The Video Revolution
Is Here
The next phase of video production
and delivery is upon us.
The massive shifts in content
consumption patterns toward digital
platforms can no longer be ignored.
It has become clear that changes are
needed in the way video is produced,
managed and distributed. These
processes must become more efficient,
more open and more adaptable to
meet the evolving demands of the
global marketplace and the end viewer.
This change must be more than an
evolution of the vertical products and
services being used today to bring
video to life and to the masses. It must
be a revolution: a completely new
paradigm where companies are no
longer tied to individual solutions from
multiple vendors, nor to legacy systems
that cannot be integrated but are too
critical to risk replacing, nor to the age-
old conundrum of whether to build or
buy a media solution. Companies must
be able to build solutions their own
way, to fit their own needs.
Ooyala is continuing to innovate and
lead the industry into this next phase,
with the introduction of the Ooyala
Flex Media Platform—the flag-bearer
of this video revolution. This open and
extensible content production and
delivery platform streamlines, connects
and powers the entire content supply
chain from production to profit.
This white paper will explore the
video landscape shifts that have led
to this revolution, and the market
forces that are driving the need for this
new paradigm. It will also detail the
mechanics and benefits of using such
a platform that can simplify operations
to serve up video in any way content
companies—and their audiences—need,
now and in the future.
The Video Revolution Is Here 1
THE NEW CONTENT BATTLEGROUND THE SIMPLE SOLUTION: THE OOYALA
FLEX MEDIA PLATFORM
Within the video industry as a whole, the long-held axiom
is that content is king — and the kingmaker. The producer
This one platform simplifies, streamlines and connects the
or broadcaster, publisher, studio, or enterprise with the
entire content supply chain to help teams:
best content will attract audiences most consistently, and
therefore have the best chance at long-term success. With
♦♦ plan and manage
the fragmentation of the video landscape across linear
and digital platforms that has emerged just in the last few ♦♦ curate and archive
years, video content has become an even more critical
♦♦ orchestrate and automate
differentiator. It is now all around us—on every screen, in
every country, at every minute of the day. ♦♦ distribute and publish
♦♦ analyze and monetize
To attract audiences when they have so many options,
providers have found that they must have their best content
The Ooyala Flex Media Platform supports companies
available at all times. With the right content in the right place,
whether they work in one area or across all of these, and
audiences will deem a service or site one of the few worthy
can be completely customized to meet specific needs.
of their time and money; they will subscribe or commit to it
Content companies can build their best solution with
and stay there. The value exchange is complete.
applications from Ooyala or certified third parties, or create
and host their own apps with the built-in API infrastructure.
If anyone doubts that content is important, consider that
annually, Netflix now spends $8 billion on original and
With an integrated content supply chain ecosystem,
acquired content, HBO spends $2 billion, and Facebook
companies can harness the metadata that runs throughout
and Apple both spend around $1 billion. The fact that so
any or all of these operations to create and deliver the
much money is being invested in original content creation
robust and targeted content that they need today.
and licensing shows how much of a factor content is in
audience satisfaction and market success, and how high
They also gain more efficiencies through automation so
the stakes are rising to get content—and get it right.
they can do more within existing content footprints and
budgets. This is true for all network-connected systems
The fact remains, however, that most content providers
and associated processes however they’re configured.
don’t have multi-billion dollar budgets to produce or
It remains true whether the software applications that
acquire the level of content needed now to attract and
comprise an existing content supply chain are powered
keep audiences. They need to be more strategic with
by Ooyala, one of our best-in-breed partners, or other
their content and what they do with it to make the most of
companies; are ten years old or recently purchased; or
their video investments and stay in the game. Therefore,
support one operation or all. The Ooyala Flex Media
with this unprecedented tidal wave of content and content
Platform has the flexibility to bring all of those applications
expenditures in the marketplace, two critical trends have
together into one consolidated, connected and streamlined
emerged to allow providers of all sizes to compete:
content supply chain.
♦♦ Horizontal platforms, which help companies integrate
All of a sudden, companies can have a single view across
the data that exists throughout their content supply
content systems so they can:
chain to create better, more targeted content.
♦♦ Data-driven automated workflows, which help ♦♦ optimize workflows to speed up operations, cut costs
companies get more content to market faster and more and lower risks
cost-effectively.
♦♦ share metadata to integrate disconnected systems,
processes and teams
Data-driven platforms and workflows enable content
providers everywhere to achieve scale and efficiencies ♦♦ harness analytics to create more targeted content and
cost-effectively, and level the content playing field against deepen business insights
larger companies. They can run their media operations
♦♦ build a better platform user experience to maximize
strategically, drive their digital transformation, and remain
time and resources
in the game. In this dynamic content environment, these
capabilities are vital to survival. Let’s explore each of these further.

