Streaming wars: Hyper-personalization ‘is a big differentiator,’ analyst says

Michael Vovk, Cloud leader for Deloitte Consulting LLP, joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss innovations in personalizing the home-streaming experience, March Madness, and sports' role in the streaming wars between competing platforms.

Video Transcript

- Mr. Al Michaels of "Do You Believe In Miracles" fame, he of 11 Super Bowls recently signed on with Amazon, according to reports, to anchor their "Thursday Night Football" streaming package at a salary of more than $10 million a year-- just the latest play in the sports streaming wars. Who's winning, who's losing-- let's keep score with Michael Vovk.

He's the managing director of Deloitte Consulting. Allie Canal also with us. Good to see you, Michael. Let's talk about these streaming wars broadly before we zero in on sports. Who's winning, who's losing, and why?

MICHAEL VOVK: Well, you know, I think there's still a lot of competition in the space. I don't think that people have determined who the absolute winners and losers are. And there's a lot of technology that needs to be implemented across the board in order to differentiate going forward and determine the answer to that question. So it's still a lot of heated competition.

ALLIE CANAL: And let's talk about that technology. Explain what growth and innovation is happening within the quote unquote, "hyper personalization space," especially as we talk about not only sports, but also live events and the overall streaming evolution at large.

MICHAEL VOVK: Sure. Deloitte just recently acquired the assets and capabilities of National Tele-Consultants, which gives us the power to distribute a very highly [INAUDIBLE] media stream, if you will. And we think that's a big differentiator in differentiating the content that the consumer receives and tailor it to the consumer.

If you think about sports, for example, we can deliver content in such a way that would present to you the teams that are your favorites, it would present to you a view of the broadcast where you get to play along with a quarterback, or a point guard, or somebody like that that's really one of your favorites. So it's that hyper-personalization of content based on the data that we have about the consumer and delivering that differentiated experience that we believe really is the future of what these media entertainment companies are going to compete on the basis of.

ALLIE CANAL: [INAUDIBLE] March Madness happening, I know a lot of my friends would love that. But also the Grammys is right around the corner. What other examples do you have when it comes to this hyper-personalization of content and how it can really transform live events as we make that transition from simply linear broadcast?

MICHAEL VOVK: Sure. Yeah. And Grammys is a really great example. For example, everybody is really concerned or has an interest in who the red carpet attendees are. And there are lists of those folks. But maybe there aren't lists of everyone that attends. Some of those are surprises, right?

So being able to identify through a lot of different technologies, including facial recognition, who those people are and being able to present that to a consumer based on what their interests are is a differentiator. If you watch the Grammys and I watch the Grammys and I have a propensity to like a certain genre of music, I can personalize the content of how the Grammys are delivered to the end customer based on what my preferences are versus what your preferences are.

That makes the consumer a lot more sticky to that broadcaster or that media entertainment company, which then translates into the advertising dollar spend and validation that you're getting the maximum amount of revenue for each dollar spent on either a streaming channel or a broadcast [INAUDIBLE]

- Michael, Allie mentioned March Madness-- my favorite sporting event of the year. The American Gaming Association predicted 45 million Americans would bet on March Madness. What role will sports betting play in the streaming wars?

MICHAEL VOVK: Yeah, already a lot of work hasn't been done in that space to set up for what we believe is going to be a very personalized experience. When you're viewing a sporting event like a March Madness basketball game and you have a favorite player from maybe or your alum team that you're watching, and that player is shooting free throws, right-- you can place a bet in real time, or you will be able to do so, on whether or not that player is going to make or miss the free throw, right? So that is the way you can interact with that broadcast and really give it a much more personalized experience for the consumer.

ALLIE CANAL: And real quickly here-- when you talk about these companies investing in this type of technology, how much are we talking about? This sounds like it could be pretty expensive. And do you think this will force a consolidation of sorts when it comes to the smaller players that may not be able to keep up?

MICHAEL VOVK: Well, you know, in media entertainment in recent years, there's been a heck of a lot of merger and acquisition activity, as we all know. And I think that will continue. Because this is a transformative journey to be able to accomplish this through a series of pieces of technology, including edge, and 5G, and all of these things that are coming together to deliver that experience.

So the road to do this is 12, 24 months typically. So you'll see some people-- you'll see a lot of broadcasters and a lot of media and entertainment companies getting on that road now. And then you'll probably see some followers, right? Those followers are either going to have to join that journey and transform themselves or they're going to have to jump in with somebody else that's already there. So that's exactly where we are in this space.

- It'll be a fascinating couple of years, isn't it? With the latest on the streaming wars, Managing Director of Deloitte Consulting, Michael Vivk, and Allie Canal-- appreciate you both. Thank you.