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.
We work with media and entertainment companies across the globe—and across the industry’s subsectors and ecosystems.
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.
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.
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%.
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.
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.
The surging popularity of streaming services, gaming, and digital and social media over the past two years added to the industry’s substantial shareholder returns.
BCG’s latest research shows that consumers plan to maintain their viewing habits. But individual providers still need to earn a place in the lineup.
