Our fifth annual Video Leadership Forum kicked off in style today in the beautiful surroundings of Stockholm, Sweden. As Motorola’s Steve McCaffrey took to the stage today to present to the assembled customers, press and analysts, it became clear our industry is facing some very real and tough challenges:
- How do we negotiate a market where consumers have so much choice?
- How, as an industry, can we create ‘stickiness’ in our services to offer good choice but to keep customer loyal?
- What are the key challenges facing the industry in delivering TV-quality content via any device and multiple screens?
People want to consume content on multiple devices, outside the home, at their leisure –and they want it to be as good as their TV experience at home. Our latest Media Engagement Barometer shows that content consumption outside the home is growing at a rate of 20 per cent year-on-year. We’re also consuming massive amounts of video in the home and, as TTNET in Turkey testified today, social TV services are gaining traction.
In his opening statement, Steve stated: “Scheduled TV is still the norm and, whilst, 20 per cent of us are now consuming content outside the home, these are still early adopters – people like us who work in the industry or those who like to be ahead of the curve. So, our focus is on driving adoption into the mass market and that’s all about creating value through content and a seamless user experience, regardless of device.”
The appetite is there and, now, so is the technology. The components are all in place – now it’s about getting the consumer proposition right, delivering the right quality (end users expect the same viewing experience as on TV), at the right price point.
Telia has built its success around the demand for interactive TV – a model which
Kent Jonsson, VP at Telia, believes should inspire other countries. Kent suggested, during his presentation, the real value lies in the development of meaningful value-added services that customers really want. With Swedish network penetration at 93 per cent (a picture mirrored in most Western European countries) Telia has had to innovate.
Telia’s success can be owed, to a large degree, to the growth of its interactive TV service. As strong as its penetration is, content services, in Kent’s opinion, aren’t being developed quickly enough. Kent stated that he believes content owners need challenging to move faster to get content to market. He concluded by saying that, for telecoms companies, TV is the future and they must innovate around new services.
Telia’s deal with Spotify (a world first) is a good example of a new service that has driven 1.5 million Premium subscriptions. In addition, Telia’s figures show that most customers are willing to pay a premium for quality video content such as movies – twice the price of existing video rentals – because it’s easy to use, hassle-free and it works.
In the same way, Steve described how Motorola’s acquisition of 4Home is transforming a traditional pay TV model into a home management proposition – allowing consumers to manage their energy consumption via their TV or tablet – turning a service you get from a TV provider into a lifestyle tool that transcends content consumption.
Steve was also quick to say that being able to develop new user interfaces on HTML 5 is also allowing companies to keep the user experience fresh – a key element of building ‘stickiness’ into any consumer package.
Overall, the message is that providing variety, choice and excitement through innovative new services will help our industry progress through this next phase of evolution; increasing ARPU through value-added services.
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