Metadata: The Future of Video from Concept to Consumer

Metadata: The Future of Video from Concept to Consumer is a new white paper that shows how metadata and 'open and extensible' platforms are working together to connect video, systems and people in remarkable new ways, and create more value for media assets.

Spotlight

Obsidian Entertainment

Obsidian Entertainment, based in Irvine, California, is one of the world's leading developers of role-playing games. Obsidian's past titles include Pillars of Eternity, Armored Warfare, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Fallout: New Vegas, Dungeon Siege 3, Alpha Protocol, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2. Obsidian also has other unannounced projects in the works.

OTHER ARTICLES
Media and Broadcasting, Business

Netflix versus Amazon Prime Video – depth versus breadth

Article | August 4, 2022

The first half of 2021 has been a year of continued change and disruption for subscription video. The global incumbent subscription video on demand (SVOD) leaders, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, have been busy signalling to the financial markets how they intend to entrench their market dominance in light of the ongoing market acquisition pushes unleashed by the D2C disruptors following the D2C ‘big bang’ moment of Q4 2019 – Q2 2021. Netflix announced in January that it was no longer going to borrow on the financial markets to fund its day-to-day operations – specifically for its content acquisition budget, which is now driven predominately by commissioning original content for its service. This leaves the SVOD leader with $14.9 billion of outstanding long-term debt to service as it seeks to live within its means by commissioning future content from its ongoing cashflow. In Q1 2021 alone Netflix spent $500 million on servicing this debt pile versus $1.7 billion in net income generated over the same period.

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Technologies, Business

The new chair of the FTC and antitrust 2.0

Article | August 3, 2022

The appointment of Lina Khan on June 15th to chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is poised to be a transformational one in the history of the world wide web. Khan came to prominence with an article in the Yale Law Journal, Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox, which identified the paradox of hegemonic tech service providers which bypass the US’ strict competition laws by offering lower prices to the end consumer. Under US antitrust law, the driving indicator of market monopolies are higher prices for the consumer – under this strict definition, none of the tech majors which dominate the digital economy are monopolistic. Indeed, some such as Alphabet and Facebook do not even directly charge the end user for their services. So, while both Google and Facebook dominate the global digital ad market, making an antitrust case against them under the current 20thcentury era regulatory framework is nigh on impossible. However, the absence of meaningful competitive challengers to these two incumbents in search and social advertising over the previous 15 years, despite the lucrative high margin business opportunities, implies that the competitive market is not performing according to classical economic theory. Khan has built a subsequent career on trying to square this circle, and now the Biden Administration has empowered her as the key instigator of the sweeping regulatory update required for a digital-first century.

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Technologies, Business

3 Applications of AI in the Entertainment Industry

Article | July 20, 2022

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) in the entertainment industry has automated time-consuming mundane tasks and increased proficiency in delivering winning content to drive engagement. Production businesses can make informed decisions on marketing and advertising because AI can examine critical data and provide important insights into consumer behavior. Let us look at three other important applications of AI in the entertainment industry: Content Personalization Made Easy Streaming websites like Spotify and Netflix contribute content that attracts a diverse audience with different tastes and choices. They are adopting AI and machine learning algorithms to analyze individual user performance and demographics to promote content that users are interested in. Such personalized content recommendations create audience engagement. AI also helps optimize video quality based on how fast the internet is in a certain place so that streaming works without buffering. Streamlined Movie Production Processes The movie production process is time-consuming and complex. Using AI can help automate processes like sound production, storyboarding, scheduling, and pre-production tasks. It can also automatically sync and group filmed clips. Machine learning has graphics and visual effects that can be used to make fictional characters look better. Subtitle Generation for International Communications Content publishing businesses need to cater to an audience from various regions. Multilingual subtitles make this interaction easier. Manual transcription is time-consuming and requires expensive human resources that businesses cannot afford. Also, human error and variable efficiency are issues that can tamper with customer experience. Any kind of delay in presenting subtitles can put the audio-video-subtitles out of sync. AI prevents such mishaps through speech and vocabulary integration in conversations using neural interfaces. Last Words Apart from the implementation of AI in entertainment, the development of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) apps will make the customer experience immersive and captivating. Moreover, AI-based chatbots can be used for promotional operations for books, films, artists, and TV shows. Platforms in the entertainment sector involve AI to efficiently enhance user engagement and production rates.

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Media and Broadcasting

FILM PRODUCERS FLIP BARGAINING TABLE WITH UNIONIZING EFFORT

Article | May 21, 2021

Movie producers often find themselves negotiating with talent and crew members, and/or their production union representatives, over pay and benefits. But a group of 108 producers flipped the script Thursday in announcing they were looking to form a union of their own.Higher minimum pay and health benefits were cited as the two major reasons. While the group, called the Producers Union, boasts some heavy hitters such as Chris Moore (Manchester by the Sea) and Rebecca Green (It Follows), they made it clear that the traditional image of a Hollywood producer is misleading. Many are just getting by, project to project, looking for a breakout hit to up their quote. According to a survey released this year, 41% of producers made less than $25,000 in the pre-pandemic boom times of 2019. The Producers Union has developed a constitution with provisions for dues and diversity initiatives, with the aim of eventually negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with distributors and other film financiers. Previous efforts by producers to unionize have been thwarted by the courts and the National Labor Relations Board, according to Variety, as the NLRB saw them as supervisors and employers – which creates a high barrier to organizing.

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Spotlight

Obsidian Entertainment

Obsidian Entertainment, based in Irvine, California, is one of the world's leading developers of role-playing games. Obsidian's past titles include Pillars of Eternity, Armored Warfare, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Fallout: New Vegas, Dungeon Siege 3, Alpha Protocol, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2. Obsidian also has other unannounced projects in the works.

Related News

Ted Sarandos on How Netflix Predicted the Future of TV

Variety | August 21, 2018

When Ted Sarandos first met with Netflix founder Reed Hastings about working for his start-up online video-rental service in 1999, Hastings laid out his vision for the new recruit.Hastings saw his company’s future as providing streaming video delivered to subscribers via the internet, even though Netflix at the time made its money by mailing DVDs to subscribers across the country.Sarandos, who has been Netflix’s head of content since early 2000, was impressed by the clarity of Hastings’ plans. This was right around the time that music file-sharing service Napster was starting to make headlines and provoke copyright infringement lawsuits. Sarandos took the job with the understanding that Netflix wasn’t going to be strictly a mail-order DVD service for long. But what he couldn’t have known was how profoundly the company’s pioneering efforts would upend the traditional entertainment industry.

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Ted Sarandos on How Netflix Predicted the Future of TV

Variety | August 21, 2018

When Ted Sarandos first met with Netflix founder Reed Hastings about working for his start-up online video-rental service in 1999, Hastings laid out his vision for the new recruit.Hastings saw his company’s future as providing streaming video delivered to subscribers via the internet, even though Netflix at the time made its money by mailing DVDs to subscribers across the country.Sarandos, who has been Netflix’s head of content since early 2000, was impressed by the clarity of Hastings’ plans. This was right around the time that music file-sharing service Napster was starting to make headlines and provoke copyright infringement lawsuits. Sarandos took the job with the understanding that Netflix wasn’t going to be strictly a mail-order DVD service for long. But what he couldn’t have known was how profoundly the company’s pioneering efforts would upend the traditional entertainment industry.

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