Impact of COVID-19 on broadcast, cable, and satellite

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every industry and the way of working has also changed. Many organizations have adopted work-from-home mode, keeping the safety of their employees at priority. Education institutions like schools and colleges have been continuing with online classes. Hence, majority of things have now switched to the virtual world.

In the broadcast industry, in pre-COVID scenario remote desktop work was less as all the employees were working in the office. But due to this pandemic, in the broadcast and media industry, most of the employees are working from home, and companies are providing high speed broadband connection. Online is clearly the new norm as companies are focusing on remote work and rapidly digitizing operations in order to ensure business continuity. However, many still struggle to operationalize work-from-home initiatives because of technical requirements.

For the meeting, broadcast organizations are using many digital platforms to connect with video and audio, on which they can give presentations share files, everything on a high-speed internet connection.

Hence, there is a huge demand of broadband connection and high-speed data. Some employees in the news and media entertainment section were going to office as physical presence was must for device accessibility and support to colleagues, who were working from home. But COVID-19 has impacted the way of working in the broadcast and media industry, which was looking difficult at that time and organizations were also not ready for this transformation.

Employees are now working remotely, accessing the system and monitoring like how they were doing physically in the office. Major broadcasters were facing internet traffic issues, because they have to transfer heavy video files so they had to opt working traditionally as earlier.

There is a big surge in the OTT and Netflix subscription as the sports events were called off, which led to viewers turning to OTT platforms. TRP of general entertainment channels and news channels was very high as people were keen to get updated about the pandemic around the world. During the lockdown, there was also a surge in the demand of previously existing content and religious programs, which were liked by many people around the country.

For 2 weeks, such channels became the most viewed in the world. The trouble, of course, is that advertising has declined as companies providing channels revenue are facing troubles themselves. There is also a threat that post-lockdown channels could face increased competition from digital platforms.

In the broadcast industry, we have witnessed the transformation from baseband to IP and optics for remote connectivity and accessibility of broadcast systems to run the business smoothly and for the safety of the employees with the presence of less employees at the broadcast center. For this change, the industry has to change the infrastructure and provide content on digital platforms as OTT and streaming apps viewership has increased tremendously during lockdown caused by COVID-19.

Many users who had not switched to OTT are also making the shift and exploring the platforms. In case of OTT platforms, they do not have to stick to TV sets, they can pause and play the content as per their convenience, or they can even watch it later. They do not have to wait for the next program to begin after break or advertisement as they can see all the episodes in one day on these platforms. Movies are releasing on digital platforms; advertisers are also likely to focus on the internet.

However, among other things, this trend has emphasized the permanence of digitization. So, with the linear TV and cable TV, the broadcast industry also has to focus on incorporating and huge investments on the digital platforms to fulfil the demand of new audience.