Media firms focused on deepening customer intimacy and richer content yet hindered by lack of insight into customer behaviour and overlooking smart billing

Reading, UK. – September 13, 2010

News Facts

- Oracle today releases research which reveals that while the vast majority of media companies are focused on developing deeper relationships with customers, the systems they have in place are currently unable to support these goals
- The study, entitled State of Readiness, also found that while media firms had plans to create richer and more specialised content, they were overlooking the management of the resulting complex revenue streams
- State of Readiness set out to discover the priorities of media companies in the digital age along with their ability to deliver on them and involved a survey of 50 senior IT executives at media firms in Western and Eastern Europe and the Middle East

Key Findings

- The top five priorities for media firms all revolved around providing a reassuring and compelling customer experience:
- Information security was highlighted as a major focus by 76% of respondents
- Fostering deeper levels of trust with consumers (72%)
- Providing a compelling user experience (68%)
- Tailoring offerings to customers’ needs (66%)
- Building value-added services around content (62%)

- Fewer than half the firms surveyed (48%) were able to monitor customers’ interactions with the organisation across all channels. Only one in six (16%) media firms is able to provide insight into individual customer behaviour while less than a fifth (20%) are able to provide recommendations to customers based on their interactions across all digital channels

- The report revealed a huge appetite for providing customers with richer content through partnerships and the introduction of new offers – 72% of media companies are currently developing new areas of content around their core specialism

- However, while media firms acknowledged the importance of being able to deliver this content across multiple channels with 78% currently taking steps to do this, there was less of a focus on the systems involved in managing the resulting multi-channel revenues – only just over half (56%) had developed billing systems to collect and allocate payment for additional content provision

- Indeed, the research revealed that a large number of media firms lacked the capability to bill customers for content and value-added services when the opportunity arose - 46% of media firms were unable to process micropayments, 26% couldn’t cater for subscriptions and 18% couldn’t handle one-off payments.

- A quarter of media firms (26%) fully lacked the agility to respond to rapid change in business models and accommodate new revenue streams

Supporting Quotes

- Gordon Rawling, Director of EMEA Marketing, Oracle Communications, said: “Media companies appreciate that it’s no longer enough to put the content out there and trust that people find it.  The results show that they’re taking very seriously the need to get closer to their consumers.  While they have the right intentions, it doesn’t seem they have the building blocks in place to provide the personalised service they’re hoping for.  Media firms need to move quickly to remove the barriers to gaining deeper customer insights.”
- Rawling said: “For media firms, content is of course king and the report shows a great deal of ambition in developing richer, more compelling content and extending its reach through partnerships. While this is of course the very core of their business, they should also take care to prepare for the additional complexity that this approach entails. If you have the chance of encouraging consumers to spend money on your value-added or specialised content, you need the systems in place to collect and manage it”.

Supporting Resources

State of Readiness press fact sheet
Capitalising on the Digital Age full report
Capitalising on the Digital Age press release
Oracle Media Intellectual Property Management
Oracle media and entertainment products