It’s Time to Cost Optimise Your Metadata

Author: Jamie Mackinlay

This has been a tumultuous summer for the media industry. Studios are facing the harsh reality of declining profitability.  Changes in go-to-market models (e.g., subscription vs ad-based) and distribution models (e.g., Linear vs SVOD vs FAST)  must be balanced with the fickle nature of the consumer that has resulted in persistent subscriber churn. 

Media organizations are tightening their financial belts as they acknowledge this new reality. In fact, efficiency and cost control are the new buzzwords motivating anyone delivering video. And a key element impacting both is… METADATA.

Metadata is everywhere. 

• Studios use it to facilitate content sales between studios and content distributors such as networks, broadcasters or streaming services.
• D2C, SVOD, FAST and Linear service providers use metadata to promote their content libraries or channels and to align ads to relevant content.
• Consumers use it every day to learn more about the programmes, films or events they want to watch.  

Well-managed metadata has the power to streamline operations and facilitate monetisation.  As we speak with our customers, we understand that data is being used to support a wide variety of use cases. From feeding linear EPGs to enabling voice/text search or enabling international content sales – complete and accurate descriptive metadata is a necessity. Yet, the organisation’s metadata often resides on multiple internal platforms that do not speak to each other nor adhere to a standard metadata schema. 

With our 10+ years of experience consolidating, cleansing and managing metadata we’ve seen the challenges that inhibit the optimised utilisation of metadata. Our focus has long been on providing the technology to cost-effectively manage metadata ingest, cleansing, processing and publishing. As a result, we have unique insight into how video service providers can improve the effectiveness of metadata-dependent platforms.

It is not uncommon for video service providers to use metadata from multiple sources, even when this presents challenges of integrating that data into a unified repository. With our industry-first Audit capability, we help them assess the status of existing metadata – regardless of where it is currently residing. We provide a view of what data comes from what internal or external sources – meaning where they acquire images, long or short synopses, genres, classifications, ratings, etc. We can align that view to the specific needs of linear broadcasters or on-demand streaming services. We analyze the availability and quality of relevant data combined with the data sources used – empowering providers to review and prioritise sources by data field. This helps them to assess and align their metadata investment to their use of that data. 

This is the foundation for taking control of your metadata investment. We recommend defining a standard metadata schema and consolidating data into a centralized metadata repository. With cost management in mind, video services may find that data enrichment can be achieved simply by unifying and cleansing data spread across multiple internal databases.  And, while updating data on a regular schedule is a necessity to ensure data relevance, automating processes for persistent ingest and data quality assessment provides confidence that the right data is in the right place at the right time. 

We know that high-quality descriptive metadata is critical to the long-term value of video delivery by content owners, broadcasters and streaming providers.  We encourage you to take the first steps towards taking control of your metadata from the perspectives of quality, value achieved and operational efficiency. 

We’ll be at IBC from 15-18 September. Schedule a meeting.