• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, June 15, 2017

According to The Ooyala Global Video Indexreport, more than 50% of all video plays were on mobile in 2016 for the first time; that number is expected to rise to 60% in 2017. In 2017, video has become the most critical content for any media organization. Data-driven video is now at the center of the media experience, and the industry winners of today and tomorrow have already figured that out.

The state of the media industry in 2017 shows that Data-driven video and advertising are changing the game for all kinds of media brands. And video is proving to be the best way to satisfy media content that consumers want: Immediacy, Individualization, Interactivity and Immersion.

Media logistics platforms designed for the cloud, and informed by data, are streamlining media work-flows and boosting collaboration across scattered production teams. Artificial intelligence is automating manual tasks, allowing media brands to focus their resources on creating better content, says the report.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook, as quoted in Recode, says that “… most of the content ten years ago was text… (then) photos, and now videos… a few years from now… the vast majority of the content that people consume online will be video… ”

Data-driven video is changing the way media works in 2017, says the report, helping media companies give consumers personalized video in more places and more ways, opening new fronts and monetization opportunities in the ever-growing social and mobile markets.

Data is also behind new advancements in advertising, real-time video, augmented reality and virtual reality, as well as streamlined production logistics and collaboration for teams around the world.

As a result, businesses are using data to pursue new audiences, new ways of engaging, and entirely new business models. The media business is reinventing itself, and the choice for publishers is to get on board or be left behind, concludes the report.

CONSUMERS

Mobile surpassed desktopslast year for internet consumption globally, although viewing habits still vary by global region due in part to market device penetration and content and broadband availability differences. eMarketer forecasts that U.K. adults will devote 53 minutes daily to watching digital videothis year, and 27 of those minutes will be on mobile devices; in the U.S., mobile digital videowill take up 31 minutes of the average viewer’s daily media time, up from nine minutes just five years ago. Look for unlimited data plansand more robust broadband capacity to spur even more mobile video consumption at higher resolutions, and across regions, says the report.

INDUSTRY

The challenges and opportunities of an industry in transition are top of mind in media today. Companies are tearing down and pairing up, building new assets and revisiting old ones.

The rise of mobile and social video brings the industry new opportunities and challenges. Look for data to help publishers further refine offerings and understand exactly who, what, when, where, how and why their video is being consumed, and how best to optimize and monetize it going forward.

TECHNOLOGY

Technology has continued to alter the landscape of media. Humans and machines are becoming more interchangeable in many areas as data-driven automation rises. This is speeding the creation and dissemination of video content, just as more advances are making it possible to place audiences in the middle of all the action.

“There’s a fashion for media companies to call themselves technology companies... Our job isn’t to make technology. Our job is to figure out how to use technologies.”

– Jake Silverstein, Editor, The New York Times Magazine

CONTENT

Publishers are finding that live video not only sets them apart, but sets them free to explore new ways of sharing information and telling stories in the moment. Whether those stories are short-form or long, data is helping make them more meaningful to audiences who demand it their way always.

“Live streaming is a distinct, new category that bridges television and social media. It offers huge audiences, viewer interaction, and commerce opportunities only found through the magic of live streams.”

– Ronald C. Pruett Jr., CEO, Roker Media

Nothing says “immediacy” quite like live streaming video. It’s now a key point of differentiation among media companies. The time is right: live video streaming on mobile is expected to rise 39x by 2021, according to a new Cisco Visual Networking Index report

ADVERTISING

Digital video is bringing new growth opportunities to publishers around the world. Data-driven practices are helping to hone new ad formats and overcome some of the industry’s growing pains around ad avoidance and accountability—along with rising threats from social players.

“… you have to look at where people spend the most amount of time to see where ad spending will increase... And… the answer to that question is mobile…”

Omar Akhtar, Analyst, Altimeter Group

According to eMarketer, U.S. adults now spend over an hour of their daily media time with digital video, and U.S. ad spending on instream digital video formats is expected to increase by over 19% YoY in 2017. The Magna Global Advertising Revenue Forecast shows that Programmatic grew from $14.2 billion in 2015 to $19.5 billion this year, and is expected to hit $36.8 billion in 2019.

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