Synamedia: Fighting the fatigue
Posted on Aug 12, 2025 by FEED Staff
Personalisation, privacy and the future of streaming: Synamedia’s Steve Lock on redefining content discovery
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In today’s saturated streaming landscape, it takes more than content to capture and retain audience attention. Steve Lock, vice president of commercial product management at Synamedia, believes the real battleground is user experience, and at its heart lies both intelligent and respectful content discovery.
“Our content discovery suite is evolving to meet the expectations of today’s digital-first world,” Lock explains. “Viewers now expect platforms to not only offer great content but also to help them find the right content at the right time.”
To address this, Synamedia offers a modular portfolio that combines metadata aggregation, enrichment and personalisation to create tailored viewing experiences across platforms. Lock stresses that the evolution isn’t just about surfacing more content – but about doing so with nuance.
“Our next-gen content discovery tools will support contextual and mood-aware experiences that adapt dynamically across devices and users. Pairing with the Synamedia Go platform will enable editors to control layout, curation rules and automation, striking the perfect balance of workflow automation and editorial oversight.”
A key element is AI: “It plays a pivotal role in elevating content discovery, from functional to emotional connections and engagement.” Lock highlights semantic pairing as one of the most exciting developments: “It’s the ability of AI to understand and connect content through a deeper narrative of emotional and thematic signals that often go unnoticed by the viewer.”
This results in recommendations that are more emotionally resonant and meaningful, fostering loyalty and engagement. “These systems can identify relationships across vast catalogues at a scale and nuance beyond what any editorial team could achieve alone,” continues Lock.
There’s also the major challenge of content fatigue. “Our approach tackles this endemic issue by combining AI-enriched metadata with personalised logic.” Through intelligently segmenting audiences and adapting content presentation based on real-time engagement, the technology helps users find content that feels relevant and intentional.
“We help platforms surface the right mix of trending, evergreen and long-tail content, guiding users towards those choices that will have the highest impact.
“This experience of individuality is about making each moment feel tailored and intentional.”
But personalisation isn’t just about retention. It’s also about continued growth. “Whether it’s editorial AI, personalisation or catalogue optimisation, our focus is on turning content complexity into competitive advantage,” Lock continues. “Some customers have seen double-digit engagement uplift and significant improvements in catalogue reach.”
Looking ahead, Lock highlights a shift in how discovery and privacy will coexist. “Audiences are becoming more selective about the platforms they trust with their experience. That means discovery must evolve to be both effective and respectful,” he says.
Synamedia’s answer is explainable recommendations and contextual relevance. “Discovery should feel personal and part of the experience, instead of feeling invasive,” concludes Lock.
Book your IBC 2025 streaming experience demo with Synamedia here
