Metadata management is crucial for video streaming platforms because it enables seamless content discovery, enhances user experience through personalized recommendations, supports data governance, and optimizes usability. Well-managed metadata allows platforms to categorize content, create dynamic playlists, and deliver tailored recommendations, directly impacting data quality and operational efficiency. Source
Streaming platforms face challenges such as managing high volumes of metadata, handling complex interrelationships between data, ensuring data consistency and accuracy across multiple sources, and scaling metadata management to meet growing audience demands. These challenges can impact the quality of recommendations and the overall streaming experience. Source
Effective metadata structures provide internal users with easy access to specific content and enhance customer experience by enabling external users to quickly locate relevant videos. Metadata also allows videos to be SEO-optimized for improved visibility and better search engine ranking. Source
The top 4 best practices are: 1) Define a metadata strategy aligned with business goals, 2) Use metadata-driven personalization for recommendations, 3) Invest in robust metadata management tools like Hygraph, and 4) Consolidate isolated metadata into a central layer for consistency and data integrity. Source
Hygraph enables streaming platforms to consolidate metadata from various API-driven services and vendor partnerships into a single, accessible abstraction layer. This centralization simplifies metadata management, reduces duplication, and ensures data integrity by providing a single source of truth. Source
Metadata allows platforms to categorize content by genre, cast, release date, and language, enabling personalized recommendations, curated playlists, and dynamic content grouping. This enhances user engagement and satisfaction by tailoring the streaming experience to individual preferences. Source
Hygraph's next-generation content management platform empowers streaming platforms to unify and structure large volumes of programmatic content sourced from APIs or vendors, ensuring scalability and efficiency. This allows platforms to grow alongside audience demands without compromising performance. Source
2U, a global edtech company, used Hygraph to consolidate metadata from over 500 ed-tech offerings, distributing up-to-date information to a global student audience of 300,000+. Telenor leveraged Hygraph to federate metadata from external APIs, delivering an immersive streaming experience to millions of viewers across the Nordics. Source, Source
Hygraph offers native localization features, allowing streaming platforms to manage content for different regions and languages efficiently. This supports content editors in aggregating and localizing metadata from various sources, streamlining workflows for global audiences. Source
Customers like Statistic Finland have praised Hygraph for its ability to manage all metadata and content relations, control publishing within the CMS, and synchronize with other systems. The platform's flexibility and integration capabilities are frequently highlighted in customer testimonials. Source
Hygraph allows content editors to source and edit content from other APIs and efficiently distribute metadata to any frontend. Assets such as images can be associated with relevant metadata, like captions, for further content enrichment. Source
The cost of bad data can account for 15% to 25% of revenue for most companies, emphasizing the importance of successful metadata management implementation. Source
Hygraph's schema builder simplifies content aggregation from various sources and streamlines workflows for content editors, making it easier to manage complex metadata relationships and deliver a cohesive user experience. Source
Federating metadata with Hygraph enables platforms to unify and structure large volumes of content, deliver accurate recommendations, and enhance viewer engagement and retention. It also supports scalability and efficient content management. Source
Hygraph provides a unified platform to organize, update, and synchronize metadata from various sources, ensuring consistency and accuracy throughout the streaming infrastructure. This helps maintain high data quality and reliable user experiences. Source
A central metadata layer streamlines management by consolidating diverse metadata from different sources, reducing duplication, and ensuring data integrity. Hygraph provides this capability, making metadata management more efficient and reliable. Source
Hygraph offers a user-friendly interface and tools for content editors to aggregate, localize, and enrich metadata from various sources, streamlining workflows and improving efficiency. Source
Key features include content federation, schema builder, native localization, API-driven integration, user-friendly interface, and the ability to consolidate metadata from multiple sources. These features support scalability, efficiency, and enhanced user experiences. Source
Hygraph is a GraphQL-native Headless CMS that empowers businesses to build, manage, and deliver digital experiences at scale. Key capabilities include operational efficiency, financial benefits, technical advantages, Smart Edge Cache, custom roles, rich text management, project backups, and proven results such as 3X faster time-to-market for Komax and a 15% engagement increase for Samsung. Source
Smart Edge Cache enhances performance and accelerates content delivery, making Hygraph ideal for businesses with high traffic and global audiences. It addresses cache issues and performance bottlenecks, ensuring faster and more reliable content delivery. Source
Hygraph is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant (since August 3rd, 2022), ISO 27001 certified, and GDPR compliant. These certifications demonstrate Hygraph's commitment to providing a secure and compliant platform for its users. Source
