Synamedia has debuted a new offering the company says can help service providers identify password sharing among subscribers and turn the problem into a revenue-generating opportunity.
Credential sharing has become a growing concern among pay TV operators, and Parks Associates forecasts password sharing will cost the industry nearly $9.9 billion in revenues in 2021.
Synamedia’s Credentials Sharing Insights tool allows operators to integrate a credentials sharing policy engine with its subscriber database and identify who is sharing and where. For example, the tool can distinguish if a user is watching at home or at a vacation home, or if the account is being shared with friends or relatives that live far away.
When certain activity is flagged or an account’s sharing score surpasses a predefined level, specific policies can be applied. For an example, an action to upsell where the subscriber is offered a premium shared account services that allows a pre-authorized level of password sharing and more concurrent streams.
Synamedia says it helps marketing teams tread the line between identifying account sharers and bothering a customer.
In addition to casual password sharing, the offering can also help detect and shut down large-scale for-profit credential sharing accounts.
The product uses AI, behavioral analytics, and machine learning to monitor and analyze credentials sharing, with a real-time dashboard that highlights suspicious activity.
“Casual credentials sharing is becoming too expensive to ignore. Our new solution gives operators the ability to take action. Many casual users will be happy to pay an additional fee for a premium, shared service with a greater number of concurrent users. It’s a great way to keep honest people honest while benefiting from an incremental revenue stream,” said Jean Marc Racine, CPO and GM EMEA of Synamedia.
Synamedia’s Credentials Sharing Insight platform is available as a cloud or on-premise offering. Synamedia says it’s already trialing the tool with a number of pay TV operators, and will be hosting demos at CES next month.
