Exclusives

Real-time data analytics are empowering on-air news decision-making, according to Jim Whelehan, senior account executive, M&E at MicroStrategy.

Speaking during the Security & WFH breakout presentation “Unlocking the Power of Real-Time Data in Today’s News Environment” May 12 at the annual Hollywood Innovation and Transformation Summit (HITS) Spring event,  he noted that Disney ABC TV-owned stations are using MicroStrategy’s analytics platform to consolidate real-time mobile and desktop platform news engagements with deployment of news trucks and also tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) at the viewership level.

The session went “under the hood” with MicroStrategy and ABC Owned TV Stations as they revealed their innovations in the measurement of instant viewer-engagement data. The companies showed how mission-critical KPI goals are made more understandable and how a streamlined reporting system is driving “sticky stories” and precise deployment of production efforts.

They also demonstrated how bespoke dashboards clarify information across all levels of ABC Local News operations.

The solution “runs entirely on MicroStrategy’s managed cloud environment,” Whelehan pointed out.

ABC was out to create a historical baseline but it wanted to offer a real-time dashboard. After all, in the news sector, it is imperative to be as close to real-time as possible.

In a slide showed during the session, ABC explained that its challenge was: “Leveraging historical context as a baseline, we wanted to see story and video data as close to real-time across all our streaming platforms to make informed decisions in the newsroom.”

ABC was using Adobe for historical context and using other products for real-time but what it did not have was a combination of the two until MicroStrategy provided it with the full solution.

Benefits of the solution include:

• ABC being able to receive real-time data (every 5 minutes) tied to its historical data.
• All stations can monitor their content KPIs, not just on their specific news station but across any of its owned stations.
• Interactive dashboard functionality enables users to sort and filter the real-time data.
• The application allows for ABC to build it once and anyone can see the KPIs and reports on any device.

Leveraging MicroStrategy enables the transformation of raw data using the Adobe Livestream application programming interface (API). MicroStrategy then provides consulting services and managed cloud services.

“There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes,” Whelehan said after the deep-dive discussion. When it comes to MicroStrategy’s role, “the data piece of it is the key,” he added.

Earlier at the HITS Spring event, he offered an inside look at how MicroStrategy and ABC Owned TV Stations are innovating the way data is enabling real-time news decisions, in the presentation “Breaking (Down) the News: A New Evolution in Real-Time Data Empowerment.”

To view the entire presentation, click here.

HITS Spring was presented by IBM Security with sponsorship by Genpact, Irdeto, Tata Consultancy Services, Convergent Risks, Equinix, MicroStrategy, Microsoft Azure, Richey May Technology Solutions, Tamr, Whip Media, Eluvio, 5th Kind, LucidLink, Salesforce, Signiant, Zendesk, EIDR, PacketFabric and the Trusted Partner Network.