• New product enables operators to understand how subscribers are consuming content offline, and how this fits into their overall consumption profile
  • Combination of CDN logs and offline analytics can distinguish between streams and downloads to provide a holistic picture of all viewing activity
  • Insights from Offline Viewing Analytics allows service providers to see if content has actually been watched after download, and can help inform decision making around subscriber and content marketing
London, 2nd February 2017 - Genius Digital, the experts in audience analytics, has today announced the official launch of its brand new Offline Viewing Analytics product. The new product is designed to help operators understand how their subscribers are viewing downloaded and offline content, and how offline viewing fits into the wider consumption profile of subscribers. Today’s launch follows hot on the heels of the recent announcement from Netflix, which recently launched offline viewing functionality for its subscribers - allowing them to download content to their smart devices and watch without the need to connect to the Internet. With 1 in 6 UK consumers now already watching TV in places outside of the home: knowing how subscribers consume offline content is vital for broadcasters to optimize services and monetize their consumers. For some operators, offline viewing is a paid value-added service, and as such has real financial value attached to it. To understand how consumers are using this effectively, operators can harness the insights from Offline Viewing Analytics to understand how much content a subscriber has downloaded, what content they have actually watched, and importantly, how this fits into the general pattern of viewing. It is straightforward for operators to understand how many assets are downloaded via their content delivery network (CDN) logs, but this data typically does not show what content was viewed, and does not show whether the subscriber has even watched the content or not after it has been downloaded. Though server-side solutions such as Google Analytics can provide a picture of what people are viewing, it does not distinguish between streams and downloads. Offline Viewing Analytics bridges this gap, and brings these two different types of analytics capabilities together. The new Genius Digital product tracks viewing events that have been stored locally while the subscriber is viewing offline. Operators can then track multiple download and viewing sessions at the same time, and distinguish between the two. It means, for example, that when a subscriber is downloading five different files and streaming a sixth, operators can understand the difference between these types of consumption. “For operators, providing offline viewing helps them to fulfil the promise of ‘anytime, anywhere’ viewing for their subscribers. However, if their analytics systems are not engineered to track this viewing, operators risk having a large blind spot in their understanding of how their multiscreen services are consumed.” said Tom Weiss, CEO of Genius Digital. “Our Offline Viewing Analytics product provides operators with a detailed understanding of how their subscribers are viewing downloaded and offline content, and how their offline viewing can inform decision making and wider business goals.” The insights provided by Offline Viewing Analytics can improve decision-making across an operator’s business in a number of ways:
  • Acquisition and rights: Identify content types where it is worthwhile to pay a premium for download rights; understand where content is downloaded and not watched, or not downloaded at all
  • User interfaces: Make better decisions around download prominence within the user interface of a multiscreen services
  • Content marketing: Which content to use to promote offline viewing functionality
  • Subscriber marketing: Understand the best part of your subscriber base to market offline viewing functionality
  • Pricing: Understand whether to charge a premium for offline vieiwng functionality, or whether to include as part of the package
  • Retention: Use offline viewing functionality as an offer to help retain customers at risk of churning
  • Windowing: Make decisions around whether to extend the window of time that in which a download can be viewed
  • Research: Help to complete a holistic picture of how subscribers are using a Pay TV service.