We covered the NAB Live Video trends in the previous blog post, and now its time to list the key learnings we got from the booming world of subscriptions video.
1. Proper churn management is essential for a sustainable SVOD business
In times when SVOD video market is peaking, many brands struggle to retain their paying subscribers.
Churn deserves a serious focus and a break-down of all the factors causing it. It can become hard to control, as it can happen at any point during the customer journey, due to various reasons like payment failure, a thin content catalog, low engagement levels, bad viewing experience, lack of customer support, etc. Having a comprehensive view of the full customer journey is a must.
Therefore, data and analytics are priceless for detecting it, predicting it and setting improvement plans. Check out our approach to churn management.
2. Speed-to-market can be crucial, too
In a fast-growing and dynamic battleground like OTT, time-to-market can be a significant success factor.
Therefore, SVOD services prefer to deal with technology providers that offer turnkey, all-in-one solutions, without the need for them to combine a tech stack.
3. SVOD today is a ball game with all-star players
The competitive landscape in broadcast has changed significantly in the last few years.
In an era where Netflix is selling premium video-on-demand directly to consumers and leading the pack, older media companies are trying to compete by consolidating. Distributors like Verizon, Turner, and AT&T are sniffing opportunities and getting in on the action.
Meanwhile, giant tech brands like Google, Amazon, and Apple that used to be on the sidelines are getting closer and closer to the action, with a couple of ambitious announcements.
4. Skinny bundles get more attention
Fresh comScore stats show that more than 3.1 million homes had OTT skinny bundles as of April 2017. In the US where cable vs OTT price difference is big, these services managed to flourish in recent years.
At least five nationwide services as DirecTV Now, Sling TV, YouTube TV, PlayStation Vue and Hulu Live offer OTT video skinny bundles to consumers.
The question that arises here is - when will we see a saturation point? Previous research reports stressed that fact that viewers are not eager to pay for 3 or more SVOD services. However, skinny bundles nowadays, managed to position well in their niche and improve their overall economics, meaning better content at a lower price.
5. In the end, subscriber insights + user happiness = success
This point is closely related to the first, as it viewer satisfaction is closely related to retention and churn rates.
Many companies try to integrate advanced analytics into their systems, rely more on data for decision making in order to feel the pulse of the viewer happiness during the entire customer journey. However, brands are aware that the journey starts from the initial login or registration, choosing a payment method, and ends with interaction with customer support. That's why data does not solve the problem entirely.
The successful service providers backed by their technology stack has to make sure insights are translated to satisfaction.
Cleeng has the benefit to closely follow how viewers are interacting with the SVOD services during the whole journey, due to our 360° approach on the video business. Read more
