The research undertaken by this Prosperity Partnership represents the most fundamental shift in the way content is created and captured, produced, and delivered for 50 years. In a similar way to how the animation industry moved the dial to CGI and motion capture, this research will generate new ways to create media, new storytelling and new distribution methods. Using the BBC’s significant convening power, especially in the commissioning of new forms of content through BBC Studios, we aim to drive changes across the UK creative sector impacting TV, games, advertising and design, thereby enhancing the UK’s standing as a global leader in media. Creating new skills in the UK’s media industries, spearheaded by the BBC’s excellence in editorial and curation, and supported by our university’s research, our ambition is to attract global investors who wish to access the UK’s evolving and cutting-edge talent pool in media production.
The research proposed through this Prosperity Partnership represents the most fundamental shift in the way content is created and captured, produced, and delivered for 50 years.
Personalisation is expected to be the primary driver for growth in the media industry over the next decade. The UK media industry is worth over £100billion annually to the UK economy, employing over 3.2 million people. Experts believe that personalised media can significantly boost the UK’s media industry with a projection to drive growth by £2 billion/annum by 2030, generating 100,000 additional jobs.
The UK media sector is currently working towards internet-based streaming of all broadcast media within the next 10-15 years. The emergence of generative AI is adding new opportunities, complexity and challenges to personalisation. This brings significant known challenges to delivering the same quality of broadcast experience at national scale to all households as a cost effective and robust service. This shift to an AI-augmented, IP-only broadcast eco-system brings great opportunities to the wider UK creative sector for delivery of new trusted personalised media services. Solving the challenge of scale, quality of experience, universality and ability to create these new rich personalisation experiences are time-critical to ensurethe UK’s media ecosystem remains at the forefront of global media production.
In the Prosperity Partnership, impact is being realised through:(1) a series of high-quality use case demonstrators which evidence the potential of Personalised Media delivery at scale; (2) piloting of technology demonstrators for high-profile live events(sports/music) via variety of BBC platforms; (3) open-toolsets for object-based production to catalyse creative use; (4) delivery of the future internet technology that enables efficient distributed compute; (5) piloting of new services for personalised media.
The platform and tools delivered by the Prosperity Partnership will provide the UK creative sector with unrivalled capabilities to create a step-change in audience experiences.
Our impact model will shift interactive and personalised experience from one-off bespoke projects with a vertical structure combining technology, delivery and experience design – to open, distributed and repurposed creative assets. This will enable the UK creative industry to drive future global opportunities and growth in media, games, advertising and design. Ofcom recgnised the importance of personalised media some time ago and made specific reference to this Prosperity Partnership. See: Ofcom report on Object-based media (06 September 2021) — AI4ME project is directly referenced as 'The Prosperity Partnership’ in the executive summary. Read 'Object-based Media report' here.
The Changing Forest interactive demo
The Changing Forest demo is a customizable audio-visual experience designed to cater to a wide range of individual preferences. By integrating various personalisation options, this interactive piece demonstrates how content can adapt to different user needs, offering a flexible narrative that adjusts based on user-selected settings.
The study highlights the potential of this method for mass personalization, offering a model that balances extensive user customization with manageable editorial control. Future work aims to refine these personalisation options, measure their impact on user satisfaction, and explore their application across various media types.
Impact through Partners
The Prosperity Partnership works with a number of leading media and technology companies, each their own interests in the future of personalisation, OBM and AI. Our partner community includes:
If you are interested in joining our partner community for AI4ME, please contact a.rogoyski@surrey.ac.uk