Generative AI may prove even more divisive to society than the Industrial Revolution. There are many questions well worth examining regarding gen AI's impact on the streaming industry, the media and entertainment world, and more. In this article, I'm going to focus on a few streaming use cases in the hope of providing a broader perspective on the changes happening in our world now and those we can expect going forward.
27 Sep 2024
In this expansive interview with Simon Crownshaw, Microsoft's worldwide media and entertainment strategy director, we discuss how Microsoft customers are leveraging generative AI in all stages of the streaming workflow and how they're using it in content delivery and to enhance user experiences in a range of use cases. Crownshaw also digs deep into how Microsoft is building asset management architecture and the critical role metadata plays in effective large-language models (LLMs), maximizing the value of available data.
27 Sep 2024
When it comes to free streaming, U.S. growth has been fueled by pure players like Pluto TV and Tubi and connected TV platforms like Roku and Samsung looking to feed cord-shavers and cord-cutters in need of a linear viewing experience. These companies have had a head start and a clear path to test and learn for years. However, in the past 18 months, pay TV players have decided that they too have a role to play in free streaming.
25 Jun 2024
In this wide-ranging interview with Monica Williams, NBCUniversal's SVP of digital products and operations for the company's content distribution business, we discuss how the proliferation of digital platforms across the OTT, CTV, and online ecosystems has brought new content distribution challenges, the boon of metadata for improving customer experiences, and the 17-day everything-must-go-perfectly marathon of distributing the Olympics.
24 Jul 2024
Streaming organizations must be able to accurately measure and swiftly assess the impact of workflow changes to validate their effectiveness. Therefore, they must have access to the right metrics that can reliably predict viewer perceptions of quality for achieving bitrate savings without compromising the viewing experience.
30 Sep 2024
In this fireside chat at Streaming Media Connect 2024, Media Universe Cartographer Evan Shapiro, spoke with IMAX SVP and GM Vikram Arumilli about IMAX's transition from a traditionally consumer-facing brand known for high-end cinematic experiences to a brand that also focuses on in-home and on-device entertainment.
27 Aug 2024
In recent years, the High Efficiency Streaming Protocol, commonly known as HESP, has significantly enhanced the cost-effectiveness and performance of large-scale ultra-low latency streaming.
07 Jun 2023
Experience LEXI 3.0 - the world's most advanced and accurate automatic captioning solution.
08 Jun 2023
Though Emily Nussbaum's Cue the Sun: The Invention of Reality TV reads more like a biography than like an obituary, the book lands as reality TV appears to be shrinking along with the scripted side of the business. More than one pundit has proclaimed its demise at the hands of TikTok, the "now everyone grows up on video" platform that reality TV prefigured.
30 Jul 2024
At Streaming Media NYC, I had the opportunity to moderate a panel around stream security. It's probably the fifth or sixth time that I've done so in the last decade, but an interesting dichotomy popped up during the prep meeting with panelists, and again while we were on stage during the live session. The concept was "casual piracy" and how it differed from "professional piracy" in both intent and scale.
21 Jun 2024
For the longest time, people I've interviewed have complained about how much of the video advertising budget went to social. Now the tide is turning.
21 Jun 2024
The recent Subscription Wars report commissioned by U.K.-based digital payments tech company Bango points to consumer dissatisfaction with the fractured state of subscription services in general and the increasing appeal of indirect subscription options and super-bundles of aggregated services sold through telcos like Optus in Australia. Perhaps it's another sign of less-than-inspiring times that the best thing consumers say streaming services can do for them is to stop standing out from the crowd and start disappearing into it.
04 Apr 2024