CHICAGO, Ill.—In the runup to the 2022 NAB Show in Las Vegas, Accenture is predicting that innovation in streaming, the media and entertainment industry’s move to the cloud and the future of M&E entertainment marketing will be key themes, noted John Peters and Greg Jensen, managing directors in the Media and Entertainment industry group at Accenture.
In terms of streaming, Peters said that “the time is right for the next phase of innovation in streaming. It’s a chance for the industry’s players to eliminate the pain points that are causing friction for consumers and could threaten to erode consumers’ enthusiasm for, and increasing adoption of, streaming services.”
Peters and Jensen said that the user experience is one area where innovation is needed. Some of their recent research found that 60% of global consumers are frustrated with navigating content on streaming video services, a problem that highlights the need for content aggregators across multiple streaming platforms that can give consumers greater control over their experience, they explained.
“At the show, we expect many service and content providers will be considering their play in this aggregated world,” Jensen said. “They will need to determine if they want to be an integrator or the integrated, which will dictate whether they shape distribution deals to entice subscription video on demand (SVOD) and advertising-based video on demand (AVOD) services to participate or whether they partner with the entities vying to be the preferred integrator.”
Another area of innovation is around monetizing streaming services. Research from Accenture has found that 63% of consumers think it’s too expensive to pay for all the entertainment subscriptions they want, an issue that will make ad-funded video become more prevalent and attractive to consumers and providers.
Accenture is predicting that the ad-funded video market will reach $21 billion by 2025, up from just $1 billion in 2017. These AVOD services are unlikely to eclipse the subscription video on demand (SVOD) market any time soon, but Accenture believes they will see faster growth over the next five years.
In terms of cloud-based technologies, Jensen noted that “cloud-based solutions, like artificial intelligence and advanced analytics, are critical for content-rich media and entertainment businesses. Shifting to the cloud can help companies be more competitive by shifting to a model that embraces easier collaboration, agility and customer insights.”
“Companies at the show will be looking at the value that the cloud can bring to their business,” Peters said. “This includes lower costs because a cloud platform provides media companies increased labor efficiency through automation, project-based accounting where infrastructure and resource costs are balanced with demand, and lowered ad and campaign management costs.”
Accenture’s own research has found that M&E clients have seen a 15-30% cost reduction associated with using cloud-based technologies for content development and distribution.
Finally in terms of the future of Media & Entertainment marketing, they explained that getting a handle on the customer is an urgent priority for CMOs of streaming services.
“Whatever the future of the streaming landscape might become, it’s imperative for companies to know their customer in as much detail as possible,” Jensen said.
They believe that marketing leaders in the media industry need to focus on a variety of areas as they look to the future of their organizations, including being able to connect users’ fragmented experiences, the lifetime value of the customer and bringing more dynamism to their marketing to rapidly adapt to new market conditions.
