With the proliferation of over-the-top (OTT) platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Amazon Video, we’re in the midst of a streaming and broadcasting revolution.
During the lockdown, innovation was accelerated by consumer wants and tastes, as each platform sought to acquire a competitive advantage.
While we’re seeing a variety of technologies and functions used in innovation, we’re focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to examine how OTT content generation and distribution is changing, as well as how innovators may best patent inventions in this area or join forces with Media production services to bridge the gap.
Not only have connection speeds improved in recent years, but so has the video quality of web content on OTT platforms.
As a result, competition has increased, making it tough for firms to remain relevant in the market. Even the biggest names in OTT aren’t certain to keep their market share if they can’t differentiate themselves from their competition.
It’s critical to personalize the user experience in order to stand out in the market.
OTT platforms can preserve their competitive advantage and remain relevant to audiences by properly implementing AI and ML technology.
Here are the top OTT trends that are powered by AI ML in overcoming obstacles and retaining and growing market share within the media industry.
- AI For Hyper-Personal Approach
One of the most persuasive contributions of AI technology to OTT platforms is the capacity to filter their material according to the specific interests and preferences of each viewer to drive higher content consumption.
Shows that cater to people’s interests are more likely to be watched. If OTT platforms have a greater grasp of their consumers’ tastes, they would be able to provide better services to them.
OTT providers can use AI to determine their preferences, such as what shows they enjoy and don’t like, what genre they’re interested in, and how much time they spend on your platform. Companies can utilize this information to promote shows that fit their preferences, resulting in hyper-personalized content and higher consumer happiness.
- AI For Video Meta-data OTT Trends
The availability of rich content metadata is a need for making material searchable. Each frame in the content library’s videos has metadata, which is information about what and how the characters are presented, as well as their emotional state and nature. By gathering metadata properly, AI can target those emotions and build customized highlights to direct the user to the show that he is most likely to love, hence increasing viewership and user pleasure.AI systems automatically provide labels to each scene evaluated in order to visualize the content structure and categorize scenes. This wealth of well-organized metadata can be used in a variety of critical OTT workflows to improve content discovery and recommendation.
- AI For Short-form videos
When compared to generic material, bite-size video and short-form content are likely to improve engagement by a factor of ten. Using AI to create teasers, highlights, recaps, and trailers for shows can boost viewership because viewers don’t have to sift through hours of information to discover what they want to see. This method not only saves the user time searching, but it also boosts the platform’s ability to monetize the material. Because AI engines have a considerably better throughput, OTT platforms can produce more content with less time spent at the editing tables.
- AI For Video Playback Services
With the capacity to stream content in 4K video resolution, data and speed requirements have skyrocketed. Due to restricted bandwidth at the user’s terminal, this can result in throttling, causing subscribers to become distracted by competition. As a result, finding a solution to the video buffering problem becomes critical. The AI technology can intelligently adjust the video quality based on network quality. It can intelligently switch between video quality without affecting the user’s experience. AI can also learn the user’s favorite video quality over time and switch to it whenever the user watches a video.
To improve user experience, OTT platforms must use data and increase their capabilities. By adopting approaches to adapt content and services based on a range of data, AI and ML can help solve these difficulties and provide a richer and more engaging experience for audiences. As a result, AI may aid in the collection of deep content insights, the discovery of high-intensity moments, and the acceleration of editorial workflows, resulting in a significant change in the user experience of OTT platforms.
- AI For Content Production
The first is to make content production faster and more efficient, lowering costs and shortening time-to-market – critical in a world where video consumption is currently king.
In 2016, 20th Century Fox teamed up with IBM to create the world’s first “cognitive movie trailer” for its horror film “Morgan.” This entailed teaching an AI to put together the new trailer in a style that appealed to horror enthusiasts by combining great moments from other horror films and trailers.
“There are patterns and sorts of emotions in horror films that resonate differently with each viewer, and the complexities and interrelationships of these are what an AI system would have to find and comprehend in order to make a captivating movie trailer,” according to IBM. Our team was tasked with not only teaching a system to recognize “what is terrifying,” but also with creating a trailer that a majority of viewers would find “frightening and suspenseful.”
This achievement was accomplished in just 24 hours (with human editing aid near the end of the process) — making a movie trailer normally takes between ten and thirty days without AI assistance.
After five years, AI and machine learning have expanded their ability to sense, learn, and adapt even more.
