Effective subscription management is the lifeblood of successful OTT platforms today and for the years to come. Here’s why: According to Digital TV Research estimates, SVOD is the principal OTT revenue source and will remain so even over the next five years. Analysts expect SVOD revenues to grow to $139 billion by 2029, compared to the $68 billion of AVOD’s expected revenue. Given that it's a key revenue driver, optimizing the subscription experience is essential to profitability.
According to Cleeng x Omdia's survey on the Evolving Path to Profitability, 30% of surveyed individuals focus on improving subscriber management to increase customer retention and reduce churn. In short, like other broadcasters, you must also focus on how to manage subscriptions best. This is an essential part of growing and maintaining the profitability of your streaming business.
In this blog, we'll explore everything you need to know about subscription management and how to implement it perfectly.
Subscription Management for OTT Users: What subscribers expect from the subscription experience
OTT subscribers today have high expectations beyond just excellent content. From the first touch point of building the right offers to post-sales support, they expect and demand a frictionless experience. Thus, as a part of mastering subscription management, delivering that subscription experience throughout the subscriber lifecycle is a must.
Some key subscription-related elements that customers desire include:
- Quick and easy signups: This subscription process must be straightforward. Lengthy forms or clunky UX for your SVOD platform can annoy potential subscribers. It can result in them dropping out at the finish line.
- Freedom of choice in picking subscription plan offerings: OTT customers are spoiled by choice and highly prioritize value for money. Therefore, any subscription plans you offer must demonstrate that value. You need to be prepared to extend various subscription plans catering to different needs and budgets. Make sure your subscriber management system is well-equipped to help you develop attractive offers and promotions that are easy to implement and avail.
Read more about offering the right monetization models - Convenient subscription payment process choices:
Flexibility in payment methods, accurate and transparent subscriber billing processes, and auto-debit convenience are crucial for ensuring subscribers feel confident and at ease while paying. When it comes to OTT subscription management, you need to ensure your subscribers can pay using a mode they prefer and in local currencies they’re comfortable with. Data suggests that 9% of online spenders abandon their carts if the checkout lacks their preferred payment options. Have you got local payment methods covered? Learn more - Subscriber account personalization: Subscribers today desire personalized subscriber experiences. As a part of effective subscriber management, you need to incorporate that element to make them feel special and build loyalty. It could be as simple as sending them a birthday wish from your CRM on their special day!
- Excellent support after subscription: Last but not least, subscribers expect high-quality content delivery, minimal downtime, and responsive customer support to any of their concerns. Delays or inefficiencies in this are as good as failure to provide it. So, subscription management needs to account for this as well.
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Subscription Management for Broadcasters: What do you need to cater to user needs
As a broadcaster, meeting and managing mighty subscriber expectations effectively requires a solid technical infrastructure. That’s where you get the support and capabilities to execute different strategies to meet user expectations. Thus, critical subscription management capabilities in your technical infrastructure must include:
- Flexibility to customize: You need a flexible infrastructure so you can customize the subscriber experience. Whether it is adapting taxes to local regions, or currencies in payments, or the language for customer support. It is essential that your subscriber management system offers you flexibility.
- Data analytics: To understand subscriber behavior and preferences, you need strong data intelligence. This includes measuring subscriber behavior, collecting data, and interpreting and acting on that data.
- Data security: Protecting sensitive user data is paramount to protecting subscriber information and maintaining trust. Any leakages here can cost you subscribers and damage your reputation. Your subscription management platform must be secure as per the highest industry standards.
- Innovation & Scalability: Whatever subscription management platform you choose, you must ensure it is innovative and constantly improving. It must remain relevant as an enabler to cater to the evolving subscriber expectations. At the same time, your subscription management system must be scalable to handle growing subscriber bases. You’ll want it to be capable of continuing to support you in the future as you grow.
- Cost-effectiveness: Given the rising costs of content and marketing, the cost of your backend subscription management processes needs to be optimized.
According to an industry survey by Cleeng x Omdia, “The evolving path to profitability: Optimizing ARPU through Effective Subscriber Management," 95% of broadcasters say the importance of cost management and improving efficiency is becoming more critical.
This brings us to the question: How do you use state-of-the-art subscription management to delight subscribers without its costs affecting your profitability? Is there an answer to this balancing act?
Enter the SRM® Suite: The answer for specialized OTT subscription management
The Subscriber Retention Management (SRM®) suite unlocks a unique, tailor-made approach to subscription management for OTT platforms. It compromises end-to-end solutions, including Core, Merchant, ChurnIQ, and Hi5, built for OTT platforms to manage subscribers, grow revenues, and boost ROI.
- Core introduces strength and flexibility in managing complex OTT business operations while maximizing conversions and retention.. Using it; you can extend an intuitive and seamless account creation process to users while experimenting freely with pricing and offers. The best part is that you can get up and running at great speed!
- Merchant helps you handle payment and tax-related areas of subscription management. It allows you to access new markets securely without risking compliance concerns or hefty chargeback fees.
- ChurnIQ is an intelligent and predictive churn analytics solution that provides a granular view of subscribers and renders the ability to act on those insights. Its intelligence helps you get a granular view of subscribers to manage them better. You can use it to identify issues, respond to them using targeted subscriber segments, and manage subscribers more effectively.
- Hi5 lets you offer personalized customer care, specialized to the unique needs of OTT support. It is a cloud-based AI-enhanced solution that makes support efficient, scalable, and cost-effective.
Why is the SRM® suite the most straightforward answer to excellent subscription management for OTT companies
- Tailor-made for OTT subscription management needs: Unlike other subscription management systems, the SRM® suite is built specifically for streaming platforms. Whether you need the flexibility to extend subscription upgrades or downgrades for OTT platforms or something to tackle the seasonality of subscription management in sports, it’s got all the features.
- Continuous Innovation: Regular updates ensure the suite remains ahead of the streaming industry’s evolving needs. New features are added at an unmatched rate to cope with changing OTT subscriber preferences. For instance, last year, seasonal subscriptions were added as a groundbreaking innovation. This year, too, there’s lots on the card. Moreover, since it’s a SaaS-based multi-tenant platform, changes made for one broadcaster are available to all.
- Optimizes Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): SRM®’s pricing model is designed to optimize your overall costs while maintaining high service standards. It’s built on the SaaS fee model, so you can skip the massive upfront costs. It comes with transparent fees based on the scope of subscription management requirements and the number of managed users.
These factors make the SRM® suite an excellent solution for OTT subscription management. Leading broadcasters like the NFL, Tennis Channel, TOD, The Weather Channel, and many more rely on it for its unmatched, specialized capabilities.
Want to know how NFL+ aced their subscription management game to delight fans?
