The proliferation of OTT platforms brought with it an increase in the digital offer that, from the user’s perspective, becomes impossible to cover, and often causes the so-called ‘decision or subscription fatigue’.
The streaming titans have been joined in recent years by hundreds of local, niche, and public platforms, and now also FAST channels, turning an activity that should rest on entertainment, such as consuming audiovisual content, into a tedious and exhausting task. This is where a key player appears: the super-aggregators.
A good example is the British platform ScreenHits TV, which has already begun its roll-out in Asia, betting on the Indian market, and which allows the user to centralize the management of their subscriptions. From the user’s point of view, it allows them to find the content they want regardless of the platform they are on, through a unified search engine, but also to discover new content, associated with their preferences and tastes, and access packages and discounts.
«With hundreds of streaming services available and a number of AVOD channels appearing, the consumer has too many options and often gets lost in the wide range of content, which creates subscription fatigue and content overload,» says its CEO Rose Adkins Hulse adding: ‘The app helps simplify the viewing experience and, unlike traditional cable solutions, customers can select their channels and subscriptions, paying only for the channels they really want to watch instead of contributing monthly. to the channels they never watch’.
Another example is the Polish platform VOD.PL, which has been retrofitted to add a super-aggregation feature and provides a guide showing what content is available on other OTT providers. The initial release of the «What to Watch» feature additionally features content from HBO GO, Player.pl, Polsat Box, Filmbox+, Netflix, OnetVideo, PrimeVideo, with more providers to be included as they are released. In the future, the «What to See» guide will provide an automated recommendation engine, editorial and social media features. This is the first platform to offer super-aggregation features in Poland, which improves user experience and OTT content discovery.
For José Daniel Gómez, General Manager of Tigo, when it comes to this oversupply, it is the consumer who has the last word. ‘You have money available to contract products, with so much offer there is a saturation of content. In the future, the client will concentrate much more and make decisions to choose which applications to consume. That’s why I think super-aggregation is going to consolidate’
To this we must add that it offers new business opportunities to those who are looking for alternatives and tools, such as catch up, but also to cover new niches. «The added value is having an ecosystem where there is a bit of everything,» Roger Quintin, GM and Director of Dish.
Nayura Rojas, Deputy VP of Entertainment at AT& T, indicates that ‘the main phenomenon is being able to enable the user what he wants, we are reaching the hyper-personalization service; The first thing we are looking for is to add third-party applications so that they add attractiveness to our offer’. «The ease of subscription is something that we work very closely with our partners, to make a better experience for our users.»
