Global Streaming Gets Set for the ‘Producer Economy’

Enterprises and brands are about to experience a global shift focused on ownership of
distribution and platforms, and not just the importance of content creation

With video streaming increasing and the value of the market^[1] set to top over $1.6 trillion by 2029, the industry can expect a significant global shift. Content distribution is about to undergo major diversification, including an expansion of direct-to-audience for TV, film, and content creators that caters to individuals, enterprises and brands.

According to Brightcove, this shift will change how content creators engage, influence, and interact with their audience and will result in the ‘Producer Economy”.

The Producer Economy is the concept that brands and creators can now have more control over content creation, distribution, and monetisation. This can be achieved by building robust, multi-channel businesses across multiple established platforms and creating their own direct-to-audience platforms for their deepest and most loyal users, adding control of their first-party data.

Marc DeBevoise, Chief Executive Officer of Brightcove, observed, “Platforms such as YouTube and Netflix have helped take the industry forward to where we are now, but we believe these aggregator platforms and services are not going to be enough moving forward. There will be a fundamental shift to owning content, its distribution and monetisation, and its distribution platform, with the development and release strategy to super-serve the most loyal and highest-value followers, customers, and fans. The internet and streaming have allowed all of these producers to have a more defined and controlled voice, and truly own their digital future and control how their stories are told.”

Here’s what Brightcove envisions the Producer Economy will look like:

• Creators will seek broader distribution and new ways to monetise content, including working with and extending beyond existing aggregators and services. Creators will diversify to own their own capabilities in creation, distribution, and audience, creating their own direct-to-consumer channels, endpoints, sites, apps, and Free Ad-supported Streaming TV (FAST) channels.
• Companies and brands will embark on further digital transformation to expand their audience reach across various owned and controlled channels, and leverage social networks and platforms.
• The streaming ecosystem will evolve to enable creators to become producers with the ability to create, upload, store, manage, distribute, own their own platforms, own their data, and measure their content at all times. In short – they’ll become their own owners, producers and publishers of content.

^[1] Video Streaming Market Size, Share and Covid-19 Impact Analysis, Fortune Business Insights.

To ensure brands can retain current customers and grow their audience in this new world of streaming, Brightcove believes companies need to take steps to re-evaluate how they push out content now.

Marc DeBevoise added, “The move from creator to producer is critical. We currently operate in a robust market for streaming, and we also know how rapidly things can change. A platform can change its algorithm anytime, changing the audience. A funder of content can change their minds, cancel shows, and move on to new content. Brands and companies need to be able to tell their stories and stream their video to audiences across all digital platforms, including their own and 3rd-party platforms.”

To better understand how producers can own their own digital future, watch Brightcove’s PLAY Season 1.

Categorised in: Blog

This post was written by Brightcove