Why did the lights go off?

The Importance of Complete Metadata

If you turned on the TV or started your favourite streaming app and the screen was blank, what would you think was the problem?

• Power cut

• Battery has run out of juice

• Infrastructure failure

• They've all given up and gone home

I bet you wouldn't think, "there's probably an issue with the metadata". Yet without metadata about the programmes, channels, video files, genres etc. the user interface and much of the supporting platforms that underpin today's content ecosystem (TV & streaming) simply can't function. In that sense, metadata can be likened to to the electricity that powers the device you watch content on - without it, you'll probably be staring at a blank screen.

About me

I've been working in media & entertainment metadata for over 20 years and have picked up some knowledge and experiences along the way. I've noticed that metadata becomes a hot topic every so often and then fades into the background. But the underlying needs that metadata serves are constant and while the fundamental don't change an awful lot, the use cases that require more and richer metadata continue to grow.

Aims of these blog posts

I'm going to share a few thoughts, learnings and tips about media and entertainment metadata for the benefit of the community. If you learn something useful then that'd be wonderful. If you just need to get a deeper understanding of how metadata affects other parts of the ecosystem and want to broaden your knowledge then that's great too.