Four out of five OTT services are keen on investing in acquisition and retention strategies fuelled by the pandemic and market trends.
MPP Global, the technology company that powers subscriptions and billing for media, recently hosted a live panel discussion with Steve Nason of Parks Associates and Mrugesh Desai of Accedo, exploring the future of OTT in 2021 and beyond. The event was inspired by the industry success of Disney+, and the challenges that OTT services face beyond the pandemic and into the ‘new normal’.
The panel discussion focused on the key drivers of change in the industry, including the continued rise of OTT services & increased subscriber acquisition during the pandemic, and the measures that OTT services should consider to mitigate the effects of any potential post-pandemic churn.
A survey conducted by MPP Global during the panel found that more than 80% of OTT services are planning to invest in subscriber acquisition and retention strategies as consumers continue to experiment with OTT services, and the potential of post-pandemic churn looming.
Additionally, a recent study suggests that partnerships and alternative distribution channels with other streaming services and traditional broadcasters are key to success in an increasingly competitive market, with 25% of consumers believing we are likely to see more partnership bundles between OTT services, like Sky has already done with Netflix and Disney+.
Additionally, drawing on new data provided by Parks Associates, the live discussion also unpacked various market statistics informing OTT services of key trends to focus on throughout 2021.
The data found that during the pandemic the number of OTT services per household – known as service stacking – had risen, with 31% of consumers now subscribing to 4 or more services, alleviating some concerns around the increasing competitiveness of the OTT marketplace.
Encouragingly, the data also suggested that churn rates for OTT services were at the lowest they had been for over two years, with an average churn rate of 38%. Furthermore, 21% of households suggested that simply providing the ability to pause a subscription would drastically reduce the likelihood of churn further down the line.
José L. Kruyff, SVP, Broadcast & OTT, Americas at MPP Global said: “The challenges of acquisition and churn mitigation have not changed, but the playing field has. Disney+ performed far better than anticipated in 2020, proving that consumer appetite for new and back-catalogue content is strong. The key will be ensuring the right balance of growth and churn management, supported by user data to optimise content offerings with packaging, pricing and personalisation so that OTT services engage, acquire, and retain more customers. The model of Disney+ has proven that there is a huge opportunity in what was considered a saturated market.”
MPP Global recently produced two playbooks that comprehensively outlined strategies to improve subscriber acquisition for both broadcast & sports OTT and the publishing industry, and also a whitepaper on how to combat challenges associated with subscriber churn. These playbooks deliver actionable strategies based on the valuable data raised during this webinar.
