Avid’s Role in India’s Massive, High-Speed News Delivery

The sheer stats about India can be a bit overwhelming. The size of the country. The scale of the population. The number of people. The traffic in the cities. The myriad different languages. And then there are the news outlets. So many channels. So much competition. So many ways to tell a story. And so many platforms to service.

I have been fortunate to visit India on a few occasions, and every time I have been impressed by how journalists and editorial teams there — across channels — collaborate to break news, acquire new information, deliver regular updates. And for many, this is happening 24/7, 365 days a year.

Avid’s role in India’s massive, high-speed news delivery begins with Avid staff based there, and the excellent partners we work with in the country, to support and update our customers there on the latest developments across our product portfolio. In the post-COVID era, not as many people are traveling to major trade shows, and as a result, sharing information via other means – email, webinars, virtual events, online newsletters, etc., has become an increasingly important part of communication. But nothing can compare to meeting in person. To that end, I was part of a group from Avid who recently travelled to India, meeting with customers and partners to discuss the challenges they are facing and update them on our latest developments.

Our trip, over the course of a week, took in three of India’s major cities – Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. All are locations of major media organizations and in each place we met with senior leaders of these broadcasters. While each had unique insights to share into their organizations and workflows, there were some common themes.

• Revenues in traditional broadcasting are stagnant or declining
• Digital revenues are increasing, but news is hard to monetize in the online space
• Social media is important for presence, but the preference is to direct traffic to channel-owned properties such as an app or website
• Editorial teams are expected to deliver more stories to more platforms
• AI is being explored to identify valid use cases which benefit journalists
• Teams want easier sharing of content, particularly between those working in different locations

Leading the team visiting India was Régis André, Avid Senior Director of Product Management.

“It was fascinating to hear directly from each team about how they use our technology to deliver to so many different outlets,” André, says. “For some organizations, not only are they delivering simultaneously in different languages on different channels, but in addition, within the same building, they are using Avid solutions to deliver news to international, national and regional audiences.”

Watching news in India, regardless of language or subject being covered, is also an interesting exercise. The extensive use of graphics to relay multiple types of information constantly — tickers, stock price updates, breaking news updates, sports results, and more — is reflective of the audience’s desire to quickly get the information they need. In some shows, the story count numbers well into the dozens within a half-hour or hour-long program. Fast-paced and energetic, the shows reflect the hectic nature of the cities in which they are created.

The need to deliver on digital is not unique to India, of course, but when you look at the audience within the country, the need becomes even more urgent. The average age of the Indian population is under thirty, much younger than in many other countries in the world. This is an audience which is increasingly media literate, and very much of the social media age.

“We have some customers who are delivering around one thousand items a day to their accounts using our solution, MediaCentral | Publisher, across various social media platforms,” André, remarks. “What is clear is the need for teams — both digital and broadcast — to have quick and easy access to all of the content within their systems to maximize the most efficient ways of working and delivering stories to their audiences.”

The challenge to deliver is a global one.

“We are still seeing convergence between teams, across the industry, not just in India. For some people, working in a story-centric way — where the story is at the heart of the newsgathering effort before curated stories are tailored made for each platform — is already a reality, but for many their teams remain separate,” André, adds. “We aim to help customers always work efficiently.”

Customers in India are using Avid solutions for general news, business news, sports news, sports highlights and documentaries of all kinds. Thousands of users in newsrooms, control rooms and production offices in cities throughout the country rely on the various products within our portfolio to ingest video, write stories, build shows, edit video, publish to digital, to studios and much more. It is a nonstop production pipeline necessary to satisfy an audience with an appetite for news, fast, accurate and (ideally) first. MediaCentral | Cloud UX, browser-based and capable of connecting teams across the country is just one of the applications in use. As part of their Avid solution. MediaCentral | Newsroom Management, MediaCentral | Production Management and MediaCentral | Asset Management power newsrooms throughout the country, featuring workflows involving Media Composer, MediaCentral | Capture, MediaCentral | Command and Avid’s video server applications.

The Indian broadcast market is vast and varied, in many ways a reflection of the country itself. Avid and our partners continue to be honoured to support so many customers delivering news and sports coverage to audiences wherever they are and on whatever is their platform of choice. The visit provided many valuable insights which will help drive product development and workflow management to address the needs of customers in India and beyond.