American broadcasters face content crisis: up to 75% of journalist time squandered on technical busy work

New research from Caretta Research made possible by Quickplay reveals that inefficient technical workflows are hurting North American broadcasters. A shift to a more unified, software-oriented  approach enables them to assert their unique strengths against competition from streamers and the creator economy.

Broadcast journalism and production staff are currently spending around 75% of their time on technical workflows, often referred to as "busywork," leaving only a fraction of their time available for doing what they are best at: delivering timely, accurate, trusted and relevant content to their local audiences. This constraint is putting North American broadcasters at risk as viewers switch to third-party video platforms.

The new report, “The Broadcaster Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” examines how broadcasters can use their strengths: deep local knowledge, trusted brand equity, and the content archives which effectively form a community’s collective memory to stay relevant and compete effectively as visual entertainment shifts decisively to streaming.

A major challenge is in the fragmented state of broadcaster content archives. Broadcasters hold vast amounts of historical and local content, but it is spread across many different media asset management (MAM) systems and file types.

Without the right infrastructure, finding, retrieving and repurposing this content takes too long. Newsrooms and production teams do not have a complete view of all their assets, making finding the right clip or footage too time consuming for the cadence required in a busy news operation. As the report highlights, staff currently "just have to know where it is," often relying on the memory of experienced employees to locate specific video files.

Modern audiences expect more content to be delivered faster to the platforms they use. Workflows designed for traditional linear broadcasting are too slow for the high volume and publishing cadence needed to satisfy the audiences and algorithms on social and third-party platforms. These platforms reward consistent, relevant and rapid publishing which elicits engagement and reaction. Broadcasters want to increase their video presence on these platforms, using the appropriate formats and distinct editorial voices expected by a given platform's audience while preserving the trust and quality expectations their brands require.

To address these issues, broadcasters are increasingly  adopting unified software or orchestration layers which offer visibility and control of their content, production and distribution workflows. Instead of risky “rip and replace” approaches to upgrading technology, such an approach reduces deployment, operational and economic risk while conferring significant performance and efficiency gains which quickly stack up, even in smaller operations.

By making core workflows visible and controllable from a single UI, or "one pane of glass,” broadcasters empower editors and journalists to easily find, clip, package, and distribute content without constantly switching between tools or moving files. This change transforms content archives from cost centres into potential drivers for audience engagement, enabling highly skilled staff to focus on doing what they do best. It also enables broadcasters to assert themselves and compete effectively on the platforms their audiences are spending the most time on.

"When local broadcast  journalists lose 75% of their days to technical workflows, they're not just facing a productivity problem, they're staring at an existential one," said Paul Pastor, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer, Quickplay. "While the demand for trusted and relevant local content remains high, new rules are in play for local broadcasters to survive. "

“Gone are the days where broadcast is always the first format and then recut for other platforms. Our digital-first world demands the  flexibility to start with vertical before broadcast when appropriate,” Pastor continued. “An orchestrated, content-to-value platform then turns one story into formats built for each of these platforms simultaneously, so broadcasters can compete at the same velocity and reach as anyone else without giving up their real superpower: local relevance." 

Ed Barton, Research Director at Caretta Research, stated: “Our research confirms a critical bottleneck in North American broadcasting: production teams and journalists spend up to 75% of their time on technical busywork that could be automated, accelerated and improved. The shift to unified, software-orchestrated operations is no longer optional, it is the urgent step required to empower and accelerate key staff, enabling broadcasters to compete more effectively in the streaming age. The technologies enabling such a transition used to be expensive and required a lot of customisation. However vendors have worked hard to ensure adopting such capabilities is accessible to even the smallest broadcaster”.

For more information and to access the full research produced independently by Caretta Research and made possible by Quickplay, please visit https://www.carettaresearch.com/downloads/the-broadcaster-revolution-will-not-be-televised.

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