7plus adds new content and ad options for summer viewing
The Seven Network’s 7plus platform has announced its line up of content for the summer, and new opportunities for advertisers to get closer to its viewers.
7plus has led the BVOD market according to Oztam data, with 41.5% of commercial free-to-air BVOD so far this year. This is closely followed by 9Now on 41.3%, while 10play on sits at 17.2%.
The BVOD market has shown strong growth this year according to Seven West Media chief digital officer, Gereurd Roberts, as Australians find themselves spending more time at home.
“New digital behaviours have been formed during 2020. Streaming is now a natural pastime,” he said. “Over the summer people are going to have even more time at home and they are going to be looking for content. We understand our users which is why we are launching new and exclusive shows across the summer period to consolidate and extend our position.”
Roberts said that the 7plus growth and success could be attributed to the ambition of James Warburton, CEO of Seven West Media, to put a focus on the streaming product alongside broadcast.
“First and foremost the strategy is to drive the consumption of minutes across all streams, and then to maximise the monetisation of those minutes,” said Roberts. “More than 50% of the minutes consumed on 7plus come from non-broadcast content, so it is not a catch-up service, it is a genuine streaming product.”
While at present users are only required to be signed-in for premium content access, Roberts said that before the end of the year, all users would be required to be signed in.
“User registration is incredibly important, we need and want to continue to grow that, it’s at the heart of our first party data strategy,” he said.
The platform has seen an 86% year-on-year growth in registered users, and now has more than five million. To continue that uptick, 7plus will be providing new features to users going forward.
“We have put a lot of work into understanding our audiences, and that has driven the features that we have put into the platform,” said Roberts.
User registration provides 7plus with the ability to tailor advertising and provide more detailed audience data. To capitalise on this Seven launched an audience intelligence platform called 7REDiQ, which fuses the networks data with second party data, such as Ticketek and credit card providers. “This combined with the new ad products has driven revenue growth, which is critical alongside the minutes growth,” added Roberts.
The line-up for the summer includes Grey’s Anatomy spin-off Station 19, 90’s favourites Ally McBeal, Dawson’s Creek, 90210 and The Big C, and Holey Moley, which tees off early next year.
7plus will also launch a series of ‘collections’, including summer movies, leading ladies, bingeworthy boxsets and more. For logged-in audiences this will be coupled with fewer ads the longer they spend on the platform. Meanwhile advertisers will be offered collection sponsorships, and sponsorships of digital tentpoles and digital exclusives.
The platform is also looking at a long term shoppable commerce solution for audiences. “Allowing consumers to act and move from inspiration to transaction, that is something we have a lot of interest in, and that strategy is going to be key for us as we move forward,” said Roberts. “We know from research and feedback that audiences drive inspiration out of content, and no one has closed the loop on allowing an audience to act on that inspiration.
“Providing the ability to allow someone to shop the items off the screen is the first stage of our approach, and that raises the possibility of all sorts of partners, retail and payment.”
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Olivia Kruimel is the managing editor at Mumbrella. She has more than 15 years of experience in journalism, communications and marketing. Her journalism career began at Fairfax Media (now part of Nine) and includes various B2B publications such as B&T, Travel Today and ALB. As a marketer Olivia has worked for Standard Chartered and various global law firms.
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