The media and entertainment industry is experiencing a period of rapid change. The market predictions for 2024 underscored the ongoing volatility in the media industry. We have already seen continued layoffs and potential declines in revenue from consumer experiences. The impact of industry strikes and organizational changes, such as Paramount's potential sale and upcoming cost restructuring, highlights the uncertainty and instability facing the sector. Despite occasional recoveries, the long-term effects of these disruptions require strategic planning and adaptability.
Over the past five years, the media supply chain, encompassing content preparation, distribution, and business workflows, has seen substantial shifts. Initially, organizations approached cloud technologies with caution, but now there's a widespread desire to leverage the immense power and flexibility offered by cloud solutions. While the potential benefits of cloud adoption are considerable, the journey can be fraught with challenges. Organizations must bring their teams along this journey, managing a spectrum of reactions from excitement to fear and confusion.
The transition to cloud-based environments is a critical focus for the vendor community, with major players like AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure leading the charge. Navigating multi-cloud environments and understanding the associated cost structures is critical. One of the significant challenges in cloud adoption is managing egress charges—the costs associated with transferring data out of cloud environments. Major cloud providers are beginning to alleviate these costs to facilitate smoother transitions between platforms. As more content moves to the cloud, internal data transfers become more efficient and less costly. Organizations must strategically manage their data, considering factors like storage, transfer, and processing costs to optimize their cloud environments.
Companies must rethink their approaches to digital transformation and cloud integration. There's a tendency to chase the latest technological trends, such as artificial intelligence (AI), without a clear strategic framework, often leading to a fool’s errand. This phenomenon is not new; it mirrors historical transitions, such as the move from tape-based to file-based workflows. In such transitions, organizations often make superficial changes without rethinking the underlying processes. Effective digital transformation requires new skill sets and a reconfiguration of team dynamics to fully leverage new technologies.
Organizations need to focus on adopting best practices that foster collaboration and efficiency. This includes consolidating similar tasks across teams, providing visibility into available content for sales, and rethinking organizational structures. These practices help reduce friction in the supply chain and optimize resource utilization, ultimately enhancing the overall effectiveness of media operations.
The restructuring of the media workforce and the consolidation of roles are key trends. It drives a need for a unified interface that sits across the increasingly complex ecosystem that makes up the modern digital supply chains. Tools that enhance collaboration across departments and provide visibility and consistency in workflows and the various business constituents. By streamlining communication and reducing friction, organizations can improve efficiency and effectiveness in their operations, ultimately driving cost savings – put another way – achieving exponential growth without exponential cost.
CFOs and finance organizations have become more educated and involved in technology solutions and often can make it feel like a shift in power dynamics within media organizations. There is a greater amount of financial scrutiny and the need for better control over expenditures that may have been loosened in recent years. The urgency of content production, localization, and participation in the “streaming wars” during the pandemic led to rapid decisions and actions. However, as the industry stabilizes, the focus is returning to financial control and strategic planning. There is an important balance to be maintained, ensuring that technological innovation and financial stability go hand in hand.
An important aspect of this latest transformation has to do with the economic conditions that the industry and the economy, as a whole, is experiencing. Where there was previously a desire to fully embrace an operational expenditure (Opex) model, we have seen a return to exploring and favoring capital expenditure (Capex) models. While Opex models offer advantages like reduced upfront costs and greater flexibility, they also present challenges, especially as businesses struggle to maintain EBITDA targets. Organizations need to balance these financial models, considering the extended lifecycle of tools and software, which often last well beyond the traditionally accepted three-year depreciation period.
We emphasize a comprehensive approach that focuses on navigating the evolving landscape of digital transitions, cloud strategies, and sales strategies, offering critical insights into both current trends and future directions while harnessing the power of the latest tools to achieve a balanced, efficient operational framework. As the industry continues to evolve, the ability to adapt and innovate will be crucial for sustained success.
[Editors note: In a Q&A with TV Tech's Phil Kurz, Shenkler discusses this fast-paced technological evolution, how it is changing the dynamic within media organizations when it comes to setting strategic direction with regards to technology and workflow and what to expect as these ongoing transitions accelerate. The video is available below.]
