A new study from Digitalsmiths, the TiVo-owned maker of video search and recommendation services, offers a mix of good and bad news about adoption of authenticated TV Everywhere services – though increasing number of consumers are aware that these apps are available from their pay TV providers, a larger group remains unaware of them.

In a survey of more than 3,100 consumers, the company’s latest report – Q4 2015 Video Trends – found that 40% said they are aware that their pay TV provider offers TVE apps, up 3.7% in two years, and up 13.6% over a three-year span.

Still, 46.9% said they didn’t know if their provider offered such apps, an improvement from 55.2% in Digitalsmiths’s study from Q4 2012. 

In Q4 2015, 21.5% said have a TVE app on their tablet or smartphone, a decline of 3.7% year-on-year. However, 45.4% said they use those apps on a weekly basis, up 3.6% from the previous quarter. Of those weekly TVE users, 21.6% tap in one to three days a week, and 14.7% access it six to seven days a week.

Just over half (50.8%) use the search and recommendation features offered on those apps, Digitalsmiths found.

Digitalsmiths said it believes “the next phase of TVE involves continued marketing efforts within each provider’s subscriber base, in order to improve overall adoption.”

Pay TV Churn Risk Remains High 

The study also took another look at the churn threat and found that 44.7% of those surveyed were at risk – meaning they answered “yes” or “maybe” when asked if they intended to change their cable or satellite provider in the next six months.

Of the group, 5.6% said they plan to cut service altogether, while 6.6% planned to change providers, and 2.4% expected to switch to an online app or rental service.

Among consumers surveyed who do not currently have a pay TV provider, 17.5% said they cut service within the past 12 months, down from 19.3% from the previous quarter (Q3 2015). Additionally, 45.5% of the group without pay TV service said they use an antenna to access TV channels over-the-air.  

There was also a slight uptick in the percentage of respondents (77.4%) who said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their pay TV service, with higher fees for video service, increased fees for Internet service, and poor customer service as the top three reasons for dissatisfaction.

Indicating that consumers remain interested in new, slimmer bundles and a la carte options, 73.6% said they’d like to choose only they channels they want to watch, a number that actually dropped from 81.6% in Digitalsmith’s Q1 2015 study.

The top 10 most-desired channels among respondents were: Discovery Channel, ABC, CBS, History, NBC, A&E, Nat Geo, Fox, HBO, and PBS. The bottom five: Fusion, Tennis Channel, Univision, Ovation TV and Telemundo.

Turning to OTT, 55.4% of those surveyed said they have a monthly subscription to an OTT service, down slightly from the previous quarter.

Of the group that are cord-cutters or cord-nevers, 59.1% use a monthly subscription service, with Netflix (53.0%) and Hulu (13.4%)  the top OTT services used by those non-pay TV subs.

With most OTT and SVOD services offering personalized or next-gen interfaces, Digitalsmiths, for the first time, used the study to understand consumer sentiment toward Netflix features. Roughly 54.3% said the ability to create personal profiles was a key feature, as well as auto-play (47.2%), recommendations based on viewing history (43%). However, price (64.6%) was the top feature ranked. 

Offering a deeper look into the increasingly volatile world of pay TV, a new survey from Digitalsmiths found that 46.6% of respondents are at risk of cutting the cord or leaving their current pay TV provider for another. 

Digitalsmiths, the video search and discovery firm acquired last year by TiVo, revealed those findings in its Q2 2015 Video Trends Report, based on a survey of 3,210 adults in the U.S. and Canada.

The survey found that 7.7% of respondents switched pay TV providers in the last three months, a 1.7% year-over-year increase. Over the next six months, 14.9% are at risk to cut service (4.5%), change providers (8.1%), or switch to an online app or rental service (2.3%).

While the cost of service factors into this trend (61.6% said they pay more than $100 month to their provider), the group that is “unsatisfied” with their service rose to 6.1% in the Q2 survey, while 76.6% claimed to be “very satisfied” or “satisfied.”  Those in the unsatisfied camp cited reasons such as increased fees and poor customer service.

A La Carte and OTT

Digitalsmiths also shed some light on the demand for a la carte, skinny bundles and the rising popularity of OTT services.

