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Advantages in speed and innovation

By Rory Murphy.

Speed has always been important in the media, from publishing newspapers to broadcasting news, making the deadline was always the bottom line.

But there’s been a significant shift in the industry as consumers, through a variety of connected devices, now demand access to and availability of content at speeds never previously considered.

The Content and Digital Media decision makers I speak to tell me they need to meet these challenges, whilst also reducing costs and gaining business in an increasingly competitive market. Which is where Equinix fits in.

Load speed – enhancing customer experience

In digital media, the speed of streaming is critical. One recent study into video stream quality found that for every second of delay, 6% of viewers dropped off. After 5 seconds, 20% of viewers had given up and this is probably indicative of experiences across the Content and Digital Media industry.

Load speed of content is a core part of your user experience, impacting on your customer and audience loyalty. Good load speeds mean digital media ‘just works’ and appears as a seamless part of your service. Backstage there’s usually a lot more going on.

For EE, customer experience was a key factor in the decision to partner with Equinix. As Matt Stagg, Senior Manager of Network Strategy at EE explained in a recent video interview, “Customer experience on 4G is of paramount importance to EE. Equinix understand that and support us in maintaining that… It costs us billions to build and roll out a 4G network. One of the primary reasons that 4G is good is not just speed but that it has extremely low latency on the air interface. We need that to be transferred over to connectivity on our data centres. Equinix has ensured that we have the ability to grow very quickly and turn on that connectivity whenever we need it.”

Real-time bidding – possibilities of speed

Digital advertising businesses also benefit from locating closer to their partners. Low-latency connectivity makes real-time bidding (RTB) effective, so marketers can bid on display ads in real-time, based on a web user’s unique browsing history and other factors that enhance an ad’s impact.

A great case study demonstrating the possibilities of speed in RTB is BrightRoll, the leading video advertising platform. BrightRoll has built the world’s fastest real-time bidding exchange for video ads on Platform Equinix™, slashing network latency by 80% and increasing successful bids by 48%.

RTB is a high growth market – IDC estimates that RTB sales in Western Europe will grow from $227 million in 2011 to $2.5 billion in 2016. So, choosing a strategic location could lead to a huge commercial opportunity.

Speed of innovations – reduce time to market

As well as enhancing speed of delivery, improvements to your value chain can bring about ‘speed of innovations’, which is a significant competitive advantage in itself!

Simply joining a connected Content and Digital Media ecosystem enables you to collaborate, innovate and bring new services to market faster.

It’s part and parcel of abandoning the ‘silo thinking’ of the past. Content providers need to keep pace with consumer demand, so they are collaborating more closely with their partners and third parties to achieve this. This collective activity exposes new revenue streams and opportunities for monetisation.

By colocating within Equinix, Content and Digital Media companies can find and work with the right type of partners in the right way to make speed a competitive advantage. This gives them the edge in innovating and reducing time to market.

There is no doubt in my mind that the media industry is changing rapidly. However, businesses that adapt will be ready to thrive and develop new competitive advantage. But what do you think? Do you believe speed is a crucial competitive advantage?

Watch my video before you make your mind up.