APAC’s changing digital landscape: How broadcast and video companies can keep up

This piece was originally published on Think With Google Asia-Pacific.

The broadcast and video industry today looks very different than it did a few years ago. Broadcasters all over the world are working hard to adapt as the pace of change accelerates and scale becomes more important than ever before. Nowhere is this more true than in APAC, which has become home to more than half of all global digital video viewers (1.3 billion) — 2X more than five years ago. And with 66% of digital video viewers watching on smartphones,¹ it’s clear that almost everything about the way people are consuming content — from what they watch to how they watch it — is changing. As bandwidth capabilities continue to grow, streaming will only become more affordable and accessible for consumers, leading to rapid growth in video consumption. All this change creates a constant stream of both challenges and opportunities for the industry, as competition and consumer expectations increase.

Our team works with APAC broadcasters and video providers to meet these challenges head on. Hear from some of our partners about the challenges they’re facing.

Making the shift to digital and keeping up with always-on consumers can be difficult. To keep up with the rapid pace of change while staying relevant, and building scalable businesses for the future, innovation-led partnerships and collaborations will be critical for all players. This is why we work with our partners in APAC across five key pillars of the media industry:

1. Content development: Leveraging new technology and data capabilities allows for the automation of media workflows, better understanding of audiences, and more effective creation of experiential content like virtual reality and augmented reality. We work with our partners to find the best means of using these technologies.
2. Content distribution: Whether partners are looking at developing robust owned-and-operated platforms or working with third parties, we aim to help them connect with viewers while staying at the forefront of technology.
3. Viewer acquisition and engagement: To accelerate focus on direct-to-consumer businesses, we work with our partners to drive the right viewers to the right content, enable content discovery, and facilitate deep brand engagement.
4. Flexible monetization: With free, premium content or “freemium” emerging as the dominant revenue model for digital video, partners need to leverage monetization solutions which are suitable across advertising, subscription, and transactional business models to maximize potential across audience types. We work with them to find the right methods.
5. Efficiency and insights: We help partners discover deeper data, insights, and workflow efficiencies, fueled by machine learning, data visualization, and analytics, via the cloud infrastructure.

As the APAC broadcast and video industry continues to evolve, the importance of adapting to these changes remains constant.