On the OTT front, the surveyed group was most familiar with Hulu (44.7%), compared to HBO Now (31.2%); Showtime’s new standalone OTT offering (17.1%); CBS All Access (10.8%); Sling TV (9.7%); and PlayStation Vue  (9%). Consumer awareness for that full group rose 1.8% in Q2 versus Q1 2015. About 42.5% were not familiar with those offerings.

Digitalsmiths also found that 79.2% said they would like to pick only the channels they watch (down 2.2% in Q2 versus Q1 2015), and see a selection of 17 to 18 channels as the ideal lineup.

The average price they’d pay for that channel mix was $39.50 per month. Almost 20% said they’d be willing to pay $10 to $20 per month, 17.3% said they’d pay $21 to $30 per  month, and only 3.1% said they’d pay $81 or more per month.

“These numbers illustrate clear demand by respondents for the à la carte Pay-TV model,” Digitalsmiths noted in the study, which also found that 35.1% were overwhelmed by the number of channels available to them. “While the cost of programming continues to increase, consumers could become less tolerant of paying for unvalued programming.”

For those who want a la carte, ABC was the top channel selected, followed by Discovery Channel, NBC, History, CBS, A&E, Nat Geo Channel, Fox, HBO, PBS, Comedy Central, The Weather Channel, AMC, Food Network, Animal Planet, TLC, TBS, TNT, CNN and HGTV. The bottom five of the group were Velocity, Telemundo, Univision, Fusion and Ovation TV.

‘Cord-Cheating’ and OTA

The study took a fresh look at “cord-cheating,” where subs seek VOD fare and linear TV from parties other than their pay TV provider. In Q2, 57.7% subscribed to a service such as Netflix,Hulu, Amazon, Sling TV, and HBO Now, a figure that grew 7% year-over-year, and 22.8% over a two-year span.

Of the 15.7% surveyed who do not take a traditional pay TV service, 33.3% use an antenna to get basic TV channels.

TV Everywhere

A positive trend for pay TV is increased awareness of authenticated TV Everywhere services. In the Q2 survey, 43.3% said they were aware that their pay TV provider offered TVE, up 4.8% year-on-year, and up 11.2% over two years.

Almost one-fourth of respondents said they have their provider’s TVE app, up 2.3% year-on-year.

Of those who do tap into TVE, 45.4% use it on a weekly basis, up 3% year over year. However, 54.6% said they access those TVE offerings “rarely” or “never.”

The study also highlighted the popularity of apps from programmers and broadcasters. In Q2, 27.8% said they have installed one on their tablet and/or smartphone.

In terms of installations, the top apps in this category were: HBO Go (5.9%), Hulu (5.7%); ABC  (5.2%); WatchESPN (4.9%); A&E (4.5%); CBS (4.4%); and NBC (3.2%).

Digitalsmiths’ study also centered some results on the vendor’s bread and butter – search and discovery. About 22.2% said that their provider makes TV and movie recommendations to them, up 6% over two years, and 92.5% felt that the recommendations made were “always” or “sometimes” accurate, up 2.4% versus Q1 2015.

Digitalsmiths clients include AT&T/DirecTV, Bright House Networks, Charter Communications, Dish Network, Foxtel, FOX Sports, Sharp Electronics, Time Warner Cable and Verizon, among others. 

TiVo is using this week’s IBC show in Amsterdam to introduce TiVo Lite, a platform for lower-cost (and non-DVR) set-tops that take advantage of middleware from Cubiware and video search, recommendations and analytics from Digitalsmiths.

TiVo acquired Cubiware earlier this year, and bought Digitalsmiths in 2014.

TiVo said operators have the option to combine TiVo Lite STB clients with TiVo's mobile applications for iOS and Android, supporting linear TV, on-demand and OTT in and out of the customer’s home.

On the deal front, TiVo said Supercanal, a top MSO in Argentina, has picked Cubiware for a digital project that will enlist a company called Bold as the service’s integrator and  VOD service provider. The resulting offering will also include Cubiware's Portal Server and Multiscreen (CubiGo) apps. Additionally, apart from linear TV, set-top boxes will support over the top and video on demand from FoxPlay and Telecine, TiVo said. 

TiVo ended its fiscal Q2 with 6.03 million total subs (941,000 TiVo-owned, and 5.09 million through MSO partners).

While it’s no surprise that most consumers are interested in an a la carte pay TV services model, the ideal number of channels in such a package would consist of 17, according to a new survey from Digitalsmiths, the TiVo-owned search and recommendation specialist.

