Humans are ruled by their screens. In 2017, Americans spent a daily average of 12 hours consuming media, six hours using digital media and four hours viewing television content, according to eMarketer.
The media and entertainment industry is worth trillions of dollars. As lines between distribution, content and streaming become more blurred, the market is consolidating — through the gobbling up of small media companies and mergers between giants, such as Disney and 21st Century Fox — in order to remain competitive.
Some of the country's biggest entertainment powerhouses, like Amazon and Netflix, are pouring billions into content creation. But money means nothing if a business doesn't have the front- and back-end technology to support business operations.
Enter the CIO and CTO.
There's no one strategy for building the perfect technology stack in a modern entertainment company. But executives are grappling with similar business and leadership challenges:
- how to boost the omnichannel experience with the added obstacle of international expansion,
- how to become a data-driven company and
- how to ensure effective organizational and operational changes.
Building up and pushing out
Today, more than three-quarters of Americans have smartphones, with higher adoption percentages among younger demographics, according to Pew Research Center. And nearly three-quarters have a laptop, more than half have a tablet computer and almost one-quarter have an e-reader.
With so many digital avenues for consumption, businesses see value in boosting omnichannel support so consumers can view content whenever and however they want it. Smooth integration and transition between mediums is critical.
The pivot to the consumer comes with a wealth of data IT has to handle. For back-end teams, this means no longer just keeping the lights on, but also building insight and analytics capabilities ...
Many entertainment companies used to operate B2B, providing content to streaming services to distribute to customers, but in recent years businesses such as Starz have launched direct to consumer products, said Jeffrey Hirsch, COO of Starz, in an interview with CIO Dive.
The pivot to the consumer comes with a wealth of data IT has to handle. For back-end teams, this means no longer just keeping the lights on, but also building insight and analytics capabilities to transform the business, he said.
Starz isn't the only company going through this transformation. Fox Networks Group started its analytics journey last year, building up data lakes and instrumentation and learning to contextualize data to make business decisions, according to Fumbi Chima, global CIO of Fox Networks Group, in an interview with CIO Dive.
Both companies are also growing investment in entertainment around the world. With commitments in Arabia and a long-term partnership with Bell Media for the Canadian market, parent company Lions Gate Entertainment is looking to expand the Starz brand to new markets.
Fox Networks has a strengthening presence in Latin America and Europe, and in FY2017, growing volume and higher prices in the regions led an increase in international advertising revenue for its parent company, 21st Century Fox.
Distinguishing between global and regional strategy is important for business technology leaders. Moving to the cloud or creating efficiencies in standard HR and finance processes are global strategies, but moving customers to a specific platform is not, according to Chima.
For example, for consumers in Asia, their phone is their TV, so marketing content and platforms there have different challenges than for users in America, she said. With different omnichannel demands across regions, and even within regions, Fox Networks and other media groups have to ensure seamless integration across platforms and the convergence of the physical and digital realms.
So how do you get it done?
Figuring out the right combination of leadership is the first step. Many would argue that a CIO is integral for any company, given the importance of technology for any business with a digital presence. Businesses interfacing with customers may also be in need of a CTO.
When starting off, most effective leaders will say that coming in swinging and stepping on toes is a recipe for disaster.
Hirsch and Starz bided their time and hired Ameesh Paleja, former CEO of Atom Tickets, as CTO in March. The two executives interact almost daily, with frequent check-ins to balance the what (business) and how (technology) of the company. Paleja's leadership has been important for determining whether to build technology in-house or look to proprietary systems in the market.
When starting off, most effective leaders will say that coming in swinging and stepping on toes is a recipe for disaster.
Taking stock of a company and culture can take months, and for most business execs making big changes in the first 100 days — sometimes even within the first 6 months — mistakes will happen, said Chima, pulling on years of CIO experience from companies including Burberry, Walmart and American Express.
First, one needs to learn about the people in the organization, figure out what's going on and get a grasp of projects, stakeholders and other business imperatives.
"When you make those changes very, very quickly, people will not trust you," Chima said. "And so they'll only tell you what you want to hear, and many times you miss those key gaps. But if you are reassuring them and telling them 'things will change, but it'll take time because we're going to go through it together,' you will actually learn a lot more."
Hirsch reaffirmed that listening and understanding are the keys for business leaders entering a new space, from COOs to CIOs and CTOs, and that these skills are just as important in the long run.
Moving forward, both executives have plenty projects on their plates.
Legacy-based Fox Networks is figuring out how to bridge the digital and physical sides while potentially keeping the latter, even in the age of the cloud.
As Starz expands globally, it will have to balance its hybrid cloud approach and is currently reviewing how it might move further toward the cloud.
