Exclusives

Sony NMS Head of Platform Services Sees Opportunity Among OTT Options

LOS ANGELES — The data is pretty well-known by now: every U.S. household has an average of two OTT subscriptions today, and there are more services joining the ranks of options available all the time, from small, niche players, to major studios and networks.

But where some see potential streaming subscription fatigue and too many choices for consumers, David Ballew, VP and head of platform services, Sony New Media Solutions sees nothing but opportunity.

“We’re actually pretty excited about what we can do with some of the more niche audiences, how we can serve them, and how we can give them a good experience,” he said March 3 during the presentation “Not Just Fans, FANATICS: Streaming Media for Subscribers Who Can’t Live Without Your Content” at the inaugural OTT Supply Chain Academy event.

Because it’s so easy to switch services, and move between one streaming service to the next each month — and then come back when season two of your favorite original series debuts — anticipating and managing that churn has become a crucial part of the OTT business.

Recognize that content is seasonal, that consumers will move on once the show or season has moved one, Ballew said. Recognize that subscribers will move on when they’ve watched all the available content that interests them, something that happens a lot on traditional streaming services, he added. Solving for those in the past has meant finding the right recommendation push toward similar content that’s available, or investing in more original content.

But now, to better manage churn today, Sony NMS has looked at what’s been done in the past, and gone further with its streamer recommendations. “You have to provide value offseason,” Ballew said, relaying a story of how an anime service could plan immediately after a season ends on bringing the voice actors for the English dub into the mix for off-season, fan-geared features and vignettes.

If your customer has watched all they content they say they care about, then it’s up to you to find different content that will appeal to that same audience, to keep them from moving on elsewhere. “Maybe it’s not an episode of anime, maybe it’s about how it got made, what’s going on at the conventions,” Ballew said.

And if it’s a problem with too many streaming subscriptions? Make yours harder to quit, he said. Make it a little more sticky, a little more painful to hit the “cancel” button, because of what they’ll be giving up, what they’ve grown to care about.

“You have to engage with your customers, you have to look for ways to reach out to them, and you have to look for how they want to interact with your product, and streamline it for them,” Ballew said.

The OTT Supply Chain Academy was sponsored by Sony, BeBanjo, EIDR, Whip Media Group, Bitmax, Eluvio, Pixelogic and Spherex, and produced by the Media & Entertainment Services Alliance (MESA), the Content Delivery & Security Association (CDSA), the Hollywood IT Society (HITS) and the Smart Content Council.