The media and entertainment industry can often be a one-way communication channel, with the media companies constantly beaming content and viewers consuming the content without much interaction.

This is changing though, especially due to digital content. Many business intelligence solutions allow content creators to gauge the viewing patterns of the viewers and then make changes in the direction of content creation and entertainment, accordingly.

BI tools can help media and entertainment agencies in multiple ways:

• Predicting what audiences want.
• Analyzing what type of content the audience spends time watching the most.
• Using AI to make recommendations.
• Optimized scheduling.
• Increasing acquisition and onboarding.
• Ad targeting.
• New media content development.
• Content optimization.

When you talk about media and entertainment, they’re not just confined to streaming platforms like Netflix and Prime Video; significant progress is being made in vulture, augmented, and mixed reality media creation and entertainment. Business intelligence Services is used to create a realistic experience for users from multiple angles.

Some of the entertainment businesses include

• Online media streaming services (Netflix, YouTube).
• Social media platforms.
• Gaming companies including online game providers.
• App developers.
• News broadcasters.
• Media and content review websites.

The ability to access, analyze and manage huge amounts of data is extremely critical to media and entertainment agencies who want to increase viewership and provide more engaging content that encourages people to spend more time in front of the TV, the PC, the game console, or the mobile phone. Understanding what the audience wants and broadcasting content in the user’s preferred format can make a big impact on the growth of a media company.

Often, the challenge is not collecting the data, the challenge is making sense of it and taking decisions based on the intelligence drawn out of it. This is where an evolved BI tool can be indispensable.

Listed below are some ways quality BI tools can help media and entertainment agencies deliver their best.

Content personalization

The OTT platforms have completely transformed the way entertainment content is consumed these days. The shift was initially triggered by video platforms like YouTube and Vimeo, but the content that was traditionally available on TV and movie halls is now being beamed by OTT platforms.

Although TRP ratings allowed dish TV operators and TV channels to gauge how many people were watching their programs, for how long they watched and how many people fast forwarded advertisements, personalization was not possible at the micro level.

Have you often wondered why YouTube and Netflix begin to suggest movies and TV series that closely represent your taste? They use business intelligence tools to closely observe your viewing patterns and then make recommendations. For example, if you’re not a big horror genre fan, such content will not be recommended to you. Instead, if you prefer light-hearted comedies, more light-hearted comedies will be recommended to you.

In fact, since YouTube belongs to Google, Google may even be using your search behavior to decide what type of content to showcase in front of you when you visit YouTube.com.

A great thing about digital content is that it can be personalized at the micro level. This means that the content that is being recommended to you may not be recommended to your neighbor and the content that is being recommended to your neighbor, may not be recommended to you.

Effective ad targeting

Many digital media companies depend on advertising revenue, and it is very crucial for them to be able to broadcast advertisements that are relevant to their audience. Displaying irrelevant ads renders their platforms ineffective both for advertisers as well as for themselves.

Google is a media company. It presents you content in the form of search results. Business intelligence is built into its architecture. The moment you carry out a search, Google knows what you’re looking for and it displays ads accordingly. Through its browser, it doesn’t just show you ads on Google as per your searching pattern, it also displays ads on other websites that allow Google to display ads, as per your search patterns. The search giant also uses neural networks for better ad targeting.

The big data analytics abilities of business intelligence tools can allow you to carry out ad targeting at highly personal levels.  Content consumption patterns can tell whether your audience wants to watch charity ads, advertisements promoting gadgets or holiday ads.

Predictive behavior modelling

Business intelligence tools don’t just tell content and entertainment agencies what content to push forward and what content to hold back, they also tell which content to invest more money into. Media projects require mega budgets these days. Small oversights can cost a big amount of money.

Budgets are allocated many years in advance. Using advanced analytics in BI tools, content creators can find out what type of content and audience is going to pay for in the coming two years and then produce content accordingly. This way media and entertainment companies can avoid producing content that is not desired by their audience.

Rearranging product displays according to people’s movement

What about entertainment parks like Disney World? These parts are spread over hundreds of acres, and it is often difficult to track the moving patterns of the visitors. Many entertainment parks use trackers embedded into the wristbands given to the visitors. Through these trackers, the moving patterns of the visitors can be detected and then food and accessory stalls can be relocated accordingly.

Scheduling broadcast timings

When a piece of entertainment content is introduced in front of the audience can have a big impact on the initial viewership. This especially matters a lot when you’re looking for social media traction. Many media agencies use social media analytics to decide when to push their content promotion in front of their audience.

Reducing operational costs and generating more revenue at the same time are among the biggest challenges being faced by the media and entertainment industry, in the face of ever-mounting competition. The entertainment industry, consequently, has been one of the earliest adopters of big data technologies and BI tools to drive digital transformation. This is especially true when there is no dearth of media broadcasting companies on the Internet. The entry cost is low. The talent is abundant. The technologies are affordable.

Business intelligence is the only ability that can help content producers stand out.