… for Random Weirdness

Tip #1399: DPP: Predictions for Media in 2021

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

The media industry continues under heavy pressure. This report outlines key drivers.

The DPP, a London-based think-tank focused on media, published its annual predictions for 2021. The DPP 2021 Predictions, enabled by DPP member company Zixi, were drawn up by more than 30 senior leaders from across the DPP membership. They paint a picture of an industry focused on survival and redefinition.

The full report is available – free – to anyone interested. Here’s the link.

The top eight predictions are, in order:

1. The purpose of the workplace will be redefined
2. There will be market disruption and consolidation
3. Unpredictability will be the new normal
4. Security will become distributed
5. Businesses will better assess both sides of the risk equation
6. AI and automation will become pervasive across the supply chain
7. Global will impact local
8. Businesses will understand and manage data through the value chain

These are some key take-aways:

It is difficult to overstate the extent to which new ways of working currently dominate the thinking of senior media executives.

The elephant in the room is that some companies won’t survive this year

“I think where we are right now is quite difficult to predict as well. For me the only predictability is that there’s big changes coming up.”

“It’s hard to understand what we need to do, because I don’t know what consumers want. And that’s tied up with not knowing what COVID is going to do to us, right? But the point is, it’s going to change what we all have to do. Because when the floodgates are open, consumers are going to stop watching your network and my network, and they’re going to be just desperate to get out of that house. So then how do we adapt to that?”

Things are risky – but not doing anything is also risky.

What was striking about the views expressed this year was the observation that 2021 will be the year in which we see AI beginning to impact the whole media supply chain – including production.

:While our technology has accelerated, the cyber threats have also increased at speed. We are way more at risk now we have these remote workforces. We had an incident recently and it was just the craziest two weeks watching that unfold and dealing with how we responded. We just weren’t set up to do it. And the effect of that is that we know we’ve got to up our approach and response.”

What perhaps was most striking about this year’s discussion was the degree of unanimity. This may in part come from every company, of every kind, sharing the common experience of the pandemic – and every company, of course, being obliged to work remotely.

But that remote working has not only brought extraordinary changes to work culture. It has also led almost all companies to turn to virtualisation and the cloud. Technology and operations have been abstracted from physical locations, and companies
– whether content providers or suppliers – have become much clearer about the opportunities and challenges this change represents.

The entire report is free and well worth reading.