ContentWise editorial in Broadcast Pro ME: Helping Viewers and Operators

The latest issue of Broadcast Pro ME features an editorial titled “Helping viewers discover content and operators increase sales”. Here’s a link to the online edition:

http://www.broadcastprome.com/2012/01/25/helping-viewers-discover-content-and-operators-increase-sales/

It’s a very high-level piece in which I try to paint, in broad strokes, a picture of the current status of recommendations technologies for digital media. The gist of it all is that while there are many different approaches to recommendations and not all work in all contexts, there is no doubt that, once a digital content catalog (tv programs, movies, music, games, etc.) grows beyond the size of a few hundreds to a few thousand items, the need for a discovery solution becomes easy to justify and its implementation makes for real business results.

When the inventory grows beyond a few hundred to a thousand items, the less well-known items become harder to sell. A well-tuned recommendation engine raises the chance of the discovery and consumption of lesser known content. Sales of mid-tail items – typically items ranked 1500 to 3000 in the inventory – rise sharply, while the ‘tail’ of items beyond 3,000 typically contributes 15% of the sales.

Enjoy the read! Many thanks to Vijaya Cherian for publishing the editorial.