2016 TV Year in Review: Guy Bisson, Research Director, Ampere Analysis

In an industry where change is constant, it’s sometimes easy to miss the subtle transitions that move a development from ‘a minor shift’ to ‘a major trend’. The content business is an area that seems to wax and wane in perceived value, often following a pattern that peaks and troughs alternately with excitement about technological developments.

During 2016, content again rose to the fore as the industry capitalized on a significant shift in viewing patterns among Millennials and their binge viewing of drama, passion for comedy and love of niche and alternative content.

The phrase ‘content is king’, so popular in the 1990s, again regularly passed the lips of TV executives across the globe in 2016. Combined with an increasingly uncertain political and economic outlook, media groups looked to huddle and the combination of content and distribution seemed the obvious route. Disney looked longingly at Netflix, AT&T courted Time Warner and Fox jumped to buy out Sky TV. Vertical integration, that other great 90s buzz phrase is back, and it’s here to stay in 2017.

Horizontal integration, too, will be big in 2017, with content-on-content combinations increasingly common. The focus will be ‘traditional’ media brands buying into youth-focused, largely digital-native content owners and platforms

But amid all the big mergers; the rush to produce big-budget dramas; and the increasingly global nature of content deals, some of those more subtle changes were going on right under our noses.

So, to some other shifts that look set to become major trends in 2017 and beyond, we must look to a combination of technology and content. Pokémon Go showed us that Augmented Reality (AR) can be so much more than information overlay and Virtual Reality (VR) was the hot topic on the conference circuit during 2016. But an endless stream of un-compelling 360 video demonstrations led a number of commentators to declare that VR will be ‘the next 3D’, the industry’s by-word for abject failure.

I disagree. VR will be so much better when the engineers behind it forget the ‘technical marvel’ that is an out-of-focus football match transmitted live in 360, and concentrate on the medium’s real strength: personal, one-on-one experiences. VR has absolutely nothing to do with viewing. It has everything to do with experiencing. As content producers realize that, and capitalize on its opportunity, VR will start to really find its feet. And 2017 could be its year.

There are a couple of other content trends to look out for in 2017: the rise of professional digital native content; that is content produced specifically for online platforms and non-television devices, and the growing importance and opportunity of live, social-media driven video. Both will increasingly be the target of major content producers in 2017.

What started with Periscope, evolved with Facebook Live and now embraces Instagram and Snapchat, is the big opportunity for 2017. Especially as the digital native platforms increasingly align around strict demographic lines. Snapchat is ascending at a meteoric rate precisely because it delivers a really young and engaged demographic. Live, professional video as entertainment, streamed to any device is something that gets me excited for the year ahead.

Now, if live professional is exciting, then live VR is ecstasy. It’s definitely one for ‘beyond’ 2017, but when we can connect in real time and experience a sky dive, a dream dinner-date or a Formula One race, especially if combined with wearable technology to transmit sensation, then the current cycle of content and tech will have reached its pinnacle.