MAD Perspectives Blog

I was in Las Vegas last week, attending the annual broadcast industry gathering - NAB. The conference is an opportunity for technology providers to promote their capabilities to broadcasters such as CNN, Comcast/NBC Universal, ABC and others. After working around this industry for 8 years before leaving HP, I'm still interested to see how broadcasters evolve. This year I attended with one goal. I wanted to understand the hot topics and see how they had shifted since I last attended NAB two years ago.

The topic that has been trending for several years is that of multi-screen delivery or OTT. This means the delivery of TV content to the PC, tablet or smartphone. We've all become used to watching video online, but probably don't think about the behind the scenes effort involved with making that content available. Vendors such as EVS, Harris and Ericsson TV are providing broadcasters with solutions to simplify the adaptation, delivery, branding and user interface for their programming. Streamlining and simplification are increasingly important. Due to the rise of tablets and smartphones and 4G or LTE networks, consumers are demanding content in real time regardless of device.

The trending topic coming out of SXSW and into NAB is that of social TV. This is the integration of social content into and around TV broadcasts. Any of us watching news broadcasts or reality TV have seen the incorporation of Twitter or Facebook feeds into the on-air graphics. The vendors that provide the platforms enabling this integration are ramping up their efforts.  

Broadcast use of social media started, not surprisingly, from a pure marketing perspective. TV shows, broadcast journalists and networks created Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, YouTube channels and iPad apps to augment their on-air programs. The use of these "second screens" created a social buzz around the content while it was on air, but also even when it was not. Companion apps such as Buddy TV, Miso or Get Glue track this buzz and will let subscribers know what their friends are watching.

However, the new challenge is to integrate live social content into programming in real-time.  Vendors such as Mass Relevance and Never.no have created modular platforms to moderate select and integrate social feeds into broadcast workflows, adding Twitter or Facebook comments to on-air graphics. These niche social TV platforms must integrate with leading graphics vendors such as Chyron, Vizrt and Harris.  In fact, these start-ups provide these long time vendors with the ability to showcase new capabilities. The challenge for broadcasters is to curate the social feeds, provide the expected level of interaction as well as select the best content to share on-air. This is a new challenge for producers and requires new skill sets both behind the scenes and on-screen.

The broadcast industry faces an ever shifting landscape as it struggles to remain relevant in the face of news driven by un-substantiated Twitter feeds.  Its acknowledgement and incorporation of social content is critical to its survival. There are still challenges related to media asset management, tagging and metadata to be addressed, but it was great to see the dating ritual underway between social TV and traditional broadcast vendors. The marriages will follow - of that I am sure!

What's your perspective?

I'm here in Vegas to check out what's new in the broadcast community as it relates to social media.  There has been a lot of buzz around the topic of social TV in the last year or so. Social TV can be defined as either the use of a second screen (usually a tablet or smartphone) or the integration of social media and online video.  Either way, advertisers are salivating at the thought of incremental channels through which they can reach and influence consumers. VC's are putting money into technologies which simplify integration of social streams into programming.  Large technology companies (Google and Microsoft to name two) are investing. Microsoft recently demonstrated the integration of social plus online tv via its XBox at the Social TV Summit in San Francisco. Big name broadcasters (CNN, NBC, CBS, MLB, WWE and more) are investing in apps to make sure their content is wherever their viewers are, physically or virtually.

Traditional broadcast vendors like Chyron and Vizrt have already adopted technology to integrate social feeds, from Twitter or Facebook, into onscreen graphics - making the social audience an integral part of the live broadcast. I'm curious to see other ways social is impacting the broadcast industry. This is a space in constant transition. Social media could be considered a double edged sword, both threat and possible savior. It's all about engagement, but where will that engagement occur?

Stay tuned. Today is day one of NAB2012.  I'll keep you posted on what i learn!

What's your perspective?

If you ask media pundits about THE big innovation of the last millennium, they will tell you it was the TV.  Social media is garnering a lot of attention in the early part of the new millennium, but where does social media go next?  A natural assumption is that TV and social media will have a marriage of sorts.  One thought is that news broadcasters will incorporate social media more prominently into their every day actions.  Most local broadcasters take advantage of user generated video, regardless of quality, to capture traumatic events.  Here in New York, multiple amateur videos of US Airways Flight 1549 were incorporated into local broadcasts about the event.  But, is this enough? 

Morning “news” programs and talk show hosts, such as the last hour of the Today show or Oprah, now incorporate email and tweets into their daily routine.  Typically the hosts have an assistant, on or off screen, who is online following the discussion and informing the hosts on-air as the hot topics.  This seems to be a natural fit as these programs already have a well defined communities.   From another perspective, marketers are using social media networks to gauge interest and popularity of network programs.  American Idol and Lost are just two examples of programs that have huge followers on both Twitter and Facebook.   And, 77% of broadcast newsrooms are using social platforms to microblog news links to their followers. 

