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Video Consumption Growing While User Experience Lags Behind

More than half of consumers watch videos on mobile devices – expected to grow 45 percent in three years

Digital video consumption is viral and, according to a new study released by IBM and International Broadcasting Convention (IBC), more than half of the 21,000 consumers surveyed are using mobiles every day to watch streaming videos, and that number is expected to grow 45 percent in the next three years.

Today, the explosive growth of new digital content available via online video distribution networks such as YouTube competes directly with traditional broadcasting creating a new connected landscape with data at the center. With this shift in industry competition, media and entertainment companies aim to maximize content investment and return while providing a differentiated and exceptional customer experience. Ninety-two percent of surveyed media and entertainment executives say cognitive technologies will play an important role in the future of their business.

The Creating a living media partner for your consumers: A cognitive future for media and entertainment study, conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV), is based on findings from two studies. The first is a survey of nearly 21,000 consumers in 42 countries about their video consumption habits, and the second offers insights from 500 global media and entertainment executives about the impact of cognitive computing on their industry.

Globally, the study found 51 percent of surveyed consumers -- and 67 percent in emerging markets — access free, over-the-Internet video from providers such as YouTube, Facebook and Snapchat, whereas 48 percent access video through regular subscription services from traditional pay-TV providers. Among the 55 percent of surveyed respondents who watch video regularly on mobile devices, about a quarter spend one to two hours using mobile broadband instead of WiFi.

Despite consumers’ drive to go mobile, many respondents say the experience leaves much to be desired. For example, 65 percent of surveyed consumers very often or regularly experience buffering problems and 62 percent have long waiting times to start a video.


Although media companies have advanced in recent years, most lag digital disruptors in the application of data, machine learning and advanced automation to deliver next-generation experiences at scale. Cognitive capabilities can play a critical role in this transformation by unlocking and interpreting previously inaccessible data, yielding audience, content and contextual insights that can help media companies reach viewers with compelling, personalized experiences.

With the rapid evolution of customer preferences and demands, media companies face immense pressure in a hyper-competitive market. The IBV and IBC recommend organizations embrace the opportunities that the marketplace is currently presenting by:

Applying cognitive technology to achieve personalization

Delighting and engaging each individual consumer by understanding the personalized, in-the-moment experiences each customer craves is critical. Cognitive applications in media and entertainment can help do just that, by delivering audience insights and content enrichment, as well as content prediction to create a compelling customer experience based on audience preferences, affinities and tastes.

Revamping infrastructure to meet the coming demands

Moving from several hundred channels to several million “cable channels for one” that predict and serve individual needs in real time will require much more flexible and scalable processes. Companies will need to implement hyperscalable systems to manage the ever-expanding data processing necessary to analyze, personalize, and distribute video content. Such a platform must be scalable to accommodate growth, resilient to support uninterrupted service and secure to manage identities and protect valuable assets.

Content value chains — from acquisition through production to distribution — need to be unified, requiring workflow automation, which must consider the media content, associated rights and technical and descriptive metadata.

Media workflow systems must monitor system infrastructure, the location of content and distribution channel characteristics. By applying cognitive methods to both audience insights and content distribution, media companies can create an architecture that scales automatically based on predictions of audience demands and peak loads, helping to match costs and resources dynamically to changing market conditions and business or operational needs.

Reengineering business models to profit from in the new media landscape

Media companies will need to make backend systems and processes more intelligent to fully monetize the new opportunities while cutting costs and refocusing investment on content and customer experience.

As media companies look to the future, those that apply data to optimize revenues and costs and strip out non-core activities will free up funds to reinvest in content and enabling technologies, driving further growth and success. Emerging technologies like cognitive solutions and blockchain may play a key role in that future. Industry leaders will be those who can institutionalize such capabilities as part of their Digital Reinvention efforts and focus their companies on investing in great content and delivering superior customer experiences.

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Video Consumption Growing While User Experience Lags Behind

More than half of consumers watch videos on mobile devices – expected to grow 45 percent in three years

Digital video consumption is viral and, according to a new study released by IBM and International Broadcasting Convention (IBC), more than half of the 21,000 consumers surveyed are using mobiles every day to watch streaming videos, and that number is expected to grow 45 percent in the next three years.

Today, the explosive growth of new digital content available via online video distribution networks such as YouTube competes directly with traditional broadcasting creating a new connected landscape with data at the center. With this shift in industry competition, media and entertainment companies aim to maximize content investment and return while providing a differentiated and exceptional customer experience. Ninety-two percent of surveyed media and entertainment executives say cognitive technologies will play an important role in the future of their business.

The Creating a living media partner for your consumers: A cognitive future for media and entertainment study, conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV), is based on findings from two studies. The first is a survey of nearly 21,000 consumers in 42 countries about their video consumption habits, and the second offers insights from 500 global media and entertainment executives about the impact of cognitive computing on their industry.

Globally, the study found 51 percent of surveyed consumers -- and 67 percent in emerging markets — access free, over-the-Internet video from providers such as YouTube, Facebook and Snapchat, whereas 48 percent access video through regular subscription services from traditional pay-TV providers. Among the 55 percent of surveyed respondents who watch video regularly on mobile devices, about a quarter spend one to two hours using mobile broadband instead of WiFi.

Despite consumers’ drive to go mobile, many respondents say the experience leaves much to be desired. For example, 65 percent of surveyed consumers very often or regularly experience buffering problems and 62 percent have long waiting times to start a video.


Although media companies have advanced in recent years, most lag digital disruptors in the application of data, machine learning and advanced automation to deliver next-generation experiences at scale. Cognitive capabilities can play a critical role in this transformation by unlocking and interpreting previously inaccessible data, yielding audience, content and contextual insights that can help media companies reach viewers with compelling, personalized experiences.

With the rapid evolution of customer preferences and demands, media companies face immense pressure in a hyper-competitive market. The IBV and IBC recommend organizations embrace the opportunities that the marketplace is currently presenting by:

Applying cognitive technology to achieve personalization

Delighting and engaging each individual consumer by understanding the personalized, in-the-moment experiences each customer craves is critical. Cognitive applications in media and entertainment can help do just that, by delivering audience insights and content enrichment, as well as content prediction to create a compelling customer experience based on audience preferences, affinities and tastes.

Revamping infrastructure to meet the coming demands

Moving from several hundred channels to several million “cable channels for one” that predict and serve individual needs in real time will require much more flexible and scalable processes. Companies will need to implement hyperscalable systems to manage the ever-expanding data processing necessary to analyze, personalize, and distribute video content. Such a platform must be scalable to accommodate growth, resilient to support uninterrupted service and secure to manage identities and protect valuable assets.

Content value chains — from acquisition through production to distribution — need to be unified, requiring workflow automation, which must consider the media content, associated rights and technical and descriptive metadata.

Media workflow systems must monitor system infrastructure, the location of content and distribution channel characteristics. By applying cognitive methods to both audience insights and content distribution, media companies can create an architecture that scales automatically based on predictions of audience demands and peak loads, helping to match costs and resources dynamically to changing market conditions and business or operational needs.

Reengineering business models to profit from in the new media landscape

Media companies will need to make backend systems and processes more intelligent to fully monetize the new opportunities while cutting costs and refocusing investment on content and customer experience.

As media companies look to the future, those that apply data to optimize revenues and costs and strip out non-core activities will free up funds to reinvest in content and enabling technologies, driving further growth and success. Emerging technologies like cognitive solutions and blockchain may play a key role in that future. Industry leaders will be those who can institutionalize such capabilities as part of their Digital Reinvention efforts and focus their companies on investing in great content and delivering superior customer experiences.

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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