Brought to you by veterans with 25 years in media and 10 years in connected TV.

With more than fifty video-on-demand services available nationwide, there’s an extraordinary appetite for connected TV in the Netherlands.

As of April 2023, Dutch viewers were using an average of two on-demand services weekly–with Netflix and Videoland dominating the pack. If trends continue, connected TV apps are set to become the primary means by which audiences tune in.

There are therefore huge opportunities for broadcasters currently looking to deliver their content through an app. But there are also enormous challenges in such an overcrowded landscape. While viewer acquisition rates continue to slow, subscriber churn is rising - ultimately leading to a drop in engagement and revenues.

This is not only an issue in the Netherlands, but globally. Media giants like Paramount+, Peacock, and others struggle to maintain and grow their subscriber base. Even Disney is reportedly considering cost-cutting measures after seeing its subscriber base plummet in the last two years.

Addressing subscriber churn is the greatest challenge facing broadcasters in the connected TV space today. But what can we do to combat it?

Decision fatigue: how a saturated streaming market contributes to churn

There’s a paradox at the heart of today’s connected TV market. As more and more media companies try to grab a slice of the pie by building their own platforms, the market becomes increasingly saturated. While this provides a huge opportunity to broadcasters, this deluge of choice not only makes things incredibly competitive - it can also overwhelm viewers.

Consider the end-to-end journey a user takes when viewers sit down to watch TV. They turn on their device, and if it’s a smart TV, load up the main menu. Here they might have a range of terrestrial channels available as well as numerous connected TV apps.

Once they pick an app, they then have to scroll through pages of content to find something they’re in the mood for. If nothing takes their fancy, they might check out a different service. Then, if they face the same problem on that app, they might give up and switch off entirely.

This decision paralysis or ‘decision fatigue’ is one of the core problems driving customer churn–and as the market continues to diversify, it is only getting worse.

From a viewer's perspective, using multiple apps isn't ideal. Many people would be over the moon if Disney+ and Netflix were available in a single place. But from a business standpoint, of course, it’s not quite that simple - with both platforms wanting to hang onto revenue from ads, subscriptions, and marketing their exclusive content.

This pattern is mirrored across the streaming landscape–so what we end up with is a stratified ecosystem that doesn’t quite deliver for audiences even if it does generate revenue for individual broadcasters.

A growing trend that addresses this issue is Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television (FAST). FAST platforms like Pluto TV, Tubi, and the Roku Channel offer a curated selection of content in a linear format, similar to traditional TV, which reduces the overwhelming choice that subscription services present.

App consolidation & the shift to retention

Throughout the course of working with our CTV clients, I’ve witnessed firsthand how smaller broadcasters face many of the same challenges around user retention and subscriber churn that giants like Disney+ and Netflix are forced to grapple with.

For many of our clients, offering a connected TV service grants them a completely new market to conquer. But the smaller you are, the harder it is–particularly if you’re operating in a niche market. That’s why we’re starting to see some broadcasters consolidating their apps into one due to the challenges faced around customer retention and viewer engagement. The latest trend is being highlighted by Comcast's StreamSaver bundle, which includes Peacock, Netflix, and Apple TV+.

This trend partly stems from a desire to increase the range of content available to subscribers, thereby improving the value proposition to prospective viewers. One of the problems with getting started is that many of the people you will initially reach will be those who already know of your channel or platform. That’s potentially a really small audience. You ultimately need to serve as many customers as possible, which means offering them as much meaningful content as possible.

This app consolidation trend has already had some success. In the UK, for example, competing TV channels teamed up to launch BritBox, which gives subscribers access to shows and movies from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5. The service has reportedly grown its subscriber count by more than 300% over the past four years and enables the channels to market domestic content internationally - although each channel still runs successful connected TV services alongside.

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, one of the biggest success stories of CTV app consolidation comes in the form of NLZIET. This award-winning streaming platform - which is built and maintained by our CTV team - enables users to watch content from across the Dutch TV landscape, including NPO, RTL, Talpa, and several regional broadcasters.

Pulling together content from these broadcasters into a single, unified hub has proved to deliver much greater value to subscribers than multiple apps - and increased engagement and retention. We’ve seen a 51% improvement in watch time and a 40% rise in engagement via discovery, as well as numerous technical benefits for users.

Personalizing the viewer experience

However, if there's one thing we’ve learned, it's that offering tons of great content is not enough to keep viewers hooked. You could have the best content in the world, but if you don’t present it in an effective, engaging way through your platform, it’s unlikely to reach the right audiences.

Personalization is absolutely key here. Today, viewers expect a seamless, intuitive user experience that anticipates their preferences and minimizes the effort required to engage with the content they enjoy.

Features such as private collections, unique user profiles, and recommendation algorithms are now considered the industry standard. It’s up to developers and media companies to not only match these features, but continually improve upon them for their audience.

What you need to try and deliver are products that can contain retention, and ultimately consider how you can keep viewers on the app once they’re subscribers. That means not only looking at features such as recommendations but also keeping an eye on the data–analysis what your users are doing and ensuring you’re providing them with a meaningful experience.

Viewing pattern analysis is one such data-driven practice that can inform your understanding of not only what content is popular, but also when and how users prefer to watch. Meanwhile, engagement metrics around the frequency and duration of viewing specific types of content can help you refine your recommendations. And, depending on your business model, tracking ad preferences can ensure you deliver less intrusive adverts and reduce the likelihood of viewer churn.

Using data in this way is probably one of the hardest things to get right. But if we keep looking into features that make the app better or easier to use for our clients, they can see continual benefits.

By continually harnessing the power of data, analytics, and personalization, broadcasters can not only reduce subscriber churn but foster a loyal and engaged audience. With the right team in place and a proactive, user-centric approach, you can ensure the long-term success of your connected TV offering in an increasingly crowded market.

Industry insights, company updates, and groundbreaking achievements. Stories that drive Hypersolid forward.