Media Industry Consulting and Strategy

Technology, Media, and Telecommunications

Content matters—but so do subscriptions, personalization, and customer insight. We help media and entertainment companies master the strategies and enablers that spark transformation.

In today’s media industry, success requires new business models, the ability to leverage disruptive technologies, and a relentless focus on operational efficiency. For established companies and digital pure plays alike, one thing is certain: as the media industry evolves, the most successful companies will evolve with it.

Our Expertise Across Media and Entertainment

We work with media and entertainment companies across the globe—and across the industry’s subsectors and ecosystems.

Our Approach to Media and Entertainment Transformation

Major shifts—in how content is created, consumed, and purchased—are reshaping today’s media industry. We help companies develop the strategies and capabilities that let them react to the changes, so they can thrive amidst disruption—and create some of their own.

Acquiring and Retaining Subscribers
With a handful of giants dominating the digital advertising market, the subscription-based model has become a crucial route to revenue. We develop pricing optimization and customer acquisition strategies for media and entertainment companies, so they can stand out with compelling value propositions.

Zero-Based Budgeting for Media Companies
Transformation is essential for adapting to digital disruption in media. With our zero-based budgeting (ZBB) methodology, we identify inefficient spending in an organization—across marketing and sales, supply chains, and operating models—and determine how to better use the funds to support sustainable, long-term growth.

Data Transformation and Commercialization
Our media and entertainment consulting experts guide companies through data transformation and commercialization by using new and existing data sources to generate entirely new revenue streams, business units, or businesses.

Advertising in the Aftermath of COVID
As ad spending returns—and consumers shift more rapidly to online consumption—how can publishers pivot their organizations and their products to capture more of the market? We help ad publishers accelerate recovery and growth while mitigating risk, diversifying revenue streams, and streamlining operations.

Tech Stacks
Technology is at the heart of the transformation agenda of media companies. Our deep knowledge of tech stacks in media allows us to develop solutions that enable transformation and drive efficiencies.

Radical Organization Design
Many of the enablers of media transformation—digital initiatives, advanced analytics, the use of technology in media—require new skills and talent, and new approaches to how companies are structured. We help implement organization design in ways that empower people, deliver competitive advantage, and foster innovation in media.

Bolstering our media consulting teams are our specialty businesses: BCG GAMMA, our experts in advanced analytics and data science; BrightHouse, a BCG company and a global creative consultancy; BCG Digital Ventures, our early-stage growth platform; and BCG Platinion, which develops the technology platforms and IT architecture best suited for the needs of media and entertainment companies.

We also produce thought leadership for the media industry through our three specialized institutes:

Global Institute for B2B Information Services

Global Institute for the Future of Television (GIFT)

Global Institute for Journalism

Our Impact in the Media Industry

Our media and entertainment consultants advise both traditional media companies and digital pure plays in video, gaming, publishing, music, sports media, cinema, and B2B information services. Here are a few examples of our work:

Global Media and Entertainment Company

We helped a major media player develop a more customer-centric pricing and product strategy. The large price gap between free content and a single paid tier for video-on-demand created a high barrier to entry for casual customers, contributed to high churn rates, and forced the company to over-rely on discounts. Leveraging customer research and insights, we created new tiers designed for different kinds of users. The result: an 80% increase in paying subscribers and a doubling of revenues.

Leading Broadcaster

Our media consultants helped drive significant growth—a 50% year-over-year increase in ad revenue—after our client acquired the rights to a popular sports property. We reshaped the company’s ad sales strategy and execution and developed promotional strategies to reach underdeveloped viewer segments. A key component: enhancing the viewer experience via innovative new offerings, including a superfan feed, regional language feeds, and immersive 360-degree video that utilized larger graphics and unique camera perspectives to engage the audience.

Major US Newspaper

We developed a media transformation strategy for a traditional news publisher using customer research to better understand preferences and behavior, creating subscription-based and advertising-supported business models, and designing an implementation plan and an organizational structure to support it. This enabled the publisher to align its product offerings with customer needs—and expand its digital audience by 50%.

SEE MORE OF OUR MEDIA CONSULTING EXPERTS

Explore Our Insights on the Media Industry

How Webtoons Are Changing Movies and TV

Pop culture is changing thanks to a new kind of storytelling called webtoons: comic-like illustrations published in short segments. BCG partner Hyeonmi Kim breaks down how webtoons have leapt from phones to the big screen, ushering in a fresh, diverse generation of creators.

Tradition and Transformation in Media: BCG TURN

BCG Turn enables media companies to adapt in the digital era. A new digital way of working must be integrated fully into the leadership team and the culture of the organization as a whole.