Kantar Media’s audience measurement system, harnessing data from over a million set-top boxes, guides MultiChoice’s successful strategies to grow and retain subscribers, reduce churn, identify new prospects and increase advertising revenue
MultiChoice unlocks the power of operator data
Challenge
MultiChoice is Africa’s leading entertainment company and the biggest pay TV operator on the continent with over 21 million subscribers across 10 markets.
MultiChoice, Africa’s leading entertainment company, has expanded into new markets and is diversifying its portfolio to include over the top (OTT) and subscription (SVOD) streaming services. It has to meet the challenge of satisfying diverse subscriber needs and ensure it keeps ahead of the competition.
Approach
Since 2008, MultiChoice has partnered with Kantar Media to measure subscriber viewing behaviour. Ingesting the operator’s own data through the return path, Kantar Media measures over one million set-top boxes and devices each night, reporting activity daily on the DStv and GOtv platforms.
Since the service launched in 2010 it has expanded, now processing data overnight from 10 countries.
Insight
The primary use of the data is to track content preferences and performance across MultiChoice’s subscriber base and platforms.
Detailed viewing data drives the constant refinement of MultiChoice’s package offerings, ensuring it’s constantly enhancing the value perception of the offer.
Impact
The fact that the service has been in place for over a decade shows the value of the data to MultiChoice, and it’s as vital as ever in key business areas.
Viewer segmentation
Using the viewership data, MultiChoice generates a viewing segmentation across its user base. This fuels a content discovery programme based on content preference rather than just at a package or demographic level.
Optimising the balance of live and on-demand
MultiChoice knows which content customers prefer to view live rather than on demand. This allows it to deliver specific content based on customer preference and to optimise this across different platforms.
Expanding into new markets
Insights from the service have helped guide the expansion of MultiChoice into new African markets and allow the offer to be tailored appropriately by developing a successful ‘hyper-local’ strategy.
For MultiChoice, having a data partner that can provide global context on audience measurement development is essential, whilst using an external independent company to collect and verify the audience data has been vital for credibility
Morne Bosch-Serfontein, Group Chief Data Officer at MultiChoice:
“It’s very important for this data to be reliable, accurate and auditable. Our relationship with Kantar Media has solidified the fact that we can trust the data, and we can use it freely in the way, shape and form that we need to at MultiChoice.”