OTT Viewing Experience Impacts Consumer Behavior and Drives Profitability, Conviva Report Finds

Quality of Experience Impacts the Profitability of Every Digital Media Business, Every Single Viewer

SAN MATEO, Calif., April 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Conviva, the leader in Over the Top (OTT) video experience optimization for the world’s top media companies, today released the findings of its third annual Viewer Experience Report, which found that even as audiences swell and potential subscription revenue balloons, the challenges to building a sustainable OTT service are piling up. Consumers no longer simply expect a service to work, they demand that it provide a high-end experience. Delivering a top-notch experience to each and every viewer has never been more complex — nor more fundamental — to acquiring and retaining an audience.

“Viewers used to be content with an OTT service if the video began playing at all – this is no longer the case,” said Hui Zhang, CEO, Conviva. “Consumers now demand a multi-dimensional experience that provides superior picture fidelity, zero resolution volatility, and TV-like viewing quality, and will abandon the streams that do not deliver. OTT providers need to utilize an iterative publishing process to ensure the optimized experience consumers demand.”

Key findings of the report include:

• Video start failures are diminishing but other factors remain relatively unchanged: Video start failures have decreased by almost half to an all-time low of 2.6 percent while buffering and low resolution experiences remained relatively unchanged from 2013.
• Picture fidelity continues to rise: Worldwide picture fidelity grew 30 percent in 2014, as picture fidelity increases, so does time spent consuming content.
• Playback interruptions are still enemy No. 1: 14 minutes of viewer engagement is lost on average for each 1 percent of interruptions experienced.
• Multi-screen viewing is at an all-time high: While average household size has been shrinking, the number of devices in use within each household has risen, with the average household of three people using two devices simultaneously during prime time.

The findings of the 2015 Viewer Experience Report are critical for brands that are making strategic investments in their digital video innovations this year. To download the full report, visit https://www.conviva.com/vxr-home/vxr2015/.

About Conviva

Conviva partners with top-tier media companies and premium OTT video broadcasters and operators like HBO, ESPN, and Viacom to deliver optimized viewing experiences that maximize customer engagement. The Conviva Intelligent Control Platform helps providers meet and exceed ever-changing audience expectations for video experience, across a multi-screen viewing environment. Using a unique real-time map of the Internet video delivery ecosystem, the platform provides 360-degree visibility across all users, maximizes picture fidelity, and eliminates playback delays and interruptions. Multi-dimensional reports and analyses of the top-tier OTT market, based on Conviva’s tracking of 50 billion streams annually, enable data-driven decisions, supporting successful development of market-leading services.  Conviva is based in Silicon Valley, with offices in New York and London. Please visit www.conviva.com and follow us on Twitter @Conviva.