Study: Turning content dollars into audience | Page 31

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TV Now, as a local streaming provider, also offers

some features that can be regarded as best

practice examples. In comparison to its direct local

competitors, it has a clear strategy of centralizing

all digital video content on TV Now. For example,

all of its online platforms are directly linked to TV

Now, automatically leading the user to the

streaming platform (e.g., going from RTL.de to TV

Now). This feature generates more clicks on its

streaming platform. Other providers like

ProSiebenSat.1 have a digital strategy that is too

diversified, i.e., offering digital video content on

various platforms like prosieben.de, maxdome, and Joyn instead of consolidating all video content on one main platform. Thus, potential paying

subscribers are not forced to watch the content on

Joyn, which lowers the chances of generating

further subscriptions in this way. Furthermore, TV

Now has developed a strategy to attract customers

by offering content online one week before its

official TV broadcasting date and making it

available to premium/paying customers only.

Therefore, regular customers can be

induced to subscribe to a premium

membership of TV Now. Lastly, TV Now

has entered strategic partnerships with,

for example, MagentaTV (TV service

offering of Deutsche Telekom). In this

collaboration, Telekom customers get TV

Now Premium for free for a certain amount

of time, which increases the probability of

them keeping the subscriptions in a paid

version afterward. One limitation, as

RTL/TV Now have come to realize, is that

the streaming platform is not regarded as

such but rather as the online library of RTL,

which may reduce the incentive to

subscribe to its service, since consumers do

not expect any other content than that

broadcast linearly on RTL. TV Now is trying

to take countermeasures by actively pro-

moting exclusive digital content.