Why technology is vital for future-proofing the broadcast and media industry

Today, innovation in technology is changing the way digital media is consumed more quickly than ever before. Tech-savvy consumers are creating an ever-growing market for data-intensive HD and UHD content, consuming content online, on the move and on-demand.

Consequently, across the broadcast and media industry, traditional broadcasters are seeing competition from Over-the-Top (OTT) operators such as Amazon Prime and Netflix, as well as traditional telecoms operators such as Virgin and BT, all of whom are trying to capture their slice of the content pie.

To face up to the challenge of these new players, traditional broadcasters are creating their own on-demand channels through which people can consume linear and non-linear content - content which is being made available for longer and longer periods of time. The entire first series of Killing Eve, for example, is currently available on BBC iPlayer for over a year - substantially longer than the previous 30-day norm.

However, while the likes of Netflix are cloud-native, many late adopters aren’t, and as a result their cost to deliver streamed content can be comparatively high. This is a major reason why the vast majority of the broadcast industry is now looking at moving away from traditional legacy technology - such as the traditional format of Serial Digital Interface (SDI) - towards Internet Protocol (IP) -based networks. With the right infrastructure in place, the rewards of successfully making such a transition include more agility, reach, and capacity, as well as speed.

Cloud flexibility - bolstered by a robust and reliable network - is vital to powering all the innovation the industry has the potential to offer. And this is important, because now more than ever before digital innovation is the name of the game across the broadcast industry. Innovation is what’s needed to make a broadcast business stand out from the crowd, and to deliver more value to consumers.

At Exponential-e, we’ve been working for many years with some of the largest broadcasters to help them distribute content over IP to their viewers - including two royal weddings, the annual broadcast of Wimbledon, and football matches. We’ve also worked with post-production companies, enabling them to leverage cloud technologies to efficiently access remote Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) resources. Currently, we’re working with OTT application providers to help them deliver mobile apps on behalf of broadcasters.

Our work with broadcasters has shown us that offering complete visibility, management, and control of the cloud is powerful - not just for cutting costs, but also to help companies re-engineer their future, and to be competitive in a noisy and demanding market place.

Undoubtedly, the future of broadcast and media is the platform - which is why laying the right technology foundations is so vital for the industry. Through our collective expertise of analysts and engineers, we help companies easily build the digital platform that is right for them. In the process, we help them to reimagine their business and go beyond the competition. Get in touch if you’d like to learn more.