Anything between viewers and content can be called a platform: PayTV operators, obviously, but also device manufacturers, operating systems, content management services, VoD aggregators, free-to-air channels ... the list goes on.




However, as content providers launch their own consumer services over the Internet and nobody else is between content and viewers - is the concept of platform itself outdated?

What do platforms do, anyway?

At first platforms were needed to enable delivery: towers, cables, the set-top-box (STB): clear physical manifestations of a gatekeeper. From there, the gatekeeping became ever more ethereal: the EPG; the user interface; security management.  STBs, which were anachronistically still sitting under the TVs by that time, shrunk into a dongle and got hidden behind sets. They are now shrinking one step further to sit invisibly inside the TV - or for that matter, inside any other electronics equipment with a screen. In a world where even fridges have access to Netflix, where is the gate to be kept?

The usual justification for gatekeeping has often been the management of fragmentation: multiple operating systems, middlewares, browsers, security environments, metadata standards that need to be integrated and updated by a central figure. Having invested into putting devices into viewers’ homes and closing content deals, these central figures were understandably keen on ensuring that their services were as walled up as possible. Platforms therefore thrive on the inefficiency inherent in media distribution.

Gradually however, media distribution is becoming less fragmented: operating systems and security are consolidating around big players; device manufacturers are less keen on creating their own walled gardens; and content providers have the incentive to make their “apps” as addressable as possible.

Complicating matters further for gatekeepers, viewers do not really care about gates – just the content they want with minimal fuss. Admittedly, they do need help figuring out what exactly they want. In the US, Nielsen* reports that 55% of viewers admit not knowing what they want to watch when they turn on their televisions. But current services are still pitifully bad at helping them decide: only a third of viewers resort to their TV services’ menus, at risk of scrolling endlessly through content they already watched or have no interest whatsoever when they do.   

Big-metadata has the potential to create big-disruption

One of the main barriers for better recommendations is metadata – most PayTV operators still rely on a narrow set of genres and cast list, and even companies that build up their own extensive set of sub-categories still sport a distinct “search-portal-from-the-90’s” look.

Video, sound and image analysis combined with artificial intelligence have the potential to provide a step change in the level and quality of metadata available. On-the-fly recognition analysis is already being used for editorial purposes – combining this automatically-generated metadata with artificial intelligence and external data, it can enable increasingly sophisticated insights into who likes each piece of content and what can influence their behaviour, be it the weather or their previous activity on the day. Aggregating platforms will then move from gatekeeping to become a useful, even indispensable, consumer-oriented service: a content engine.

The new content engines will require scale to process a mind-boggling amount of data quickly as well as ubiquitous presence in consumer viewing devices – which are helpfully consolidating around a few global, major ecosystems. Large Internet companies are already positioned for this trend, lurking ready for the kill.

Content providers stepping out of the safe confines of PayTV operators and launching their own apps must be careful not to become easy prey – in an over-the-top world, barriers to churn are lower and consumers are fickle.

Content providers have survived the Internet, albeit changed to adapt to the new environment. PayTV operators need to adapt quickly if they do not want to become the AOLs, Yahoos and Netscapes of the 2020’s.

Adriana Whiteley (@adrimenezes) and David Short (@dwasmkuk)