Industry Insights: Mobile viewing, personalization and changing viewer habits

By NewscastStudio January 14, 2025

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Broadcast industry leaders examine the shifts reshaping content creation and delivery as we enter 2025.

In this Industry Insights roundtable, executives discuss how changing audience behaviors are driving new approaches to content production and distribution, particularly in mobile and digital-first strategies.

The conversation explores the growing importance of data-driven personalization, the evolution of immersive technologies and the industry’s response to fragmenting viewer habits. Technology vendors share insights on how broadcasters are adapting their production workflows and investment strategies to meet audiences across multiple platforms while maintaining engagement in an increasingly competitive media landscape.


Key takeaways from this Industry Insights roundtable

  • Audience behavior: Traditional broadcasters face increasing pressure from content fragmentation and short-form consumption habits, forcing adaptation of production strategies and investment in streaming capabilities.
  • Mobile evolution: Broadcasters are implementing new workflows and technologies to optimize content for mobile platforms, including vertical video formats and interactive features.
  • Data strategy: Personalization and viewer analytics are becoming central to content strategy, helping reduce churn and enhance advertising effectiveness.
  • Immersive content: New technologies in virtual reality and augmented reality are creating opportunities for interactive storytelling and enhanced viewer experiences, particularly in sports broadcasting.
  • Production investment: Organizations are prioritizing flexible, scalable production technologies that can deliver content across multiple platforms while maintaining cost efficiency.

How are shifts in audience behavior influencing broadcasting strategies? Production budgets? 

Shifting Consumption Patterns & Their Impact

Thorsten Sauer, CEO, Pixel Power: We’ve seen much discussion this year about increasing fragmentation due to the rise of content “snacking” and short-form consumption by Gen Z plus falling ad revenues, and all of these factors have made life tough for linear broadcast brands. It feels like the traditional OTA brands are desperately looking to technology to provide cost savings while the “new” media platforms are investing in building out their offerings with longer-form content and more personalized experiences.

Sid Stanley, general manager, Calrec: As we go into 2025 more people are watching live content on OTT streaming channels than on traditional broadcast channels, and over the next 12 months that gulf will get wider. Our broadcast clients are facing more competition for eyeballs, and rather than lose viewers many are investing in their own streaming channels to run in parallel with their main service to deliver more content and generate more engagement. This means that broadcasters have to work much smarter.

Adam Leah, creative director, Nxtedition: Strategies are beginning to bend to a more digital-first approach. The tools required for that are not in the linear TV toolbox; that’s why change is required to re-tool for a digital environment. Too many are trying to put a square peg in a round hole; that’s not the correct approach.

Production & Technology Investment

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Bob Caniglia, director of sales operations, North America, Blackmagic Design: As consumers become accustomed to high-quality visual content across all their devices, broadcasters must meet these expectations with their own content to stay competitive. This demand means upgrading production equipment and investing in technologies capable of delivering higher resolutions and cinematic images. While this could impact production budgets, today’s technologies are more accessible than ever before, packing professional features into affordable budgets. 

Adam Marshall, CPO, Grass Valley: As demand for VOD content accelerates, linear content consumption continues to plateau, pushing media companies to create compelling content more quickly, distribute it across an expanding range of platforms, and maximize returns. These shifts are driving significant changes in technology investments, with a focus on streamlining workflows and enhancing scalability. Solutions like AMPP are addressing these demands by enabling flexible, agile production models that adapt to evolving business needs while maintaining the high quality required to stand out in an increasingly crowded landscape.

Jan Weigner, CTO, Cinegy: Profitability is the only guiding principle now, with serious implications for new production spending. Growing investments are going to safe bets: sports rights, re-runs like “Friends”, cheap-to-produce game shows and reality content. Not bad for vendors like us who’ve served these segments for years, but bad news for expensive scripted productions.

Content Adaptation & Monetization Strategy

Sergio Brighel, EVP, robotics and prompting technology, Videndum: As viewers increasingly demand tailored, immersive experiences, broadcasters are investing in technologies like AI-driven recommendations, Multiview features, and adaptive streaming to cater to these preferences. This shift is also influencing production budgets, with a greater emphasis on creating versatile, high-quality content that can be repurposed across multiple platforms and formats to maximize engagement and monetization opportunities, rather than solely investing in large-scale, traditional productions.

