Streaming Giants Need to Be Able to Retain Viewers Long-Term

To secure those ad revenues, services need to be able to retain viewers long-term. Content is the most significant factor influencing consumers’ viewing decisions from beginning to end. Content is the primary trigger for subscription sign-up, followed by free trials. According to Parks Associates data, two of OTT subscriptions' top five drivers are content-related. Additionally, not finding the right content or running out of content to watch are two of the top five reasons for people leaving or churning away from a service. Twenty-seven percent of those canceling an OTT service report doing so because they finished watching the shows they liked.

The OTT subscriber churn rate is currently at 48%, reflecting a rising trend since 2018, so driving and sustaining engagement is more important than ever in the streaming industry.

FAST channels share the same goals of retaining viewership and targeting people before they turn away from their service, either to other channels or FAST services. Personalization can add two dimensions: recommending content based on preferences; and localization, in which local content such as news and weather is infused into a generic playlist to create regional variations. By personalizing FAST services, providers can target viewers who may be drifting and direct them to new, unviewed, or pending content that will reinvigorate their interest and increase engagement.

Maximizing Potential Through Personalized Virtual Channels

Within FAST services, free streaming content is typically organized in a channel format around specific genres or content types, delivering a lean-back experience to consumers. Providers can serve up a wide variety of content within a service, but it is in their best interests to ensure that this content offering is in line with the potential market they want to reach. Along with having the genres and segmentation of content that appeal to their target market, FAST services and content owners need to ensure that the channels themselves are as sticky with consumers as possible.

Within typical SVOD services, increased engagement and retention, and churn reduction are principally accomplished by better and smarter personalization—delivering increasingly relevant content to the subscriber. On the other hand, FAST channels have historically offered a one-size-fits-all selection of curated content within that channel.

The ability to tailor the content of a FAST or virtual channel is appealing to services because it maximizes the potential engagement and retention of viewers. To fully understand the potential of personalized virtual channels, it is important first to define them.

Check out our complimentary whitepaper “Personalized Virtual Channels: Maximizing FAST Content,” in collaboration with Quickplay . This whitepaper highlights personalization's engagement and monetization potential for FAST (free ad-supported television) video services. It examines the drivers and uses cases for combining data, analytics, personalization, and virtual streaming channels to create personalized hybrid virtual channels for FAST services. Read now: https://bit.ly/3jfgiro