Are Streaming Services Listening to Their Subscribers? No, I Mean Really Listening?

Today I woke up to this tease on top of my email list sent from the VABamp8230 amp8220Want more insight into how consumers watch streaming content and how advertisers can best engage them Backed by fresh custom research Recipe for Success shows you the 6 ways to harness the explosive growth of streaming to hit your campaign KPIs and deliver resultsamp8221Many think adding these newer platforms as the solution to their problems of underdelivery Then there are the various discussions about being able to accurately measure dedupe and understand any duplication of these audiences to arrive at the real unique and effective reach of a crossplatform ad buy Existing and new measurement companies jump in like Nielsen Comscore VideoAmp and others developing and selling products to help the advertisers better plan and spend their precious dollars and to gauge if the advertising leads to amp8220desired outcomesamp8221 And of course the amp8220eventamp8221 amp8220retreatamp8221 and webinar space is replete with talking head executives discussing all the various strategies to make the cross platform advertising they sell more valuableAll of this amp8220research to showamp8221 and the resulting activity is very important generating more dollars for the companies particularly in the current growth years where SVOD has in a recent review by Brad Adgate in Forbes been growing rapidly He writes amp8220over the past four years the number of subscribers has more than doubledamp8221Yet with all this activity interest discussions and growth I must admit that I am perplexed by the fact that very few people are discussing the state of consumers attitudes and usage of these new streaming services As I have spent my whole career amp8220listening intentlyamp8221 to the consumer and doing this important and usually proprietary amp8220research to knowamp8221 Iamp8217m amazed that no one is really talking about how inadequate the streaming services are at meeting the needs and wants of their customersIf they did do that research they would hear that things are not so rosy Adgateamp8217s excellent article Reducing SVOD Churn Should Be The Next Priority With Media Companiesamp160amp8211 reports on Antenna data that indicates that churn those who disconnect from a subscription service is way too high and getting worse over time Yes as is true in other subscription businesses like Time Magazine or at the subscription business AOL had in the late 90amp8217s and early 2000amp8217s where I served as head of consumer research longer term subscribers have much less churn than newer ones Among our tenyear or more Time Magazine subscribers there was an astonishingly high renewal rate Yet among newer streaming services subscribers we have problems Antenna found churn rates that were double among new subs versus older subs The new people who are becoming subscribers are not at all like the ones who came to these platforms many years ago Not that all cancel and never return amp8211 some do come back amp8211 but there is clearly very little being studied about what consumers are thinking what they are enjoying and what registers as key friction points that the business could be working onMaybe I am naamp239ve Perhaps the Paramounts Netflixes and the Hulus of the world know very well exactly what these pain points are but in the consumer research weamp8217ve done in this area we see huge issues that do not seem to be addressed For some fun as you read this list see if any of these issues apply to you or your householdA few examplesConsumers are at a loss when it comes to discovering the content they want to watch They report it amp8220takes too longamp8221 to find something to watch and they report that the screens to find something are a very different across services so they have to get familiar with many different approaches and b not very amp8220user friendlyamp8221 so in short hard to navigateConsumers are annoyed by how long it takes to navigate from one service to another one or to stop watching one show and move to another show even on the same platform They were of course brought up on cable TV where one amp8220clicksamp8221 and immediately it amp8220respondsamp8221Consumers complain about the sound Much has been written about differing audio levels from platform to platform A major New York Times article noted that amp8220making dialogue crisp and clear has become the entertainment worldamp8217s toughest technology challengeamp8221 and that lots of consumers now use subtitles in English even though they are not hard of hearingConsumers say the number of services they want makes it too expensive for them As we have all heard on virtually every news program regular living costs are a real concern for many consumers Many have found it necessary to add additional streaming services to get the shows they desire and this adds onto the monthly expenses which are clearly under the microscope already Consumers tell us this is one reason why there is so much password sharing even though some companies are beginning to execute policies to prevent it Just a few years ago I did four focus groups of young adults in Atlanta with 12 participants each In total 47 of 48 of them admitted to the group that they were using the password of a friend or family member for at least one streaming service In a few cases participants had elaborate plans where each of their friends would buy a service and then share with the other 5 friendsConsumers are confused with all the deals partnerships and free previews and the myriad of details they need to know or remember They report that they didnamp8217t understand how much theyamp8217d have to pay when a certain preview period or deal ended They feel like the streaming services are not being straight with them And of course no one like a price hike or the addition of ads or increase in frequency of ads and consumers mention these factors as wellConsumers also say things that indicate that there is very little brand uniqueness across the streaming services Consumers get confused about where various shows are available because the streaming services do not really stand for anything or mean much in their eyes What HBO meant to consumers at one time amp8220Itamp8217s not TV itamp8217s HBOamp8221 has changed and the streaming service is now just called amp8220Maxamp8221 Brand experts would argue that a very important part of a brandamp8217s identity is that its followers amp8220know what to expectamp8221 from the brand That it is predictable Sadly there is not much of this type of brand equity across the streaming platformsConsumers click amp8220unsubscribeamp8221 without much research nor thought They come in and out of services frequently In the past subscription companies used to make it rather difficult to amp8220unsubscribeamp8221 And they incentive subscribers to stayAt AOL consumers had to call a special 800 phone number to unsubscribe and when their call was answered a telephone representative tried desperately to amp8220saveamp8221 them so they would not leave AOL commonly gave away an amp8220extra month freeamp8221 if the customer stayed Today on the streaming companyamp8217s digital platforms all it takes is a simple click and the customer is unsubscribed And believe me the younger consumers particularly those under 40 are digital experts at clicking the unsubscribe button There is very little amp8220consumer inertiaamp8221 like there was just 10 or 20 years ago when customers rarely made changes to their cable TV packageFinally the streaming services had at one time a huge amount of product These days not so much They learned that they bought too many shows and their business models could not support these expenditures on programming So they cut back The consumer doesnamp8217t care about the business models nor do they read the trades or analyst reports They became used to the plethora of product and now they do not understand these cutbacks Strategies to address this issue need to be exploredWhen will we learn When will companies who often say they are amp8220consumerfocusedamp8221 really become that How much churn will it take to make the streaming companies truly focus on their customersThey have their email addresses They could be conducting research on current subs on unique subs that are new to their services on lapsed subs who left and now returned and on those who have unsubscribed This very common research program would help improve the current rate of churn that we are seeing and it also helps the product people prioritize what they need to be working on to make usage of streaming services as easy as it was to watch cable TVDo you remember many years ago when everyone hated their cable operator This was not that long ago Cable scored some of the worst negatives among subscribers across every other utility But then operators began to listen to and address the real concerns of their subscribers Thatamp8217s what is absent today in the streaming services space amp8211 yet itamp8217s so easy to address Letamp8217s go listen to the customer Truly listen And address their issues It will greatly contribute to your successPosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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Are Streaming Services Listening to Their Subscribers? No, I Mean Really Listening?

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Marshall Cohen

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Are Streaming Services Listening to Their Subscribers? No, I Mean Really Listening?

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