Over the last decade, we’ve experienced a drastic change in the way we receive and use the content. Take millennials, for instance. They now watch more content on the Internet than on TV, with 20% of their traffic coming from mobiles. Given such a tangible difference in content consumption, we’d like to present some takeaways from entertainment market growth analysis as for 2017.
How is TV transforming?
Television is, therefore, also transforming. Streaming channels have come into place, and more than 60% of people use them on a monthly basis, according to Deloitte.
Now, most traditional TV media have an online version, allowing everyone to watch their favorite shows from their browsers. The emergence of over-the-top (OTT) providers has also to do with that. Thanks to them, television is no longer linked to a particular location, becoming international in nature.
Besides, OTT providers have shaped new ad-free media channels, available for subscription. Therefore, customers can choose themselves whether to watch conventional TV, according to a weekly program or pay a relatively small amount of money to get their content in the most convenient form and time.
Content sharing without borders
OTT makes a truly borderless world of content, where you are no longer tied to a certain place. Not that long ago, people from different countries lived behind the closed doors. All the content they received through TV was predominantly national, with some international channels available with cable television. However, some less famous regional channels were shown solely to the inhabitants of that very channel.
Look at the Ukrainians and Russians living in the North America, for example. These people can watch Ukrainian and Russian TV channels online wherever they are. A real home away from home.
TIP: See the most popular Russian and Ukrainian TV channels here.
This is a win-win for consumers and content creators. While customers receive the chosen content where they want it the most, advertisers acquire a good deal of data about their location, interests, activities, and preferences, thereby ensuring a truly personalized brand-customer communication. Thus, you no longer show your ad to a general audience but align it to the needs of a particular customer. However, a company will require a quality data analysis so as to find the right target audience based on the information they provide.
How is OTT challenging the status quo?
OTT is already changing the future of entertainment market. Using smart TVs and direct access to the Internet, customers can now use all the benefits of online television without conventional operators.
However, OTT is even more than that. In mobile space, consumers no longer need traditional messaging provided by cellphone operators, thanks to various messengers, including WhatsApp, Viber, Facebook Messenger or media-sharing services like Instagram or Snapchat.
All this results in a brand-new marketing. Brands are embarking on a new way of promotion through OTT channels. However, this requires extra effort as the environment and customer expectations in this field are quite different from conventional marketing. As a matter of fact, companies will have to rethink their organization in order to succeed in the new domain.
They will have to think like a media agency and try new ways of promotion, given the ad-free approach of many OTT providers. That’s where the value should come first. Customers using OTT channels want to see a clear value of the offer. Besides, a greater emphasis should be put into re-marketing to undecided prospects rather than marketing to existing clients.
The decline of the film industry?
Similar to television, film industry undergoes severe changes, and not always for good. Due to the economic instability, rise of digital channels, and overall transformation of the entertainment market, film industry has to adapt.
Since the emergence of live streaming television and OTT providers, it has faced the increased competition. Customers who used to spend their money at the cinema now would rather buy a subscription to IPTV and watch whatever they want on-demand. Moreover, user-generated content is gaining momentum, covering broader audience on YouTube, Vimeo, Tumblr, and so on. Oh, not to forget about an even greater number of viewers getting used to ad-free content, hence decreasing potential revenues of filmmakers. Streams and on-demand video are constantly carving a greater market share, while many ordinary people ditch movie theatres for video content they can watch at home.
Another issue has to do with security reasons. Pirates are becoming more active with the time, often leaking original movies into the Internet even before the end of the premiere week, disrupting financial expectations of producers.
These factors altogether lead to reduced financing of filmmaking and moving budgets to more rapidly developing formats (take TV series, for instance) so as to cater to shifting tastes of a broader audience.
Finally, filmed entertainment has recently been subject to reduced financing and a need to convert heavier video into newer web-friendly formats.
Summing Up
The rising popularity of OTT channels and on-demand content has resulted in the overall internationalization of content on the one hand, and the need to rethink traditional advertising – on the other.
The impact of this change is seen in the way people consume content, gradually shifting to shorter easier-to-digest formats available wherever they go.
Although this may be potentially harmful to filmed entertainment industry, the positives will still outweigh the negatives. People who previously had little choice between TV and movie theater can now enjoy the plethora of other options.
This is particularly true for expats and migrants forced to leave their motherhood. Thanks to OTT providers and IPTV, they will no longer depend on traditional TV and can watch their favorite channels or programs wherever they want.
