<![CDATA[ Latest from Next TV in Andrew-borak ]]> https://www.nexttv.com/tag/andrew-borak Thu, 29 Sep 2016 21:28:00 +0000 en <![CDATA[ On Demand Summit 2016: Ease of Use, Mobility Key to TV Everywhere Message ]]> https://www.nexttv.com/news/demand-summit-2016-ease-use-mobility-key-tv-everywhere-message-408110 4jwoAiZn4k32CfeL9eRhGD Thu, 29 Sep 2016 21:28:00 +0000

Get complete coverage of the On Demand Summit.

New York – TV Everywhere may be gaining traction with consumers, but marketers need to continue to hammer home the message that the service is easy to use and delivers content when they want it, according to a panel session at the Multichannel News/B&C On Demand Summit here Thursday.

About half of pay TV customers are aware of TV Everywhere as a product offered by their TV service provider, and 36% say they feel it is an important part of their offering. But many consumers still struggle with how to use the service and still more are unaware they can access TV Everywhere at no additional charge, the panel said.

That’s where the marketing message comes in. To help combat ease of use fears, at NBC Universal Content Distribution, vice president of consumer marketing, TV Everywhere Alexa Wilson said her unit developed marketing spots for specific networks that showed how simple it was to access content with a user name and password.

“We are making sure we are delivering all the things we promised to consumer,” Wilson said, adding that the word has changed “exponentially” as usage has migrated from desktop computers to tablets and mobile devices.

That shift has also driven a big increase in TV Everywhere adoption she added. At NBCU, Wilson said video streaming is up about 55% across all its networks.

“And it’s going to continue to grow as people find those platforms,” Wilson said.

The type of content also drives the message, she said, adding that for news and sports, the message is all about live streaming while for entertainment channels, video-on-demand is what customers want to know about.

The medium is the message especially for younger-skewing networks, and Viacom vice president of marketing Andrew Borak said that is no truer than at MTV. Borak noted that while linear ratings were down recently for MTV’s Video Music Awards, live streaming activity increased by almost 500% during the program.

Borak said Viacom identified key barriers to TV Everywhere usage and targeted its marketing message to them, like the perceived complexity of signing into the service and made that an integral part of the message. Viacom’s approach, he said, is to look at the entire customer journey, from when they first hear about its apps to what they can do once their inside the app.

Wilson said connected devices are a huge area for growth for TV Everywhere, citing recent Adobe research that said time spent watching TV on connected devices is up 150% this year. And with a proliferation of devices like Roku boxes, Apple TV’s and Amazon Fire sticks already in homes, that number is expected to grow.  

At Viacom, Borak said the programmer is seeing its largest growth on connected devices, adding that it also represents their most engaged and active viewers.

Wilson agreed, adding that specific audiences and channels are more likely to attract a large connected audience. The Syfy channel, for example, has the highest authentication rates among NBCU’s 14 networks.

“There’s a real natural connection there,” she said.

]]> <![CDATA[ INTX 2016: TV Everywhere Is Lacking Love, Rich in Content ]]> https://www.nexttv.com/news/intx-2016-tv-everywhere-lacking-love-rich-content-405004 vZt3JrL5bs8jY52VWwhTo Tue, 17 May 2016 19:00:00 +0000

Read more of our INTX 2016 coverage.

BOSTON -- Reports of the death of TV everywhere are greatly exaggerated, executives from Comcast, CTAM, Disney-ABC and Viacom said at an Imagine Park session late on Monday.

“Today, thousands of hours of content is available live, on-demand, and streamed, on your choice of hundreds of apps, across a dozen or more devices -- oh, and it’s free with your pay-TV subscription,” Anne Cowan, senior vice president of communications and marketing for CTAM, said. “We need a lot more love for this experience. Just sayin’.”

The real story about TVE is studded with telling numbers: Double-digit growth in TVE viewing in the first quarter; 84% of frequent TVE users say it’s a reason they’ll stay with their provider for another year; adoption of TVE grew by 36% amongst pay-TV subscribers in the U.S.

Comcast’s Net Promoter Scores (NPS) are a whopping 29 points higher amongst partakers in Xfinity TV Everywhere, said Vito Forlenza, senior director of TV everywhere content and product strategy. “When we saw that, we knew were onto something -- that it was time to double-down.”

Comcast launched its TVE product in 2011 with 45 on-demand titles. Now, on-demand, live and linear content is streaming across 18 devices, with 115 linear networks (and 150 by year end) available in the home, or outside of the home. 

Under a marketing tagline of “if it’s on TV, it’s in your hands,” some 40% of its total video base is using the service, every quarter.

ESPN, which recently added live streaming and personalized notifications (from final scores to in-game highlights) to its app, is averaging 7 million unique devices per month, which is about 30% growth per month, said Julius Lee, senior director of affiliate partnership development and operations for Disney and ESPN Networks.

“We know that fans are accustomed to coming to the ESPN app to check the latest scores, highlights and news -- now they can live stream, too,” Lee said. On its “bread and butter” college football genre, usage (measured in minutes of viewing) is up 72%; in the football nailbiter between Clemson and Alabama, fans watched via the app for 140 million total minutes viewed (a 32% increase), on 2 million unique devices (a 38% lift.)

Some 26 million Nickelodeon fans downloaded the app, and usage is more than doubling, year over year, said Andrew Borak, vice president of marketing in the Viacom Media Networks Content division. At MTV, he said, average monthly downloads are up 54%, and monthly streams are up 84%, year over year. “This past month we hit an all-time high for authentication.”

Now all that’s left is to tackle the remaining barriers. On that list, and based on research conducted by Hub Research, for CTAM: A lack of understanding (54%), a lack of awareness that even exists (53%), an assumption that it costs extra (51%).

“There’s an art and a science to breaking down barriers,” Borak said. “The art is how to use the right language -- how to say it’s free, without saying ‘free.’”

The science is the blending of traditional audience research with consumer insights from specific audiences.

Nickelodeon, for instance, unleashes kids aged 8-12 into a design lab, with instructions to create the “ideal TVE experience.” That effort identified the graphical icon of the lock and the key as the biggest barriers. “They think they have to do something to unlock it, like with a game."

(This article was updated on to correct the number of Nickelodeon fans that downloaded the app and how many minutes viewers logged on the ESPN app for the Clemson-Alabama football game.)

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