What are the top 3 data-projects a media company should put on its roadmap?

I would need some more info on what type of media company you are speaking about , specifically if they are traditional /legacy media company such as Broadcast / TV / Outdoor or if it is a digital media company as the roadmaps are distinctly different. But in general terms the roadmap for all media organisations will lead into an even more ‘connected’  ‘5G world’  of smart cities etc - where mass transit and city living is likely to use cloud based AI orchestration to operate and so media companies should not look to the specific ‘emerging technologies’ but rather to the ‘emerging behaviour’ of people. with that in mind media organisations would be well advised to have data projects with ‘behavioural targeting’ capability. So instead of building data sets about specific demographics of audiences - media companies will need cloud based data so that their focus targeting own ‘behaviour buckets ’  and ‘Location Based’ activity so audience profiles can easily be targeted by advertisers. Example such as ‘These people go running 3 times a week ’ ’ These people use this highway journey 5 times a week’  - combining this information with location and time specific targeting /  what is often touted as the real ‘power of mobile’ will be the measures that most media companies will eventually compete on- it will no longer be good enough to say we have ‘X’ audience that watch our show or X audience that read our content - as the threat of Facebook / Google Duopoly faced by all media org means that advertisers will expect quick and easy access to this level of data - if you are building a strategy for a media company I would suggest that it will need to match the behavioural data Facebook and Google networks offer to be future proofed. Hope that helps.

Media companies in general are going thru a relevance cycle , informed by the current influence of social media and the internet it must become more then just a information agency.The top 3 data projects in my view would be based on its ability to address a slow uptake and drop in viewer subscription , monetization and brand loyalty.

Here’s a technology-colored answer to the question:
A media companies heart/wealth resides in its content and the paid usage of said content. So your first data-projet would be to make sure that your content archive is a business enabler and no pain in daily usage. Content input, search, access, distribution, security is where you would seek for current pain points to be improved.
Secondly, your content is going to go to a lot of distribution channels (normally) which means you have a lot of partners to do so. The various contract objects, channels, access rights, fee structure etc. is what you want to get into some PRM like setup, which requires the right business (aka data-)objects.
Lastly, you want to track and monetize all that content of yours which requires management of those usage tickets, regrouping and some sort of rating + cumulation to find out “who needs to pay how much” at the end of the month.

Hi Carlos,

it depends on which industry you are working and specific environment, maturity of the organization etc.
Many aspects should be covered in order to extract information from data. Just to mention few ... and I`m not going to set an order which one to start with:
1. Security - the holy trinity of information security - Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability (CIA :-)) ... many projects you may have here to reach desired result
2. Master Data Management (Data Cleansing) - you may have such situation when during the years due to lack of features in one core system you created many satellite systems which hold in a given moment in the future different info for your customers, then you will start data cleansing project to equalize data in all systems and set policies to maintain it in the future. Customer Information File or KYC - consistent and reliable info for your customer ... it is also a foundation for CRM.
3. Big Data driven Campaign Management (modern hype) - simply you dig into your data (Clustering, Trends, KNN etc.) to find models of behavior for your customers and sell products that are much closer to customer needs. Retention is much important than gaining new customers ... yes .. it sound strange but this is reality. You choose when, whom, which product thru which channel to approach given set of customers based on finding you have ... it is better to reach automatization and adapt real-time.

I hope this helps.

Kind Regards
Boris