Top 4 Tips for Acing Global SVOD Delivery

We’re living in exciting times for the media and entertainment vertical. With the growth of smartphones and the Internet, we’ve come closer as a world in many ways. This is not just regarding food and globalization but also the entertainment content we want to consume.

OTT consumption has grown in countries across the globe as a well-accepted means of enjoying TV shows and live events. For instance, there’s evidence showing Spanish TV series have become a mainstay for international streamers & broadcasters over recent years. In addition, streaming giant Roku has announced over 70 million global active accounts. 

Such developments make it a fertile time for media companies to capture a slice of the growing market. A good way to achieve this is by offering global SVOD content beyond the geographical boundaries of one’s home country only. 

Research projections support this premise. Studies suggest that global SVOD is likely to increase by 485 million between 2021 and 2027, reaching $1.69 billion. Further, six US-based platforms are expected to have 988 million paying SVOD subscribers by 2027, up from 612 million in 2021. Netflix alone is expected to add 31 million subscribers between 2021 and 2027, despite losing 4 million subscribers in North America. This clearly shows the solid growth potential in the global SVOD marketplace. 

In this blog, we provide a rundown of the top 4 essentials for OTT companies to consider for successfully entering and consolidating a spot in global SVOD delivery. 

What are the critical factors to address for entering the global SVOD market?

If you’re a broadcaster looking to establish yourself as a global SVOD content player, it’s vital to be mindful of 4 core elements. These include:

Market research is critical to proceed with the right moves when tapping into any new territory. 

In terms of a business like streaming content, this means understanding user preferences and viewing behavior toward the content options available. Without this, designing the right value-for-money offering that viewers are willing to pay for can be difficult.  

This requires a proper tracking mechanism that reveals granular insights into user behavior. 

Your approach for this measurement should have the ability to track on a geo-location filter.

As a next step, careful thought needs to be put into designing subscription packages that actually drive conversion. This, once again, is possible by carefully studying data across different geo-locations. 

It’s also important to acknowledge the importance of controlling and reducing churn. That’s because losing customers is expensive. With that knowledge, it’s a good idea to stay ahead of churn by working out campaigns like:

• Discounted renewal months - to customers showing signs of high churn probability. Explore churn prediction methods.
• Coupon bargains for seasonal holidays - to keep customers engaged and reward their loyalty
• Plan upgrades or downgrades - to give an alternative solution to customers with pricing concerns

This will help to reduce friction towards conversion alongside arresting possibilities of churning. 

Once people are convinced to pay and remain paying customers, it’s important to create a seamless environment to facilitate a secure payment process. 

When it comes to cross-border transactions, there are additional layers to take care of, such as:

• Accommodating a variety of currencies
• Supporting preferred modes of payment (e.g. debit/credit cards vs. digital wallets)
• Delivering accurate billing monthly

This necessitates ensuring a robust international billing and payments infrastructure that’s acceptable and secure. 

Finally, another critical dimension in international sales is dealing with taxation and other compliances. There are two main reasons why this should be at the top of your priority list for global expansion.

• Different countries will have various regulations and approaches to tax. So your current tax system may not support some of the newly added countries.
• Non-compliance to tax regulations can cause significant reputational damage while also attracting hefty penalties. 

In that regard, leveraging a merchant of record is a way many global SVOD companies evade these complexities and focus on growth. 

Global SVOD is growing. Can you keep up? 

Global SVOD subscriptions are predicted to grow by 428 million between 2022 and 2028 to reach 1.76 billion. If you’re keen on riding this wave, setting up robust systems to support the growth is key. Cleeng’s comprehensive Subscriber Retention Management™ suite can help you acquire and retain global SVOD subscribers.

Get in touch to know how we can support global SVOD