The broadcast market is undergoing rapid and significant change. The appetite for watching video is growing but technology is driving new viewer behavior. Broadcasters are being affected by a massive shift to over-the-top (OTT) video consumption, a shift to away from dedicated hardware solutions, with new agile entrants to the market and alternative sources of entertainment eating away at television’s dominance as viewers’ medium of choice.
Advertising revenues for linear television, for instance, are losing ground to digital broadcast, with TV losing 3.5 share points to digital in the second quarter of 2016. Even televised broadcasts of the 2016 Rio Olympics, coverage which is historically considered appointment television by viewers the world over, saw live ratings drop 21 percent this year while digital and streaming consumption skyrocketed.
These headlines shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has consumed entertainment content over the past several years. Simply look at your own viewing habits. Roughly 78 percent of all internet users in the United States regularly watch digital video online, with a growing number of millennials consuming content exclusively via the Web as opposed to broadcast television.
However, if you think the shift in viewer habits has had a huge impact on ad spend, just think about the ways it has uprooted content production and distribution methods. With streaming and download over the internet, viewers have the ability to watch programs when and where they want, rather than having to abide by broadcaster schedules. The sheer volume of content in different formats and versions combined with rapid advanced in technology make the content management and delivery process a complex process. This has forced broadcasters to become more agile, and has made them reassess their infrastructure to cope.
To do this, broadcast is moving to solutions based on what we call a colocated hybrid cloud model. This architecture gives broadcasters a cost-effective, flexible and connected environment to build their businesses in the digital age. They can combine the best of breed broadcast specific technology with secure and reliable access to the major cloud service providers.
To discuss the evolving landscape of the broadcast industry, Interxion’s Digital Media business unit will be attending IBC in Amsterdam from September 8th through the 13th.
Interxion has had ongoing success in the broadcasting and content delivery space thanks to our robust, cloud and carrier-neutral data centres. By offering access to all of the different players across the digital media delivery value chain, including direct connections to a bevy of carriers and cloud providers, our facilities provide the ideal environment for effective content aggregation, exchange, storage, management and distribution.
Our content communities are hosted in close proximity to 11 of Europe’s most densely populated markets, providing direct access to more than 78 percent of European GDP and over 90 million broadband households.
To extrapolate on these opportunities, our digital media segment head Richard Craig-McFeely will deliver a presentation alongside Deluxe Media Cloud’s Tom Holmes on September 9that 2pm in Hall 14 Join us to learn more about the benefits of adopting a hybrid cloud infrastructure in today’s rapidly evolving digital media industry.