The Media and entertainment (M&E) industry is undergoing a seismic shift. The pace of technological change is accelerating so quickly that finding the right balance between addressing today’s daily operational challenge and planning for the next big thing can be a struggle. M&E companies need to do more than react to today’s challenges — they need to start driving operational change that will prepare them for the future of television.

When working on the Future of Television – Media & Entertainment study, EY has analyzed thousands of interview hours with leaders and executives of M&E companies around the world, in order to identify the six emerging trends that would impact strongly the traditional business models based on revenues from advertising, subscriptions and pay-per-use content:

1. Storytelling will evolve to make better use of an omniplatform environment: Metadata that enables synchronization between screens is a key enabler to this experience. However, this has implications for almost every system in a media company’s supply chain, from content creation and preparation through sales, traffic and distribution. Omniplatform programming will strain digital supply chains even further.

2. Ubiquitous screens will demand greater content mobility: Content providers will want to measure engagement and captivation across not just multiple platforms, but also multiple screens to determine how to optimize the experience and ad placements. More screens mean more potential opportunities for ad impressions, provided the experience is carefully calibrated and tuned for a multiscreen lifestyle.

3. Social dynamics and synergistic experiences will drive more event-based viewing: Although consumers will continue to demand time- and place-shifted viewing, M&E companies may want to consider creating event windows to drive relationships with content franchises, and deliver value to advertisers that is “DVR-proof.” While the viewing landscape grows increasingly fractured, consumers still want to be part of the collective social experience of events such as the World Cup or the Academy Awards. If content creators can build a strong social experience around a program (e.g., gaming and other social second screen experiences) viewers will not want to be left out and be driven back to the screen.

4. Innovation in program discovery and television controls will drive new techniques to cut through the clutter: Content providers will have to engage in “content discovery optimization,” similar to today’s search engine optimization practices where content is continuously tuned so that it can be discovered by the broadest possible audience at the right time. This will need to go far beyond the descriptive show metadata and into parameters, such as sentiment of show, optimum watching circumstances (screen size, etc.) and shared creative heritage.

5. Bingeing will drive more innovation in measurement and personalization: M&E companies will need to measure “bingeing” (where a viewer consumes several hours of the same back-to-back content in a single sitting) more granularly than broadcast television is measured today. Using data analytics, companies can then package the right experiences for advertisers and monetize them directly by building a model that caters to different types of binge viewers. The challenge to be solved is obtaining this data from distribution partners.

6. New entrants demanding unique content will drive innovation beyond the traditional studio system: New relationship models will enable a larger number of players within the M&E industry to take more creative risks. The corresponding impact on systems to track and calculate rights, profits and participations, and revenue realization will have to account for an even more complex fabric of participants and interested parties.

In Romania, television remains the main media channel used by both advertisers and small investment companies, according to Media Fact Book 2015. Last year, the TV market has reached 198 million Euros for the first time after 2009, while the main TV stations have changed their sales approach. This is why the high media space demand in clutter months has exceeded the capacity of TV stations and has created growing expectations for 2015.

On the other hand, according to the study developed by BRAT in 2014, average number of minutes spent by Romanians in front of the TV has decreased last year bellow 200 minutes daily, mainly due to the firece competition of online channels, both in the urban and in the rural area. Data shows an upward trend for online adherence, which forecasts a growing migration to screens, other than the TV, such as laptop, tablet and mobile.

Elena Badea, Marketing Director, EY Romania says:
„At a foundational level, the six key trends we have described will require M&E companies and content providers to develop much richer relationships with viewers. We see the future of television as a carefully crafted omniscreen experience that combines great content with equally compelling social and gamification techniques tailored to an individual viewer’s stated and implicit preferences.”


About EY Romania
EY is one of the world's leading professional services firms with approximately 190,000 employees in 700 offices across 150 countries, and revenues of approximately $27.4 billion in the fiscal year that ended on 30 June 2014. Our network is the most integrated at global level and its vast resources allow us to help our clients benefit from every opportunity. In Romania, EY has been a leader on the professional services market since its set up in 1992. Our over 500 employees in Romania and Moldova provide seamless assurance, tax, transactions, and advisory services to clients ranging from multinationals to local companies. Our offices are based in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Iasi and Chisinau. In 2014, EY Romania has affiliated to the only global competition dedicated to entrepreneurship, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year. The winner of the local edition represents Romania in the international finale that takes place every year in June in Monte Carlo. The World Entrepreneur Of The Year title is awarded at the international finale. For more information, please visit www.ey.com.