New Delhi : , The Indian media- and entertainment industry (M&E), has displayed remarkable resilience in the face of the pandemic.A PWC report estimates that it will reach 4.1 million crore in 2025, with an expected CAGR of 10.75 percent.This would make it the largest entertainment and media market worldwide, both in terms of advertising and consumer revenue. IANS interviewed Baskar Subramanian (Co-founder and CEO of Amagi), a new-generation media tech company to gain his insight into the impact cloud-based technology has had on the industry, changing the way content is consumed and monetisation.
These are excerpts of the interview.
Q: In the entertainment and media industry, content is paramount.The technology that delivers content to the viewers and improves the viewing experience has been equally important over the years.We want to know how Amagi can add value for content creators.
Amagi offers solutions that are tailored for every kind of content provider/broadcaster – traditional TV networks and digital-first content owners.
Amagi’s Cloud-born services and products allow content companies to create different channels.It distributes content to multiple platforms using Amagi CLOUDPORT, its award-winning channel playout software.
Amagi has a FAST network that is unmatched anywhere in the world.
It currently boasts 50+ partnerships with FAST platforms and over 100 other OTT platform partners globally.
Amagi cloud solutions allow content creators the ability to dramatically improve their content quality by adding rich video effects and multi-layered dynamic graphics.
Amagi, for example, supports live news, weather, and sports channels using HTML graphics that render data and scores in real-time.
We have developed mechanisms to allow content brands to place contextual ads in the content.
These include dynamic brand insertions, and contextual ad placements.In-stream messages that are relevant to video content are embedded within the video stream.
To deliver a great viewing experience, it is more than just enhancing video quality or offering innovative ways to monetize content.Brands need to get to know their audiences and adapt their content and advertising strategies accordingly.
Amagi ANALYTICS is a powerful platform that provides content providers with a complete overview of consumers viewing habits.It empowers them with data to help build programs and ad campaigns.
Q: Was the Covid pandemic a catalyst that allowed traditional media broadcasters and editors to adopt cloud-based software for creating and distributing their content quickly?
Cloud adoption by broadcasters was accelerated by the pandemic.Many broadcasters had to consider other options due to the inaccessibility of their on-premise systems and restrictions to human movement.Cloud proved to be a good choice.They realized the many benefits of moving their business to the cloud.
Some broadcasters were pioneers in technology adoption by adopting cloud-based workflows for broadcast before the outbreak of the pandemic.They also benefited from the lockdown.
Amagi’s collaboration with A+E Networks UK (a top media network) is an example.A+E Networks UK launched a cloud transition in Q4 2019 to support the operation of their entire European portfolio, which includes 26 channels.
A+E Networks UK was able to use the cloud to manage and access all aspects of their workflow, from anywhere in the world.This proved to be a huge benefit during their Covid-19 isolation.
They were able to continue their channel operations without any additional risk and protect the safety of staff, allowing them remote operations.
Q: What are your strategies for content monetization?
FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) is a subset from Advertising Video-On Demand (AVOD).It offers viewers a linear TV experience with shorter and more targeted ads.There are no Pay TV costs.FAST has been adopted worldwide as viewers increasingly prefer linear TV to subscription-based streaming.
Our channel playout software, Amagi Cloudport, helps content owners create linear channels with sophisticated graphics, programming, and ad-schedules.
Amagi has helped 300+ brands increase their FAST distribution.These include Fremantle and USA TODAY.Finance, Tastemade.Qwest TV.Shout! Factory, Cinedigm and VICE UK, among other things.
Amagi offers a unique distribution network – more than 50+ FAST platforms and 100 OTT platform partnership – for content brands.
This allows them to reach more than 200 million households around the globe.The Roku Channel and Samsung TV Plus are our FAST platform partners.Plex, VIZIO.Plex, Rakuten TV.Pluto TV.IMDb TV.Samsung TV Plus.STIRR.
Amagi ADS PLUS is a virtual ad selling service that Amagi offers.It allows content owners to sell unsold inventory via linear streaming channels.
This creates attractive bundles and increases their FAST ad revenue.Cinedigm was Amagi’s longstanding content partner and was able increase its advertising revenues by 47% using Amagi’s technology solutions.
Q: What are some of the major broadcasters that use Amagi now in the US and EMEA? Is Amagi the USP of such broadcasters?
NBCUniversal and Fox are among the largest broadcasters that Amagi provides services in the US and EMEA.
Amagi provides a host of solutions that will help them improve or ease every stage in their broadcast operations using our cloud-native solution.
The cloud can be used to manage broadcast operations and content distribution on cable and OTT platforms.It also allows them to manage live and non-live content and make money from it.
Amagi is not like other legacy vendors that simply migrate their services to cloud.Instead, its USP lies in the fact that Amagi products and services were entirely built on cloud.
This brings with it a set of unique capabilities that legacy cloud applications can’t offer.
ABS-CBN was a top entertainment network in the Philippines and wanted to increase their reach and flexibility.
ABS-CBN selected Amagi’s award-winning channel broadcast solution, AmagiCLOUDPORT.
ABS-CBN was successful in removing a lot legacy infrastructure.This resulted in lower overheads and more efficient operations.
