Challenges for successful implementation of digital media business

No industry has gone through the changes as fast and as drastic as the Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry. The technology has completely transformed the industry to an extent that the business models of the industry segments have been put to their survival test.

Many media executives continue to deny these "drastic changes" and argue that the demand for the passive consumption of information and entertainment exists (for example April 2008’s UK TV viewership saw a sharp rise of 13.5%). While there is some truth in their arguments because in reality, neither have the presses stopped printing nor have the satellites stopped beaming the signals towards the earth.

However, the question that remains wide open for consideration is, how to capitalise the rising need for information and entertainment at any place, at any time and on any device. The changing consumer behaviours are driving these needs, which in turn have created new revenue avenues. It is this opportunity that the industry must capture.

To successfully adopt the digital supply chain operations, the organisations must address a set of inherent challenges. These challenges can be grouped into categories and have a common approach to address them.

1. Digitisation
   To adopt and successfully operate in the digital economy, beyond the digitisation of assets and processes, the organisations should give a thorough due-diligence about the amount of archive that will be digitised. This is because not all the content can be monetised and not all the parts of a specific asset will return similar returns.
   Organisation should consider a digital asset management system that offers asset control at a granular level, interfaces with existing content management systems, workflows, integrates with digital rights management (DRM) and digital distribution systems (DMD) effectively and importantly, that is scalable. These interconnected systems should be designed to adopt fine granularity of assets’ rights management and distribution (this is more so at publishing or news agencies). While the above critical success factors were all about IT systems, the people and processes are equally important. A successful digitisation should consider change management of people and of processes, so that the future digital operations will go-live smoothly. Another critical aspect that needs to be accounted before an organisation goes online is the creation of well-defined internet/network security policies.
2. Digital Media Distribution or platform choices
   This is one area which may bring the media strategists head-on. While there are so many platforms, formats, and outlets available for the media companies to consider, there’s no concrete answer whether a given choice of DMD will deliver maximum returns. An organisation should consider a digital distribution platform that will allow adopting current devices, platforms, formats, and that is scalable for future technologies. Though that’s easier said than done, this forms the basis for the success of a new media business.
   Web 2.0 should be considered as an important delivery platform. Social networks, viral linking, blogging, podcasting, etc could provide new revenue avenues. Another important element of a successful distribution model is effective metric collection to drive the subscription, loyalty, advertisement, syndication, and even billing!
3. Advertising
   In the new media world, the advertisement will command higher prices as they will be relevant, specific and attract viewers/readers full attention. The key to this successful will be the sound implementation of data collection and real time analytics. Going forward, the companies and systems need to be scalable and flexible to absorb M&A or partnerships. (e.g. In the UK, the Kangaroo project may bring ITV’s, BBC’s and C4’s online inventory, ad sales and ad placement systems together)
4. Consumer experiences
   As I have explored earlier, the ability of organisations to respond to the changing customer preferences in the technologies, consumption platforms, time, content type and media format means there are many technical options for a company to choose from. It also means difficult decisions to make. Again, the key element here is the implementation that will allow (a) relevant & personalised services to customer, (b) customers to find the content or services easily, and (c) customer participation.

In summary, the online co-existence for a traditional media & entertainment organisation is inevitable and is complementary. The only question is ‘do you want to be an early adopter?’ or ‘be left behind’. In my view, as the media & entertainment companies have always responded to customers’ needs and desires swiftly, they should take small steps towards these new platforms, devices, formats and trends – experimenting with smaller regions or groups first.