MEDIA & PUBLISHING INDUSTRY PROFILE

Working in media is challenging and exciting. Media and entertainment workers are the first to learn the news and can help disseminate it to the public.

Many of the jobs give media workers the chance to meet and/or work with top celebrities and newsmakers. Even receptionists and office workers can encounter celebrities during their workdays.
Being passionate about your job and the field is welcome here. Many people in the film, television, and radio business have a lifelong interest in movies, TV, and radio/music/talk shows. They love creating and producing shows that entertain, enlighten, and educate people.

Some media jobs offer opportunities to travel for assignments. Broadcasters, reporters, writers, editors, broadcast technicians, and others involved in film, TV, and radio programming may need to travel regionally or internationally to cover events or news.

There can be flexibility to work in other media and entertainment fields. Some skills and knowledge are transferable from one industry to the next. For example, broadcasters can work in radio, television, cable, and Internet. Writers, editors, reporters, producers, directors can apply their knowledge to the publishing field, radio, TV, film, as well as the Internet.

Entry-level pay for media jobs is usually low. Tons of people consider this a glamorous field—everyone wants to work here so there are far more job candidates than there are jobs to fill. On the positive side, with increased skill and experience comes more responsibility and higher wages.

The work hours will be long, very long, especially for those new to the industry. The “pay your dues” attitude prevails. Everyone has to put their time in to make it in the business. It’s going to be challenging but if you can be patient and maintain a positive and helpful attitude, people will want to work with you and you’ll have more opportunities for job growth.
Some jobs, particularly in TV and radio broadcasting, have late-night, middle-of-the-night, and early-morning shifts. Workers must be prepared to adjust sleep schedules and their lives to accommodate work.

Competition is fierce. If you can’t accept the work conditions, countless candidates are in the wings ready to step in and do your job…and they’ll do it with great enthusiasm. It’s a buyer’s market for media and entertainment companies.

There’s little opportunity to settle down and get comfortable in your work because the jobs in media and entertainment are constantly evolving and being redefined. For instance, journalists no longer simply report the facts—many are now expected to post on Twitter and Facebook, and newspaper reporters often double as cameramen, shooting videos for Web sites. No matter what level they are at in their careers, media and entertainment workers need to constantly hone their skills by taking classes and knowing how to use the latest technology.

As consumers demand greater transparency about how companies are using their personal data, some companies have started making their privacy and data protection policies more stringent. According to Deloitte’s 2018 Digital Media Trends survey, 73 percent of all US consumers indicated they were concerned about sharing their personal data online and the potential for identify theft. In addition, 69 percent believe companies are not doing everything they can to protect consumers’ personal data. However, 73 percent said they would be more comfortable sharing their data if they had some visibility and control.

Regulatory changes will also continue to challenge the industry during 2019. In particular, regulatory authorities will have a key role to play in spurring 5G adoption in the United States. “Net neutrality” will be under the spotlight in 2019 as well. For example, two states—California and Washington—have passed laws that challenge the FCC’s December 2017 repeal of net neutrality rules that prohibited broadband providers from blocking websites or charging for higher-quality service or content.29 The net neutrality story will undoubtedly continue to develop over the coming year.

According to research, overhead continues to be media companies’ largest expenditure, and will account for a projected 22% of their Opex budget investment until 2020. A wide range of expenses fall into the overhead bucket—making this an area ripe for releasing trapped value.

For example, there are opportunities for organizations that operate across portfolios to consolidate functions, like HR and finance. We also see companies duplicating efforts, with duplicated advertising sales organizations for their traditional media and digital media products. Similarly, content distribution and metadata management frequently operate in multiple places across the company, despite the end goal being the same.

By consolidating and centralizing these activities, media companies can simplify the organizational structure for greater efficiency—along with the added benefits of improved performance, more focused resources and better information sharing.

Outsourcing is a possible path in the case of non-core business functions. Human resources, procurement and physical supply chain management are areas that could be explored to identify outsourcing cost saving opportunities.

Reverse declining operating margins without negatively impacting company’s short-and long-term growth trajectories.
A. Leveraged data and analytics to improve transparency of current costs and true spend.
B. Identified and quantified savings opportunities through value targeting
C. Created shared service structure to lower general and administrative work and costs
D. Developed go-to-market activities to improve sales motion and revenue growth

Preserve unique and differentiating aspects of the business while accelerating target margin, delivering accelerated growth, and increasing sustainable benefits. Client is on track to increase operating margins from 24% to 30%.

A key trend is the increasing investment in original content by streaming companies as a response to content pullbacks by media houses (such as Disney removing its content from Netflix and launching its own streaming service in 2019).19 For example, Netflix and Amazon are investing in the production of original series and films.20 Netflix’s chief content officer said that 85 percent of its $8 billion content investment in 2018 went toward original content. Amazon indicated that it would invest approximately $5 billion in video content during 2018, with an emphasis on big-budget original shows and rights to sports programming.

Massive media conglomerates dominate the global content production and distribution industry. The ability to compete successfully depends on the capacity to provide high-quality popular content, adapt to and exploit technological developments, respond to changes in consumer behavior, and achieve widespread distribution.
The explosion of digital content provided by companies such as Facebook and Netflix challenges traditional content providers to keep up.
Few technologies have been more eagerly anticipated by the industry and consumers alike than 5G. With its promise of faster data-transfer speeds, lower latency, and improved IoT connections, 5G will affect almost all aspects of the media & entertainment sector.12 It will benefit other industries as well through applications like telemedicine and remote industrial control.13

Autonomous vehicles are another technology area that will benefit significantly from 5G. With 5G as a backbone, autonomous cars could become a key platform for delivering media content and advertising.

