The Future is Continuing Change for the Broadcast and Media World

This means that local suppliers will inevitably focus on 4K/8K broadcast and media technology production. However, they must also address the changing consumption habits of their end customers, who increasingly expect to view on multiple devices and on the move, and use big data as part of the work flow to optimize their offerings for each and every viewer.

In the Asian and Pacific region, IABM noted the diversity of technology choices across various countries. While Japan and South Korea are focusing on higher resolution and transmission at 4K / 8K, it should also be noted that only these two countries in Asia have so far achieved analog switch off. In the region the transition has been complicated by a myriad of factors including: government commitment; household finances; suppliers and broadcasters’ commitment. This presents many opportunities for broadcast and media suppliers over the coming years.

As Japan focuses on the 2020 Summer Games and South Korea on the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Games, TV stations will need to understand changing viewing habits and learn from the 2016 Summer Games in Brazil.

The opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games drew 26.5 million viewers on Comcast Corp.’s NBC on Friday night - a 35% decline from the record-setting audience for London’s opener in 2012, which attracted 40.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen. That trend continued on the Saturday night with 20.7 million tuning into NBC to watch the games, down 28% from the 28.7 million that watched the first night of the London 2012 games. Viewership among people ages 18 to 34 – the so-called millennials - has fallen 32 percent.

Although overall linear TV viewing wasat its lowest since the 2004 Games in Athens (and an 18% decline in linear TV viewing compared to the London Games), NBC reported that 2.25bn web-streams were supplied via its website - 3.3bn minutes (live transmission + replays) downloaded by over 100m users (29% up compared to the London Games). Akamai delivered more video data in the first eight days of Rio than it did for all 34 days of London and Sochi combined.

In 2016 the transition to multi-platform delivery continued to disrupt the traditional broadcast landscape. Changing viewing habits have forced broadcasters to launch new media offerings and transition to an infrastructure capable of delivering both linear and non-linear channels.

We saw in 2016 the opening up of SVOD services such as Netflix. This followed the announcement at CES in January 2016 where Netflix declared its intention to bring its services to another 130 countries around the world. This shocked the broadcasting world; Netflix is almost at a stroke a totally global operation and without borders (with the exception of China, Syria and North Korea) - and because Netflix’s SVOD services are instantly available thanks to the power of the internet, it incurs no major extra distribution costs in doing so.

To summarize, 2017 is going to see continuing dramatic changes in how our audiences consume media. As the broadcast and media industries adapt to the convergence of technologies from IT, telecommunications and the internet, TV stations, cable networks and media suppliers will be fundamentally changing their business models to adapt as fast as the technology advances.

“Change is the constant and the rate of change will never beso slow again”