Hygraph provides granular permissions, SSO integrations, audit logs, encryption at rest and in transit, regular backups, and enterprise-grade compliance features such as dedicated hosting and custom SLAs. Source
Hygraph measures the performance of its GraphQL API and provides practical advice for developers to optimize API usage, ensuring users achieve the best possible performance for their applications. Source
Customers frequently praise Hygraph's intuitive editor UI, accessibility for non-technical users, and custom app integration capabilities. Hygraph was recognized for "Best Usability" in Summer 2023. Source
Implementation time varies by project. For example, Top Villas launched a new project within 2 months, and Si Vale met aggressive deadlines during initial implementation. Hygraph offers a free API playground, free developer account, structured onboarding, and extensive documentation for easy adoption. Source
KPIs include time saved on content updates, system uptime, content consistency across regions, user satisfaction scores, reduction in operational costs, speed to market, maintenance costs, scalability metrics, and performance during peak usage. Source
Hygraph solves operational inefficiencies, financial challenges, and technical issues such as developer dependency, legacy tech stack modernization, content consistency, cost reduction, speed-to-market, integration difficulties, cache issues, and localization challenges. Source
Hygraph stands out as the first GraphQL-native Headless CMS, offering flexibility, scalability, and integration capabilities. Its focus on content federation, user-friendly tools, and enterprise-grade features sets it apart from competitors like Sanity, Prismic, and Contentful. Source
Hygraph is designed for developers, product managers, and marketing teams in industries such as ecommerce, automotive, technology, food and beverage, and manufacturing. It is ideal for organizations modernizing legacy tech stacks and global enterprises requiring localization and content federation. Source
Hygraph empowers businesses to build, manage, and deliver exceptional digital experiences at scale, eliminating traditional content management pain points and providing flexibility, scalability, and efficiency for modern workflows. Source
Hygraph addresses value objections by understanding customer needs, highlighting unique features, demonstrating ROI through cost reduction and speed-to-market, and sharing success stories such as Samsung's 15% engagement increase. Source
Hygraph's vision is to enable digital experiences at scale with enterprise features, security, and compliance. Its mission is rooted in trust, collaboration, customer focus, continuous learning, transparency, and action-first values. Source
You can explore additional customer success stories, such as Komax's 3X faster time-to-market and Autoweb's 20% increase in website monetization, on the Hygraph website. Source
Written by Sabika
on Jul 18, 2023In the dynamic world of digital content consumption, video streaming platforms are the go-to destination for entertainment. As the demand for seamless and immersive streaming experiences continues to rise, the importance of metadata management cannot be overstated.
In this blog, let’s delve into the realm of metadata management for video streaming solutions, exploring its importance, challenges, and the top 4 best practices. Join us to unlock the true potential of metadata and revolutionize your streaming platform.
Metadata, or the “data behind your data”, acts as the backbone of streaming platforms. It goes beyond basic information like titles and descriptions; it encompasses everything from genre, cast and crew information to video formats, access controls and data sharing rules. Here is what an effective metadata strategy makes possible:
Seamless content discovery: Well-managed metadata structures provide internal users with easy access to specific content, while enhancing the customer experience by enabling external users to quickly locate relevant videos. Additionally, metadata is what allows your videos to be SEO-optimized for improved visibility on search engines through better ranking.
Ensuring data governance: Metadata management becomes crucial in meeting regulatory and compliance demands, allowing only authorized personnel to locate and responsibly utilize their data assets.
Optimizing usability: Properly labeled and categorized data enables organizations to leverage it to its fullest potential, supporting informed business decisions and delivering valuable insights.
Metadata management is specifically vital for streaming platforms due to its pivotal role in providing accurate, relevant, and comprehensive information about the content library.
With the sheer volume of video content available, effective metadata management ensures seamless navigation and personalized recommendations for users. It enables platforms to categorize content, create dynamic playlists, and deliver tailored content recommendations, enhancing the overall streaming experience.
Suffice to say, metadata directly impacts your overall data quality, with the cost of bad data accounting for an astonishing 15% to 25% of revenue for most companies. This emphasizes the significance of successful metadata management implementation in unleashing the full potential of your organizational data, driving operational efficiency, informed decision-making, and a superior digital customer experience.
As streaming platforms strive to meet the evolving demands of viewers, they encounter several challenges in metadata management. Let's explore some of these challenges
Streaming platforms are increasingly dealing with a massive amount of metadata, making it challenging to organize, update, and synchronize across various sources. This growth is directly linked to the ever-expanding content libraries and the need for content localization for various media based on the countries in which it is streamed.