How can they accomplish all of this? By keeping things

simple.

The Video Revolution Is Here 2

THE CONNECTED CONTENT
SUPPLY CHAIN
Workflow: The automated workflows of the Ooyala Flex
Media Platform make it easy to connect systems that
were previously isolated, regardless of how monolithic,
legacy or distributed they are. One area where this is
becoming more critical is with live and video-on-demand
workflows, where providers may have a separate workflow
for VOD from the workflow that they have for live and
linear broadcast. The platform can integrate these to
reduce costs and complexity. It also offers pre-defined
workflows that will get teams up and running fast, but which
also can be customized and extended as needed. And,
the platform allows for flexibility in deployment models,
including on-premise, in the cloud, or hybrid. Multi-location
(on one site or multiple sites) is supported for any of these
deployment models. These workflow capabilities reflect the
platform’s breadth, as it can bring applications that might
not be cloud-native into the supply chain. The unity and
adaptability help teams reduce workflow bottlenecks and
risks, and significantly increase the speed at which content
moves through the supply chain to market. And beyond
automation, the platform allows for business process
modeling so that teams can build in decision-making based
on specific business rules they set within their workflows.
The Video Revolution Is Here 3
Metadata: Once the superhighway of workflows is in
place, the Ooyala Flex Media Platform makes it effortless to
integrate those applications and have them share metadata. Case in Point
Consequently, tasks that used to be manually-driven,
A large, North American media company with content
such as working with budget spreadsheets, or re-entering
needing constant updates was looking to automate
metadata manually when moving between processes,
and streamline as much of its content management and
or updating scripts in pre-production and pushing them
distribution process as possible to increase video ROI.
into production systems, all can be automated—for time,
cost and error reduction. Metadata is entered once and The company works with content produced in-house,
then carried across each application; this is true whether automatically generated or acquired from 3rd parties,
those applications are provided by the same vendor or which is then distributed on the company’s website
not. The Ooyala Flex Media Platform also includes partner and mobile apps, and directly to partners using several
integrations where metadata can be shared, such as with different delivery methods. It was losing revenues as
A.I.-driven cognitive service applications like Microsoft the manual content creation process was too slow; the
Video Indexer, which deeply analyzes and describes audio- company needed to get content to market faster to
visual assets via features such as facial recognition, object monetize it longer (the shelf life is roughly one day) and
tagging, and audio transcription. Together, they harness stand up new syndication partners quickly. The company
metadata to perform focused asset searches within systems was allocating significant resources and marketing
and archives, and transform them into productive, targeted funds to get people to visit its website; it needed to get
and monetizable content for engaged consumer audiences. content online more quickly to keep them engaged and
The platform also integrates with payment platforms to drive more streams and revenue. The direct sales team
add metadata at the content prep stage, which results in consequently was underperforming because it couldn’t
dynamic subscription packages. And, the platform’s real- negotiate higher CPMs.
time dashboard captures and displays data from third-party
The company chose the Ooyala Flex Media Platform as
systems to show more holistic performance.
an on-premise solution to address these issues, using
features including workflow and analytics. The platform
Analytics: Similarly building on top of workflows, with the
has automated the company’s content workflows.
single platform in place to administer, automate and monitor
It has also integrated partners for activities such as
a connected supply chain, companies also gain a complete
distribution and transcoding, along with the company’s
understanding of an asset at every stage along the content
existing CMS for managing and pushing asset metadata
life cycle, with a single source of truth along the way. Multi-
and asset presence on the website. For example,
dimensional analysis of viewing and engagement brings
custom scripts from the company’s CMS pull data from
companies up-to-the-minute data across entire libraries
Ooyala CMS APIs within the Ooyala Flex Media Platform
or single videos. Teams can now learn how much time
to see what assets are available. The custom scripts
and money it costs to produce and deliver every piece of
notify the Ooyala CMS if a user changes metadata and
content. They can also learn when audiences are watching
push that updated metadata to it.
particular videos more or longer than others, and how
content is being monetized across distribution windows. Key benefits gained:
And, with the Ooyala Flex Media Platform’s analytics,
companies can use that information to drive future content ♦♦ Automatic ingestion of partner content via RSS
investments or licensing partnerships to create more feeds
targeted content and meet their goals.
♦♦ UI for on-boarding new partners’ RSS feeds quickly
and reliably
Platform user experience: Finally, the Ooyala Flex Media
Platform also simplifies the user experience for teams ♦♦ Integration with in-house studio workflows
and individuals who work with the content supply chain.
♦♦ Ability to review assets sourced from certain
For example, someone who works with Avid’s Interplay
partners
Production and the Ooyala Flex Media Platform doesn’t
have to spend time going between two separate systems.
As a result, this media company gets more content to
They gain a single-user experience where they can do what
market significantly faster, so it can be better monetized
they need to do with the Avid platform from the comfort of
and for longer.
Ooyala’s platform or vice-versa. Plus, teams don’t have the
hassle and expense of maintaining the platform; upgrades
are made by the experts at Ooyala to help companies stay
ahead of industry demands.

