Operators Look For TV Everywhere To Live Up to Its Name; Improvements could significantly transform the viewing experience for consumers

AFTER A SLUGGISH START, the multichannel TV industry has been aggressively working to improve user adoption of its TV Everywhere apps, with more aggressive marketing campaigns to boost awareness, greatly expanded content, and newer technologies to improve the user experience.
Many of these efforts, which are expected to pick up more speed in 2015, reflect jitters about the future of the multichannel TV industry. With rapidly growing use of video on mobile devices by younger viewers, the research company SNL Kagan is reporting that the number of homes that use over-the-top (OTT) services as their primary way of accessing video has jumped from 2.5 million in 2010 to 6.8 million in 2014.
To lure cord cutters back into the fold and keep existing subscribers happy, operators began trialing TV Everywhere (TVE) offerings in 2009, with the idea that they would eventually make all the content in the typical cable, satellite or telco multichannel bouquet available on PCs, smartphones, tablets and other digital devices.
WHY THIS MATTERS
The industry needs to make significant improvements in TV Everywhere offerings if it hopes to effectively compete with over-the-top services.
But problems with the user experience, limited marketing and delays in negotiating programming rights significantly hampered consumer interest. “A year ago, only 20% of people were aware that they had the capabilities of TV Everywhere as part of their cable subscription,” says John Lansing, president and CEO of the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM). “So we kicked off a major effort to change that.”
What’s In a Name?
As programmers and operators worked with CTAM to improve the user experience and marketing for TVE, the industry also made signifcant progress in expanding its offerings. “If you look across the industry, every programmer has really embraced some form of TV Everywhere,” says Matthew Strauss, senior VP/ GM of video services for Comcast Cable. “We now have about 30% penetration of our video base [of subscribers] using TV Everywhere on a monthly basis. The average viewer is spending close to 7 hours a month, which is up 45% from a year ago and is continuing to grow.”
High-profle events such as the Olympics and the World Cup have helped, but other usage has been climbing as well. “After the record numbers in June ESPN had with the World Cup, we were wishing things like that would happen more often,” says Ryan Spoon, ESPN senior VP of digital product development. “But we’ve been very pleased to see that we’ve managed to carry those people from June and July into September with football, which was another record month by a significant margin.”
Several outside studies detail similar progress. Ad technology provider FreeWheel offers in its latest Video Monetization Report that authenticated ad viewing jumped 368% in the frst half of 2014 compared to 2013. Data from Adobe shows video starts of authenticated content jumped 388% in the second quarter of 2014 compared to the same period a year earlier. “Both awareness and usage are increasing,” says Kelash Kumar, group product manager, Adobe Primetime.
But much more work remains to be done, particularly in the area of authentication. Josh Cogswell, senior VP of multiplatform product at Viacom, says they hope to see widespread adoption of a system that would allow subscribers to view TV Everywhere content inside their homes without having to log in.
“It is so easy to sign into Netflix and Amazon,” he says. “The industry is really doing itself a disservice if we can’t make it just easy to sign into your cable or satellite provider.”

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