Gary Mundell, co-founder and CEO, Loft Apps: Personalized, data-driven experiences with increasing demand for interactivity and customization are poised to dominate the media landscape. The shift in audience preferences requires traditional broadcast models to look beyond just changes in programming or content. The fear of the unknown is palpable in the production industry as uncertainty looms over the future of production budgets, with a “wait-and-see” approach dominating decision-making processes.

Muralidhar Sridhar, SVP, AI and ML, Prime Focus Technologies: Culturally adapted and nuanced content is coming to the forefront as an effective strategy in gaining audience attention. Another important tactic being implemented is making content available in multiple formats to ensure seamless continuity across devices.

Andy Rayner, CTO, Appear: Audiences increasingly demand personalized, interactive, and multi-platform experiences, pushing broadcasters to invest in real-time data integration and AI-driven analytics. This has led to higher spending on scalable and flexible production workflows, often requiring cloud-enabled infrastructure. In 2025, broadcasters are looking for solutions that can meet these expectations efficiently while maintaining cost control.

James Cranfield, VP, sales and partnerships, Cinedeck: As streaming services become more widely accessible and device-centric, a focus on audience engagement and user experience is going to be a priority for most content delivery organizations. There is also a growing focus on shorter production cycles in order to save on costs, as well as the need to keep up with the increased pace of audience consumption. 

Martin Klampferer, director, R&D, Vizrt: Nowadays, with the diverse landscape of streaming platforms, on-demand and mobile viewing creates a demand for broadcasters to adopt systems that allow for the efficient repurposing of content. It’s likely that short-form content, usually consumed on social media, will play a bigger role and more resources will be allocated to aim for personalized content.

Michael Demb, VP, product strategy, TAG Video Systems: Consumer demand for high-quality live content is rapidly shaping the streaming landscape. To enhance the viewer experience, OTT providers are investing in innovational tools to monitor their video workflows, and new technologies like low-latency protocols such as WebRTC and LL-HLS to minimize lag. Interactive features such as live chat, polls, and multi-view options are also being leveraged to attract viewers while delivering 4K HDR video and immersive audio enhances the overall experience and keeps engagement levels high.

What role will data-driven personalization play in audience engagement strategies? 

Business Strategy & Revenue Impact

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Meghna Krishna, chief revenue officer, Magnifi: In 2025, data-driven personalization, powered by AI and machine learning, will redefine audience engagement with hyper-personalized recommendations. Platforms like Netflix, Amazon, and Flipkart already lead in customer-centric approaches, predicting trends and proactively suggesting content. Retail giants like Coca-Cola and Dunkin’ Donuts use customer profiling to tailor marketing and product offerings. User behavior will drive real-time personalization, ensuring seamless experiences across devices. This will boost monetization through dynamic pricing, tailored subscriptions, and precise ad targeting while prioritizing ethical data practices to maintain trust.

Michael Lantz, CEO, Accedo: Video providers remain challenged with churn, so it is not surprising that we have already seen many providers putting effort into leveraging data to increase viewer engagement and reduce churn. Using a data-driven approach, video providers can easily analyze advanced customer engagement metrics to understand content engagement patterns, including e.g. pricing trends, marketing campaign impact, and ultimately for churn prediction. Armed with this data, video providers can take proactive measures to increase engagement and retain customers. As AI and data algorithms continue to improve, we will see more video providers relying on a data-driven approach in this way.

Steve Reynolds, CEO, Imagine Communications: The demand for data-driven personalization is driving a more systemic approach to dynamic ad insertion (DAI) through end-to-end adoption of SCTE standards. In modern systems, SCTE 104 can be used as the interface between the master control and production control to signal breaks during production, then translate them into SCTE 35 messages in the transport stream. Enriching these signals with contextual metadata such as event details, game moments, or player actions improves audience engagement by allowing targeted and relevant ads, whether for all viewers at the broadcast level or tailored to individual preferences.

Peter Docherty, CTO and founder, ThinkAnalytics: By leveraging insights from millions of viewers and employing tools like A/B testing, organizations can make informed, data-backed decisions to continuously refine and improve the consumer experience. User-friendly platforms will help product and business owners to adapt and evolve these experiences without relying on development teams to redeploy software. In addition, targeted advertising will not only drive monetization but also boost engagement with both ads and content, creating a more impactful and personalized experience for audiences.