Many aspects of content creation can be automated, lowering the amount of time and labor necessary. AI can learn from error patterns and speed up data processing, as well as build new films in real time from content libraries, ideally optimized for release on each distinct OTT or social media platform, without the need for human intervention (as with the Morgan trailer).
If such massive advancements in content creation continue, we may one day see individual content creators making Hollywood-quality films with the help of AI.
This is wonderful news for customers since it will make it easier and faster for OTT platforms to develop new video content, allowing them to create more and higher-quality content. With Netflix’s revenue expected to exceed $25 billion by 2020, the earning potential for OTT platforms is limitless.
- AI For Content Delivery
The delivery of material to end users is the second area of transformation. We’re already seeing a lot of movement in this space as each OTT platform tries to establish a competitive advantage in what has become a crowded industry.
We can once again look to Netflix as a pioneer in this field. Its most recent patents are for AI and machine learning-based recommendation systems that are based on user preferences and provide rapid and exact recommendations with a high degree of personalization.
It also has patents for technology that improve how content is displayed to viewers, decreasing buffering and data loss while improving stream quality.
Such innovation demonstrates that OTT platforms are now fighting as much for technological capabilities as for content. If one platform offers a considerably smoother watching experience than the other, regardless of which device you’re using, as well as better recommendations that make it easy to discover new material, they may be able to attract far more subscribers.
The key question here is whether content delivery inventions can be patented. Unless the invention is limited to a specific purpose or you can pinpoint exactly which function of the AI is being used to improve a specific aspect of content delivery, patent offices have often looked at searching, tagging, and organizing software methods with suspicion unless the invention is limited to a specific purpose or you can pinpoint exactly which function of the AI is being used to improve a certain aspect of content delivery.
While Netflix appears to have a strong approach here, patent offices have often looked at searching, tagging, and organizing software methods Instead of trying to patent a process that just automates something a human could perform mentally to accomplish the same outcome, you should focus on the function or feature that solves a technological problem (and that results in an improved process).
The secret is to avoid claiming the invention too broadly (although tempting this may be) and to explain not only what, but also how, the claimed innovation is implemented and/or used.
- AI For Blending OTT platforms
The mixing of platforms is the third evident way that AI is disrupting the OTT game. All types of social media and streaming platforms are patenting AI-based technologies, from Instagram to TikTok, Amazon to Disney.
This suggests that we may be seeing the beginnings of platforms that attempt to merge applications and functionalities. YouTube is an excellent example; it has long been more than just a video viewing platform; it is also a video editor, a social network, a message board, and much more.
New entrants to the OTT arena have also emerged, thanks to advancements in AI-based technology. One such contender is Kilowott, a digital transformation company that promises to provide “an amazing Direct-to-Consumer fan experience at scale,” with the capacity to make video, broadcast video, and engage fans all in one place. Don’t trust us? Check out our case study below
It intends to appeal to a wide range of broadcasters, and content owners by allowing them to take advantage of OTT technologies to increase the reach, scale, and dependability of video content streaming.
In the end, a platform like this serves as a one-stop shop for content creation, distribution, and audience engagement.
We at Kilowott fee that it’s not the only platform that may benefit from an integrated strategy – consider how the combined user base of social media platforms and the content development and streaming capabilities of OTT platforms could radically transform the game.
- AI for OTT Video Playback Services
The data speeds have increased in the past few years, but so has the video quality of web content on OTT platforms.
With the option to stream content in 4K video quality, the data and speed requirements have significantly increased. This can lead to a lot of buffering issues that can potentially drive subscribers away.
Thus, finding a solution for the video buffering problem becomes imperative. The AI system can intelligently determine the video quality depending on the network quality.
It can intelligently switch between different video quality without affecting the user experience to a great deal.
The user can be kept engaged on the platform if he doesn’t face any buffering issues. AI can also learn over time the preferred video quality of the user and automatically switch to it whenever the user plays any video content.
Whatever direction the market takes, one thing is certain: AI is revolutionizing OTT technology. Diversification efforts are increasingly focusing on the user experience, rather than just the sorts of shows and movies accessible to view, resulting in a flurry of platform innovation.
You need actual skill to protect computer software and mathematical processes, not just in terms of truly comprehending the subject matter, but also in terms of dealing with patent offices all over the world.
Kilowott provides an unique combination of experience and knowledge, having drafted and prosecuted a large number of software patents (with a focus on cutting-edge technologies such as, blockchain, cybersecurity, and extended reality).
We are an expert team that includes both technology and marketing minds, allowing us to truly comprehend the underlying technology behind AI-related patents.
