Next steps in super-aggregation: Bundling, discounting and streamer subs management
Connected TV World Summit 2025
Super-aggregation developed when pay-TV providers started to integrate streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+ into their user experience and make content across those easy to find alongside broadcast linear TV, broadcaster VOD and personal recordings.
Fast and easy content discovery has been the primary concern of super-aggregators, but now the focus is moving to what value an operator can offer beyond this. At Connected TV World Summit last week, it became clear that bundling/discounting and streaming subscription management are the answer.
Chris van der Linden, director of entertainment platforms at Liberty Global, noted that consumers regularly switch on and off streaming subscriptions, so a pay-TV provider should help them discover content that is “out there” but which they may not currently have access to (because they do not have the necessary subscription right now).
“We can help them understand what is the right package [of streaming app subscriptions] for them at the right time,” he suggested. Liberty Global is the pan-European pay-TV provider and telecoms company whose brands include Virgin Media O2 (a joint venture) and Telenet.
Van der Linden illustrated the point with a consumer who is offered the chance to take a different streaming subscription because a cycling documentary has appeared that they are expected to like. Meanwhile, with an understanding of the sports they already follow, the pay-TV operator could suggest the right package of streamers for this coming summer, he suggested.
At Sunrise, the Swiss telecoms group and pay-TV provider that was spun out of Liberty Global last year, consumers can find content they would like to see and are led to a streamer subscription offer if they require one, van der Linden added, when talking about entertainment more generally.
Alejandro Casal, senior TV product owner and business development at KPN, agreed that subscription management is now a value-add that a pay-TV operator can offer in its role as a super-aggregator, noting that we all talk to friends and family about what they are watching and may want to take a different subscription to binge the same content.
“As an operator, we have a role in enabling that by allowing ‘subscribe’ and ‘unsubscribe’ via the set-top box,” Casal said.
Discounting strategy
Brigita Brjuhhanov, TV product owner at Elisa, which operates mainly in Finland and Estonia, agreed that a super-aggregator must help viewers reach the large amount of content it has across the platform and ensure they are subscribing to the right services at the right time to guarantee access.
She also highlighted another key potential value-add for pay-TV operators: discounting content, including content from streaming services, within bundles.
Brjuhhanov noted that consumers have a historic expectation that pay-TV providers can offer discounts when they take more products (the classic bundling model), but they couldn’t phone Netflix to ask for money off. She believes pay-TV operators can give additional value to the market by bringing discounts to the streaming apps.
At the highest level of discounting, pay-TV platforms can even offer streaming apps free — especially when they are part of a telecoms company also offering broadband and mobile, helping them offset discounts against higher total average revenue per user.
Casal pointed to the KPN loyalty programme where, starting last month, customers can choose a free streaming service based on how many loyalty points they have accrued.
Customers taking both broadband and mobile from KPN can choose between Netflix’s basic tier and ESPN. If they also have four loyalty points, the choice extends to HBO Max and Disney+. If they have eight loyalty points, the Netflix standard tier becomes an option and Videoland premium is also added to the free menu options. ESPN holds rights to the Dutch first football division, Eredivisie, making this an especially compelling offer.
“You can change the streaming service each month,” Casal told the audience. “This is a good way to build on our conventional strengths as a mobile and broadband provider.”
Doing the ‘basics’
Before a pay-TV operator can benefit from offering these advanced super-aggregation capabilities, they must do the “basics” well — meaning removing as much friction as possible when getting consumers from start screen to the content they want (or do not yet know they want). That includes providing seamless access into the growing collection of subscription and free streamers that are onboarded to a platform.
In one example of what this looks like in practice, KPN is surfacing films that are found across the linear schedules (within the classic electronic programme guide grid) via a “rail” on the home screen. “There is a variety of content [on the KPN TV+ platform] within the programme guide that is not exposed, so we are picking that out and placing it alongside apps,” said Casal.
Roland Sars, CEO and co-founder of content discovery specialist Media Distillery, said TV platforms not only carry large volumes of content but have a daily refresh rate that is higher than VOD streaming services, making it even more important that people can find what they want quickly.
He argued that operators must find the ideal mix of content for a viewer regardless of whether it comes from linear schedules or on-demand catalogues, or whether it is long form or short form.
Last year, Media Distillery worked with Liberty Global on a proof of concept (PoC) that created a “fanzone”, where a viewer could find content related to their favourite sports, leagues, tournaments and clubs, offering a mix of live content and “shoulder” (related) programming like relevant documentaries or interviews with pundits.
The test involved a few thousand users and, when questioned afterwards, 70% said they saw content that they would usually leave the platform to find.
“They were accessing the same volume of content that was already on the platform,” Sars explained. “But the PoC showed that by surfacing the content [more effectively], you can increase important KPIs [key performance indicators].”
Media Distillery has a product called Topic Distillery for Sports that uses AI to analyse live programmes in real time to understand which teams and players are featured at any given moment. Sport is one example of how platform operators can gain new insights into unscripted programming where, even if there was detailed metadata, it could not predict which players would be interviewed.
Topic Distillery can also be used across other entertainment genres, like magazine-style programmes. The additional insights can become part of the total metadata a platform owner has — and this can also include metadata supplied by streamers about films and series in their apps.
Data and innovation
Van der Linden noted that his company wants to bring together all the right content at the right time and this means there is no attempt to classify content as long form or short form, but a desire to simply present content that will interest a viewer.
For Sars, the magic ingredient is data — and specifically an understanding of what viewers are watching and at which times of day, combined with improved insights about the content. That is one of YouTube’s strengths, he pointed out.
“They know what is at the heart of content and they know about the viewer, and that is what keeps us scrolling,” he declared. Sars believes there is an opportunity to generate fine-grain data about linear programming that creates a sticky environment for viewers.
Simon James, senior director for product marketing, media cloud services, at Synamedia, pointed out that the ability to innovate in user experience relies on device capabilities and requires that platform and streaming service user experiences are supported across a large number of devices.
He suggested that Synamedia’s Senza solution could make this easier through a device called the Senza Cloud Connector, which acts like an internet-enabled set-top box but removes all application and user experience rendering to the cloud.
Senza’s cloud platform hosts the HTML5 applications and the user experience behind the services that consumers see. These are delivered in real time, with zero rendering in the device itself. James argued that media companies can harness the power of graphics computing in the cloud to drive user interface improvements.
The panel was moderated by Anette Schaefer, CEO at EIT Culture & Creativity.