Recommendations to drive 75% of TV viewing

Within the next 10 years recommendation-based program guides will ultimately drive 75% of all TV viewing, according to The Diffusion Group (TDG).

The research firm’s ‘The Recommendation Revolution – The Future of Recommendation-Driven Guides, 2016-2025’ report said that recommendation-driven guides will flourish in the coming decade, with the usefulness of the grid guide diminishing as TV Everywhere becomes more popular.

TDG also said that paid recommendations will grow, giving multichannel video programming distributors (MPVDs) a valuable additional revenue stream and networks a new way to promote their programming.

“The old-school grid guide no longer works for today’s viewer. By introducing a recommendation-based program guide, MVPDs can bring their interfaces in line with those of SVoD services like Netflix,” said TDG senior analyst, Alan Wolk.

“Close to half of all TV viewing now occurs on a time-shifted basis rendering live network schedules increasingly immaterial. Operators must move beyond the grid and create an interface that reflects today’s viewing behaviour.”

“Recommendation-based guides will deliver a vastly improved and personalised customer experience, which in turn improves subscriber satisfaction and retention, allowing viewers to better navigate the flood of content now available from linear, VOD, DVR, and streaming to find the shows they want to watch.”