Arguably, OTT is the next evolution of the entertainment industry. One of the main reasons why OTT is popular with media and entertainment executives is that OTT promises an opportunity to capture 21st century digital revenue without the need of 20th century infrastructure, such as movie theaters, cable providers and satellite television providers.
Wait a second. Let’s backup for a second and quickly explain what OTT is. OTT stands for Over-the-Top, meaning a viewer can watch TV and movie content without a cable subscription (i.e. Comcast or Spectrum) but view through an Internet connection such as Netflix or HBOMax (video-on-demand) or view live television such as Hulu or YouTube TV.
So, how can natural language generation (NLG) help OTT companies? Since NLG (a subset of artificial intelligence and natural language processing) converts structured data into text content, there are various user benefits to engage viewers. OTT companies need to monetize their platforms quickly and retain subscribers. The primary vehicle that monetizes and retains users is the quality of the movies and series that they offer. OTT must make a strong contextual connection between the entertainment content and its current and potential users. NLG can create articles at a high volume to bring contextual perspective on films and series that highlight stories focused on actors, filmmakers, behind-the-scenes and cultural relevancy. These articles can be featured on an OTT companion site (i.e. extensive blog site) that can serve as a lead generator for newcomers to an OTT platform and perhaps as a retention play for current customers. A comprehensive email program can also be connected to these content companion sites to enhance a personalized experience with these viewers. Furthermore, ad revenue can support these NLG powered content companion websites. The challenge is to get relevant entertainment data and user data into a structured format. That data can generate articles, a history of a user’s viewing habits and to enhance movie and series recommendations.
For example, this sports article about the Brooklyn Nets versus the Washington Wizards was generated through Artificial intelligence (AI) NLG in the form of long-tail content, but AI also offers headlines, subject lines and calls-to-action to increase organic traffic and click-through.
OTT would stand to benefit by providing these types of NLG content assets to help users throughout the discovery process of whether an OTT platform is an appropriate fit for them. In a world where more people are living and working remotely and spending more time on digital platforms, more digital content, especially relevant contextual entertainment content will be the best approach for capturing new leads as well as retaining current OTT customers.