Hyper tailoring the experience

“We are hyper tailoring the experience to the individual level,” Robert Gelick, Chief Product Officer, Paramount, told a Showcase Theatre session.

“The discovery experience is essential to make sure people coming in are exposed to something unique. But it’s not just the content. People are also looking for next-level responsiveness and reliability as part of the product experience.”

Paramount+ now has 43.3 million paid customers, a net add of 3.7 million for the last quarter, and will be in 60 markets by the end of 2022.

It is powered by Google Cloud Platform (GCP). “Every executive is talking with their boards right now about driving deeper customer understanding consumer engagement,” said Anil Jain, MD of Media & Entertainment, Google Cloud.

“The problem is not content. There is a vast array of content available to consumers. The big problem is that it is harder to find. The reality is that consumers have infinitely more power than the media companies that provide content.”

He added: “Google’s mission is to help media companies transform audience experiences with data and innovation.”

Paramount’s FAST platform Pluto TV programmes 1000 different channels across all markets. Could he envisage a time when we all have individually tailored channels?

“To some degree that future is here today,” Gelick said. “Some of that is directly based on a user stating what they want, some on sophisticated ML models to surface the right content.”

Paramount is, of course, home to the Star Trek franchise which has spawned concepts like the Metaverse-like Holodeck.

“It like to think Trek has shaped technology far beyond Paramount,” Gelick said. “If I could teleport home after the conference that would be great.”