The Smart Media Revolution: Part I. New Business Designs at the Intersection of Media, Metadata & Technology
By: Nick Sciorra
Tags: VR, TV Series, Artificial Intelligence, Immersive, Advertising

Over the course of the last decade, an extraordinary convergence has emerged across varied and vying media industry segments. The combination of powerful new media metadata types, new highly discoverable and direct-to-consumer content distribution paradigms, and computing power leaps in immersive, virtual, and 3d spatial technologies; have led to a unique moment where media and technology — content and context — are converging as one. Singularity.

At the heart of this smart media revolution are uncontainable market dynamics — which include The Streaming Wars, an explosion of algorithm driven Addressable TV & Ad Tech, and the advent of immersive and gamified ‘story-world’ ecosystems commonly known as The Metaverse. These forces will power the next generation of multi-screen TV, film, advertising, gaming, and non-linear content distribution for decades to come; and accordingly spur new technology, insight, and vast digitally interconnected economies.

The five gears of the coming Smart Media Revolution engine are:

1. Distributive Disruption: Direct to Consumer — OTT & Virtual MVPD Streaming Content Platforms

2. Hyper Granular & Discoverable Content Technologies: Volumetric Media + Addressable TV + Ad Tech

3. Virtual, Augmented & Immersive Presence Technologies

4. Telepresence, Remote Tech & Virtual Events

5. Adaptive Content

Enhancing their limitless power and possibility, is the interoperability and frictionless scale potential of each gear, in additive relationship to the next, as well as the whole. Accordingly, each creates a value economy and interlineated growth driver that simultaneously powers both itself and its neighboring gears; creating a powerful self-driving value engine. A flywheel, of flywheels — each force multiplying the drive force of the others.

Together the gear segments loosely form an interlineated solutions web, covering for the first time, the whole of the media<>data value chain: from capture, to management, to distribution, consumption, enhancement and engagement. This evolutionary convergence is propelling paradigm shifts in both value chain architecture and supporting economics. As we move from linear TV (network distribution via cable and satellite Multi Player Video Distribution systems), to non-linear media and programming (media distribution in non-linear star economies such as programming over direct-to-consumer and platformed services, including Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD e.g.,Netflix), Advertising Video on Demand (AVOD e.g., Youtube) and Transactional Video on Demand (TVOD e.g., Apple iTunes Rent/Download), the next way station will bring us to an amazing new place — inter-linear — an integrated mash-up of different media types, all consumable by viewers within varying contextual medium environments or “storyworlds,” driven by a host of key matching user interest and relevance algorithms, and tightly sewn-in addressable metadata. A world where we watch our favorite programming in an immersive environment from our own customizable 3D vantage point or POV, being served relevant product and related media offerings driven by our current viewing habits, is — though in its infancy — currently available. Fortnite’s recent launch of dedicated concert events and the viewing of programming content within the immersive confinesof its gaming environment; puts us at the forefront of a new, fully achievable, and monetizable media value system — a new golden-age in media-metadata based technologies.

With the opportunity development foresight and strategic know-how to execute value via the technologies, product solutions and teams powering these five outlined pillars, highly differentiated and defensible value growth are in play for decades to come.