More Options Than Ever For Consuming TV Content

The options for viewing TV series, movies, concerts, sporting events, news and documentaries are greater than ever. Whether it’s via familiar linear channels or streaming on-demand, the content we want is available someplace. Even as the technology enabling video delivery continues to evolve, consumers only care that it is convenient. They want to pick the subscription model and consumption device that is best for them – and quickly start to enjoy the content that is appealing to them. They assume the content will be easy to find.

There are 3 dominant ways of consuming professionally produced video programmes. However, each of these options has its own advantages and disadvantages. 

Live or Scheduled Linear

…is the TV format that many of us grew up with. The schedule is defined by the broadcaster or pay TV channel. TV shows or movies start and end at specific times. Content is delivered by Pay TV or Free-to-Air services using multicast networks, ensuring that the content is available to viewers at the predefined time.

Viewers may only watch shows at the scheduled times, although options now exist for “catch-up TV” which we will discuss later.  On-screen Electronic Program Guides (EPGs) display grids reflecting upcoming schedules for each available channel.  These schedules include metadata defined by the format of the EPG. It is usually text reflecting program title, lead cast members, start time, running time and short synopsis. 

Content discovery is a combination of channel surfing, scrolling through the EPGs and textual or voice search (depending on the capabilities of the device or service provider).

On-Demand

…consumption is available through many types of services. The most popular sources of on-demand shows and movies are Subscription Video-on-Demand vendors such as Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video. These same providers are also introducing Ad-based Video-on-Demand as an alternative business model. The on-demand model is also used by many Pay TV providers to extend the availability of their linear programming  for catch-up viewing and is increasing in popularity as consumers combat subscription fatigue.

Viewers have maximum flexibility to decide when, where and how they want to view content selected from a video service provider’s content catalogue. Available content is displayed in a user interface comprised of a series of “rails” or “swim lanes”. Each of these rails is categorised by genres, watch lists or other criteria such as new releases or suggestions based on viewing history. In addition to the textual data similar to that found in linear EPGs, the metadata usually includes images, trailers and deep links; More granular descriptors, such as multiple genres, ratings or reviews, are often used to help subscribers identify content of interest. 

Content discovery is achieved in multiple ways. Subscribers can use text-based or voice search; or they can also scroll through the user interface to continue watching a favourite series or discover new programs. Studies have shown that images influence content discovery and can be personalised to appeal to different types of viewers. It is only possible to search for content that exists within the provider’s content catalogue. 

Free-Ad-Supported-TV (aka FAST)

… is provided by a combination of distinct service providers such as Roku, PlutoTV and Tubi; and smart TV manufacturers such as Samsung, LG or Vizio. In all cases, they provide hundreds of free channels that allow viewers to enjoy linear style programming with ads. The channels usually reflect specific themes of pre-programmed content. The content line-up can also include live events.  With the ability to create pop-up channels centred around the live event, they can deliver a compelling combination of live and on-demand content appealing to fans. 

The first challenge faced by FAST service providers is that of having enough content to enable linear streaming all day, every day. The second and more significant challenge is content discovery. Familiar broadcast channels may or may not exist in a FAST service. Users scroll or search for desired content within the FAST channel user interface which, depending on the service provider, ranges from a traditional EPG layout to a modern user interface with thematic “rails”.

What is the impact of these different types of services? On the plus side, they represent a vast range of video programs and flexibility in how they can be consumed. Consumers can no longer complain that they don’t have enough choice. However, in overcoming the challenge of watching content when and where they want, a new quandary has arisen – the one of actually discovering the content they want to watch.  This is not a new hurdle, but it is one that had been sidelined as other priorities were pursued.

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

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