aware there’s an issue.

Back in the day, traditional M&E companies had a stranglehold on the distribution of cable and broadcast television. In recent years, however, new trends in the way television is broadcast and low-cost OTT (Over-the-Top) companies that sell/deliver streaming audio, video, and other media over the internet directly to consumers have challenged the traditional models.

Transformation of Development & Go To Market

As demand for high-quality content creation increases, so does the demand for ways to stream the content across multiple channels, including Smart TV or streaming devices, mobile devices, internet streaming, or gaming.  This is transforming the development of OTT applications and putting pressure on the time to develop, test and go to market. 

In order to take full advantage of the new technology, M&E companies need to migrate to cloud technology, and that requires planning and careful execution. Most configuration management databases (CMDBs) may not be robust enough to make contextual decisions about prioritizing application migration, which can lead to project delays and budget overflow. 

GlobalLogic has several OTT accelerators that can help businesses to test and roll out streaming services at a faster pace, including the below.

OTT Digital Accelerator

GlobalLogic has developed the OTT Digital Accelerator, a platform-agnostic/ device-agnostic application testing solution that provides developers with the opportunity to test applications on the most common consumer streaming services, as well as multiple devices, including gaming consoles, set-top boxes, smartphones, PCs, and tablets. This allows for the development of best practice frameworks and a faster go-to-market.

OTT Test Lab

In addition, the GlobalLogic Cloud-native OTT Test Lab enables developers to schedule automated tests for their OTT channels and applications on any device, in any location, at any time. The Test Lab has a repository of over 3000 devices, which provides access to developers without the need to purchase the device, manage inventory or juggle testing schedules.  

It also facilitates testing as soon as the channel development project begins, and jump-starts continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines. Developers enjoy a simple KPI setup and viewing with easy app adjustment capabilities based on results.

Revolutionizing Business As Usual for Media Brands 

As the global pandemic proved, business as usual is a thing of the past. The media and entertainment sector needs to innovate and evolve to stay competitive. 

For OTT players, this means personalizing and monetizing content and scaling for a global audience. This will require the development of high-quality M&E software, from the front-end UX to the back-end processes. It also means highly personalized, white-glove service for each and every customer. 

In addition, OTT players will require agile, scalable solutions for: 

• OTT multi-platform engineering and multi-application development
• Content discovery & recommendations
• Content monetization
• Back-end services
• Billing & operations
• Subscriber management

For broadcasters and studios, this means transitioning to the cloud, building new tools, and automating processes and workflows. It means distributed content creation that can be shared across multiple platforms, including smart televisions, mobile devices, and internet and gaming systems, regardless of the operating system. 

For ad tech providers, it means adopting modern ad channels, formats, and even business models. Placing the same ad across multiple channels will no longer be an effective business model. Instead, ad tech providers will need to develop targeted ads, develop end-to-end solutions, including dynamic ad placement and video ad platforms. Real-time bidding systems and ad exchange & server solutions will help providers compete in the more challenging, dynamic marketplace.

For digital marketing, live stream interactions will see more integration with messaging apps and will become a valuable marketing tool. Video streaming will become the de facto digital marketing platform to enhance the customer experience by helping consumers troubleshoot product/service issues, and IoT video streaming will dominate the Home Monitoring Segments, as well.

For journalism and publishing, we expect to see an upward trend in subscription and membership models with new-age workers dominating this space. 

Conclusion

Media and entertainment businesses must innovate now to remain competitive. Cloud-native technology is helping brands realize this need thanks to its flexibility, scalability, and support for a wide range of content creation. Cloud powered technology can adapt quickly to unpredictable viewer use, seamlessly switching resources to ensure a consistent viewing experience. 

Consumers will continue to expect and demand white-glove, personalized service, which includes accessing streaming across a variety of platforms. The explosion of OTT providers means traditional cable and television providers need to proactively anticipate customer needs and wants, or they will be left behind by new players in the market. 

All signs point to continuing highs for OTT, wherein providers will have to work overtime to find ways to retain popularity and provide niche, original and high-quality content.

Is your brand positioned to capitalize on new opportunities as they arise?

GlobalLogic helps media and entertainment companies across the globe leverage sophisticated technology to deliver more engaging, data-driven viewing experiences. Get in touch today and see what doors cloud adoption can open for your media business.