Internet of Things (IoT) & Entertainment Industry
This week’s guest speaker, Nick Colsey, VP of Business Development at Sony, made a rather interesting claim: “Smart TV changed the way content was distributed, but it didn’t particularly change the way content was made.”1 I believe his claim is partially true and partially false. It is correct that there are more distribution channels due to the Internet of Things (IoT). However, I believe it is also false because big data, enabled by Smart TV, are actually changing the way content is made as well.
Colsey asserted that “the way Nielsen ratings worked was a tiny subset of the population writing down what TV shows they watched in a notebook. That’s how primitive it was.”1 This is no longer true because Nielsen ratings are now more sophisticated; many content producers now make their business decisions based on much bigger and more insightful data. For example, the Chicago Tribune claims, “As once-monolithic television audiences splinter and migrate to the internet, viewers have unwittingly turned the creative process upside down. Their social media posts, blogs and file downloads are telling streaming companies and producers what actors, writers and themes to weave together on-screen for the best chance of bottom-line success.”2 Big data, gathered from IoT, have indeed changed how movies and TV shows are made. Content producers are collecting the audience data from streaming and downloading devices, such as Smart TVs, and trying to maximize their odds of future success. The creative process is no longer creator-driven but rather audience-driven, and this shift from creator-driven content to audience-driven content shows no sign of slowing down. In the future, the audience may be able to control content based on their reactions. According to Forbes, “Future generations of blockbuster movies might be determined based on the ability to re-shape content during the film based on viewers’ reactions. Disney Research is already tracking reactions of audiences through a neural network it has developed which is helping the company quantify how a film is working on a granular scale. While studios have used test audiences to preview early cuts of films for years and would make changes based on that feedback, the difference with today’s methods is the amount of data that can be analyzed.”3
It is interesting how big data, enabled by IoT, have changed and will change the media industry, particularly those traditional creators and producers in Hollywood. They are no longer original creators or innovators; rather, they are simply reflectors of media consumption. Furthermore, it appears that their creativity will no longer rely on new ideas or thoughts but rather on big data. It certainly seems likely that big data will play an ever-increasing role in the future of content creation.
References:
- Colsey, Nick (2018), Remarks in MS&E 238 class, Summer Quarter 2018.
- Chicago Tribune (2016). Hollywood turning to big data to write the next blockbuster. Retrieved from Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/bluesky/technology/ct-hollywood-big-data-20160620-story.html.
- Marr, Bernard (2017), Disney Uses Big Data, IoT And Machine Learning To Boost Customer Experience. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2017/08/24/disney-uses-big-data-iot-and-machine-learning-to-boost-customer-experience/#67749c2e3387.
3 comments on “Internet of Things (IoT) & Entertainment Industry”
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I like how you point out that the entertainment industry will now take into account audience’s reaction, thus giving them valuable insights into what content will be successful or not. Films made in the past 5 years are saturated with sequels, remakes, or spin-offs, or story -lines based on existing stories from literature and most notable, comic books. This could be interpreted as entertainment producers wanting to stay safe and create something they’re guaranteed to receive profit from loyal viewers, or, it could mean the producers interpret successes through audience’s viewing data then decide on sticking to the same genre and style. This dynamic begs the question of whether or not audiences will catch on to this cycle and demand more creativity from new releases, or it could well become a structured cycle of “safe productions” to ensure ticket sales.
Hi Nic, this was a really interesting article and I’m glad you brought up the point that how entertainment content IS changing. I completely agree that now media giants are catering shows and movies to what the data show people watching. For example, when Netflix made their series “House of Cards,” they used their viewer data to see what genres + directors viewers enjoyed watching, and they crafted the series based on that (source: https://www.cio.com/article/3207670/big-data/how-netflix-built-a-house-of-cards-with-big-data.html).
Fortunately, there is enough content out there for companies to do this. Otherwise, like you stated, we could see a lack of creativity in Hollywood. Another beacon of light for continued creativity in the entertainment industry are the super original/wacky/quirky artists out there who pump out movies and shows regardless of market research and data (e.g. Tommy Wiseau)!
Excellent point brought up Nic!
I think in terms of media consumption and IoT the shift from community to individualism has been rather drastic trend. When media content still relied on very few conglomerates per nation, it gave a sense of shared meaning to relatively large populations (more people were watching the same stuff, hence, they shared the same experiences). Now that almost all we’re consuming is curated for us, the experience has become more individualistic. On the other hand, we now feel more related to the niche group of people that share the same interests and consuming habits.
When we sum up all of these social media bubbles that smart TV, amongst other converged platforms, have boosted, we definitely are looking at rather different societies and power relations.