Consumer Demand Requires A Revolution In The Media Supply Chain

The Digital Production Partnership (DPP) today published the findings from its latest event, Home Truths: Building the New Supply Chain. Part of the DPP AT HOME series, this special event, enabled by leading systems architect Qvest Media, brought together industry experts to look at how consumer demand is impacting the way in which content is made and delivered.

"Media has become increasingly commoditised," says DPP Managing Director Mark Harrison. "Consumers are now firmly in the driving seat, dictating when and how content is delivered to them. This, in turn, opens up enormous business opportunities, but the media supply model will need an overhaul to keep pace with this shift."

The Building the New Supply Chain session brought together thirty experts from across the industry. It focused on how supply chain thinking applies to media companies; mapped out what the new media supply chain looks like; and agreed the key principles that drive that supply chain.

Five key conclusions emerged from the session:
One person's problem is another's opportunity: unlike their broadcast counterpart, the non-broadcast sectors view technologies that enable media supply chain methodologies as an opportunity.
Human intelligence is the key to automation: while data exchange for automation and machine learning offers greater speed and efficiency, human intervention is still required to create opportunities.
Breaking up is hard to do: for businesses built on hard-wired systems and contracts, the transition to assignable resources and consumption based billing is a huge challenge – both culturally and technically.
You need to want what you need: as a demand-led media industry becomes the norm, only companies that embrace a flexible supply chain with conviction will thrive.
The mid-life crisis: the middle stage of the content lifecycle – in which content is processed, managed, moved and stored – will be the next major area for disruption in the media sector.

This is the ninth report in the DPP's Home Truths series, which bring together leading players to provide thought leadership on key industry topics. The tenth session, enabled by Prime Focus Technologies, will be an executive dinner held at IBC, with the report to follow shortly thereafter.