Singapore – Asia-Pacific has a unique broadcasting market dynamic that boasts a new generation of the Connected Consumer. According to IDC, due to the combination of a fast growing economy and a lack of fixed infrastructure in the developing countries, mobility is crucial to the lives of many consumers and businesses in the region. Enterprises need to adapt their business to suit the changing consumer preferences or risk getting left behind.

Taking this into consideration, Verghese believes that the broadcasting industry is one to watch out for in 2015 as more businesses learn to best leverage the mobile device adoption and to utilize it to engage with consumers. He shares his views with BroadcastAsia2015, and looks ahead on how the changing broadcasting industry will impact enterprises as it finds new ways to engage audiences, monetise those engagements, and better manage the user experience. Verghese presents a sneak preview of his speech; let’s take a look at some of the key trends set to change the broadcasting industry in 2015

Audience fragmentation

It is no secret that more consumers are turning to their mobile devices for updates on world news, and for the latest in entertainment. In the past decade, since the proliferation of smart connected display devices, there has been a shift in the way consumers and enterprises consume and deliver video, with more access to their news, sports, videos and entertainment on a myriad of sources as opposed to traditional television. This added convenience and accessibility have changed the consumption patterns of the Connected Consumer and by extension, the broadcasting industry – spreading the audience reach across borders and across multiple platforms. This shift in audience preferences has also resulted in changes to business models with new revenue streams from these new platforms.

Varying degrees of infrastructure

While the distribution and delivery of content has evolved over the years, one of the key challenges is in sustaining high quality services over multiple platforms and varying quality of network infrastructure.

Given that the broadband speeds are higher than it used to be, more broadcasters are choosing to use the internet as a platform to deliver their own video and content. Broadcasters are able to leverage the rising broadband speeds and technological infrastructure in the region to offer better and higher video streaming qualities that tie in with the connected lifestyle that many consumers enjoy now.

Players in the broadcasting industry are increasingly leveraging on cloud services to address the challenge of offering consumers content anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Take Malaysia for example, with fiber optics and high speed mobile broadband roll-out, consumers are increasingly spending more time on both local and international OTT services as opposed to traditional broadcast services. This creates both immense opportunities and challenges to broadcasters as they adapt their distribution methods to suit the changing consumer needs.

Content partnership

Another interesting trend in the region is content partnerships between telecommunications companies, and content aggregators. We are now seeing a regionalisation of services where local broadcasters are expanding their reach towards regional and global audiences via OTT services provided by a telecommunications company. Another example of regionalisation is TV channels that have developed mobile applications to engage with a wide audience base beyond their market. This helps to further promote their brand and generate advertising revenue. These applications typically have an authenticated experience with extended access to the content library so they are also intended to have a positive impact on subscriber revenue for the channel. Broadcasters are also today partnering with connected device manufacturers to maximize reach and enhance appeal of these devices at the point of sale.

Data & Analytics

Businesses need to do more than react to today’s trends – they need to be able to see emerging trends that will dictate the future of television and develop richer relationships with viewers. With digital video products in the hands of millions of users, there is now a huge amount of data being generated for broadcasters. Analytics on this data now allows us to delve into the consumer psyche to unearth consumption patterns and behaviours for better insight into the consumer profile to tailor services and unique content offerings, better helping broadcasters to stand out from the crowd.