Reducing Customer Churn Hinges on Emerging Technologies and Metadata Analysis to Bring Order to Fragmented Content Landscape
FOMO. Analysis paralysis. Content, content everywhere, but not a choice to pick. While we may truly be living in a golden age of exceptional content, the sheer volume of offerings spread out among a dizzying array of providers has created a new universally shared experience: selection frustration.
It is an emotion that is playing itself out on both the supply and demand side of the equation, according to Chris Ambrozic, vice president and general manager, Discovery for TiVo, a division of Xperi Inc.
“According to TiVo’s Q2 2022 Video Trends Report, the average household in the United States subscribes to nine streaming services. Each of these services offer a wide selection of content, which can make finding content for consumers to enjoy in a timely manner time-consuming and confusing,” says Ambrozic.
It is, however, no tiptoe through the tulips for the over-the-top (OTT) content providers that have thrown their hat in the digital entertainment ring. While the barriers to offering content services to consumers has never been lower, the same TiVo survey highlights that it has never been easier for consumers to cycle in and out of different services to access the experiences they want.
“Many of today’s consumers like to change-up the services to which they subscribe on a fairly frequent basis as they chase the content they desire. As a result, the landscape is not only complex, but also extremely dynamic,” he explains.
This is especially true for the lower half of consumers’ OTT app lineups. While subscribers, according to the survey, tend to remain fairly loyal to their top three or four providers, a fierce competition for the hearts and minds of viewers is playing out among the rest of the field.
It is in this context that emerging technologies — like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and metadata analytics — are being applied by OTT players to address the “tyranny of choice” that all too often frustrates subscribers. The goal: to reduce churn and improve profitability by elevating the experiences of the most fickle subscribers in the history of digital entertainment.
Navigating the Spectrum of Intent
As fragmented as the content landscape may be, so too is the customer base. There is a tremendous amount of variety in the behaviors and preferences of consumers across different demographic segments. Perhaps the best way, however, to begin the process of developing relationships with consumers is to understand where individuals rest on the “spectrum of intent.”
“It is an important framework that is used by the team at TiVo to develop a nuanced perspective on individual subscribers. As we see it, there is a category of consumers that tend to have a highly defined and developed understanding of the content they like and what is available. They are on the ‘high-intent’ end of the spectrum,” says Ambrozic.
On the “low-intent” side of the equation are consumers who tend to rely on external resources to determine what they want to experience next.
“These folks,” he says, “may not be entirely sure of what to watch but are interested and positively disposed to suggestions that align with their interests.”
Across this range of consumer archetypes, people engage in different ways to get what they want from their investments in video entertainment. Deep insight into specific consumer behaviors and preferences along this continuum offers key opportunities for operators and streamers to take specific actions to retain customers and reduce churn. It provides important context for making decisions about how OTT providers can develop unique relationships and tailored services with each subscriber.
“At TiVo, we have developed a comprehensive approach to personalization that leverages technology and rich insight into how consumers interact with content. It has evolved significantly over the past decade. Where, ten years ago, we may have focused on developing ‘recommendation carousels’ to display the array of content offerings available for consumption based on a basic understanding of previous viewing experiences, today we are in a position to harness sophisticated insights to help service providers customize offerings based on a much wider array of data points,” he says.
Emerging Technologies and Metadata
By harnessing advanced machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI) and personalization, TiVo captures — with the subscribers “opt-in” consent — insights that reflect the viewer's entire entertainment lifecycle. It opens the door to harnessing a wide array of data — including metadata — to significantly enhance how OTT providers identify, capture and respond to the different ways people discover content.
“Metadata is not yet the subject of mainstream conversations about personalization and content recommendation engines, but it is emerging as a key area that must be understood and mastered to effectively engage with consumers,” Ambrozic says.
Effective engagement is paramount in retaining customers. The more providers know their subscribers, the better positioned they are to understand their viewing needs.
“Our data shows that churn rates can be reduced between 15-30% at the 15-day mark with both high- and low-intent consumers. This lays the foundation — at the individual subscriber level — to shape content recommendations in a meaningful manner,” he says.
Beyond improving retention, the same technology-enabled strategies can also be applied to improve “effective catalog size” metrics. It offers an opportunity for providers to better understand how specific elements of available content are consumed by specific subscribers to better inform decisions about what new content to add — or remove.
“It is a very effective tool. Operators and streamers who implement this multi-variate, holistic personalization strategy typically experience a 35% increase in their effective catalog size. It leads to ‘stickier’ content and changes the consumers' perception of the value subscribers see in providers’ offerings,” concludes Ambrozic.
To read the Q&A or listen to the full podcast interview with Chris Ambrozic visit: