7 Incredible Digital Innovations in Media and Entertainment

Digital innovations are not a know-how topic in 2020 because the processes of the Fourth Industrial Revolution have swept not just manufacturing and traditional industrial practices but literally every field of human life. The process took its time and pace, but this year digitalization of business was significantly speeded up due to lockdowns caused by the ongoing fight with COVID-19. Today businesses that fail to introduce new technologies to their daily operations will not survive the competition; 34% of media and entertainment companies will no longer stay in the market without help from a digital transformation agency.

If you surf the web, you are likely to see the roaring and impressive implementations of robotics in all spheres of business, AI-based algorithms working with Big Data, and the ubiquitous blockchain going far beyond the financial sector. This article, however, focuses on the less famous, yet still groundbreaking elements of media and entertainment digital transformation.

Top 7 Digital Transformation Technologies in Media and Entertainment

Subscription Models

It is not a new invention, yet one that boomed due to COVID-19. The IABM’s Coronavirus Impact Tracker showed that the demand for legacy software, such as permanent licenses, significantly declines in 2020. People don’t want to buy a TV package for, let’s say, $100 and use only two channels out of it. Consumers get much more demanding and prefer the as-a-service subscription model, where they pay exactly for what they need. This change also concerns big industry participants – businesses working in media and entertainment. Again, why paying for the whole set of tools if only a dozen of them is useful, right? The business in this respect switches to the enterprise subscription model where the digitalization strategy is based on the needs of a company, not the market’s offer.

Niche OTT Solutions

The pandemic opened the doors to catch-up services, SVOD, and even regular TV getting more hits. Of course, once people are allowed to go outside, and the lockdowns are lifted, the numbers will fall, yet the tendency will remain. As a result, all media companies will have to continue with digital transformation innovation ideas to keep the viewers in place. While some companies would take the beaten path and just fill their spaces with content, like Amazon, Netflix, or Apple does; others would focus on their own audience and take up the entertainment niche to unite people around some idea. For example:

• Alchemiya Media, a platform by Navid Akhtar who intends to change the negative media image of Muslims by providing content about “the silent majority: the 99.9% of Muslims who lead peaceful, productive lives as citizens of the world.” 

• BritBox, an OTT platform for British TV shows from BBC and ITV 

• Barça TV+, an SVOD from Spanish La Liga champions FC Barcelona

• Crunchyroll, an East Asian provider of anime content 

• Passionflix, a selection of various romance-themed content with a unique ranking system to measure the ‘love’ factor of each film

Streaming

The number of CTV streaming homes increased from 44 to 50 million in 2020. The four largest streaming services account for 82.5% of all CTV streaming hours. The COVID pandemic also pushed the world to learn from home, train from home, play from home and do everything from home turning the screens of computers, smartphones, and TVs into the windows to the world.

This year, streaming was applied for studying and online lessons, lectures and conferences, workshops, theater plays, sports events, sports fans involvement, etc. The truth is, in 2020, every live event was turned into streaming. And while this is not a new piece of technology, the offer for digital agency services has boomed since starting from March. Every single company needs to have the tools and knowledge for streaming.

Virtual and Augmented Realities

In 2017, The Global Entertainment and Media outlook forecast expected that VR content revenue would get to $5 billion in 2020. The reality shows that the VR and AR market by the end of 2020 would reach $18.8 billion. The numbers don’t lie, so it is safe to say that AR and VR are the hottest trends of the media and entertainment industry even though the number of applications is still pretty limited. Here is where AR/VR technology has peaked this year:

1. Theater – 66% of modern viewers prefer interactive and immersive experience to traditional

2. Museums – since the lockdown, lots of museums introduced virtual reality visits for free to continue sharing the art even under such circumstances

3. Concerts and music shows – the use had also increased, especially when musicians had to be inventive to throw concerts within the strict distancing restrictions from governments

4. Amusement parks – they had to close due to pandemic, but some like Ensenasoft  turned their rides into VR and shared access via a dedicated platform to survive the tough times

The increased demand for digital transformation consulting has also touched the sports and gaming world since both needed to keep up with the growing trend for this technology. 

IoT in Media

Omnipresent goods display has been in the market for quite some time, but omnichannel delivery is beating the charts in 2020. IoT is aimed to transform objects into a work of connected devices. It is already happening. For example, when a user is watching YouTube on the phone, they can continue watching the same video from the same moment on a TV which is also controlled with the phone. Since about 40% of Millennials and Gen-Z’ers are ready to pay more for personalization, the idea of IoT that would connect everything into a single personalized network of offers will definitely win the hearts of the current buyers. Retailers have already gone further with these digital transformation technologies, but this year the media and entertainment industry is already filling the shoes. 

Media Management Software Innovation

This is a must-have for the 2020 digitalization strategy since today, all conversations, disputes, and praises for brands go through the online channels and most social media platforms. Whether this is The New Yorker or the local Evening News in Edinburgh, every media provider today has to transform its content into accessible and easy-to-comprehend posts on social media. The entertainment industry holds most of its promotion through media and social media channels, so perfect juggling of multiple accounts is also an essential element of digital transformation innovation. Luckily, there are many digital technology services that can offer a single solution for multiple tasks: media monitoring, posts publishing, filtering, analytics, audience targeting, and many others. 

Video Chat Accessibility

Yes, streaming services have also been described above, yet video calls are an innovation that deserves its own spot under the sun. Video chats became of the utmost importance in the pandemic times, and they are likely to remain so afterwards. When live communication was cut out, families got separated, and work meetings were banned from personal interactions, the video calls got introduced or improved as a part of the digitalization of business across all industries.

• The undeniable leader of video conferencing Zoom launched the Zoom from Home feature in July 2020

• Facebook as the leader of social media has also introduced video calls in April 2020 to keep the audience

• Even Salesforce has recently introduced Salesforce Anywhere which also includes video calls

Considering that 81% of respondents indicated by IBM reported their preference to continue working remotely, this digital transformation innovation will definitely spread further until every service offers its own unique video conferencing tool or adopts an existing one. 

Conclusion

The world is changing, and it is doing so in leaps, not steps. What has been an innovation yesterday becomes a must-have today, especially when it comes to the media and entertainment industry that has to excite and surprise its end-customers every day. AI, VR, OTT, IoT, and many other acronyms of digital transformation technologies have long been a part of the tech world but now find their new applications across industries. Today, the transformation and evolution of the processes are inevitable to keep the audience and survive the competition. So regardless of the company size and particular area of expertise, the digitalization of business with at least one point from this article can and will keep it competitive and profitable.