TV.NXT 2011: The changing face of content worldwide

Reliance Mediaworks' James Hannafin spoke about how content is being made available through digital media, and is now getting consumed through various other mediums apart from the traditional media -- the television set.

A lot has changed with time and so has the way content is consumed. In the good old days television sets were perhaps the only channel to consumer content. Now, content can be consumed through various other channels like laptops, iPads, mobiles, and many more channels. The second session of Day 2 of TV.NXT, held at J W Marriott in Mumbai on September 30, 2011, had James Hannafin, senior vice-president, business development, Reliance Mediaworks, speak on the changing face of content worldwide.

Hannafin started the session by explaining how content and metadata volumes are handled. He cited the example of a large broadcaster in the United Kingdom that manages over 5,000 hours of content per annum and creates a metadata of 2.75 million assets that are currently in each system, with many discreet metadata fields and tags; a large sports body in the US manages content over 10,000 hours and has created metadata of more than 35,000 assets in the system; and, a large US based film studio manages over 5,500 content of 345 full titles, with extensive metadata provisioned and normalised by TEM including cover art, IMDB style metadata, and frame-based metadata.

He next talked about the T3 library manager, which is used by content owners to make the content easily accessible on the web. Hannafin said, "T3 Library Manager is the main landing zone for content owners to access their content library. From T3 Library Manager, the user can carry out many functions -- search and access, clip creation, add and edit metadata, and access and package content for distribution."

He also gave the example of Paramount Pictures. The film studio, along with Thoughtequity, manages its entire portfolio of movies online providing access to targeted consumers. He added, "Through T3 metadata editor, a web-based toolset, a user can easily verify, change and add frame, or asset based metadata manually."

Hannafin then emphasised on the T3 content viewer - a web-based content viewer which allows internal and authorised external users to search, verify and share content, and its associated metadata. Hannafin remarked, "With content viewer, a user can provide access to third party viewers with a password."

At the end, Hannafin stressed that time spent on each of the three screens -- television/ PC / tablet, mobile, is increasing. He added, "TV viewing is up by 20 per cent since mainstreaming of the internet 10 years ago. Online video consumption per head stands at over three hours per month, and is increasing."

Giving the examples of Fox's biggest new show New Girl, which was seen two million times before its television premiere, and YouTube being roped in for Ra.One promotion, he said, "With more content being made available, the share of the digital medium will increase in the overall content viewing pie."

He next talked about how new age digital devices are becoming the centre point for video engagement and consumption. Hannafin said, "Over 50 per cent of tablet owners watch full-length feature films and television shows on their tablets. By 2015, 65 per cent of the US population is estimated to own a smart phone / tablet."

Hannafin added though, "But, the industry will also have to face challenges like no ubiquitous file standard apart from cloud computing requiring high standardisation and inter-operability."

(TV.NXT is organised by afaqs!, in association with STAR News (presenting sponsor). The other sponsors include Zee 24 Ghante Chhattisgarh, Amagi, HeadHonchos, ApnaCircle.com, Fox History & Traveller, and Lukup. TV.NXT was held at J W Marriot, Mumbai, on September 29-30, 2011.)