The Transformation of VOD for Broadcasters

Through automation, service providers and broadcasters can enhance their video-on-demand (VOD) processing operations, improving dependability and quality.

FREMONT, CA:It is clearer than ever that mainstream consumers’ viewing habits are shifting away from a passive schedule-driven approach and toward a more active on-demand model. The fact that binge watching has become mainstream has impacted broadcasters’ approaches to commissioning, marketing, and delivering effective programs as the most visible indication of the times.

Service providers and broadcasters are boosting their investments in Content Processing Systems (CPS) to keep up with the ever-growing demand for any time, everywhere viewing. Behind the scenes, CPSs oversee automatic content preparation stages and transform the source material into the various packages required for digital delivery platforms.

Traditionally, CPSs have been built on solid Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and loose-coupling principles, leveraging a variety of third-party technologies (such as transcoders, automated quality control, image processing, and metadata transformation), and orchestrated by an overarching workflow management system, either as part of or in conjunction with an asset management system. Through automation, service providers and broadcasters have been able to enhance their VOD processing operations, improving dependability and quality.

The underlying approach for these content and video processing systems was to offer a set of primary linear origination services–often providing ‘catch-up’ services for Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (MVPD) and other service providers. As a result, CPSs have traditionally been designed in accordance with the same scale, placement, and operation criteria as the linear services they support.

Broadcasters now have a new set of chances to get closer to their audiences and circumvent traditional distribution and delivery platforms and operators as VOD shifts from supporting to leading in the broadcast and media sector. They can monetize content archives by using direct advertising and subscription models to generate new revenue sources. Today’s CPSs’ technologies and operations struggle to keep up with these new expectations as business models shift to be more reactive and agile.