Did you know that the OTT subscriber churn rate is currently at a whopping 48%? That’s nearly half of all subscribers leaving the platforms they signed up for just a few months later. Whether you want to tackle churn, grow your ad revenue, or increase the range of content your viewers watch, using the right technology to reduce churn works.
AI is fast becoming the key to helping viewers navigate through their entertainment experiences. AI also has the potential to gather viewing data, analyze watching habits and make accurate content recommendations tailored specifically for each viewer. AI is set to revolutionize the way we view content and it provides a user-friendly search experience for viewers, which makes them more likely to return in the future.
Here are Vionlabs top 6 recommendations to increase viewer engagement this year:
1. Leverage Cognitive AI for Mood Analysis
Content providers struggle with tapping into consumer emotions and moods to facilitate a better discovery process. Using AI to tap into these emotional aspects will differentiate platforms and hook consumers. Mood analysis is the task of classifying the state of mind and feeling of a person into categories such as positivity, negativity, fear, arousal, and dominance. As technology advances, content providers will need to tap into consumer emotions and moods in order to provide a better customer experience. One way to do this is through audiovisual analysis with reliance on the VAD-model (link), which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help content providers understand the emotional aspects of their content.
→ Use Artificial Intelligence to better understand where the consumer’s emotions fall within the Valence-Arousal-Dominance (VAD) model and enhance the discovery process. By using sentiment analysis, platforms can use AI to identify emotions such as happiness, sadness, or anger from a given dataset and ultimately provide an improved experience for customers.
2. Improve Content Discovery
The one thing most streaming services have in common is a massive amount of content. But that doesn’t mean they’re using all of it. Streaming providers strive to serve up the latest, greatest, and most popular content, which usually overlooks lesser-known or less popular titles. Consumers are finding themselves increasingly trapped in a virtual bubble created by current recommendation engines. The issue is not so much with the technology itself, but lies within the data it relies on. Manual metadata input can be overly one-dimensional and heavily influence consumer viewing paths, resulting in a limited variety of content. Manually added metadata are not indexing every title to become part of the recommendation process.
To unlock the potential of existing content it needs to be less about popularity and more about serving up the right kind of content. Streaming providers can enhance their offerings by curating new ways to discover less popular titles hidden amongst a vast library, providing customers with an enhanced experience and access to more movies or shows the consumers would have otherwise never seen!
→ Use AI to serve up the right kind of content and uncover the hidden gems currently hidden in your content library. This can help increase engagement by ensuring that viewers are presented with content that they are more likely to enjoy.
3. Max Out Your Metadata
Unlock the full potential of your streaming library with the power of AI. By leveraging high-dimensional content embedding, AI can identify keywords and genres within videos to make more accurate recommendations from a vast variety of titles—not just popular choices. Without manually added metadata blurring paths, you’ll have access to optimal discovery experiences that will take your service cost-effectively into uncharted territory.
→ Using AI, you will get high-dimensional content video embedding including scene detection, color palette, music, stress levels, sound effects, and mood. The better shape your metadata is in, the better content recommendations you’ll be able to provide.
4. Feed The Desire To Binge
Binge Markers – the technology that automatically detects the end credits in video playback, which viewers may utilize to skip the end credits of a show while binge-viewing to enable a smooth, quick transition between episodes. Do you encourage users to binge-watch TV series by auto-playing the next episode? Are you using your editorial team’s valuable time to do it?
AI-powered binge markers are revolutionizing the way viewers consume content – never again will you have to be stuck in a time-suck of starting intros, recaps, and scrolling through menus for the next episode. With AI-generated binge markers, viewers can instantly skip those annoying bits and jump right into whatever show or movie they’re watching. This AI-enhanced personalization technology is also working to improve content discoverability even further – AI algorithms can automatically tag videos with related videos and genres to alert viewers that there’s something new for them to watch.
→ With AI-powered binge markers, viewers can quickly and easily skip through intros, recap segments, or end credits – so they won’t miss a beat of their favorite shows. Keep your audience engaged for longer with a seamless user experience.
5. Provide Excellent Visual Discovery
OTT service providers experience huge competition across the global markets. They all seek higher ‘stickiness’ – engagement of potential users. Sure, content is an essential part of your OTT strategy, but if no one can find it, then it’s useless, and you’ll have churn. A great UI/UX helps customers to find exactly what they want – a highly engaging OTT experience.
Did you know that 64% of users have skipped over a title because of off-setting artwork, but later found the title to be within their taste? This problem can be solved through better representation of the content to help your viewers make the right decision.
→ Use AI to create an automated pre-view clip for any movie in your library and spare your editors valuable time. The same goes for thumbnails and movie posters. Then use AI to personalize the preview clips and thumbnails to each viewer’s taste.
6. Layer Algorithms On Top Of Your Editorial Pick
We are not suggesting that you should replace your entire editorial team with algorithms. You need both. But you can make them work smarter together. Combining human expertise with algorithmic intelligence can create the best of both worlds. Enhance your editorial selections by adding a layer of algorithms and you’ll be able to tailor each user’s experience, providing them with relevant content in an optimal order for their own individual preferences.
→ For every editorially-selected section of your service add a layer of AI to determine what order the content should be shown to each individual user.
If you’re interested in learning more about how our AI solutions can help you to boost OTT viewer engagement and drive your business forward, our team of professionals has extensive experience and knowledge in the field and are ready to provide guidance, support, and advice tailored specifically to your needs.
At Vionlabs, we believe that AI has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with viewers and increase engagement with content. We understand that every business is unique, which is why we develop custom solutions designed to optimize OTT user experiences by leveraging data-driven insights.
Our team will schedule a meeting with you at a time that suits you best in order to discuss your goals in more detail. Through this interactive session, we can work together to explore the potential of our AI solutions as well as determine which areas need additional attention. We’ll be able to showcase specific examples of how our technology can benefit your operations while also providing suggestions on how it could be used most effectively going forward.
Our aim is always to provide an outstanding level of service quality that meets or exceeds customer expectations. If you’re looking for a reliable partner who can help you reach new heights of success with OTT viewer engagement then get in touch today – we’d love to hear from you!
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