they are willing to ‘search’ is not unlimited. An
effective solution enables search across services
and the ability to find the content one actually
wants to watch.”
EXPERIENCE. “UI is crucial to the overall
subscriber experience and Netflix shows a clear
lead in this area, with the highest satisfaction
amongst major platforms across ease of use,
ease/quality of search, TV interface and ease of
FF/RW content,” says Dominic Sunnebo, global
business unit and commercial director at Kantar.
“We see clearly that satisfaction across different
areas of UI increases the longer a consumer
subscribes to a platform, so the speed at which
new subscribers are able to become comfortable
with the UI is critical to retention.”
“Post-crisis is seeing work, businesses,
schools, sports, and indoor and outdoor
activities resume. If one were to look at this
objectively, it would be unwise to think that TV
would remain the centre of attention,” contends
Anthony Smith-Chaigneau, senior director,
product marketing, NAGRA. “It may actually see
a drop in viewing levels as people clamour for
confinement relief. In general, UI and discovery
have always been necessary regardless of a
pandemic. An excellent consumer-centric user
interface that gets consumers to the content they
want to watch in the least amount of clicks is still
considered a must-have. The difference today is
that nearly all providers have analytics products
that show consumption metrics and reveal UI-
UX flaws.”
“Although content and value for money are
still the most prevalent drivers for uptake and
sustained viewing of video services, UI and
content discovery can make or break a customer
experience,” suggests Max Signorelli, research
analyst, home entertainment at Omdia. “As
consumers have more time to make use of their
content libraries during lockdown, the quality of
a service’s structure and search engine becomes
increasingly relevant to these increasingly active
consumers.”
VALUES. “Content availability is still a driver
for the selection of a provider, together with
the cornerstone of decision making, the ratio
of perceived price and utility of the offer,”
says Ferdinand Maier, MD, ruwido. “But what
will become increasingly important in buying
decisions are people’s values. Especially as the
Covid-19 crisis has shifted values. And when it
comes to values, the user interface is key in how
these values are represented. ruwido is currently
working with four value based groups: Protector
(safety and security); Hedonist (experience);
Optimiser (energy efficiency); Helper
(convenience first). As the names indicate, these
user groups represent different values. And while
these are not the only values, these are the most
important ones for them, when it comes to how
they choose their TV and entertainment offers.”
“With lockdown seeing viewers burn through
box sets faster than Sunday dinners and no new
“The next
battleground
is aggregation
and that
encompasses UI
and discovery.”
– Guy Bisson,
Ampere
Analysis
productions underway,
service providers are
pushing subscribers to
explore long tail content
and watch an entire series
over again,” notes Adam
Davies, senior manager,
product marketing at
Synamedia. “But this
is just a short-term fix.
For a more sustainable
business, service providers will gravitate towards
the new pay-TV bundle, with the addition of
third-party streaming services to their existing
pay-TV offerings. Federated search and single
billing will be critical parts of a unified user
experience.”
“I believe UI and discovery are of paramount
importance,” states Tobias Fröhlich, founder
and managing director of Teravolt. “They will
in the end decide which platforms come out on
top. Although in the short-term users might
subscribe to a streaming service because they
want to see a particular piece of content, or
because of a friend’s recommendation, in the
long run, usability will beat content in retaining
users: The experience is the product, as I like to
say. To this end, Teravolt conducted an elaborate
UI-study on the major streaming platforms.
Netflix clearly came out on top. If they manage
to keep their excellent work up, I don’t think they
have to fear much of their competitors.”
ENGAGEMENT. Peter Docherty, founder
and CTO, ThinkAnalytics, considers UI and
discovery “Essential”, noting that video service
providers have invested substantial sums in
content production, acquisition and licensing
and need to boost viewer engagement and
maximise retention in order to ensure a good
ROI and meet business objectives. “Today,
personalised content discovery is becoming
ever more important and its use and use cases
are continuing to expand. It is no longer a
simple ‘nice-to-have’, but an essential part of
the functionality of any successful TV operator
as they drive to increase revenues and improve
viewer retention. To put this in context, after
deploying ThinkAnalytics, customers see churn
reductions of five per cent to 10 per cent; VoD
viewing increasing between 25 per cent and 100
per cent; and engagement hours rising by up to
35 per cent.”
“We are constantly faced with
situations where we are required to
make choices in our daily lives where
brands, TV, games and many more
are all fighting for our attention,” says
Marcus Bergström, CEO of Vionlabs.
“In the light of this, it is increasingly
important for subscribers to be
presented with a UI that limits the
amount of choices down to the
few that are truly relevant for each
individual viewer at a specific point in
time. Because of the lockdown, we currently have
more time to spend in front of the TV than we
normally have, but things will go back to ‘normal’
and the providers who offer the most relevant
user experience will also be the providers who
enjoy a boost in audience engagement and
retention post-crisis,” he predicts.
HITS/MISSES. What are the biggest hits,
and the biggest misses in content presentation
and recommendation? “With the world
obsessed with video on demand, there’s a
huge opportunity in making presentation
and recommendations as part of the zapping
experience,” suggests Amdocs Media’s
Friedman. “‘Virtual channels’ that serve thirdparty
OTT deep-links, like YouTube, are a great
way to constantly engage with users zapping
between channels. If viewers are aware that
a new show is being released, they may start
watching it from a channel, rather than their
own VoD catalogue. These channels can become
the future launch points for local and longtail
OTTs or content providers that are struggling
for a place at the top of the VoD library. Virtual
channels can become important new marketing
channels for content providers.”
“The last 18 months have been about “getting
out of the gate” with D2C,” suggests Firstlight
Media’s Christensen. “Everybody’s focus was to
get a product stood up – to be able to manage
high volumes, manage subscriptions, and ensure
quality of the content delivery. Where they need
to make more of a dent is on the personalisation
side – meaning recommendations, discovery,
search capabilities, dynamic storefronts. The
question now is how do they continue to evolve
their product to build consumer engagement and
lifetime value and reduce churn.”
“Today, we’re living in an age of abundance
relating to video content,” notes Gracenote’s
Adams. “There is
something to satisfy
literally any viewer taste
or mood. The most
effective programme
“We’re living
in an age of
abundance of
video content.”
Simon Adams,
Gracenote
EUROMEDIA 11