Technical Implementation

Jon Wilson, president and COO at Grass Valley: Data-driven personalization will be a cornerstone of audience engagement strategies, serving as the engine that tailors content to individual preferences. Achieving this requires a new approach to technology infrastructure, such as AMPP, which can scale to meet the demands of workflows of all sizes and deliver personalized content by being deeply integrated into every aspect of production and distribution. The Grass Valley Media Universe (GVMU) adds yet another layer of value by seamlessly connecting these capabilities with the hardware-based elements of the workflow, creating a fully unified and powerful ecosystem.

Martin Klampferer, director, R&D, Vizrt: Because data-driven personalization enables enhancing the experience for audiences, it will allow broadcasters to tailor programming and advertising based on region, for example, which can maximize audience engagement. Broadcasters can also use data to drive personalized graphics and content experiences, like region-specific visual overlays, and the long-term trend will likely go towards person-specific visual overlays.

Adam Leah, creative director, Nxtedition: That will be key to unlocking all the devices in people’s hands and homes. By utilizing streamed metadata, we can allow the devices to render graphics, subtitles, etc. That will unlock localization and personalization on a mammoth scale.

Michael Demb, VP, product strategy, TAG Video Systems: Having access to accurate data that is collected, aggregated, and managed to its fullest potential is vital for providing insights that drive well-informed decisions necessary for optimizing audience engagement. The new age of monitoring solutions will go beyond real-time alerts by offering comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities, provide assessment of data generated at every data point, and have the capability to use advanced IT tools to visualize realtime data and trends to support these pivotal data-backed decisions.

Advertising & Monetization Applications 

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Simon Hawkings, director of sales and business acceleration, Ross Video: New tools like ATSC 3.0 — next-gen TV — give broadcasters a much more detailed feedback loop, so they’ll know who is watching what content anytime, so they can start to have a bit more interactivity with audiences. Creating bespoke solutions has huge value for advertisers, and I expect we’ll see a lot more data-driven personalization in the coming years.

Gatis Gailis, CEO and founder, Veset: Data-driven personalization, particularly in the form of contextual advertising and monetization, has already set new standards for content delivery in 2024. In 2025, AI-driven personalization will likely push this growth further, with viewers expecting tailored recommendations and seamless access across devices. AI-driven advertising will also bring new methods of audience engagement to the surface, producing automated data and allowing for new approaches to take place.

Gary Mundell, co-founder and CEO, Loft Apps: Surprisingly, highly targeted, personalized advertising has become not only tolerable but even enjoyable. The advertising industry will be at the forefront of this revolution, reaping significant profits. However, personalizing content for broadcast production presents a greater challenge because much more technology is needed before we can produce anything that fits seamlessly and makes sense when incorporated into a non-linear story or program.

How are broadcasters adapting to the growing importance of mobile-first content?  

Bob Caniglia, director of sales operations, North America, Blackmagic Design: Broadcasters are increasingly focusing on optimizing their workflows and technologies to cater to the spontaneous and dynamic nature of mobile consumption. Tools like Blackmagic Replay and the cut page in DaVinci Resolve are pivotal in this transition, enabling broadcasters to quickly select impactful moments from live broadcasts and seamlessly edit them into short, engaging clips for mobile platforms. By utilizing tools with streamlined interfaces and intelligent editing features, this allows for quick turnarounds and efficient repurposing of content into mobile-first formats, optimizing and boosting viewer engagement on multiple platforms.

Robin Kirchhoffer, CMO, Dalet: Broadcasters are quickly adapting to the prevalence of mobile-first content consumption by leveraging new software capabilities to address multiple formats, varying aspect ratios, and the need for captions. They are using story-centric workflows with AI and automation to streamline processes, ensuring that content is efficiently produced, repurposed when necessary, and delivered to mobile platforms. Additionally, broadcasters are embracing agility to swiftly adapt to new trends, formats, and consumption platforms, enabling them to stay ahead in the evolving media landscape.

James Cranfield, VP, sales and partnerships, Cinedeck: As mobile-first content becomes increasingly mainstream, broadcasters and content providers, as well as production companies, are going to need to adapt. It is becoming essential for broadcasters to become agile in light of rising media costs, as well as implementing new methods of user engagement to mirror similar popular features of mobile and short-form content. Data driven decision making can also help content providers to understand audience preferences and introduce new features and engagement methods as a result.