Digitalsmiths’ Q1 2015 Video Trends Report, which based its findings on a survey of more than 3,140 consumers, noted that 81.6% of respondents said they are interested in a la carte services that can be bought outside the traditional pay TV bundle.

That could bode well for Sony PlayStation Vue, which announced an a la carte strategy this week that will initially be limited to three offerings subscribers can purchase outside the bundle – Showtime, Fox Soccer Plus and a coming premium service from Machinima.

The survey also found that, on average, consumers would pay about $38 per month for their ideal a la carte package.

More than half of those surveyed – 55.7% -- said they were aware of OTT services such as CBS All Access, Hulu, PlayStation Vue and Sling TV.  Of those, the majority (51%) were aware of Hulu, followed by Sling TV (11.9%), PlayStation Vue (11.4%), and CBS All Access (10.5%).

The report also found that 7.7% of respondents switched providers in the last three months, a 2% year-on-year increase. Over the next six months, 15.3% said they plan to either switch (3.1%), change (7.4%) or cut service altogether (4.8%). About 32.4% said they are on the fence and might need to be enticed to stay.

Ben Weinberger, a co-founder and the former CEO of Digitalsmiths, has been named senior vice president and chief product officer of Sling TV, Dish Network’s new OTT TV service for cord-cutters that launched nationwide on February 9.

Weinberger reports to Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch and, in the new role, will oversee Sling TV’s product development and product management.

Weinberger’s move to Sling TV comes after TiVo acquired Digitalsmiths, a maker of video discovery and recommendations services, last year for about $135 million. Fellow Digitalsmiths co-founder Matt Berry is currently COO of the TiVo-owned unit.

Sling TV noted that Weinberger and Lynch previously worked together when the Sling TV CEO served on the board of Digitalsmiths. Dish is also one of Digitalsmiths’s customers, but it has not announced any third-party video recommendation partners for the Sling TV service. 

“Since Sling TV’s arrival four months ago, we have added more than 40 domestic channels and thousands of hours of on-demand titles,” Lynch said in a statement. “This influx of programming makes it increasingly important that our content discovery process connects consumers quickly and seamlessly to the sports, shows and movies they love. Ben’s background makes him the ideal fit to lead our effort in creating a world class next-generation TV experience.”

“In joining Sling TV, I’ve gained the opportunity to lead a talented team whose entrepreneurial spirit will continue to redefine television,” Weinberger, who also serves on the board or advisory boards of  Librestream, MediaShift, T3Media, and Southern Illinois University Alumni Association and Council for Entrepreneurial Development. “Sling TV is the future of television, and we are rapidly growing an organization that will shape how consumers view video entertainment for generations to come.”

Weinberger graduated with honors from Southern Illinois University.

Tacking on a feature that’s tailored for consumers who like to binge on TV series, TiVo has introduced OnePass, a system for its DVRs and mobile apps that tracks every episode of shows users want to catch up on and displays them in their “My Shows” folders.

OnePass is cross-platform, as it sources TV series from live or recorded TV, video-on-demand and various streaming apps that are supported by the TiVo platform, including Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and Hulu Plus. OnePass also provides an option that lets users include all content that is recorded or offered via streaming, or select only from DVR recordings or only from streaming video sources (an option that lets users save DVR recording space).

TiVo said OnePass will be available to TiVo Roamio and TiVo Mini devices in February. OnePass will be added to the TiVo app for iOS devices in February, and on Android devices in March. A TiVo official said the company will support OnePass to its platform optimized for MVPD partners starting in March. TiVo ended its fiscal third quarter with 928,000 TiVo-owned subscribers, and 4.2 million subs through MVPD partnerships. 

“As we continue to see exponential growth in binge watching and the nearly ubiquitous presence of OTT video subscription services alongside traditional cable, TiVo continues to fulfill our mission to deliver the best entertainment experience for viewers," said Jim Denney, TiVo’s VP of product marketing, in a statement.  "With OnePass, we can shorten the time to get users to the content to which they subscribe much easier than needing to search individual services.”

TiVo also announced that it will offer iHeartRadio, a streaming music and digital radio service, on TiVo Roamio, TiVo Mini and TiVo Premiere devices in the “next few weeks” as part of a rolling update.  iHeartRadio’s library includes more than 20 million songs, 800,000 artists and 2,000 live radio stations, according to the company.

