This is the third in a series of articles about some of the findings from the 2011 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of broadcast industry trends, technology purchasing plans, and benchmarking of broadcast technology vendor brands. More than 8,000 people in 100+ countries took part in the 2011 BBS, making it the largest and most comprehensive market study ever done in the broadcast industry.
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In previous articles, I’ve written about the 2011 BBS Broadcast Industry Global Trend Index, which shows the most important trends in the broadcast industry for 2011. As a follow-up I wrote about how the commercial importance of these trends has changed over time.
Tracking broadcast industry trends is important because it provides insight into which areas are receiving the most attention from technology buyers. However, it’s important to note that industry trends are a reflection of what customers are thinking and talking about, not necessarily where they are spending money today.
Indeed, the 2011 BBS Broadcast Industry Global Trend Index includes a mix of current and future commercial priorities, some of which broadcasters have not yet determined how to implement. Thus, while trends are important they do not necessarily translate into where broadcast technology buyers will be spending their budgets in 2011 and 2012.
Technology spending in the broadcast industry tends to be project-based. Projects might include international elections and sporting championships, to the long-term planned capital upgrades of broadcast infrastructure and facilities. Thus, an understanding of the major projects being implemented by broadcaster professionals around the world provides useful insight into the capital expenditure plans of the industry.
We presented broadcast professionals with a list of major projects and asked them to indicate which ones they are currently implementing or have planned / budgeted to implement in the next year. Their responses were then used to create the 2011 BBS Broadcast Industry Global Project Index, which is shown below.
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One look at the 2011 BBS Broadcast Industry Global Project Index illustrates the difference between what people are thinking and talking about (trends), and where they are planning to spend their budgets (projects). Although “multi-platform content delivery” dominated the 2011 BBS Broadcast Industry Global Trend Index, the corresponding project “distribute and monetize content on multiple distribution platforms,” ranked #9 out of 15 in the 2011 BBS Broadcast Industry Global Project Index.
By a significant margin, more broadcast technology buyers said that they are budgeting for “upgrading infrastructure for HD/ 3Gbps operations” than any other project. Upgrading infrastructure for HD / 3Gbps operations was also the dominant planned project in the 2010 BBS.
This project correlates directly with “transition to HDTV operations,” which was ranked #2 in the 2011 BBS Broadcast Industry Global Trend Index.
The projects ranked 3rd, 5th and 6th – upgrading transmission & distribution capabilities; building new studios / OB vans; and launching new channels – are also related to the transition to HDTV operations, as these transmission upgrades, new studios, and new channels will almost certainly be at least HD capable, if not fully HD.
Many of the other top ranked projects are related to the file-based / tapeless workflow, which ranked #3 in the 2011 BBS Broadcast Industry Global Trend Index. For example, many respondents indicated that they planning workflow / asset-management; archive-related; and automation projects.
The rest of the list offers a mixed picture of project activity across the world, and includes everything from upgrading audio and newsrooms to multi-platform distribution being chosen in large numbers.
As mentioned earlier, multi-platform content delivery ranked #9 in the 2011 BBS Broadcast Industry Global Project Index. Despite the importance to organizations of monetizing content on multiple distribution platforms, it appears many broadcast professionals have not solidified their business plans in this area. This likely means that there will be significant opportunities in the future for broadcast technology vendors who offer a suite of products for multi-platform content delivery. The current excitement surrounding OTT video, connected TV, and mobile DTV is evidence of this, but these initiatives represent a relatively small proportion of the money being spent on broadcasting technology in 2011.
Interestingly, despite the fact that they may have the potential to deliver increased efficiencies and new revenue streams, there are several major projects that appear towards the bottom of this list. The two most obvious instances are the low ranking of “consolidate operations in regional hubs (centralcasting), and “outsourced operations (playout),” which are the bottom two projects on this list. This is because although these are high value projects, they will be undertaken by a relatively small number of organizations — i.e. large broadcasters. This highlights that the 2011 BBS Broadcast Industry Global Project Index is a graphic representation of the number of all planned projects across all respondents, regardless of organization type, size, or location. It does not measure size, value, or relative commercial importance of planned projects. Please keep this in mind when reading this information and interpreting these findings.
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Keep in mind when reading this information that all data in this article measures the responses of all non-vendor participants in the 2011 BBS, regardless of organization type, organization size, job title or geographic location. Responses of individual organization types or geographic locations may be very different than those shown in this high level overview. Granular analysis of these results is available as part of the full 2011 BBS Global Market Report. For more information about this report, please contact Devoncroft Partners.
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Related Content:
You can find out about the 2011 Big Broadcast Survey here.
The 2011 BBS Broadcast Industry Global Trend Index is here.
The 2010 BBS Broadcast Industry Global Trend Index is here.
The 2009 BBS Broadcast Industry Global Trend Index is here.
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This article is based on the findings from the 2011 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of industry trends, technology purchasing behavior and the opinion of vendor brands. With more than 8,000 people in 100+ countries participating, the 2011 BBS is the largest and most comprehensive market study ever done in the broadcast industry.
Devoncroft Partners has published a variety of reports from 2011 BBS data. For more information, please get in touch.
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©Devoncroft Partners 2009-2011