Digital trends transforming Media and Entertainment Sector

Changing customer behavior and preferences have been driving the digital transformation of the media industry, particularly among younger millennials who demand immediate access to information, anywhere. To boost market efficiency and improve customer engagement, new digital trends are being introduced across the Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry.

Some of the major shifts happening in the Media and Entertainment sector are listed below:

D2C Video Streaming

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) video streaming took a hike in the initial lockdown phase where people’s connection with the outside world was totally cut off. As the whole world stayed at home, people looked for variety, meaningful and quality video content. Over-the-top (OTT) platform like Netflix, Sony live, Amazon Prime, came into audience visibility, due to their variety of offerings that TV audience has not witnessed before. For example, In the Digital Media world, for the first time Disney removed content from Netflix and sold it to D2C platform, which introduced a new pet project called Disney+.

Apart from unique content, people preferred OTT platforms because of the ad-free experience. In the online video market, there is an option called as Adblockers, which helps the consumer to delete or remove the adds. The reason behind the Ad-free concept is to provide the consumer with volume content and good quality experience.

However, with top studios turning to video streaming, ad-supported content is expected to return soon. This is partly due to the pitfall of keeping subscription fees competitive.

Content Personalisation

Content Personalisation is a technique that focuses on visitor’s data to provide meaningful content, based on audience interest and inspiration. Marketers may use content customisation tools and techniques to enhance user experience and, in turn, increase the engagement rate. Millennials and Gen-Z want to see content that is personalised to their preferences and this can lead to media companies adopting advanced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning techniques to anticipate user behavior.

Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR)

The international entertainment and media market, driven by Augmented and Virtual Reality, will unlock new technological frontiers. People now find themselves catapulted into an environment were the borders are blurred and intertwined between the digital and physical realms. Augmented and Virtual Reality has become one of the most effective marketing instruments available over the years due to the price ramp down. Most smartphones models are supporting AR content.

Artificial Intelligence

AI's predictive powers are influencing television, animation, VFX, Out-of-Home advertising (OOH), radio, and much more. Media & entertainment companies hold a huge unstructured data repository which can be brought to life by means of AI tools. Engineers are using AI, ML, and Natural Language Processing to consolidate a company's predictive capacity to forecast user engagement with the content. This Targeted efficiency leads to better monetization opportunities.

Esports Broadcasting

The worldwide eSports revenues are expected to hit US$ 1 billion by the end of 2020, of which the major share will come from sponsorships (US$ 614.9 million) and media rights (US$ 176.2 million). Gaming events will provide a platform for the latest AR/VR technology. While the line between esports, esports betting and fantasy can be blurry, organisations such as the Mobile Premier League (MPL), PayTM First Games, Dream11 and WinZO have heavily invested into fantasy sports and real-money gaming. Entertainment software development can be easily turned in this direction to foster app creation.