YouTube’s Virtues and Industry Trends at Mipcom

A new virtuous circle is emerging for media and entertainment giants that promises to harness the advantages of disparate platforms, digital and linear, powered by the connective tissue of YouTube. This was one of the dominant themes that emerged in four whirlwind days of panel sessions, closed door meetings, networking and schmoozing events up and down the Croisette as top industry players from Europe and beyond gathered in Cannes for the annual Mipcom content market and conference. The growing muscle that YouTube flexes as the video crossroads of the world was a near-constant subject of conversation.

Google’s streaming behemoth is becoming ever more integral to media development, distribution and marketing plans for most contenders in media, from the biggest Hollywood studios to indie startups. Evan Shapiro, the respected industry analyst who is often billed as a media cartographer, gave a well-attended presentation that drew together threads probed in various tracks of the conference. Shapiro’s session offered sobering stats about Coriolis-like changes in viewing audiences. The older contingent of media and entertainment leaders have to come to grips with the fact that the world’s population is getting younger.

That means they need to cater to consumers who have come of age with technology in their pockets and a very different worldview on how, when and why they consume media across different mediums and platforms. At the same time, Shapiro pointed to hope on the horizon for legacy media outlets. We believed television would be replaced by streaming one for one, that didn’t happen, he noted during his widely discussed presentation. Streaming and social video have augmented viewing time and even more important, they help deepen fan connection to their favorite shows.

Shapiro emphasized more than once that media giants courting audiences need to think in terms of generations and affinity groups, not the age and gender demos of yore. Now consumers have an infinite number of channels. Every human with a phone is a channel, Shapiro said. It’s the age of personalized television through a combination of your phone and your television set. This perspective reframes the entire industry outlook from defensive survival to proactive ecosystem integration.

Matt Schnaars, president of platform distribution and partnerships for NBCUniversal, reinforced Shapiro’s observations in a separate session. The embracing of social media platforms, starting with YouTube, to drive people back to live viewing, we see that in results, Schnaars said. When we look at YouTube, they are an example of somebody who’s in really every business that we’re in, but not in a way that’s competitive. It’s accretive and incremental, and so we get excited about these new collaborative avenues.

NBCUniversal is windowing some of its most prized, fan-favorite content, such as college football, directly on YouTube. The Peacock streaming platform shares its weekly exclusive games on YouTube in a move that would have been completely unthinkable in previous decades. Today, it’s all about reaching fans where they live and building long-term digital habits that eventually convert into traditional paid subscriptions or premium tier bundles.

Like NBCU, the BBC sees enormous potential in experiments to date with free ad-supported streaming television and YouTube syndication. YouTube for me is exciting because it’s where a lot of the audience are now, said Kate Phillips, chief content officer at BBC Studios. She noted that the public broadcaster now operates dozens of channels on YouTube and plans to expand that footprint significantly in the coming years. Ultimately, Mipcom proved that collaboration with digital giants is the key to future longevity.