I believe hybrid monetisation models, particularly those incorporating advertisements, have emerged as a powerful solution. This approach makes it lighter for subscribers to move between services while still generating revenue. Disney+ exemplifies this strategy well, with a third of their subscribers now on the ad-supported tier, according to their latest investor call. This creates a subsidised model where consumers pay less while the company builds additional revenue streams through ads.

The second approach is bundling. It’s historically proven that when services are packaged together, customer retention improves. Many platform owners are positioning themselves to be a default subscription within a package, making it more difficult for users to leave the ecosystem. However, in order to maximise revenue, bundled products should belong to the same company.

I’m also seeing platforms explore a broader range of offerings, from premium to mobile-only plans, enabling more options for subscribers across different segments. This flexibility helps services capture various market segments while addressing economic pressures, especially in regions where consumers are struggling with rising costs.

AI has been fundamental to streaming platforms even before the current generative AI boom. Algorithmic activities like content recommendations, predictive analytics and personalisation have long been core to service optimisation and automation.

Today, this is expanding with natural language interactions. Smart TV penetration is increasing, with voice search-enabled remote controls allowing more intuitive communication between users and devices. Google is introducing Gemini across their devices, and various dongles enable homes with large language models that provide smart answers and direct users to the right application when prompted.

Netflix exemplifies how data-driven decision making impacts commercial outcomes. Early days, their recommendation engine improved their profitability by suggesting library content that cost them less to licence. Another innovative approach involves enabling users to preview content without watching entire programmes, with the ability to share these snippets on social media, potentially creating viral moments without requiring full content consumption.

The trend is now to unify KPIs across technology, commercial, growth and marketing teams. Any investment in technology should align with commercial KPIs, not just technical metrics like reduced buffering, but business outcomes like increased watch time.

Return on investment should be based on specific KPIs meaningful to the business. Companies can evaluate this through A/B testing, cohort analysis and predictive modelling. Additionally, decisions about scalability and standardisation often inform technology choices.

The challenge comes in maintaining focus on these metrics after implementation. It requires keeping track of features and extracting data associated with their impact, not just during testing but after full rollout. To maximise results, companies need to consistently assess the performance of technological improvements and be honest about whether they’ve changed user behaviour in ways that increase engagement and revenue. This ongoing measurement is sometimes difficult as teams move on to new priorities, but it’s essential for truly understanding ROI.