The past few years have unfolded exciting times for the media and entertainment industry. Entertainment content consumption patterns have sharply evolved. In turn, OTT streaming has consolidated its position as a well-accepted successor to linear TV.
As early players in the OTT segment, we at Cleeng supported broadcasters with out-of-the-box solutions to start and run smooth operations for live events. Our vision was to deliver a sustainable SaaS model to enable managing and monetizing the OTT streaming business as a turnkey service.
As times have changed and the industry has matured, we’ve evolved simultaneously to ensure continued value. Today, amidst the growing industry competition, economic headwinds, and the maturing VOD ecosystem, we find the industry at another turning point.
This blog highlights our shifting gears in 2023 in response to the changing industry trends and details our continued dedication to supporting the growth story of enterprise SVOD providers.
A decade-long experience in media & entertainment
At Cleeng, we forayed into the VOD industry in 2011. Headquartered out of the Netherlands, we quickly expanded into the USA and secured funding soon after.
During our early days, Pay Per View events reigned the OTT landscape. Remember when the combat fight event between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor lifted the lid and became the most lucrative match in history? It pushed the price point of pay-per-view sporting events in the US to a record $99.95!
Thereafter, we witnessed an industry-wide transition with a significant focus on SVOD to generate predictable, recurring revenues. True to our mission, we transitioned. The goal was to support broadcasters to monetize VOD services with subscriptions and emerge as a leader in the OTT subscriptions payment category.
After that, with the growth of SVOD, we saw that competition among different SVOD providers skyrocketed. This meant rising subscriber churn and the need to control it.
We responded by launching ChurnIQ with a focus on Subscriber Retention Management™ and managed to help broadcasters predict churn with up to 92 percent accuracy.
The present times describe yet another inflection point in the industry. One that marks the time for another shift to help broadcasters to thrive and sustain as long-term enterprise SVOD players.
What’s changing in the SVOD industry?
Recent developments in the streaming landscape
- Growing competition: The competition in streaming is rising immensely, with too many players in the industry. The market appears to be reaching a saturation point, with 72 percent of users saying there are “too many subscription services” now.
- Subscription fatigue: There’s a growing prevalence of subscription fatigue, or consumers feeling tired of paying for subscriptions. According to an independent survey of 2500 SVOD subscribers, Bango discovered that new subscription services launched into the US market “are no longer greeted with excitement from consumers.
- Economic turmoil: Amidst economic headwinds, individuals are trimming their expense budgets as they simply cannot afford to spend on multiple services. The same Bango survey also confirms that 65 percent of individuals can’t afford to subscribe to all these services.
- Growth of hybrid models: OTT delivery through models like AVOD and hybrid streaming is growing. Research suggests that global AVOD revenues for TV series and movies are likely to reach US$91 billion in 2028, up from US$38 billion in 2022.
Clearly, these developments describe demanding times for the industry. There’s a core need for existing broadcasters to stand out if they want to grow and sustain as mainstream enterprise SVOD players. Achieving this ultimately boils down to delivering an excellent end-user experience to win a loyal viewer base.
Cleeng’s evolution in 2023 to support enterprise clients
Learning from the NFL
With almost a decade of our turnkey service and becoming leaders as out-of-the-box solutions for small broadcasters, Cleeng’s focus ahead is on bigger, better opportunities to empower and accelerate large-scale broadcasters.
After a year of servicing the NFL, we have developed a better understanding of what matters most to clients of this scale. During this time we have leveled up product features, internal teams and ways of working to reach a caliber that befits this size of platform.
10% reduction in our code base
Following these developments, we want to further streamline our product offering and double down on enterprise clients. This enhancement will involve elevating the scalability of our Subscriber Retention Management (SRM™) suite and developing more advanced monetisation models (see recent release for offer Upgrades & Downgrades). In addition we will be phasing out a number of products to gain even more agility. For example, we recently phased out Live PPV landing pages and VOD embeds and consolidated our financial reporting in Financial Force. And with further refinements this year we plan to reach a 10% reduction in our code base. The idea behind this is to provide broadcasters with an excellent solution to customize their front-end components.
We will be pushing further in terms of ease of integration and flexibility, by providing flexible APIs, SDKs, and integrations. They will be available as a low-code model to ensure quick deployment. We’ve repositioned so as to empower brands to quickly adapt to the evolving market needs. If they are able to do that, they can successfully carve out and maintain a unique edge to future-proof their business.
Number one D2C video solution
Lastly, we will continue to further innovate in a number of domains, so as to offer maximum choice and opportunities to our broadcasters. By Q3, Cleeng’s award-winning analytics solution, ChurnIQ will offer extended capabilities to track in-app revenue and entitlement management, and we will start to report on FAST channels as well. Cleeng Merchant will offer unrivaled payment performance to reduce involuntary churn and chargeback risks, while Hi5 will offer excellence in customer support with a predictable cost model. This will make Cleeng the most advanced D2C video solution on the market.
If you’re a broadcaster looking for complete control and customization flexibility to future-proof your media business, contact our sales team to learn more about our API-SDK capabilities.
