Last week, at Variety's 2019 Entertainment Summit at CES, John Harrison, EY Global Media & Entertainment Leader, joined Mark Garner of A+E Networks and Radha Subramanyam of CBS to discuss new business models, content trends and distribution strategies.
 
Front and center was the enduring importance of quality content IP, as audience demand becomes increasingly sophisticated. And with companies now accessing more data than ever, there was consensus among the panelists that success will derive from extracting meaningful insights from multiple data sources. But, Harrison warned that "to operationalize it is no easy task."
 
The panel further touched upon the key findings of a new EY study, Ten opportunities and threats for media and entertainment companies in 2019, highlighting some of the biggest issues facing the industry, including shifting customer demand and the impact of technological innovation.
 
According to Harrison, companies that succeed in the current landscape will be those that can run the operation more efficiently. He also discussed the role of "transacting to transform" as a means to "unlock inertia in the enterprise to drive fundamental transformation across a bigger combined platform."