In the digital entertainment arena, how can you keep things seamless when there’s been an extreme increase in the amount of content available? Nielsen’s 2023 State of Play report revealed that the number of video titles accessible to viewers in Canada, Mexico, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom has seen a substantial increase, climbing to 2.7 million by June 2023, up from 1.9 million in July 2021. This is one of the biggest challenges that operations teams face nowadays. It doesn’t take a perfectionist to find our ever-expanding digital universe incredibly intimidating, especially if compliance is key to success. Ensuring success is one thing, but it’s the mistakes that can really cost you. If you’re not keeping a keen eye on things, you might let your new release content slip out the door before it’s ready, giving pirates a free premiere and leaving your profits in the dust. Worse yet, once it’s out there, it’s almost impossible to reel it back in. In a blink, your highly anticipated launch could turn into a costly leak, fueling the engines of piracy while your revenue evaporates faster than you can say “secure distribution.” The stakes are high, and in this game, even a minor oversight can turn into a major financial hit. You can prepare yourself for this challenge by exploring our newest Operations Handbook here, designed for professionals focused on mastering content discovery through compliance in an ever-evolving landscape.

After your content is live, pricing and availability parity across different regions is crucial for obvious reasons. Price too low, and you’re leaving money on the table; price too high, and you risk losing interest. You may even miss out on planned opportunities if your content hasn’t been updated to match a pricing offer being promoted within a particular storefront. The consumer in today’s world is particularly discerning, with an overwhelming number of streaming options at their fingertips. This means you really only get one chance to make an impression, so you must ensure that even the smallest mistakes don’t have them thinking the next title over might just be a juicier pick. And if your content isn’t available at all, well, you’re out of the game entirely. Beyond that, artwork compliance is another critical factor – get it wrong, and not only does it diminish your content’s chances of standing out against competitors, but it can also result in platform rejections and costly delays. And let’s not forget about verifying content distribution, making sure your content is available exactly where and when it should be, with no hiccups, is key to securing maximum performance. These are just a few examples of how failing to stay on top of this type of compliance can seriously impact your success when it comes to the content discovery journey. For a deeper dive into mastering these obstacles for content success, explore our comprehensive Operations Handbook, where we cover all these crucial aspects and more.

So, staying on top of compliance for all of your content, globally, across all the platforms available to consumers is vital, and that’s no small feat. No, your armies of interns, however capable they are of multitasking, won’t be able to successfully go through the sheer volume and variety of content that is out there. Manual oversight is nearly impossible and highly susceptible to errors. The only way to do this effectively is through an automated solution. Automation isn’t just a luxury; it’s a necessity in this fast-paced environment. With the right tools in place, you can monitor, track, and validate every piece of content across all regions and platforms in real time. This means catching potential issues before they snowball into bigger problems, ensuring that your releases go live exactly when and where they’re supposed to – no surprises, no costly mistakes. An automated solution allows you to maintain control over your content, protect your revenue, and keep the pirates at bay, all while freeing up your team to focus on more strategic tasks.