Entitlement management can be a strategic asset to video service providers. The runaway growth of digital content, everywhere connectivity, the cloud, and the proliferation of multiple devices have all contributed to changing the game on content consumption. Users expect to purchase and consume content everywhere, watch it anywhere on any device, and have it all synchronized across screens. This has made content entitlement (the right to access content) even more complex. Use cases include consumers today demanding parental controls to keep young children from watching inappropriate content or requiring ways to manage devices they can view content on and options for concurrent viewing. In all these cases, service providers need to have ways to monetize the options. And these use cases are just a few that can offer strategic advantages if managed right.
Keep Customers Engaged, Enhance Other Services
For video service providers, entitlement functions can help with executing promotions created within catalog management interfaces — and further keep customers engaged and even enhance other services. Yet all these great creative strategies designed to drive upgrades and per-user revenue will need the support of an entitlement module that can execute against highly complex rules.
Around the world, different service features are emerging as important. In Southeast Asia, mobile usage is even higher than in the U.S. Traffic congestion and widespread public and private transport contributes to this, resulting in huge spikes in consumption during commuting hours. So transferring viewing from one device to the next allows users to pick up where they left off and is a high-demand feature.
Another way to boost revenue and sell upgrades in real-time is to offer users ‘premium’ functionality right inside the basic viewing environment. It can be used to promote advanced features such as high-definition content and DVR. For example, some countries offer a live stream of a show that has already begun and then promote a Start over or Catch-up button that includes an upgrade offer. It’s a great way to reel users into a higher-priced service, but it can be complex from a back-office perspective.
Entitlement features can also provide useful economic levers inside content licensing and royalty agreements. More flexibility in how those levers are constructed can translate directly into economic value. In addition, imagine tracking the specific network that a device is streaming from — focusing on things like on-net vs. off-net viewing and more.
Want to learn more about these topics related to entitlement and revenue management? Read “The Blueprint for Best-in-Class Video Subscriber Management.” It offers insights from industry experts on a range of topics, including user acquisition, engagement, and retention; identity, payments, entitlements, packaging, promotions, and customer care; and all offered on secure cloud services.
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