Big Data Analytics: The secret of OTT�s success

 “You do not make a $100 million investment these days without an awful lot of analytics”.  - Dave Hastings

From the very beginning of mankind, entertainment and recreation has always had humans hooked. In the early times, entertainment was drama, dancing, storytelling or the gladiator battles but entertainment has since evolved and OTT platforms are the new gladiator battles. OTT or ‘over the top’ platforms are channels where content is delivered through an internet connection. We, who were once cable dependent are now being held captive by the OTT platforms.

Content consumption on OTT platforms has grown significantly. This has led to a huge demand and OTT providers have capitalized this hysteria. They have become this generations ‘real content creators’, with exclusive subscriptions, online premiers and never seen before content, they have created an unexplainable craving for their services.

According to research. OTT platforms is estimated to create $42 billion in revenue by the year 2023. The secret to the success of OTT platforms lies in the personalization of content according to the consumer and the most valued ingredient is BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS. The heart of the business lies in offering customers with addictive content and prompt response to their needs, which is enabled by big data and analytics.

But one of the main struggles of OTT platforms once they launch, is the retention of customers. That’s where big data comes in. It helps OTT platforms answer questions like ‘which customers are most likely to churn next month’? And provides them with a 360-degree customer view. OTT providers use this customer view along with real-time and historical data, user data and user behavior to identify clusters of customers who are high risk churners.

Big data analytic also provided deep insights about the audience. It delivers to them what content the audience demands at what time of the day, what do they skip, or when do they pause and the genres of content that are in high demand. Based on these insights, OTT providers take informed decisions about which content is to be publicized. OTT platforms nowadays are leveraging big data and analytics so that content provided by them can be delivered to the customers on an individual preference basis. This will make sure that the right content reaches the right consumer by small fine-tuning of the recommendation engines.

The use of behavior-based consumer insights helps the OTT platform in profiling the customers easily. This provides a multi-dimensional understanding of viewer experience and gives OTT providers information to yardstick things that matter most, identify interference that impacts engagement, and make smooth business decisions. It also helps them to make effective marketing strategies and informed business decisions.

In conclusion, we can see, Big Data analytics is transforming the world of OTT. But as Gray King said, “Big Data is not about the data —it is about the analytics.” Knowing how to make the available data work, understanding how to push and manipulate this data, and use the right analytical tools to offer customer satisfaction and retention will provide OTT platforms profitability.