69% of OTT trialers end up subscribing to at least one trialed service

Wednesday, December 16th, 2020
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Nearly 70% of OTT trialers ended up subscribing to at least one of the trialed services

  • New whitepaper examines key phases of the OTT consumer journey and how data is used to best acquire, engage, and retain customers

DALLAS — Parks Associates today released the new whitepaper “Improving OTT Customer Engagement with Smart Data” on the final day of its virtual conference Future of Video: OTT, Pay TV, and Digital Media. The whitepaper, developed in cooperation with Salesforce, finds approximately 40% of US broadband households trialed at least one OTT service during the COVID-19 crisis and nearly 70% of these households ended up subscribing.

OTT Service Trial Conversions - U.S.

“The use of free trials, promotional offers, and bundled packages has accelerated through the first part of 2020, during the initial stage of the COVID crisis,” said Steve Nason, Research Director, Parks Associates. “The conversion of those trials to paid subscriptions has also increased, but to keep those subscribers long term, providers need to deliver a continually evolving and personalized experience. Taking in and leveraging the data gained from viewer habits and actions offer OTT video service providers an opportunity like never before to engage subscribers through every phase of their journey with their services.”

The whitepaper examines the key phases of the OTT consumer journey, from acquisition to engagement to upgrade opportunities, and how data can be used to enhance strategies in each phase. It highlights how leading digital media and entertainment organizations are achieving success utilizing smart data in their customer engagement programs.

“Companies that effectively integrate smart data are leading the battle to engage the ever-elusive digital media and entertainment consumer,” Nason said. “The overall OTT churn rate has dipped some, but if the economic impacts from COVID-19 pandemic linger, households will continue to scrutinize their spending in entertainment services and determine which ones to keep and which ones to cancel. Smart data usage can give an advantage to a provider in keeping their service at the top of a household’s entertainment equation.”

Additional data from the whitepaper:

  • US broadband households spent an average of $16 per month on OTT video service subscriptions in Q1 2020, based on consumer-reported spending.
  • The overall OTT churn rate hovers around 40%.