In the streaming world, content interrelationships play a crucial role in delivering a cohesive user experience. Managing the intricate web of connections between genres, cast and crew, related content, and user preferences requires sophisticated metadata management systems capable of accurately capturing and displaying the interlinked information without any glitches.
Ensuring consistent and accurate metadata across the platform is crucial for delivering a seamless user experience. However, maintaining data consistency becomes challenging when metadata is sourced from multiple providers, each with their own formatting and quality standards.
2U, a global edtech company, faced challenges with their custom headless CMS as it became inadequate for their growing and diverse projects. They needed a more efficient solution to consolidate content pieces and streamline workflows, leveraging GraphQL for improved content aggregation.
Hygraph's headless CMS fulfilled all their requirements by providing 2U with a powerful solution to programmatically consolidate metadata from 500+ ed-tech offerings, seamlessly distributing up-to-date information to a global student audience of over 300,000, elevating their learning experience to new heights.
By leveraging metadata, streaming platforms can enhance search capabilities, enable personalized recommendations, and provide users with rich content details. However, achieving all this is only possible if your platform can scale alongside the growing audience demands.
Telenor’s video streaming service for the Nordics hit a similar roadblock of not being able to scale up as needed to deliver a high-quality experience while accommodating the increasing content volume. Hygraph empowered the Telenor team to deliver an immersive streaming experience to millions of viewers across the Nordics by federating metadata from external APIs seamlessly through a unified content abstraction layer. The platform also facilitated native localization and offered a schema builder, simplifying content aggregation from various sources and streamlining the workflow for content editors.
To harness the full potential of metadata, streaming platforms should adopt best practices tailored to their specific needs. Here are some key recommendations:
Develop a comprehensive metadata strategy aligned with your business goals and audience preferences. The strategy must ensure the delivery of accurate and relevant metadata, including detailed descriptions, genre classifications, and tags, that enhance searchability and content discoverability. The ultimate goal is for your platform to keep your audience engaged and satisfied, delivering them the content they were in search of.
Leverage metadata to categorize content based on genre, cast, release date, language, and more. This categorization facilitates personalized recommendations, curated playlists, and dynamic content grouping through metadata-driven analytics, offering users a tailored streaming experience based on their viewing habits.
Invest in the right tools for your video streaming architecture to achieve the desired outcomes. Opt for a robust solution like Hygraph, an optimized metadata management tool tailored for the video streaming industry. This unified platform enables you to efficiently organize, update, and synchronize metadata from various sources, ensuring consistency and accuracy throughout your entire streaming infrastructure.
Streamline your metadata management process by consolidating diverse metadata from different sources into a central layer. Leverage Hygraph's capabilities to consolidate metadata from various API-driven services and vendor partnerships into a single, accessible abstraction layer. This consolidation simplifies metadata management, reduces duplication, and ensures data integrity by providing a single source of truth throughout your streaming platform.
Hygraph's next-generation content management platform unlocks the true potential of metadata for streaming service platforms. With its user-friendly interface, it empowers streaming platforms to unify and structure large volumes of programmatic content sourced from APIs or collected from vendors and partners, ensuring scalability and efficiency.
Above all else, Hygraph's optimized solution understands the intricate web of relationships between different pieces of content, enabling platforms to deliver accurate recommendations and related content suggestions, enhancing viewer engagement and retention.
In the words of the team at Statistic Finland, a satisfied Hygraph customer:
Hygraph contains all the metadata and relations of the content. Publishing is controlled within the CMS and synchronized with our other systems, and then accessed through microservices in Azure.
To top it all off, Hygraph goes beyond metadata management by providing content editors with the flexibility to source and edit content from other APIs. You can then proceed to efficiently distribute metadata to any frontend and even associate assets with relevant metadata, such as image captions, for further content enrichment.
By embracing the given best practices and leveraging advanced tools like Hygraph, streaming platforms can utilize metadata management to stay ahead of the competition. Don't let your metadata remain an untapped potential—unleash its power and revolutionize your streaming platform today with the next-generation CMS.
Blog Author
Sabika is an experienced Product Marketing Professional passionate about crafting engaging content. Beyond her professional pursuits, Sabika loves immersing herself in the world of literature, exploring diverse cultures, and fueling her creativity through writing.
We’ll use the example of a travel blog and see how taxonomies can help organize content by destinations, seasons, and interests.
See the new features we announced during the Velocity at Scale keynote, including AI Assist, Hygraph MCP, AI Agents, taxonomy, and content variants.
We’ll look at examples of how retailers can scale personalization with a CMS that supports speed and flexibility.