Media

Bain has completed more than 1,300 projects with leading companies spanning all subsectors of the media and entertainment industry, including diversified media, film, television, broadcast, radio, video games, publishing, mobile media, recorded music, and Internet service and content providers.

We work alongside our clients, from long-standing media leaders to newer entrants, to completely transform their business strategies, pursue new technologies and business models, launch new channels, redesign their organizations, find new ways to cut costs and execute acquisitions. We are also well-versed in the topics most relevant to media executives today, whether it is designing the "multi-platform" newsroom, approaching content windowing strategy in the face of new delivery models in video or music, or optimizing programming in radio or TV.

As market boundaries between telecommunication, technology and media continue to diminish, our clients benefit as Bain seamlessly brings expertise via our Technology and Telecommunications practices.

In addition, our Private Equity group has extensive experience in the media industry–we have helped private equity firms evaluate the merits of many of the major media deals of the past five years.

Power is shifting from distributors of content to consumers of content—and those consumers have more control, more choice, more personalization and more interactivity than ever before. This shift is exposing new pressure points and opportunities for media companies:

• There are now more ways to reach the consumer. More devices, form factors and ecosystems to consume media make it easier to reach the consumer.
• That said, it is harder to engage the consumer. It has become more difficult to break through the noise—given increased audience fragmentation and lower engagement—to reach and retain consumers.
• Faster response times are required. Increased velocity across the industry means that companies must become faster and more efficient in responding to market changes.
• Market complexity is increasing. Companies are pursuing a wide range of business models and value propositions to meet the increased demands of consumers.
• And there is mounting platform/technology uncertainty. Many different platforms are competing for consumers' attention and content owners' distribution rights. In the absence of clear long-term winning models, media companies must make and nurture a savvy portfolio of bets that maximize both their own economic interests and the consumer experience.

Various sectors (and companies within each sector) are at different stages in this transition. Across them all, rapidly shifting profit pools are prompting companies to ask the tough questions about their product offerings, their business models, their organizational models and everything in between. Bain works alongside client teams to make sure they emerge as winners.