VANCOUVER – Moods, moments, sentiments, likes and trending. These may be words more commonly associated with social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, but they are increasingly becoming the new jargon when talking about finding video content in the new consumer-centric broadcast world. The first of two Discoverability Summits co-hosted by the CRTC and National Film Board explored this during an event in Vancouver on Tuesday.
As Jean-Pierre Blais, chair of the CRTC, explained in his opening remarks to En Route to Discoverability: Content in the Age of Abundance, the much-talked about concept of disintermediation of traditional broadcasters has not yet fully arrived, and may never, but it is certainly being challenged by disruptive technology.
“Over the next 10 years, viewers will continue to migrate from scheduled to on-demand content. They will want greater control over the content they watch and will be seeking new and innovative ways to do so,” he said. “But the new challenge of discoverability is to provide more opportunities for viewers to discover content on multiple platforms. How can they discover content that interests them and is relevant to them? How can quality programs find an audience in a sea of digital content and streaming services? How can you adapt to be successful in that global market?”
In the opening keynote, strategist Tony Chapman spoke about changes to the traditional media business in the last three decades and how consumers have secured a much more significant place in the broadcast space. More importantly, however, he delved into the idea of big data being able to drive new forms of discoverability.
Big data and algorithms are “going to tell us where to fish and what bait we have to put on our hooks so that viewer grabs onto it. They’re going to teach us when to place our content and what platforms our content belongs on,” he explained. “We’re going to have to look at what partners we need to collaborate with as Trojan horses like brands used to do with television to find a way to get our content discovered.”
“It’s really important to look at how things are discovered and what effects they have on people.” – Sara Diamond, OCAD University
These new types of algorithms, many of which are being used and enhanced today, will give content owners a variety of data on not only the viewer but what was done with the content. This includes viewer interaction, such as sharing, but could also relate to whether the viewer purchased a product because of it.
Sara Diamond, president and vice-chancellor at Toronto’s OCAD University, explained that it’s important to understand that analytics engines can be designed to suit a broad range of needs and this could include studying individual behaviour patterns, demographics and emergent trends and countertrends in the world.
“You can actually provide content opportunities to people through recommender engines which say what would you like to explore next. That provides them with not only what they’re used to and comfortable with but what’s trending and also what’s contradictory,” she said.
Analytics and big data are important for content discoverability because not only can they tell a content owner where its video programming sits in the social media space but also how people find and react to the content.
“You could actually use that in terms of creative production, in terms of narrative, and narrative drives if you’re doing drama or if you’re documentaries, even with music. So we tend to look just simply at audience and taste and how those are moving but it’s really important to look at how things are discovered and what effects they have on people,” added Diamond.
“You don’t want to be a slave to data… because then there’s not going to be any variety of content, everybody is going to have the same BS.” – Ashkan Karbasfrooshan, WatchMojo
The music industry is gaining considerable experience using big data. Nathan Wiszniak, label relations at Spotify Canada, underscored the significance of data and analytics by noting that they are the entry point for customers’ discoverability activities. For Spotify, the new user gets exposed to a moods and moments type of algorithm analytics engine.
“We serve up [playlists] based on moods, moments and genres but then as you get yourself into the platform you get served based on an algorithmic [methods]. For our platform, discoverability is really the key and we’ve been able to work with a company (that has helped) people discover music that they may not necessarily have ever thought that would be something for them,” he said.
It’s important to recognize that operating purely by the numbers from an analytics engine is short-term thinking, added Ashkan Karbasfrooshan, CEO and Editor-in-Chief at WatchMojo.
“You don’t want to be a slave to data,” he said, “because then there’s not going to be any variety of content, everybody is going to have the same BS. … It’s okay to do something that your audience may not necessarily like.”
Moyra Rodger, founder and CEO of Magnify Digital and Out To See Entertainment, added that one element holding back the discoverability of video content is the lack of universal search and while she acknowledged that recommendation engines are pretty sophisticated for each platform, people still have to search multiple platforms.
“There is no way just to look for content and then figure out whether or not you have a subscription and access to those platforms you’re still searching.” Moyra Rodger, Magnify Digital
“Apple TV, I think the last iteration has a more universal search, but you’re still having to look across many platforms. That needs to be solved somehow,” Rodger said. “Some people still have cable, some people are watching on Apple TV, you want to watch on YouTube, you want to watch on shomi or CraveTV or whatever and there is no way just to look for content and then figure out whether or not you have a subscription and access to those platforms you’re still searching.”
Going beyond data and analytics, a transmedia strategy is critical for the traditional media companies when it comes to enabling the broadest possible discoverability options.
Ling Lin, head of content partnerships at YouTube Canada, argued that the industry should think more like the retail industry. Just because the haute couture brands like Gucci may have their own flagship store means that they won’t sell their product in Bloomingdales or Macy’s.
“People are not just going to walk into one flagship store they’re going to be everywhere. So it’s taking that step, and I think it’s easier said than done but a lot of the traditional media guys need to have a more open mindset I feel to test,” she said.
The CRTC and NFB will host their second “En route” to the Discoverability Summit event in Montreal on Thursday. It will explore the French-language market. The Summit itself will take place early in 2016.