Amagi’s flexibility in engagement models is another benefit for broadcasters.Broadcasters can choose from Software as a Service, Bring Your Own License or Managed Services.We provide three options for engagement.
Amagi, for example, has developed a unique offering for NBCUniversal USA and UK based on the customers’ requirements – Managed Services UK and Bring Your Own License USA.
Q: You partnered up with NBCUniversal for this year’s Olympics to offer an Ultra HD stream for broadcast in America.Everything is controlled via the cloud.Please tell us how the cloud is used to your advantage.
Amagi’s cloud native technology allowed the broadcast of UHD 4K Live Feeds from the Olympics.It was a remarkable feat given the difficult nature of UHD transmission via the cloud.
Amagi provided services for the NBC Sports Group, including extensive customisation of our solution in order to meet the needs of the Olympics broadcast.
Although the entire event was managed remotely from Tokyo, India, live feeds were broadcast from Bangalore and sent to US audiences with support from Amagi & NBC Sports Group.
A major event such as the Olympics requires that on-demand channels be developed specifically for it.Amagi used its resources to scale up for the duration, and then the systems were shut down.
Amagi provided rich and high-quality UHD video streams by using inexpensive, standard-of-the-shelf Central Processing Units.Other cloud providers might have used expensive Graphic Processing Units.Amagi’s software was also run on separate infrastructures in the US East and US West, to avoid any disruptions or catastrophes in either region.
These measures allowed Amagi to show the broadcasting industry how cloud can be used to support complex and large-scale live events.
Q: Which business results did you achieve with cloud technology?
Amazon Web Services (AWS), offers a wide range of services that are unrivaled.Amagi, like most cloud-born businesses, has been using AWS’ public cloud infrastructure since its inception to support business operations.
Amagi has used at least 50 AWS services including the entire Media Suite.Amagi has greatly benefited from each service’s contribution to improving our business processes.
Each stage of the business’s life cycle, including onboarding customers and customer expansion, is now easier and faster.AWS can speed up the process of onboarding a customer.
AWS EC2, AWS Lambda, and all other AWS cloud computing platforms are cost-effective.Customers can choose from a variety of pricing options depending on how they use the service.
AWS Spot Instance allows customers to bid on spare EC2 capacities at a reduced cost.AWS offers this service for a range of 30-35 percent.
Amagi has been able to significantly reduce its expenses (up to 70%) and pass this service on to their customers.
AWS offers attractive discounts for customers who use large portions of its service catalogs.
We have been able to reduce our costs by 16%.
AWS solutions that are released to the market at this stage of maturity and “ready-to use” status eliminate the need to further test or gauge its reliability.The AWS private link allows us securely to send video streams directly to customer accounts.When it was launched in 2017, this feature took only two-three weeks for us to implement, which allowed us to facilitate smooth, secure transactions with our customers.
AWS also has the best geographical coverage of all cloud providers.Our services are dependent on reducing latency as a provider of media/video technology.
Amagi channelled AWS’s reach into our service offerings and was able to lower latency to single digits for customers.
AWS ensures they always have at least three availability areas when opening services to a particular region.
This ensures AWS customers like Amagi can provide multi-regional services to their customers.
Amagi, for example, offers intelligent hitless switching that insures against major outages in one geographic region.
This means that even if all redundant input from one area goes down, Amagi’s end output remains hitless and ensures uninterrupted broadcast.This service is built on AWS’s cloud infrastructure, which has a wide reach and is easy to access.
AWS provides a comprehensive dashboard for its customers that makes it easy to track service usage, billing, and payment-related workflows per account or per region.This dashboard makes account management easy and effective by allowing us to easily identify and correct service errors and over/under utilised resource.
We conduct Quarterly and Half-yearly Foundational Technical Reviews (FTR), and Security Audits with AWS Service Architects in order to improve our security and decrease overall risk.
Q: Tell us about your most memorable moments and pivot points in your career.
Since my early childhood I was interested in software development and entrepreneurship.To make an impact on the world, I’ve always wanted software to be innovative.
I was initially interested in a career as an academic and applied for an IIT M.Tech.However, I realized that I prefer to be building software solutions for businesses.My life was greatly influenced by the success of Microsoft.
This gave me the confidence I needed to believe that software can have a huge impact and change the way we live.
My co-founders, and I, decided years later to create our company.
We looked into how software could help an industry in dire need of technological transformation.Amagi was founded in 2008 by two people who were new to the Media & Entertainment sector.
We looked at the industry from an outside perspective.This perspective provided us with many valuable insights into how technology could help bring agility and scaleability to an otherwise hard-core, legacy-driven business environment.
Srividhya Srinivasan, Srinivasan KA, and I founded Amagi in order to create cloud-based advertising and broadcast technology solutions.The original company was based in India and provided targeted TV advertising solutions.
We quickly shifted our focus to cloud adoption.When we saw the benefits of cloud technology for broadcasting, we evangelized it.
Amagi introduced an innovative ‘pay as you go’ system for operating and launching 24/7 linear channels.This model eliminated the need to have large, costly, traditional hardware-driven operations.
The entire broadcast operation was moved to the cloud by the company.
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