Data is exploding virtually everywhere from the edge of the cloud to
consumers’ devices such as mobile phones and Smart TVs. However, media
operators and telecom companies are facing challenges at assimilating the
treasure trove of data to reach the ultimate goal of data monetisation. Lara Tan sets out to
unearth how they can mine this ‘new gold’.
As the 21st century ushers in the new era
of Internet-of-Everything, data has become the underlying force that powers new
technologies which unveil a new vein of gold for media organisations and
telecoms. According to the Media & Entertainment Reinvention Study
2020 by Ernst & Young, market success will
largely depend on the organisations’ abilities to utilise available data on
their platform.
John Harrison, EY Global Media &
Entertainment leader told APB+: “Data
has always been important for media companies, but today’s volume and variety
of data means that it’s not just an important enabler for media businesses –
increasingly it is the business itself.”
However, a recent study, The
Land of Data, conducted by International Data
Corporation (IDC) identifies two roadblocks faced by organisations in the
Asia-Pacific region when deriving the true value of data: the lack of right
tools to mine and analyse the data, as well as the siloed nature of the data
across organisations.
There are more than 80% of unstructured
data, otherwise known as dark data, in any given organisation according to a
Gartner’s finding. This makes extracting, mining, and analysing of data
difficult and deters informed decisions.
“The amount of value sitting in that dark
data is tremendous. Data is the new gold and our clients are struggling with
how to mine it,” says Jorge Blanco, Advisory principal of KPMG.
ASG Technologies, an IT management and
service provider, offers Mobius Content Services which readily classifies
content to structured format – making it easily searchable for various business
applications. Data can also be on-boarded into a Data
Intelligence platform or Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tool to generate
more comprehensive information, trends and results about the data. This can
result in higher customer success and faster business returns.
Praveen Kumar, general manager of ASG
Technologies (Asia Pacific), suggests: “Apart from collecting the relevant
data, turning it into actionable insights requires creating a correct Data
Governance strategy, and the appropriate IT software to manage and enforce
the same.
“In the media industry, data is the key fuel
of processes, which needs to be defined, designed, implemented and measured.
“Media organisations can transform the data
gathered to actionable insights through digital automation, which will help
them aggregate the data in a single place, allowing them to drive
analytics at some point.”
Verimatrix, a software provider that
specialise in content security, offers expertise in data aggregation by mapping
first-party data and third-party data together to create a complete 360-degree
view of the subscriber experience – leading to insights that help key decision
makers to make better content catalogue and packaging decisions, while
uncovering service disruption issues.
Video service providers can also use the
data to focus on subscriber retention management by establishing a baseline
that can be used to identify subscribers at risk of cancelling – whether it is
due to a negative experience, poor quality, limited use or other factors.
Sebastian Braun, director of Product
Management at Verimatrix, explains: “Media operators can and should leverage
the behavioural data of their viewing audiences to tailor the viewing
experience.
“This happens at an audience segment level.
By taking the demographics and viewing history of a subscriber and analysing
the data on an individual basis, media operators can narrow down to the most
relevant audience segments and tailor the content discovery experience for that
specific user accordingly.”
Apart from extracting and structuring of
data, TiVo’s systems leverage their expertise in Artificial Intelligence (AI)
and advanced Machine Learning (ML) to reduce the tedious flow of structuring
the data and provide a human-centric interface for enterprises to make informed
decisions.
It also allows operators to pipe the data
into their own marketing platforms to allow them to identify patterns and
trends which may indicate when a user is likely to churn, or to surface
optimised content and advertisements based on end-user’s likes and
dislikes.
Therefore, with more structured data and
actionable insights, enterprises can look forward to better engagement rate and
reap higher returns.
Telecom operators, a synonymous vertical of
the media providers, can also play a strategic role in extracting
hyper-granular data insights for both internal and external data monetisation
opportunities; thus, improving user experiences for content providers.
The Land of Data
states that ‘with in-depth customer understanding, telco carriers are able to
offer personalised subscriber offerings that enhance customer experiences
including time-based, location-based and application-based plans amongst
others, as well as create new, segmented and targeted revenue streams, both
internally and with external parties.’
