New data-driven experiences present a golden opportunity to shape the next generation of TV, declares Per Borgklint, SVP, Chief Innovation Officer and Head of Business Unit Media, Ericsson.
It’s no secret that TV and media is experiencing its greatest period of disruption; yet the biggest changes of all are still to come. The convergence of the internet with media has sparked a seismic shift towards new data-driven experiences, and when combined with an unprecedented rate of technological innovation, there is now a golden opportunity to shape the next generation of TV.
Access to such large volumes of data and continued technology evolution is instigating a shift in power. The consumer is dictating the pace of change through their unwavering desire for high quality content across all screens, whenever and wherever they want.
The consumer experience is being overhauled. Advancements in data science and access to more sophisticated, real-time data and analytics are enabling media businesses to better understand their audiences and meet their demands.
Contextual information is facilitating opportunities to deliver local, bespoke experiences and advertising to individuals. Large-scale data collection, machine learning and predicative analytics are being leveraged to optimize content delivery, providing intuitive, smart experiences.
Preparing for 5G
The arrival of 5G will herald a new dawn for the TV and media industry in terms of quality of experience, raising the bar by providing data rates of tens of megabits per second for tens of thousands of people.
Consumers will receive a level of quality in their services like never before, enabled by 5G’s ultimate speed and efficiency, to all platforms.
It’s clear that technology has transformed the consumer TV experience beyond recognition; but it is also having a fundamental impact on the broadcast and media industry. What more can we hope to achieve?
5G will be critical. In addition to handling high bandwidth applications, IoT and billions of video-enabled devices, it will drive seamless, borderless coverage, allowing media companies to go beyond the geographical restrictions of fibre and become true global players.
As global broadband connectivity, cloud based technology and seamless mobility expands, content delivery is becoming more complex. Global CDNs are helping content providers scale content delivery and extend their reach with value-add services on both a local and global level.
Machine learning will also contribute to new innovative delivery techniques such as edge computing and caching.
Working together
Collaboration is increasingly vital to the entire media value chain, and combined ecosystems are encouraging greater interplay between players.
The Ericsson Unified Delivery Network (UDN), for instance, enables service provider partners to work collaboratively to deliver enhanced business and customer values, aggregating regional service provider capabilities to a global scale and connecting content providers with the last mile reach of service providers.
The use of micro services will be instrumental in helping businesses to adapt their media applications more efficiently, leveraging the flexibility of the cloud and a more nimble componentised architecture. This will enable the delivery of TV platforms to all form factors, increasing speed to market and offering the potential to scale up to DevOp models.
Content owners, broadcasters and TV service providers must capitalise on this wave of innovation. They must mirror new agile market entrants by adopting web methodologies and mentalities, building their business models around continual innovation and service delivery.
This content was first published at IBC2016
The views expressed are those of the author.
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