Media companies are rife with opportunities as big data changes the way we think about everything. Web-based video companies such as Netflix ($37 billion), Hulu ($6 billion) and YouTube ($90 billion) are beginning to dominate the online media market, not to mention Amazon’s recent entry, all of whom are experts in targeting.

The billions of data points running through these OTT services play to their advantage as more people flock to digital rather than wait for a set scheduled time. Look at the UK digital advertising market at £8 billion, now twice the size of TV, and in the US, digital at $77 billion will eclipse TV for the first time in 2017. Where then, does this leave broadcasters whose bulk of revenues still comes from TV and who face stiff competition in the online space?

For broadcasters to leverage big data, the same principles apply —it’s all about knowing your audience better, and what you can do better with that knowledge and content. Here’s what we have seen so far:

Get ready to rumble: With content and revenue structures dominated by the linear schedule, digital is still the small ugly duckling. Internal conflicts could make it hard, but the market is exploding so be ready to try things and fail fast. What can be measured can improve. Dig your heels in for the future.

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Shop for the right tools: Having the right dashboards and analytics for your OTT service is analogous to a captain and its crew needing a functional dashboard in their cockpit.

Use behavioural insights to source, edit or target relevant content: Where TV data is confined to panel-based estimations, big data analytics is precise and provides vastly targetable audiences.

Netflix has already shown that using such data for content sourcing works through its House of Cards success.
On a more daily basis, broadcasters have focussed on boosting engagement of existing content. Here are some examples:
* Tag relevant content with certain keywords and metadata correlating with interests you know will click with certain segments of the audience
* Use different thumbnails for the same programme according to preferences in characters by the audiences. For example, prominent use of the secondary character over the protagonist led to higher engagement for a UK drama in the Asian market
* Differentiate the type of short-form clips to cut, produce and promote to repeating loyal users or newly acquired users based on what is working already
* Use advanced audience profiles to offer better targeting and CPMs for advertisers

To summarise, big data is a great opportunity and it comes down to how well you create actions revolving the highly targetable data.

With broadcasters this is still nascent since much of the content supply chain is tied to linear schedules. But media companies who have more freedom, rights and budgets, have begun leveraging their strengths and relationships in the content and advertising markets.

As a rule-of-thumb, invest early to start collecting the data and pick the right tools for OTT growth. This very data you own is the new communication currency that will make or break your relationship with the audiences.

By Aki Tsuchiya

The author is MD, Streamhub