churn

The Future Shape of the Media Landscape: Predictions for Today and Beyond (Panel)

In this session, Edwin Wong of Vox Media moderated an expert panel who made predictions on what the media experience will be like in 2023 and beyond for the consumer. When asked whether SVOD was going away, Brian Further of Nielsen reminded of what people said about cable, that people would not pay for it and at its height some were paying over $200 per month. Jon Giegengack of Hub Entertainment Research said spending continues to go up on SVOD. But bundling may be a way to have people keep subscriptions longer, since the payment is simplified, and they are less likely to cancel than when they pay for SVODs individually.

Attention and Engagement Data Provide Insight into Subscriber Behavior Trends

Yan Liu of TVision highlighted a fresh study to be published in a month or so, illustrating the relationship between attention and churn on SVOD and AVOD platforms. TVision partnered with Antenna who track audience trends and their impact on subscription rates, for the study. Cross-referencing Antenna’s 2021 churn data with TVision’s aggregated platform data (from Apple TV, Discovery+, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix Paramount and Peacock), they found an inverse correlation between the top 50 shows and the churn rate. As attention increases, churn decreases and vice-versa. The popularity of any one platform varies month-by-month, depending on what popular content has been released where. When a popular original debuts, viewers gravitate toward it. But low attention viewers drop off once they’ve finished the series. Churn is the norm and unfortunately not an easy issue to solve in the near-term. However, co-viewing and live CTV content like Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football lessen churn.