Need to unify customer access across streaming services: Report

While India’s digital economy continues to grow exponentially in practically every media sphere, there may be some bumps on the road but nothing that can’t be solved. A report by Accenture titled ‘Streaming’s Next Act: Aggregators to play a starring role in making consumers happier’ identified both the potential pitfalls and opportunities for the ever-growing streaming services that vie for audiences today. The report surveyed 6,000 consumers globally to understand their preferences, beliefs, and behaviours on their video content streaming experiences.

The online survey of consumers, aged 18 and older, across 11 countries (Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, India, Japan, South Africa, Spain, the UK and the US), was designed to identify significant changes to the existing direct-to-consumer (D2C) media environment and offer suggestions for brands across the media spectrum to adapt their model to be more relevant and successful with customers.

The report has suggested that aggregators can foster flexibility and personalization for viewers by serving as a single platform with curated content that enables them to select exactly what they want to watch. Accenture’s research also indicates that while consumers care more about the content delivered by streaming services, they find the navigation experience with the growing number of services to be difficult. Content aggregators can address this concern by unifying access across streaming services through application software, services and data-sharing agreements, the report says.

“Till now, most Indian OTT platforms have tried to differentiate through content and the majority of their investments have gone into flagship titles. With changing viewing patterns, this needs to change and factor in scenarios like shared viewing. For the next phase of growth, these platforms need to focus on improving consumer experience and product features,” said Neeraj Sharma, Managing Director – Communications, Media and Technology, Accenture in India.

Close to seven out of ten subscribers to multiple streaming services in India expressed frustration with their viewing experiences, according to the report from Accenture, and 46% of those surveyed indicate they spend more than six minutes searching for something to watch.

In addition to the challenge of finding something to watch, consumers in India also think more than 60% of the content they are paying for is not relevant to them. Furthermore, 81% of those surveyed in India say they wish their profile from one service could easily be shared with another service that may offer them better, more personalized content.

Saurabh Kumar Sahu, Managing Director and Lead for Communications, Media and Technology Practice, Accenture in India, said: “As the video streaming segment has matured, consumers are increasingly finding the experience to be complicated, expensive and hard to use. Evolving consumer preferences and tough economics will create challenges for video streaming platforms. To win in this competitive space, the ecosystem needs a major reset, in addition to providing consumers greater control over their viewing experience.”