As the landscape between television and OTT video seems to merge closer by the petabyte, quality data delivery is quickly becoming the epicenter for the content of all things. So while the Netflix’s of the world and other TV networks and online video companies continue to announce and launch OTT services, the demand for data will continue to grow exponentially. Add to this the huge growth in the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices per household and you have epic demands placed on data networks and bandwidth speeds.
Of course, this Wild West mentality of delivering faster, better content is creating a difficult environment for cable providers to keep up with. The technical infrastructure and product innovation that is required to understand these new consumer behaviors and ultimately maintain a satisfied subscriber base usually doesn’t exist on a dashboard in an office.
In fact, a recent industry study found that nearly 84 percent of cable operators surveyed believe that the overall quality of a user’s experience is the most important element in delivering an OTT/VoD service. To this end, operators need reliable data collection, accurate analytics and usable reporting in order to not only remain sustainable, but more importantly, to accelerate monetization opportunities.
OpenVault’s cloud-based analytics enables operators to understand consumer behaviors and to have turn-key solutions for taking action based on these analytics. For example, the powerful combination of right-sizing customers to appropriate bandwidth speeds alone has had a significant positive impact on revenues for operators.
Additionally, for those who have elected to use a usage based billing approach, they have been able to add to their revenues so that they can continue to invest in their networks and infrastructure ahead of the high consumer demand. As a result, these strategies have resulted in happier, more satisfied customers.
In real-number terms, evidence shows an immediate return as many OpenVault customers have enjoyed as much as three percent of subscribers upgrading their service within 90 days of deployment of OV’s services. This translates into increased ARPU (average revenue per unit) and more satisfied subscribers. Not only is the return on investment immediate for OpenVault customers but the technology allows operators to provide customers the visibility into their individual and household usage behavior, along with faster speeds and upgrades. In addition, this exposure enables operators to align the growing demand for data with growing, rather than stagnant, revenues.
As market trends strongly indicate, the growing demand for data is not slowing down. For example, in a recent OpenVault study of the effect of sports streaming on high speed data networks, OpenVault reported that there was an average increase of nearly 20% in data consumption across its global customer base during a live stream of a Sunday NFL game as compared to normal Sunday usage. This finding supports the idea that as more events are streamed live onto more household devices, subscribers will need to upgrade their speeds to support the bandwidth requirements.
In terms of a global market, United States domestic operators have been facing the ever-evolving OTT growth and data demand for some time. However, through the deployment of cost-efficient technologies such as OpenVault’s suite of products, operators have been able to provide robust consumer experiences, increase subscriber retention and realize monetization opportunities. Likewise, today European providers are beginning to experience a similar growth explosion in data demand and should anticipate the number of OTT services to double or more than double over the course of the next five years.
“The key to managing this growth and actually optimizing the financial rewards is to understand the traffic and have real world solutions based on the numbers, not the hype,” states OpenVault’s CEO Mark Trudeau. He continues, “In a data driven industry, there are a lot of statistics thrown around. However, for an operator’s bottom line, you need more than just reports. You need meaningful information and useful solutions.”
Supporting over 150 operators on 4 continents, OpenVault tracks data usage consumption levels for more than three million subscribers and helps broadband providers better manage their networks, saving time and costs while increasing revenue and subscriber satisfaction. Network operators use OpenVault’s easy-to-use tools to dramatically improve visibility into their networks and to automate management functions to proactively handle congestion, forecast network requirements and communicate with subscribers.