Meghna Krishna, chief revenue officer, Magnifi: It’s all about meeting people where they are: on their phones: Short, vertical videos designed for platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts are now the norm. Advanced compression technologies make streaming seamless, even in areas with low bandwidth. Features like live polls and chats are becoming popular ways to engage viewers and build communities.

Gatis Gailis, CEO and founder, Veset: With the DTC model taking precedence in the M&E industry, mobile-first content is becoming more popular than ever among consumers. In order to adapt, broadcasters will need to introduce more interactivity within their content, with features such as polls, live chats and gamification possibly needed to enhance audience engagement and retention. 5G enabled broadcasting is also expected to introduce more accessible delivery for mobile-first, DTC-driven device workflows.

Adam Leah, creative director, Nxtedition: Digital-first is the only way to go; mobile-first is included in that. You need to hit all the devices of all shapes and sizes at the same time. On top of that, you need to repurpose the content to match the platform it’s on. This means a lot of versioning and agility in how the content is produced.

James Eddershaw, managing director for Shotoku: As far as studio robotics are concerned the mobile-first initiative does not really directly impact the technology. Although, just as an interesting observation we’ve seen many live news studios now using graphics, and especially in-vision LED screens, oriented in portrait (i.e. phone screen) mode.  Broadcast cameras are of course all 16:9 so traditionally everything was oriented landscape, but now with so much more content produced for phones, and used across platforms, so screens need to match.

Muralidhar Sridhar, SVP, AI and ML, Prime Focus Technologies: Broadcasters are approaching mobile first content in three different ways. Firstly, adapting content to the vertical format according to various platform requirements is becoming mainstream. The second investment being made is in data-driven personalization. And lastly, cross-platform and multi-screen integration is picking up the pace.

Steven Edwards, VP, broadcast distribution, Rohde & Schwarz: It’s no longer a question of whether broadcasters can reach smartphones, the built-in antennas can receive signals in the UHF band and are therefore capable of receiving broadcast signals if the modulation technique is recognized by the phone. The question is: how does the future of broadcasting work in conjunction with the existing streaming over IP reality? There are strong arguments for Broadcast TV on-the-move and also challenges, such as those around QoS and peak capacity off-loading. Event casting is also emerging as an interesting use case, where a small broadcast network can be used to reach every smartphone in a stadium or a music festival, for example.

Bea Alonso, independent media tech consultant and strategic advisor on behalf of Grithaus Agency: Less proactively than they should; despite ongoing efforts by traditional media companies to offer more mobile-friendly content and formats, they still lag behind digital-native platforms and social media in user engagement. This is why news consumption was higher on social media and digital channels such as YouTube during the US elections, but despite adopting modern technologies like VR and AR, traditional broadcast news channels continue to tell their stories in a largely conventional way. Broadcasters who leverage new and existing technology to enhance viewer engagement through interactive apps and social media will set themselves apart.

Mathieu Planche, CEO, Witbe: Social media is dominated by vertical video formats, which may be increasingly adopted by traditional broadcasters and streaming services in the future. This could be repurposing mobile-first content or creating new content for all platforms with mobile in mind. This would represent a fundamental change in how content is being conceived and produced for different viewing contexts, not just a shift in aspect ratios.

Suzana Brady, SVP, worldwide sales and marketing, Cobalt Digital: One key technical requirement for mobile first content is very low latency which requires encoding and decoding at reasonable bit rates, low latency transport, and stream synchronization because venues typically have multiple cameras. Encoders and decoders that provide sub-frame latency using HEVC at bit rates a fraction of other technologies such as JPEG-XS are desirable, as is support for RIST which provides tunable latency based on delivery network conditions, and synchronizes streams at the production facility.

How is the demand for immersive experiences changing broadcasting?

Technology Advancements & Storytelling Capabilities

Geoff Gordon, VP, global marketing, MainConcept: This depends on how you define an immersive experience. In the context of the metaverse (also known as extended reality, virtual reality, or augmented reality), we are still in the early stages. However, if we consider immersion in terms of what is often referred to as the “second screen” (a somewhat misleading term), we are seeing increasing opportunities to enhance and monetize the experience. A common example of this is in sports broadcasting, as seen during last year’s Summer Olympics, but this approach is now becoming prevalent across both scripted and unscripted television programming.

