Advanced Television

‘Online Video’ the hottest topic at IBC 2018

September 26, 2018

Platform Communications, the technology communications expert, has revealed that the Platform Media Index for IBC 2018 reveals ‘Online Video’ and ‘Media Convergence’ were the hottest topics at the global broadcast industry show – accounting for more than a third of share of voice combined. The Index provides a snapshot of leading media technology trends, moves being made by key industry players, and discussions in the media around the event.

Mirroring last year’s Media Index for IBC, the most covered topic was ‘Online Video’ with a 20.7 per cent share of voice, followed by ‘Media Convergence’ (14.4 per cent), which surged to second place from fourth spot last year. ‘High Resolution Video’ (12.3 per cent) dropped from second to third, with ‘IP’ (11.1 per cent) taking fourth spot and Cloud/Virtualization (10.9 per cent) rounding out the top five, falling from third in 2017.

Gay Bell, Chief Executive, Platform Communications, commented: “The Platform Media Index offers a great indicator of the topics creating a buzz at IBC 2018. The spread of coverage of IBC makes clear that, in a year when Netflix reported topping 125 million subscribers, ‘Online Video’ continues to drive discussions both on the show floor and in the media.”

Netflix was the dominant brand in the ‘Online Video’ media coverage, as the VoD pioneer was the primary reference point in the slew of stories on monetization alternatives to the traditional subscription model, new product announcements and services enabling broadcasters to launch their own OTT services.

“The Index provides a great way to track how industry trends are evolving – seeing which are capturing the imagination and which are falling out of the conversation,” Bell noted. “This year’s results highlight the fact that consumer demands for more advanced TV experiences are really pushing industry innovation.”

Media Convergence was the big mover in the top five, with coverage of major players such as MediaKind (formerly Ericsson Media Solutions) and Synamedia (formerly Cisco Service Provider Video Software Solutions) announcing new products, services and strategies embracing convergence. As with last year’s show and NAB earlier this year, Android TV continues to prompt discussion on what shape the multiscreen revolution is taking. Companies providing the devices, software and overall infrastructure to support deployment of the Google platform drove coverage with product launches and specialist events.

Topics that fell in the Media Index were ‘High Resolution Video’, which slipped one place, ‘Cloud/Virtualization’, which slipped two spots, ‘Content Security’ and ‘User Experience’, both down one. The big losers were ‘Virtual/Augmented Reality’ and ‘Data Analytics’ which fell out of the top 10 altogether. Although VR/AR could still possibly play a big role in broadcast media in future, the limitations of the current generation of hardware and lack of high-quality content has left the initial hype of 2017 looking a bit premature – especially for those with memories of the 3D TV circus that never managed to pitch its tent.

‘Data Analytics’ loss would appear to be a gain for ‘Artificial Intelligence’, as the once hot topic of ‘Big Data’ seemed to morph into ‘AI’ – which rose two places in the Index to eighth spot, doubling its level of coverage to 6 per cent share of voice from 3 per cent last year. Companies that had previously touted their data expertise are now moving into ‘AI’ and ‘machine learning’, which have now emerged as their main talking points – but further growth in coverage appears to be hampered by a lack of concrete examples of products actively using AI already.

Holding steady in the table was ‘Workflow and Media Asset Management’ in seventh spot – but up slightly in share of voice to 6.7 per cent from 6 per cent in 2017 – while ‘IP’ and ‘Next Generation Codecs’ were new to the top 10. With HEVC adoption still relatively sluggish and the Alliance for Open Media finally releasing its new AV1 codec earlier this year, several high-profile articles and conference presentations on the merits of AV1 versus HEVC buoyed coverage on this topic.

 

Categories: AI, Articles, Big Data, OTT, OTT, Research, VOD, VR, Work flow