By Stuart Thomson

Network operators see TV as a key part of their product bundle but many face challenges and are unsatisfied with the technology solutions they use, according to a survey by tech vendor Green Streams.

Among the 3,000 industry experts consulted by the report’s authors, on a scale of one to 10, close to 90 per cent of participants rate the importance of TV in the upper half of three scale while over 89 per cent see it has having high importance with a score of at least seven. Over half of respondents see TV as having very high importance with a score of nine or 10.

Three out of four operators bundle their IPTV and entertainment products with other services such as broadband access.

Operators believe bundling supports new customers acquisition, with 53 per cent citing this as the reason. Increasing ARPU, cited by 38 per cent, and reducing churn, cited by 29 per cent, were also important. Respondents believe that churn among customers with TV as well as broadband is considerably lower than for standalone broadband customers.

Opinions are more mixed in relation to the threat posed by OTT, with 50 per cent of respondents rating the threat as five or higher on a scale of one to 10. Some 29 per cent said the threat was rated seven or above, with 8 per cent placing it at nine or 10.

Netflix is still seen as presenting the greatest threat, followed by Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video.

For the majority of respondents, defending market share and customer retention was the key priority for TV products, cited by 35 per cent. Increasing market share was cited by 26 per cent. Relatively few respondents were looking at prioritising a rollout to new platforms and devices, cited by 15 per cent, with moving towards IP and OTT technology seen as a key priority only by 11 per cent.

Despite the importance placed on TV, participants were highly negative about their existing technical infrastructure. The majority said they would not recommend their existing IPTV/OTT set-up or platform. The aggregated net promoter score for technical infrastructure and platforms from European network operators in the survey was -19. The negative NPS resulted from almost half of operators aligning as ‘detractors’ when it comes to promoting their technical infrastructure, with 22 per cent counting as ‘passive’ and only 29 per cent counting themselves as promoters.

Operators were concerned about time to market, with 32 per cent citing this a s a key challenge. Having an inflexible platform was cited as a challenge by 28 per cent. The complex systems landscape was cited by 28 per cent and having an inflexible platform was cited by 24 per cent.

Operators are looking for innovation, particularly in the area of new devices and technologies, personalised recommendation and data-driven upselling, as well as user engagement, the survey found.