Streaming Media White Paper 2008 - (Page 24) 24 Best Practices: HOW TO PROFIT FROM INTERNET TV for categorization (i.e. by year, director, or genre) and other means of organizing video offerings. However, content metadata varies widely in both what data is captured and what format it resides in. For example, a mobile TV distribution partner and an online rental website will offer different metadata for the same asset and often in varying formats such as Excel and XML.Therefore, metadata analysis is often both manual and labor intensive. Effective metadata should be harmonized to allow for efficient parsing. Standardized Workflow Content owners and distributors must unify asset workflow processes including content ingestion, metadata association, content transcoding,content encryption,and commercial packaging.In the workflow of video distribution,it is critical to first amalgamate metadata according to one or more emerging industry standards (CableLabs, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, and MovieLabs are active here) wherever possible.Then, metadata feeds, each with unique formatting and requirements for included fields, need to be created for each distribution partner. Finally, the platform should provide a delivery mechanism for this data and track usage, history, and modifications. Automating the complex processes of video service delivery reduces costs and reduces mistakes, making turning on a dime, much, much easier.” can ensure that they have signed off on critical stages of the workflow to ensure the end result is a service that meets distribution partner requirements and end user expectations. • Customizability both within the automation console and programmatically. This allows the inclusion of steps or other technologies in the process that may lie outside the video distribution service. sharing the raw data via an application programming interface (API) or simple export mechanism. At a high level, effective data dashboards allow decision makers to see how consumers respond to a particular service and provide key data points for adjusting strategy. Should the number of advertisements be increased? How much of the video is being viewed? What is the click-through rate on companion banners? What price point is most effective? How does categorization influence consumer purchase behavior? All of these questions and more can be effectively answered and the strategy modified—in real time—with an appropriate infrastructure for metering, collecting, reporting, and analyzing data generated by a digital video service. Adapt or Perish – The Need for Evolution in Profitable Internet Video Businesses The explosive growth of broadband video will continue unabated, but the rules have evolved and will continue to change. It is no longer enough to deliver a single-mode service that relies on a single delivery method or economic model. All participants in this industry must quickly design, launch, test, evaluate, and change their service offerings along with changing consumer expectations. Tracking and adapting to these changing tides is the key to maximizing the revenue of a particular service offering. By the same token,the costs of deploying these services must be controlled. Multiple services must be consolidated and complex manual processes must be automated. And of course, your efforts must be measured for effectiveness and that data shared with your partners, vendors, and stakeholders, as collaboration will drive the development and refinement of best practices. Make Quick and Informed Decisions: The Reporting and Analytics Lynchpin Broadband distribution and consumption of video enables a level of data collection that is unprecedented in the broadcast world. An appropriate infrastructure can gauge how much of a video or ad was watched, the amount of ad impressions completed,when and where videos are paused, where content was discovered, whether the video was watched in full-screen mode, and numerous other metrics that traditional broadcasting cannot provide. This richness of data metering, collection, reporting, and analytics provides the insight and hindsight necessary to drive business decisions. Upon collection, data must be aggregated across distribution channels and fed into an appropriate business intelligence dashboard to facilitate strategic decision making. This dashboard may be an existing business intelligence platform, part of the video service delivery platform, or a small collection of disparate systems.However,this data must also be shareable with other stakeholders in the ecosystem, such as ad networks, content rights holders, affiliates, and licensing authorities. This can be achieved by exposing a version of the dashboard to the stakeholder or by simply Automate the Process: The Efficiency Driver Unified processes alone are not enough to create significant efficiencies. Automation also plays an essential role,especially for aggregators that package content from multiple sources and distribute through a variety of platforms.Video service automation takes several forms, but robust implementations all include: • Flexibility to handle multiple content ingest points allowing for multiple content providers and multiple distribution outputs. Automation routines or profiles must be able to manage these processes on an individual or collective basis. • Ability to automate individual steps such as encoding or encryption,as well as the endto-end process on a per affiliate (end point) basis.Once the individual steps have been automated (e.g., transcoding), those processes can be reused and strung together into end-to-end profiles.This simplifies the creation of automation templates. • Automated processes that include messaging and approval capabilities. This way, content owners and distributors ABOUT EXTEND MEDIA ExtendMedia’s digital content service delivery platform offers unrivaled flexibility and versatility to create, control and securely deliver high-quality digital media content across broadband, TV and mobile devices in both paid media and ad-supported formats. Headquartered in Boston, Mass., ExtendMedia powers initiatives for innovative communications and media companies including AT&T, Bell Canada, Cablevision, Hewlett Packard, NBC, and Showtime. For more information, please visit us at www.extend.com. http://www.extend.com
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