Analysis and Optimization Drives Better Experience Across OTT Services

Overview

U.S. households are viewing more content via over the top (OTT) services than ever before. Recent studies show that nearly 70 million U.S. homes (or 68% of those with Wi-Fi) now have at least one OTT streaming device. Trends are indicating an increase in usage through 2020, with people consuming more and more content on their own terms.

Nearly 70 million U.S. homes now have at least one over-the-top (OTT) streaming device…with people consuming more and more content on their own terms.

OTT services allow providers to stream live, linear, and on-demand content directly to customers, bypassing traditional cable and broadcast television providers through set-top boxes such as Roku, Chromecast, and Apple TV, or gaming devices such as Xbox One or PlayStation 4.

Our client, a major professional sports association, uses Adobe Analytics as its analytics platform, however, Adobe Analytics doesn’t have a Software Development Kit (SDK) for certain gaming (e.g., Xbox ONE, Sony PS3/PS4), set-top boxes, smart TVs, or other connected devices.

Challenge

Cross-platform viewing and OTT streaming is still a developing segment, and the lack of quality data is the biggest challenge for sports, media, and entertainment providers. With a growing base of users, it’s essential that apps work properly and collect the correct data so providers can provide better experiences for their customers.

Because it’s a developing segment, there’s a lack of technical and strategic knowledge available on how to implement analytics for OTT services. Further, there are some platforms that lack an Adobe-provided SDK. With the lack of either an Adobe Analytics or Adobe Media Analytics SDK, a solution must be developed against documented APIs.

Therefore, our client needed to find a consulting partner to provide technical development assistance for these OTT services.

Solution

Our client engaged Blast to develop a holistic video tracking strategy and implementation plan across web, mobile, gaming, and set-top boxes.

For devices such as mobile, Roku, and Apple TV, Blast implemented Adobe Analytics and Adobe Media Analytics SDKs.

For devices that Adobe doesn’t provide an SDK, Blast utilized the Adobe Data Insertion API and the Media Collection API, translating it into easy-to-understand code for each app development team to leverage. Once implemented, this code allowed the same tracking and reporting capabilities across multiple connected and OTT devices that were previously untrackable. This method also allowed for a consistent tracking implementation across web, mobile, connected and OTT enabling the use of virtual report suites and allowing our client to better understand customer engagement across devices.

After implementation and quality assurance testing was completed, Blast created self-service dashboards in Adobe Analysis Workspace that showed our client how to measure and analyze metrics such as:

• Reach
• Audience size
• Viewing patterns
• A variety of usage metrics.

Data can also be segmented by:

• Authenticated users
• Subscription type
• Content type

The above segments can be compared to non-video content consumption to identify high- and low-value app users. Subscription type can also be dissected, identifying users who are open to upsell opportunities.

Results

The Adobe Analytics Analysis Workspace dashboards provided the client with viewer engagement metrics across all digital devices and platforms, allowing for a holistic view.

Our client can now analyze how content is performing across regions, by language, by video stream and by content type to determine which content types perform best in their target markets. This data will help our client’s marketing team determine which content they should produce more of and which content helps drive conversions and upsells.