So far in this series, I’ve given an overview of the media and entertainment industry and why companies have selected different CMS platforms, as well as taken a deep dive into the world of third-party integrations that many media businesses utilize.
What has become clear is that there is an established group of CMS platforms designed to address the specific content production and distribution needs of media industry segments, including newspaper and magazine brands, broadcast TV and radio stations, sports leagues, entertainment venues, and so forth.
In the next couple posts, I will look at the business and technology trends in the media industry that are making these CMS platforms obsolete, and later determine where the opportunities lie for Acquia and Drupal to be the solution for companies looking to replace their burning platforms.
Let’s start with the business trends that are driving these media specific CMS platforms towards extinction. The biggest nail in the coffin of these CMS players is media industry consolidation. On Sept. 8, 2015, a new record for mergers & acquisitions activity for major U.S. corporations was hit when Media General’s acquisition of Meredith Corp was announced. That media merger announcement took US M&A activity to $1.503 trillion in announced transactions, according to data firm Dealogic. Fortune points out “1999 had been the previous record for U.S. M&A, when activity totaled $1.497 trillion, and that tally was for the full year.”
From my experience, the average mid-sized media company has about 20 or so radio, TV, or magazine brands, and likely has about three different CMS systems in use across their various properties. So when media company X merges with media company Y - all of a sudden the complexity grows significantly, and you could end up with a newly combined company that has as many as six different CMSs.
A media company merger can trigger the technology teams to evaluate vendor complexity, and work towards a path of consolidating onto a single platform. This media industry consolidation trend is putting pressure on the providers of media CMS platforms. In fact, the media oriented CMS platforms themselves are consolidating. Here are a few examples.