Quick Links

We speak to Thomas Popma, vice president of channel development at MTV Networks, about the difficulties in building smarter content workflows and how to overcome them, with the ultimate goal of using as few different systems as possible to deliver both linear and non-linear content.

What have been some of the biggest technical challenges for MTV in instigating a cross-media platform strategy?

Our biggest challenge is not technical, but operational/organisational. We have quite a dispersed organisation and we have been working very hard to consolidate as much as possible. However, if I have to name one technical challenge, it would be the lack of standards in the digital age.

How have you overcome these challenges?

Overcoming the operational/organisational challenges is a slow and never ending process, but rationalising back-to-front seems to work. We first rationalised TX, which revealed weaknesses in the scheduling and media sourcing processes.

In turn, when we worked those out, weaknesses appeared in the programming workflow, and so on. We have to make hard choices regarding what makes a real difference to the business.

What are some of the new techniques you have adopted in your broadcast methods?

New technology allows us to strive for very close integration between as few different systems as possible, effectively making them work as one. This allows us to employ much smarter workflows, and keep the focus on the product instead of the process.

We have also been able to employ the same basic infrastructure we use for linear TV to support non-linear. This means we can effectively schedule our content across all platforms from one place.

How can TV operators best leverage the cloud to deliver compelling services to multiple devices?

I think the cloud is there and you don’t have a choice over whether to use it or not, that’s simply how computing and data distribution works these days. For us it is important that just getting a file out doesn’t cut it.

The key is to get viewers to find your content and prefer your platform over others, which has to do with the overall experience, in which content richness, navigation and pricing are important factors.
 
What advantages and disadvantages do you see to second-screen interaction with content?

In terms of drawbacks, I think that attention is spread thinner and thinner with second-screen interaction: media consumption is higher than ever, but it is very fragmented and doesn’t go very deep. The advantage is that TV finally allows bi-directional communication through an attractive, rich visual environment.
 

Search