The media and Entertainment sector glimpses the challenges and opportunities of the pandemic

The increase in piracy and cancellation of many cinematographic and television productions, are just some of the effects of Pandemia by COVID-19 but there are also opportunities that organizations are taking advantage of, or should take advantage, according to Akamai experts.

The media and entertainment industry is facing the challenges of the Pandemia Covid-19 which include increased piracy and the cancellation of many productions film and television, but there are also opportunities that organizations are taking advantage, or should take advantage, according to experts in Akamai.

During the celebration of the recent Akamai Edge Live Virtual Media Summit, on May 27, Adam right now, EVP and GM de la División de Media y Carrier de Akamai aseguró que “las industrias de la televisión y el cine han pasado por muchos cambios en su relativa corta historia”. “Tanto si ha sido la aparición de un nuevo formato, modelo de negocio o incluso nuevos competidores, el cambio ha sido una constante”. Y las empresas del sector “siempre han sido capaces de predecir el impacto de estos cambios y adaptar con éxito las operaciones y la tecnología en consecuencia”, señaló.

“Sin embargo, lo que estamos presenciando ahora es muy diferente”. “Estamos viendo una transformación fundamental en todo el ecosistema de los medios de comunicación, from production to consumption, and within a shorter term than that had never been experienced. ”

As a result, "the production of new television and films programs has been stopped almost completely, which makes it difficult for stations and networks to fill their grills," he said. In addition, “we have seen a decrease in benefits in most broadcasters due to a Descent of advertising and closure of cinemas, with great uncertainty about his reopening. ”

And there is also a major challenge, he said: "Despite the positive efforts to reduce digital piracy, we have seen its increase in most countries."

In spite of all this, "we are seeing an equally positive learning and growth by our clients and we see the media companies taking advantage of teleworking to support the edition, writing of scripts and even the dissemination of news," he said, adding that "we are seeing audience rates that beaten records, especially for the Over-The-Top Services (OTT) also.

The social video

Meanwhile, social video platforms, including Tiktok, “han adquirido un nuevo significado para todas las edades y estamos viendo mucha innovación”, dijo. “¿Quién hubiera pensado que el evento más grande, con la mayor audiencia que hemos experimentado este año” resultaría ser el tour virtual de Travis Scott dentro del videojuego online Fortnite, con “más de 12,3 millones de jugadores viéndolo?”

También “durante este período de incertidumbre, hemos tenido el consuelo de que el placer que el contar buenas historias puede reunir a personas y familias aisladas en sus hogares”, señaló, añadiendo que “los cambios que estamos viendo ahora probablemente tendrán un impacto duradero, what raises the question: how will the world be for media companies when this confinement ends? What have we learned that we can apply in the way we do, deliver and consume the media? ”

A key to keep in mind is that we are obtaining a “better understanding of the means of How Internet works when delivering to real scale“He said, he added:“ As countries around the world locked, we witnessed a demand like never in all forms of entertainment: game downloads, letter video and live broadcasts. We witnessed the increase in video on the Internet by more than 46%. In general, the Internet has worked well. But during the hours of greatest audience, we are very aware of the potential congestion. "

A second "advantage is the speed with which media companies have to adapt to this situation and navigate for new operational practices," he said, explaining: "An example of this is the Acceptance of teleworking throughout the production workflow. The media companies, of course, have had teams that work at a distance for many years, but not necessarily with the same intensity. There are long -term benefits, such as improvements in production efficiency, benefits in environments and benefits in the balance between work and private life ”.

Piracy

However, the benefit of teleworking "comes with counterparts such as the management of cyber security threats," he said, adding: "One of the most unfortunate trends we have seen during this period is the resurgence of piracy. In 2018 and 2019, we saw positive signs that this piracy was being reduced and stabilized throughout Europe. But with the new trends during Covid, we have seen the Piracy increase in countries in more than 50 percent during this time. ”

In a session dedicated exclusively to piracy, Ian Munford, product marketing director, Akamai media solutions, said the global piracy has increased more than 40% during confinement, according to third parties. Meanwhile, pointing to Asia and Latin America, he said that "in some countries, almost 50 percent of the Internet population uses pirate services ... Although there are significant variations among countries, this is a global problem, and no one is immune."

The income losses Piracy are huge, although many experts in the industry disagree in the exact amount of money that has been lost, Munford said. It is also affecting employment opportunities in the media, he said, pointing out the estimates that indicate that between 230,000 and 560,000 jobs have been lost due to video piracy only in the United States.

Akamai has been monitoring piracy for its retransmission customers and their data show that piracy activity ranges between 5 and 20% in the US. And 20 and 60% in Asia-Pacific, according to Eric Elbaz, Akamai technology management expert.

In another session, Jeff Tworek, Vice President of the Media and Carrier division of Akamai, he told the spectators: "The world as we know it has changed in recent months and especially day -to -day life and people's habits. With social distancing and home orders in many countries of the world, this pandemic has quickly increased the demand for online video." And we have reached a much faster peak than anyone would have predicted. With strong demand comes a significant opportunity for many media organizations. But important commercial and technical challenges have also been discovered. ”

For example, "Monetization lately has been a challenge, especially for companies that are dedicated to advertising and some of the main advertisers such as luxury brands, stores and trips. ”TWorek said.

In addition, "there is a lot of concern that digital premieres can harm relationships with movie theaters," he said, referring to strict premieres calendars.

A thing that has changed to Thomas Dodson, Roku programming operations director, are "the three overtime that I win per day by not having to drive from houses to work." "This is a good place to be, in the space of the digital media ... Consumption is shooting And it is an exciting moment from that perspective. But I think there is also an opportunity for all of us to give users both content and we can at this time. ”

In another session, Corey Halverson, Vice President of Akamai Products, he told the spectators: "As countries confinement worldwide, the Internet has become an even more vital source of communication, information and entertainment. And we in Akamai have witnessed strong increases in the demand for video setting, video games and software distribution."

Echoing the comments made by the executive and co -founder director of Akamai, Tom Leighton, at the Edge Live Virtual Summit 2020 of the company in April, Halverson said that the Global traffic on the Akamai network increased by 30% in March With respect to February and that the first countries affected by COVID-19 saw a growth of Internet traffic 25% greater than the rest of the world. The traffic peaks on the EDGE platform of Akamai increased more than twice a year, said Halverson, reaching 167 Tbps in March from 82 Tbps in March 2019 - and that without live sport. He added that 167 TBPS is the "equivalent to download more than 23,000 hours of HD movies per second."

However, Liz Borowsky, Vice President of Engineering of the Akamai platform, said: "This is a business as always for us" and the Akamai platform was designed to handle this enormous increase in demand.