Adam Marshall, CPO, Grass Valley: Perhaps once seen as a novelty, immersive technologies like VR are rapidly evolving into essential tools for enhancing media production workflows. They enable greater flexibility and customization to meet diverse user needs, particularly in distributed and remote production environments. 

Bob Caniglia, director of sales operations, North America, Blackmagic Design: With devices like the Apple Vision Pro reshaping how content is consumed, the industry as a whole is shifting to meet these changing demands and produce more interactive and engaging media experiences. Innovative devices and advances in workflows enable this development by allowing broadcasters to craft dynamic, interactive stories that offer audiences a deeper sense of engagement. For example, Ursa Cine Immersive and DaVinci Resolve provide an end-to-end workflow to support these evolving immersive needs, providing the means to capture and edit 8K, 3D video with a 180-degree field of view.

Suzana Brady, SVP, worldwide sales and marketing, Cobalt Digital: High dynamic range (HDR) delivers noticeably better image quality than standard dynamic range (SDR) with minimal bandwidth increase. SDR needs to be preserved, however, because many legacy televisions do not support HDR. Providing cost-effective, simultaneous service to the mix of HDR and SDR devices in the marketplace presents a challenge, but the SL-HDR1 conversion option allows simultaneous HDR and SDR delivery with a single SDR output with metadata from the encoder with a downstream receiver determining HDR or SDR playout.

Costa Nikols, executive-team strategy advisor for media and entertainment, Telos Alliance: Exceptional content experiences require advanced technologies and flexible production systems that can support high-quality video and audio processing. Audio is a cornerstone element of any viewing experience — breathtaking audio captures the imagination, captivates viewers, and builds tension across every content genre. The ability to deliver seamless audio experiences will be a key component of these immersive formats.

Sid Stanley, general manager, Calrec: At the consumer end, 3D soundbars and binauralised headphone downmixes deliver immersive content across multiple devices. But In addition to hearing everything in 360 degrees, consumers still expect the exaggerated sounds from live sport, such as a dunk in a basketball game or a soccer ball slamming into a net. Broadcasters must retain control of when these things are, or aren’t appropriate, and all this puts additional pressure on the poor mix engineer who is often creating multiple outputs for host and international mixes, as well as making sure that surround, stereo and mono versions all sound great.

Martin Klampferer, director, R&D, Vizrt: Enhancing the audience experience has been a key focus for broadcasters this year. As virtual sets, XR sets, and AR graphics continue to improve, these elements will continue to redefine storytelling in broadcasting. In the future, immersive graphics during live sports or events will become standard across broadcasts.

Sports & Live Event Applications

Meghna Krishna, chief revenue officer, Magnifi: These advancements enable broadcasters to craft engaging and customized content, deepening viewer engagement through virtual live events and immersive storytelling. For instance, Travis Scott’s virtual concert in Fortnite drew over 12 million live viewers, blending music, gaming, and immersive storytelling to create a surreal experience. Immersive technologies not only diversify content delivery but also offer innovative formats like interactive exhibitions and virtual concerts, attracting broader audiences and enhancing information retention.

Michael Lantz, CEO, Accedo: It is clear that the immersive platforms offer more consumer value for more interactive experiences, where there is more metadata, multiple streams or other ways to interact with the video. I believe that we will see a huge interest from sports content where video providers can augment the fan experience in ways which have never been possible before. While the potential is huge, it is challenging for video providers to accelerate innovation in this area to deliver meaningful and impactful services quickly enough to satisfy that consumer demand.

Sergio Brighel, EVP, robotics and prompting technology, Videndum: The demand for immersive experiences is reshaping broadcasting by enabling more interactive and engaging content. Driven by demand for immersive experiences in sports broadcasting, features such as multiview playback allow broadcasters to deliver multiple streams simultaneously on a single screen, enhancing viewer experiences with real-time, customizable options for sports, events, and live programming.

Narayanan Rajan, CEO, Media Excel: Viewers will no longer be passive spectators but active participants, interacting with virtual environments, customizing their viewing experiences, and feeling more connected to the action. For sports, broadcasters could offer features like interactive replays, alternate angles, or even allow users to choose where they want to “sit” in the stadium, all within an immersive VR setting. As immersive technologies advance, broadcasters will be able to deliver experiences that go beyond viewing into full engagement, enhancing the connection between content and the audience.

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