over the coming months.
The great unbundling of 2015 will give rise to the great re-bundling of 2016. For those consumers that are overwhelmed by choice, there will be a plethora of skinny bundles coming to market offering a limited collection of deemed must-have services and/or the option to select services a-la-carte, under a single subscription umbrella.
Seasonal Viewing
Over the coming months we will see a brand new consumption habit appear, that of seasonal viewing. We all know that more TV is viewed in the winter, when it is cold outside and the nights are longer. If, as a consumer, you are shelling out for several services to get you through those winter months, you may find that come spring, when you are out and about and watching less TV, that it just isn’t worth the cost. Rather than being long-term subscribers, we will begin to see savvy consumers sign up for services for the winter, which they will then cancel in the spring. Come winter, they will then take those subscriptions back up again, and so the cycle is repeated. It is the same behavior we see when a consumer buys a premium service for a single program, and then cancels the service once the season series is completed.
This year we also have the return of the Olympics, notorious for making the entire globe stop and watch their athletes compete on the global stage. In 2012, the opening ceremony drew 900 million viewers. The other trend we saw emerge with those Olympics was the rise in multiplatform viewing, mainly driven by frustrated viewers turning to their tablets, phones, connected TVs, and PCs to watch the action over-the-top, when it wasn’t available on terrestrial TV. In the US, NBC reported that 1.3 million Americans watched their live TV Everywhere stream of Usain Bolt’s race, for example.
This time around, we are likely to again see people turn to internet-connected devices and services to get in on the sporting action. Any sporting subscription services will likely do extremely well, with a massive surge in subscriptions ahead of the Olympics. With the seasonal viewer however this will dip again as soon as the action is over. However, there will always be the next major sporting event to get those subscriptions going again. Service providers will have to get used to the seasonal habits and may even begin to invest in additional marketing pushes ahead of anticipated dips.
Consumers in the
driving seat
One thing that is absolutely clear is that consumers are now very much in the driver’s seat. The vast availability of low-cost, high value premium content, available on any device at any time, means that they will pick and choose what they want, when they want it and service providers will need to up their game in order to adapt to new demand models and this seachange in consumption behavior.
As VP and General Manager, North America, Accedo, Perry is helping Content Providers, Broadcasters and Operators deliver next-generation user experiences on every screen.
Previous to Accedo, Perry led the launch of multiple business units for two major entertainment technology vendors. As VP of Business Development for Thomson Technicolor, Perry helped the company launch an Anti-Piracy business unit. In this role, Perry worked with the MPAA and all the major studios to win approval of content protection and tracking technologies that are in wide use today. Civolution would eventually acquire the business unit from Thomson Technicolor.
Prior to that, Perry led the launch of Harris Corporation’s Digital Asset Management practice (HRS:NYSE). As both the Product and Business lead, Perry helped Broadcasters and Operators move from analog to digital workflows, then assisted them in extending those same workflow efficiencies into their global enterprises.
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