A few other markets could emerge to a larger extent in 2019:

Connected/smart TVs are now found in nearly three-quarters of all US households,14 but to date, that adoption level hasn’t created a huge advertising market. However, that is starting to change: US spending on connected-TV advertising is expected to reach $13.3 billion in 2019, up from $4.7 billion in 2017.15 Digital video advertisers are turning to connected-TV platforms to extend their customer reach, while traditional TV advertisers are considering connected TV to tap into customer segments that prefer streaming. Advertisers who use connected TV are more likely to target consumers based on behaviors rather than demographics.16

While wearables can interact seamlessly with other devices to create highly personalized experiences, the category (including smart watches) is still awaiting its “killer app.” At present, wearables seem to be delivering the greatest value in the area of health and wellness, where they have the ability to measure users’ vital signs.

Media & entertainment executives are exploring how to apply blockchain capabilities directly to their businesses—from dynamic 5G networks, digital identity, and IoT . . . to stemming piracy, enabling micropayments, and returning more royalties to content creators.17 For media & entertainment companies, blockchain can create better and more secure content registries that quickly identify media assets and their owners.

A key trend for 2019 is the way digital is radically changing the dynamics of advertising. Spending on US TV ads fell for the first time in 2017 and was expected to slip another 0.5 percent in 2018 as more Americans move away from standard TV packages. TV’s command over US advertising revenues has given way to digital, which is expected to bring in nearly half of all ad revenue in 2018.22 Google and Facebook are carving up an ever-increasing share of the advertising pie

Too often, the budgeting process is based on last year’s performance, with existing line items adjusted for the next year. This approach ties organizations to the past—while media companies need to be focused on the future.

Zero-base spend starts with a blank slate, forcing organizations to rethink all operating expense costs and reimagine their cost structure based on what’s needed in this new, disruptive environment. It requires companies to design the right organization from scratch, rethink all operating expenses, remove past biases, and reallocate resources that do not support their distinctive capabilities or contribute to the desired outcome.

Zero-based budgeting drives out unnecessary costs and puts 100% of media companies spend in line with their strategic growth plans. Freed funds can be shifted to activities that drive sustainable growth, build innovation, and move them closer to their desired end goal.

This same zero-based methodology can be applied beyond budgeting—to areas such as supply chain, front office and organizational functions—where it can increase efficiency and agility. Released from previous constraints, companies have the flexibility to streamline activities, systems and solutions.

NASPERS needed to improve organizational effectiveness and reduce its cost base to prepare for the future amidst a rapidly changing TV landscape. Took Accelerated Savings approach focused at activity level to identify opportunities for bottom-line results. Built cost-conscious culture through strong leadership engagement to deliver bottom-line results. Delivered program at pace through Value Sprints and with analytical rigor to ensure sustainability of savings. Impact was $60M+ savings identified and committed in first six months.

Upfront technology expenses can be significant but are critical to creating an intelligent organization that can optimize opportunity and drive organizational efficiency.

Industry executives already recognize this importance, with more than 85% of those we surveyed believing that digital technologies will enable cost transformation in technology and marketing functions.

Digital-born companies are proving this. Free of the legacy advertising infrastructure that traditional media companies carry, Google and Facebook have a significantly higher gross margins than media companies.
Because these digital-born operations are built upon exceptional data and analytics capabilities, they have significant advantages over traditional businesses when it comes to measuring the business, tracking results and targeting customers. Data and analytics are essential for traditional players to stay competitive in the future—and advanced analytic capabilities also provide an enormous opportunity for Human + Machine enhancement to unlock value now.

The industry’s landscape will continue to be reshaped in 2019 by mergers and acquisitions—particularly as media companies attempt to strengthen their content libraries, quality, distribution, and value. Mega-mergers will ultimately allow a smaller number of big-name companies to control a greater portion of TV shows and films, potentially expanding their content libraries.24 Changing consumer mobile-data and streaming behaviors are the primary drivers of media companies’ aggressive M&A deals and strategic repositioning.

In addition to M&A activity, another key theme in 2019 will be the continued convergence of content and telecommunications networks. The rise of subscription streaming services and demand for original digital video content are pushing telecoms to incorporate digital content into their offerings. Telecoms increasingly want to own and monetize this content along with transporting it over their fixed and mobile networks. As with bundled services, many telecoms are achieving media/content integration through M&A deals, as well as partnerships. For example, T-Mobile US is planning a pay-TV offering using its acquisition of Layer 3. AT&T, meanwhile, is integrating assets of Time Warner (including HBO) in its own media offerings. Verizon, which is planning to launch 5G with a residential broadband offering, has partnered with YouTube and Apple to provide a network/content bundle.25

Meanwhile, stricter data privacy and protection regulations have forced digital advertisers to rethink and reinvent their ad-targeting strategies. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), for example, gives consumers more control over their personal data and forces companies to inform consumers of breaches within 72 hours.26 It also states that personal data can be used only if a company receives explicit permission from consumers.