The Video Revolution Is Here 4

The Ooyala Flex Media Platform also supports content Thus, the Ooyala Flex Media Platform puts content
companies looking to solve for specific challenge areas providers in the best position to win in the video revolution.
within their content supply chain, via bundled application
solutions. These include areas such as: ♦♦ Build cost efficiencies: make systems and budgets go
further
♦♦ Content Distribution
♦♦ Modernize existing workflows: integrate current
♦♦ Content Production systems without replacing them
♦♦ Digital Video Playout ♦♦ Make strategic decisions: use data to understand
what’s happening at every stage
♦♦ Live
♦♦ Introduce new advancements: keep pace with new
Wherever your business meets content, the Ooyala Flex formats, standards and technologies
Media Platform is there.
♦♦ Reach a global audience: scale and regionalize
content to expand into new markets
BENEFITS ♦♦ Create more engaging content: attract and maintain
valuable audiences
The Ooyala Flex Media Platform helps companies
♦♦ Optimize video investments: increase profits and
everywhere make their content supply chain faster, smarter,
adapt for the future
more flexible, and more profitable. It has the means to
harness metadata to automate workflows, simply and
efficiently integrate multiple systems, teams and processes,
and help companies build their ideal solutions their own way.

www.ooyala.com sales@ooyala.com

For over 10 years, Ooyala has been at the forefront of shaping the OTT and media workflow revolutions as a leading provider of software and solutions that optimize the
production, distribution and monetization of media. National Rugby League, Dell, SkySports and Media Prima are global customers that rely on the Ooyala Flex Media
Platform to successfully produce, manage, and distribute media and become more efficient, more open and more extensible to meet the evolving needs of their viewers.
Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Ooyala is a US based subsidiary of global telecommunications and IT services company, Telstra, with offices in Chennai, Cologne, Dallas,
Guadalajara, London, Madrid, New York, Paris, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo, and sales operations in many other countries across the globe. For more information,
visit www.ooyala.com. For inquiries, contact us or email sales@ooyala.com.