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Streaming Index 2.0: Retention Rules
Justin Evans – Global Head of Analytics & Insights, Samsung Ads
Justin Evans of Samsung Ads uncovered findings from The Streaming Index, a bi-annual white paper Samsung Ads puts out for the marketers of TV apps. The report got its data from its universe of 45 million opted-in U.S. smart TVs, supplemented with an attitudinal survey of 1,000 Samsung smart TV owners from Q4 of 2022. While most studies focus on subscription data, this focused on usage. The number of people streaming TV apps and the time spent watching them has significantly increased year-over-year (Q3 2021-Q3 2022), and yet competition among platforms has grown fiercer. The reason, the churn rate has increased over the past two years. Such a landscape perpetuates a winner-take-most paradigm. TV app marketers should be thinking about ways to acquire a greater share of time and TV app platform providers should focus on loyalty and offering less expensive tiered options, as retained users over-index on time on such apps.
Key Takeaways
- The number of average monthly streamers increased 17% year-over-year and the time spent streaming increased 31%.
- On linear, 33 channels are viewed by the average user, but the average streaming user only has three to four apps. While changing channels on linear is seamless, changing between content happens more within the app, as changing apps isn’t frictionless. This makes the marketing barrier much greater.
- Samsung Ads created a churn ratio which is lapsed users within 12-months divided by active users for the current month. They found that in Q3 2021, the overall churn ratio was 4.8 past users to one current one, while one year later it went up to seven (seven users churned for every one that stayed).
- TV apps were divided into three tiers. Tier 1: the top 20% of apps based on average monthly user count, Tier 2: The next 20% based on average monthly user count, Tier 3: the 60% of apps with the smallest monthly user count.
- The churn ratio was different depending on what tier a TV app was on. Tier 1 apps in Q3 of 2022 saw a 1.7 churn ratio, tier 2: 3.5 and tier 3: 9.7.
- When it came to user share of the average TV app, 23% were new users, 24% returned users and 53% were retained users. With time share, retained users represent 73% of time spent on the average app (new users 14%, returned users 24%).
- How can platforms increase retention? Fifteen percent of respondents said a deep library of exclusive content was most important. They also like seeing new content frequently.
- Cost is also a factor. Ten percent said they used a platform because it was lower cost than others or free. Twenty-one percent said they would try a new service that was free or low cost. A high cost was also the number one factor of cancelling a streaming service (30%).
- The report found a 6% retention rate among hybrid TV apps.