“Telco carriers that leverage data
monetisation opportunities with the right analytical tools can rise above the
competition,” says Kostas Anagnostakis, CEO and founder of Niometrics, a
network analytics company that provides solutions for Communications Service
Providers (CSPs) and the sponsor of The Land of
Data report.
As data are available in silos, the sharing
of data across borders within the organisation has raised security and
sovereignty concerns. In Singapore, authorities recently tightened data
residency controls to ensure organisations comply with the rules set out by
Personal Data Protection Commission when collecting and disclosing data,
especially with regards to transferring of source data to other countries.
Stephane Le Dreau, senior vice-president and
regional APAC, says: “Authorities have been eager to regulate as a measure
of wrestling back control of people’s data, and by extension, their privacy.
“It seems that the issue of data has so far
proved a double-edged sword for many: it has the power to improve the quality
of the service rendered to the end-user, but abuse can kill years of effort.”
NAGRA Insight – a fully GDPR compliant
software – offers strong data collection capabilities, from devices, set-top
boxes, the main CRM system or simply from operators’ data warehouses. Data is
collected automatically, at the required frequency, and in a fully secure way.
Harrison highlights to APB+: “The ethical use of data should be a priority for all media
companies. The limits and risks associated with how far a company can go –
and how far they should go – are often different.
“Media companies are still getting to grips
with this, with 37% of survey respondents indicating that they need to improve
access to data and improve data sharing.”
To better manage and protect customer data,
ASG offers Enterprise Data Intelligence to improve data privacy. According to
ASG, Data Intelligence programs often drive rapid growth in “Data Literacy” –
the key enabler of digital business which is vital for an understanding of Data
Privacy.
Kumar explains: “As the volume of data
generated by the media industry continues to grow, it’s evident that they need
a more thorough and integrated approach to data privacy management in order to
retain trust and comply with regulations.
“Successful data privacy requires effective
data management which includes data integrity and data governance. In this era
where data is everywhere, produced by almost anything and available to anyone,
it is imperative to have data that everyone can trust.”
Chris Gordon, vice-president, Global
Sales, OTT & Targeted Delivery, Imagine Communications proposed to include
customisable fields for data obfuscation – so even if users agree to have their
data shared, the media companies with those direct customer relationships can
turn off identifiable data as it is passed around the ecosystem.
Harrison suggests: “While regulators
continue to introduce new legislation and penalties, only 18% of Asia-Pacific
executives told us they are prioritising customer data management and
protection, making it their lowest priority.
“To address this, they must place data trust
at the heart of the business and view it as a key value enabler.”
How should media operators unlock the future
value of data?
Verimatrix suggests that media operators can
unlock the future value of data through two methods:
- Allowing subscribers to use their personal data as currency in exchange for viewing rights; or
- Video service providers can sell viewership data to content owners to better improve the content production
Charles Dawes, senior director of marketing,
TiVo, affirms the value of data: “In the realm of hyper-personalised media
consumption, data is the key ingredient after the content, because a
hyper-personalised service without content is useless and a content service
without personalisation no longer fulfils the expectations of the consumer.”
NAGRA points to Facebook as one of the
successful examples of data monetisation, as its feeds are fully tailored and
arbitrated to
the end-user on-the-fly and instantly. Le Dreau suggests that pay-TV ought to
learn from this and start taking a new perspective on what it means to
personalise a service. For example, the potential of segmenting contents to an
area or a type of customer, and segmenting all the way down to a household or
an individual person.
Kumar concludes: “Data is indeed the new
currency of this era. ‘Data is the new oil’ is a phrase that we are hearing
more recently and that just shows how valuable data is today.
“Proper management and use of data could
accelerate the growth of hyper-personalised media platforms as data collected
would be properly used and directed to the right audience. Large organisations
nowadays are able to monetise data by using them in digital and targeted
marking.”
Think deep, embrace new tools — and be as
nimble as Lara Croft — to turn dark data into a pot of gold!