Content Wizard: Editorial support as the new frontier of content distribution

With the problem of content distribution solved, we believe that the next frontier is to support broadcasters in making the right choices in publishing content for the web. ReTV aims to tackle this issue with our supporting tool Content Wizard. 

Historically TV broadcasters could follow the mantra of “Produce content, and they will come” With the advent of the Internet and social media, in particular, this is not the case any more. The number of options has dramatically increased, and now broadcasters are part of fierce competition for the viewer’s attention.

The first step of the transition of TV to the Internet are aggregators like Zattoo. They convert the video signals into streams that can be distributed across the Internet.  They also offer all the comforts that a modern TV viewer expects: apps on all platforms, catch-up, search and personalisation. Those aggregators are still relatively close to the paradigm of classical, linear TV viewing: Content tends to be long-form and is watched in its entirety. Shows are part of an overall programming context which has a daily, weekly and monthly seasonality.

Social media follows a different paradigm, where content is shorter, and often skimmed. It is not embedded into a programming context of a broadcaster but included in a personalised content mix curated by the social media platform.

Just as OTV platforms were technical enablers to stream live TV, platforms have sprung up that make sharing content on social media at a large scale feasible. Examples include Hootsuite, Buffer.io and Levuro, a sister company of ReTV consortium partner Genistat.

Levuro’s product Engage has already solved most of the technical issues inherent in social media management at broadcaster-scale: Integrating with multiple platforms, supporting editorial workflows and extracting clips out of a live TV stream to name a few.

A broadcaster today has a vast addressable market: On their live stream, which still is heavily used, on aggregators like Zattoo and on social media through tools like Levuro Engage. This world of limitless possibilities often collapses though, when an editor, overwhelmed by the options, asks themselves “And now what?”. Just as the viewers would be overwhelmed if they had to sift through all available content, so are the content producers. This is why ReTV is developing the Content Wizard use-case.

The solution? Content Wizard!

Built on top of Levuro Engage, Conten Wizard fulfils all the technical basics to share content on social media. By making use of the intelligence of the ReTV components, this tool supports the editor in creating content that is meaningful to their audiences. Think of it as a decision support system for social media content.  It surfaces videos that might be relevant given current trends, finds the most pertinent sections and proposes an optimal publication time to maximise audience exposure.

And while the Content Wizard is a tool, we believe that it follows the natural evolution of content production and consumption. As more and more content becomes available, the demand for curated, personalised content will grow. Viewers want to feel informed and part of the broader community without having to watch hours of video a day. Content producers will not be able to fulfil those demands without help from automated systems like ReTV is developing them. Read our Content Wizard use case here.