No 39 - June 2012

Industry partner's insight - Harris

Media workflows and the business models that accompany them are rapidly changing. Technological and corporate disruption in media distribution is rife; the ways media is selected by, and delivered to consumers is changing rapidly. Players from all of the sectors on the classical media distribution value chain (content creators, aggregators and distributors) are making moves to reach consumers in new and innovative ways.

On the consumer side, it is also clear that exciting changes are not limited to the delivery chain. Continually improving technology and ever higher quality options are engaging consumers in interesting new ways, but even the act of media consumption itself is evolving. It is clear that there is a rapid evolution of habits involving multiple devices during media consumption. Using multiple devices (TV, Tablet, Phone, Laptop, E-Reader...) whilst simultaneously consuming streaming media is already a ‘norm’ and will form a significant part of the media sales battleground going forward.

So, consumption is rapidly changing; and media workflows and business models that accompany them are evolving accordingly. Critically, on the ad-revenue side it is clear that the media sales landscape is in a period of significant change. However, it is also true to say that the core business of transactional linear TV advertising is still hugely influential (and dominant in real terms), especially when coupled with associated business models such as promotions, sponsorships, interactivity, product placement and more. 

As one of the most prolific emerging consumption routes, VOD (in its many forms) is a major part of the delivery portfolio of nearly every major player in media. Consumption via VOD is continuing to grow significantly. At the same time, VOD has not significantly degraded linear broadcaster or ad engagement, but has in fact increased consumer satisfaction and has often reflected to build overall audience on the established media channels. 

So, with media change a ‘given’ alongside a strong traditional advertising core, Harris are providing systems to support current and emerging business models for a wide range of broadcasters and sales houses across the globe. In the media sales environment, carefully balancing the need to support efficient workflows in traditional and associated sales models with the need to be able to handle complex cross platform campaigns is core to the capabilities of the Landmark™ sales solution. The strongest sales operations are able to join up cross media sales and offer buyers coherent campaigns in a simple way; whilst remaining focused on the core value of the linear ad sales offerings.  Landmark™  is providing full support for this ‘balancing act’ today.

The Harris Landmark™ media sales solution is constantly evolving on many fronts and benefitting its user community:
Automation; At its heart, Landmark™ is geared to help take existing sales workflows and help sales operations do them faster and better, with less manual intervention. Streamlining workflows, controlling costs whilst growing and superior integration in the broadcast landscape lead to better executed business models.

Consolidation; Landmark™ is embracing the new media landscape by allowing consolidation of the wide range of sellable items into coherent centralised campaigns and schedules. Embracing secondary events and product placement, and enabling the cross media sell are a key to success.

Innovation; The new media Landscape is also a land of possibilities, so a core driver for Landmark™ is innovation; in the search for new revenue upsides, Landmark™ is helping create new revenue opportunities and is handing new innovative sales models such as targeted advertising on multiple platforms.

Harris Landmark™ is a highly automated and proven scalable sales, traffic and billing solution focused on the optimisation and operational efficiency needs of media sales operations across a wide range of sales methodologies. Servicing more than 400 channels in 50 countries across the globe, the proven scalability and flexibility of Landmark is helping our customers face the challenges of the evolving media landscape and ensuring they make the most of the opportunities it presents. 

Graham Heap, Product Line Manager, Harris Systems (graham.heap@harris.com)