Pay-TV Analytics: Who are the Leaders and Laggards?

Customer experience has emerged as a key competitive differentiator in the pay-TV sector, and in our recent study of US operators; 100% of service providers agree that analytics is required to truly understand the customer journey. We sat down with c-level executives from leading US Broadcasters, Online Video Providers and Telco’s and discovered that providing a better customer experience is critically important so all are planning on increasing their use of analytics over the next 12-18 months. But who’s coming out on top so far, and who is lagging behind?

The Leaders

Unsurprisingly, US online video platforms appear to be leading the way in the deployment of analytics. Many OTT players often consider themselves to be ‘data-driven’ and this came through clearly in our research.

“Can we follow the entire customer journey? Today we can. We’ve set up some sophisticated analytics to be able to do that.” – CEO, Online Video Provider

Despite many OTT players having the foundations in place throughout the customer lifecycle; surprisingly none of those surveyed believe they are making the most of the consumer data they have and most believe they are near the beginning of the analytics evolutionary path.

The Laggards

Telco’s seem to be struggling the most to compete effectively and although there is ambition to exploit the ‘power of the bundle’, none have successfully put in place solutions to get a complete view of their customers at all commercial touchpoints. Advanced analytics is often employed to manage their mobile subscriptions, and TV seems to be a lower priority. This is concerning considering the content acquisition strategies that are being pursued, with one telco executive commenting, “It’s like we bought a pair of shoes and decided to tie the laces together. We have the shoes and they are the best shoes in the market, but we put ourselves in a pickle.”

Not there yet

Despite some players being further ahead than others, there is still a long way to go for everyone. Although US Service Providers understand the importance of analytics in having a holistic view of their customers, this is often more of an aspiration than a reality. Less than half of those surveyed are using recommendations solutions or attempting to customize user experience; and a lot more could be done to maximise ARPU and improve billing accuracy.

Download our Research

Find out more about how US Service providers are using data and the challenges they are having by downloading our full research paper here.