Big data set to warm up video screens

Big data has swept its way into your living room via the humble TV screen. Increasingly video analytics are being embraced by the broadcast industry as the magical keys to retaining and growing fragmented audiences.

This month, Telstra announced that it had made an equity investment in Taiwanese- based Gorilla Technology Group, to amplify its growing IPTV and OTT solutions set. The deal gives Telstra Ventures a minority stake in Gorilla and the data company will use the investment to enhance its core video Big Data & Analytics platform, and strengthen its sales and marketing presence worldwide.

Gorilla Technology Group’s software solutions were attractive to Telstra as they enable their business customers to convert raw video into searchable data and real-time searchable video cataloguing.  This is becoming a powerful and  essential tool not only for the content and broadcast industries but for video across retail, security and government industries.

As Gorilla Technology CEO, Dr Spincer Koh said, “in tackling the huge demand for software-driven value-added services – especially in verticals such as retail, security, broadcast, and government – Telstra is a very good match for Gorilla’s expertise in video big data and analytics.”
It is a trend that is poised to grow.

The TV industry in general has proven to be more Luddite than almost all other significant media sectors.  As digital offers from TV channels  and new competitive streaming offerings accelerate , the more broadcasters  ( old school or new OTT) can leverage the consumer data being generated. Analytics on  what each viewer watched, where and when, can be collated and cross referenced with how that viewer then engaged across other digital channels such as social media or mobile apps.

For instance a recent study from Nielsen’s Neuro division found that changes in Twitter TV activity  that is tweets around live airing of prime-time broadcast and cable TV shows,  correlates strongly with brain activity.  “In short, it means that increases in conversation on Twitter during live programming signal that there is high engagement with programming among the general viewing audience,” writes Nielsen. Nielsen asserts these findings mean that social media is a bellwether for general audience engagement.

But Twitter data mining for streaming TV is just the tipe of the iceberg for the future of  video analytics. Gorilla has been working on this for 15 years  and applied its technology to two of the most video-centric industries around, broadcast media and video surveillance.  With the current expansion of screens  and devices to view content, the ability to analyze and manage the big data generated from video offers a new playground for mining business intelligence and applying it to a range of value added services or tailored content delivery to capture new audiences.