Here at CES, TiVo said it will demo a range of new products and prototypes, including OnePass, the recently launched TiVo Roamio OTA and TiVo Mega, its nDVR solution, 4K, and a “more portable TiVo experience” for the Google Chromecast and Roku devices. 

TiVo will also show off a new Android app set to launch in March, and a new premium sideloading feature for iOS users that will be available in the “coming months.  Its Digitalsmiths subsidiary, meanwhile,  will demo Seamless Insight, a new reporting and analytics platform for video service providers.  

Jinni said it is powering the discovery engine that is humming behind a new user interface launched by VUDU, the Walmart-owned multiscreen electronic sell-through and rental company.

Jinni’s involvement continues an existing relationship it has with VUDU, as Jinni announced that the Walmart unit agreed to license Jinni's mood-based video-discovery platform back in January 2013.

Jinni’s semantic discovery platform is present on VUDU’s updates across its range of supported devices, including connected TVs, gaming consoles, Web browsers, streaming players, and Blu-ray players. That will help VUDU’s customers discovery content amid a library  that offers more than 100,000 titles to rent or own.

Yosi Glick, Jinni Co-Founder & CEO added, “We are proud to have a customer like VUDU adopt our solution using our full discovery feature set. This is further validation of our semantic approach we have built over the years which has now become the dominant trend by the leading players,” company co-founder and CEO Yosi Glick said, in a statement.

Jinni also has deals in place with AT&T for its U-verse TV service, Comcast (for its X1 platform), Belgium’s Belgacom, Spain’s Prisa, Singapore’s SingTel, and Canada’s Telus, among others.

Jinni competes with other media discovery and recommendation engine suppliers, including Digitalsmiths (now part of TiVo), ThinkAnalytics, and ContentWise.

Of that group, ContentWise, which counts Mediaset, Sky and TIM Brasil as customers, announced Tuesday that sales have jumped 400% in 2014. 

Digitalsmiths, the personalized video search and recommendations unit of TiVo, said Charter Communications has begun to deploy its platform on the MSO's TV Everywhere mobile app, and plans to extend access to additional platforms in the months ahead.

Under the deal, Charter is rolling out Digitalsmiths’ Seamless Discovery platform to present personalized search and video recommendations on the Charter TV app for iOS and Android devcies, and will offer it on additional platforms and devices, presumably to include set-top boxes, “in the coming months.”  Charter is testing a new cloud-based UI for set-tops in employee homes, and intends to offer it in customer homes in select markets by mid-year.

One aim of these new recommendation engines is to present viewers with relevant content on channels that they might not normally tune to. Last week, Nielsen said its latest Advertising & Audience Report found that the average U.S. TV home receives 189 channels, but that the average number of channels tuned per TV home in 2013 was 17.5 – a figure that has remained relatively constant over a six-year span.

Recent evidence shows that recommendations engines can boost that number. Cox Communications, which uses a personalized system from ThinkAnalytics on its Contour guide for set-tops and mobile devices, said it has seen the number of channels viewed per home rise from the 20 to 22 range, to 26 to 29, Steve Necessary, Cox’s vice president of product development, said in a recent interview.

“Charter continues to improve the overall entertainment experience for our customers with modern discovery features that provide relevant content recommendations,” said, Rich DiGeronimo, Charter's senior vice president, product and strategy. “In addition to improving the customer experience, Digitalsmiths Seamless Discovery’s architecture easily integrates into Charter’s data aggregation systems to power the Charter TV App today, and additional cloud-based user interfaces in the near future,” Rich DiGeronimo, Charter’s SVP, product and strategy, said in a statement.

Ben Weinberger, co-founder of Digitalsmiths, said, “Gone are the days of consumers blindly channel surfing to find something to watch. We enable viewing personalization, where content is finding the consumer,” added Digitalsmiths co-founder Ben Weinberger.

TiVo, whose original deployment deal with Charter Communications has been in limbo, acquired Digitalsmiths earlier this year for $135 million. Digitalsmiths’ announced customers and partners include Time Warner Cable, Cisco Systems, Warner Bros., Paramount, Technicolor, Univision, Roku, Xbox, Sony PlayStation, Sharp, Turner Sports, the National Basketball Association, the PGA, NASCAR, zeebox,  i.TV, and Australia’s Foxtel, among others.