Broadcasters, Media Organizations Stand to Profit from Archived Content

BURLINGTON: A new survey points to growing opportunities for broadcasters and media organizations to profit from archived content, as 37 percent of viewers say they would pay for high-quality personalized content, whether it was current or archived. 

The study, conducted by Ovum and commissioned by Avid, found that quality is the strongest driver of viewer engagement; 65 percent of consumers identified image and audio quality as the main driver of enjoyment. This flight to high quality is also the key to ad engagement; 66 percent of respondents said they watch ads if both the editorial content and the advertising content are high quality.

The report also identifies that broadcasters and media organizations are currently missing out on opportunities to profit from archived content. Of consumers, 37 percent said they are prepared to pay for old episodes of their favorite shows when offered in context; this is more than are prepared to pay a premium for news or scheduled entertainment such as scripted and non-scripted reality. The first phase of research showed that while media producers could monetize as much as 33 percent of their archives to take advantage of those opportunities, most of that archived material is currently inaccessible.

“Producers and content service providers will protect and maximize the value of their media assets when they can dynamically match content with context,” said Adrian Drury, lead analyst for media and broadcast at Ovum. “At the heart of this challenge is an effective metadata strategy.”

“Broadcasters and advertisers are under tremendous pressure to simultaneously grow profits and audience share,” added W. Sean Ford, the VP of worldwide marketing and CMO at Avid. "Our latest research with Ovum convincingly argues that media organizations best poised to win will be those capable of implementing an effective strategy that drives monetization, while incorporating a collaborative, end-to-end production workflow that speeds the development of high-quality content.”