By: Olivier Jorda 

Pay TV providers were once the 800-pound gorillas of the media industry. Not only did they deliver television content via cable, satellite, and telephone lines, but they were also the primary aggregators of content, including basic and premium channels and pay-per-view. The dramatic rise of nimble over-the-top (OTT) content providers such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video has challenged this dominance, cutting into revenue and threatening growth. In order to remain relevant to consumers, traditional pay TV providers must deploy new technologies to overcome their disadvantages and meet customer expectations for ease and convenience. A combination of IOT, AI, mobile, chatbot, modern customer management—including best-of-breed field service—and remote video support can help pay TV providers deliver next-gen digital home services.

The Challenge : Burdened by Legacy Service Models

Pay TV operators face many challenges in this new competitive environment, including the expansive infrastructure that includes the “last mile” of service connecting consumers to the content they want to watch. As digital-native OTT competitors piggyback onto this complex infrastructure, they benefit from this relationship in numerous ways. They are not burdened by the need to invest in infrastructure such as Wi-Fi or set-top-box (STB) technology, or armies of field service agents. And they are essentially immune to consumer satisfaction issues related to media infrastructure. This makes them nimble, agile, and transportable, and they can be far more consumer-centric. By comparison, many pay TV operators are in the basement when it comes to customer satisfaction ratings. According to the 2018 American Customer Satisfaction Index’s (ACSI) Telecommunications Report, the overall score for subscription television services dropped to an 11-year low of 62 out of 100 points, while streaming services achieved a score of 75 overall.

The Solution : Leverage a Combination of IOT and AI — to Understand and Serve Customer

Despite the low ratings, customer service is expensive for pay TV providers, which rely on telephone representatives and field agents to address issues such as equipment installation or malfunction. What providers need is a way to offer efficient service that is convenient for the customer. The answer lies in leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, and other self-service technologies to interact with customers on an individual level.

One use case involves a step-by-step, chatbot-assisted self-service installation of the set-top-box, with the option to connect to a remote live video with a support agent when needed. Another is issue monitoring: When a technical issue arises requiring service, the customer receives an alert via mobile app and is prompted to start the troubleshooting chatbot. The chatbot describes the issue and requests confirmation via app diagnostics. From there, the bot offers options for booking a field service visit, dispatches the agent, provides the customer with an ETA, and assists the agent in resolving the issue on site. A third use case might be proactive monitoring through predictive detection of set-top-box failure, in which the customer receives replacement equipment possibly before even being aware of a problem. The result is a seamless experience that delivers increased consumer satisfaction, promotes loyalty leading to higher revenue per consumer, and reduces churn.

Digital Home Service (DHS) is a new cloud-based Oracle solution for set-top-box and service-intensive pay TV operators to deliver superior service to consumers. DHS combines emerging technologies such as Oracle IOT, artificial intelligence (AI), mobile, chatbot, and remote video support with modern digital customer management to deliver the next generation of digital home service capabilities.

DHS automation frees up time for customer service and field services employees to focus on high-value tasks while providing a scalable solution based on proven Oracle Cloud technologies to reduce cost-to-serve.

Read more about this blog on the Wall Street Journal Partners page.

Learn more about Oracle Digital Home Service.

Learn more about Oracle IoT SaaS Apps.

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