In fact, one could assume that broadcast TV is a natural fit for social media.  TV has driven coffee room and water cooler conversations for years.  Now those conversations happen on Facebook or Twitter.  However, the challenge remains that TV, for now, is” lean back” experience regardless of watching on the network’s pre-determine schedules or our own ad hoc DVR-enabled schedules.  Social media is a “lean-forward” experience.  We need to be on our PCs or mobile devices to post content.  How do we bring the experiences together?

Software vendors at broadcast conferences such as the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and International Broadcast Conference (IBC) in Amsterdam have been demonstrating user interfaces which incorporate both Facebook and Twitter.  Are we ready to give up part of our 42” HD viewing space to tweet on the TV screen during our favorite sporting event, reality TV program or sitcom?  Of course, this means sitting on the couch with a keyboard.  The interest in internet connected TVs will certainly enhance the functionally.   However, today’s 18-30 year olds aren’t watching network programming on their TVs, they are watching on their PCs or mobile devices.  Is an integrated social media/TV experience needed?  Do we even care?  Perhaps it’s about trying out new tools and seeing what works.  And, maybe what doesn’t work will drive innovation to something beyond social media on our TV screens.

I went to the NAB show in Las Vegas last week.  My reasons were twofold.  Reason #1 was to see what's new and intriguing in the technology addressing the broadcast and studio markets.  It is always exciting to see what's going on in this industry and as you can imagine, the buzz word was 3D!  In addition, there is a lot of attention being paid to multi-screen content consumption and how to enhance the online viewer experience.  As often happens, sports is the target market for a lot of the enhancements that will soon be available for online video.  ESPN has been a leader in how they incorporate technology into the viewing experience and many small vendors are uniquely focused on making the online experience as interesting and compelling as the living room experience.  Pay attention as local sports comes online.  By local, I mean the town little league teams or soccer/football teams.  It's exciting and accessible!

Why is this relevant for MAD Perspectives?  Well, what happens in the M&E space usually is adapted, in some way, by other industries.  while the demands from M&E are quite high, companies in healthcare, manufacturing, green tech, oil & gas and other industries are using video more frequently in their messaging and communication strategies.  In addition, video or imaging is increasingly a core part of their information gathering or business process.  Understanding where video trends are heading, can help these industries provide enriched services.  Imagine the benefits of 3D medical imagery!

What are some of the key things I learned?

-enabling multi-platform content consumption is HUGE (manage, encode, transude, protect, distribute, display)

- encoding bitrates have made big improvements (meaning, less bandwidth required for delivery of MPEG2, SD and HD content)

- telcos are FINALLY enabling CDN services (why let Akamai have all the fun?)

- 3D is super hot (and you shouldn't try to make a project if it wasn't shot that away originally, quality does matter)

- camera prices are decreasing, meaning UGC (user generated content) quality will improve


Reason #2 for heading out to Vegas was to check in with the myriad of vendors with whom I have relationships based on my past life at Hewlett-Packard.  I was interested to see what new products they had to offer but also to understand why they don't leverage digital media more effectively in the way they tell their story online.  These are vendors who live in the digital media market.  Their solutions focus on every nuance of the moving image, yet only a few of them tweet, blog or even use video on their websites.  These companies have interesting and compelling stories about how they have solved problems of encoding, content management, broadcast automation, storage, asset management, content distribution and more.  They understand the power of video.  They understand the importance of personal relationships.  Yet, they haven't "crossed the chasm" to utilize various digital media solutions available to them to make their stories come alive.

I think the challenge for many of these companies is the understanding of how to leverage social media, in particular, in a B2B market.  We all understand social media as a person to person medium and have even seen the benefits in B2C markets.  Yet, B2B lags behind.  This is primarily due to:

- lack of time and resource - many companies have thinned their marketing staffs and are concerned about the time it may take to tweet or blog

- risk management - companies fear employees misrepresenting the company, sharing confidential information, or exposing compone networks to viruses

- traditional marketing mindset - these companies are still in a push marketing mode where they control the message

I believe we will see a shift in B2B adoption of digital media to tell their story as we move through the next couple years.  The economy is slowly turning, as evidenced by the increased attendance at NAB this year vs. 2009.  I think we are also seeing other indicators (i.e., strong earnings reports, flat unemployment, upward movement in the stock market).

Yes, it takes time to define a digital media strategy.  However, your customers are spending more time online researching, learning and comparing solutions.  You need to be memorable and share your story in a meaningful way.  You need to reach out to your customers via the channels that they use (and the "millennials" are visual and social). 

What's your perspective?