Metadata – The Black Gold of the Media Industry

CONTENT ITSELF IS NOT ENOUGH

Content aggregation is the name of the game for all video service providers. They may disagree with the term aggregation, but whether they create the content themselves or licence it from a third party, they are aggregating, consolidating, curating and presenting content to their subscribers. Their goal is simple. Attract and retain subscribers to drive revenue (and profits) via subscriptions, advertising or one-off transactions. 

The challenge lies in aggregating a sticky catalogue of content and helping consumers find the content they want to watch. In fact, a Videonet survey in 2022 indicates that content discovery is the most valuable value add for content aggregators. If this is the case, why aren’t more service providers paying more attention to their descriptive metadata? 

With over 800,000 program titles across linear TV and streaming services, in just the United States alone (according to Nielsen and noting that each title may have multiple series and episodes resulting in millions of records), it becomes clear that content discovery may become the proverbial needle in a haystack if video service providers don’t figure out how to optimise their metadata strategy. 

METADATA – THE BLACK GOLD OF THE MEDIA INDUSTRY

Today’s media titans are persistently developing content to entertain, educate and inform consumers. Their value is measured in terms of immediate impact and long-term appeal. Audience response can drive short-term success, but lifetime value is dependent on more than the content itself. If consumers cannot find the content, its value is negatively impacted.

Metadata is a necessity for “greasing the wheels” for discovery of video assets.  Janet Greco, in the November 2021 OTT Exec Magazine, presciently stated, “The quality of descriptive TV program information sits at the heart of a TV business. It is fundamental to the user experience, content discovery and recommendation…. When you have accurate data, you also stand the best chance of leveraging it.” While metadata is used throughout the content supply chain, the use of descriptive metadata is critical to the long-term value of any professional video delivery service. Defining the depth and breadth of metadata required to enable video service providers to optimise their content catalogues, means understanding what motivates consumer decision-making. 

Just as oil refineries are highly sophisticated industrial facilities transforming crude oil into valuable products used in an array of applications, metadata management is a process of transforming multiple databases of identifiers, descriptors and contextual elements into a unified, consistent data repository used to inform platforms and people.

Atlas is our cloud-native active data platform providing metadata management to elevate the value of descriptive metadata and the value of content investments. This blog is an extract from our new eBook “TV’s IP Future Demands a New Approach to Metadata Management”.

Click here for more information about Atlas.