Different approaches will be required for different stages of the customer lifecycle as the video services market continues to mature writes Michael Lantz of Accedo.
What are the main challenges facing those tasked with creating and delivering content?
At the moment, the primary challenge lies in discoverability. With an increasing number of video services entering the market, and with more and more high-quality content for mass market or niche audiences, it becomes difficult for video services to make sure the right content gets to the right user.
At Accedo, we believe that we’re just at the beginning of the journey to solve this huge challenge and that there is no one solution that works for all consumers. Instead, different approaches will be needed for different stages of the customer lifecycle, coupled with demographic and behavioural profiles.
In addition to understanding the user, it is of course also necessary to carefully manage the content catalogue to be able to provide the right editorial recommendations to the right viewer at the right time.
How is your company helping content owners and creators to overcome their challenges?
Our solutions and services enable broadcasters and media companies to rapidly and cost-efficiently launch video services across multiple devices and regions.
We help our customers analyse user behaviour and adapt and evolve their services over time to ensure their audiences can easily and quickly access the content they want to watch.
To tackle a fragmented market, Accedo One Marketplace provides easy access to all necessary technology components in the video service ecosystem. This means that video providers can easily connect their services to other technologies in order to build and grow customer-centric video solutions. It also means that they can adopt a different approach depending on different stages, demographic and behavioural profiles.
Accedo One Marketplace also helps our customers make sense of which tools will work best for their unique service and what will help drive their revenues. Ultimately, this will ensure that their video service is 100% right for their audiences while enabling them to get to market much faster than would previously have been possible.
What media trends do you expect to dominate 2022?
At Accedo, we believe that we will see the resurgence of advertising-funded services at the expense of subscription offerings. Clever use of new business models will allow video services to continue to grow and launch new services to find their audience in an increasingly crowded market. We’ll also increasingly see hybrid business models leveraging multiple ways of monetising a service, which can improve customer satisfaction as well as market penetration.
During Covid, ad-funded services fell out of favour due to the volatility of revenues, whereas subscription models fared much better. However, post-Covid, we’re starting to see that some parts of the market show signs of slower growth due to saturated demand for subscription services. Ad-funded models provide a good opportunity to establish the first relationship with customers in order to upsell them a full subscription later on.
What are the main products and services that you have launched this year?
In the past 12 months, we have launched a range of innovative video solutions designed specifically for the sports market. These combine Accedo’s product and service offerings with those of select partners to support rights holders, broadcasters and sponsors in creating and growing their video business.
For example, we have rolled out Accedo Play – Sports, an out-of-the-box sports video solution that enables sport organisations to launch, manage and monetise a service which delivers a world class video-centric experience, as well as a premium and tailored fan experience.
We also launched a service called Accedo Live Events, which is designed to help customers deliver reliable and scalable coverage of live events. It is completely technology-agnostic, and can therefore be used with any OTT technology platform.
On top of these launches, we are continually evolving our Accedo One cloud platform. This year we have launched support for multiple digital rights management solutions, including integrations with solutions from Brightcove, Verimatrix and Vualto that ensure high value content remains protected. In addition, Accedo One Marketplace already includes integration for online video platforms, subscription management platforms, ad servers, and analytics platforms.
- Michael Lantz is chief executive, Accedo
Connect with Accedo on IBC Digital
No comments yet