How Cleeng is Managing Churn and Subscriber Retention for NFL+
How Cleeng is Managing Churn and Subscriber Retention for NFL+
Top-tier strategies for Sports D2C success
Hey streamers 👋
Welcome to my “Tech Series”, dedicated articles analyzing tech companies, and how they can support the streaming industry in Middle East, North Africa and India. Expect in-depth reviews and expert insights, delivered straight to your inbox.
Today, I will show you how Cleeng, a SaaS platform specialising in Subscriber Retention Management for Media & Entertainment, is supporting the D2C App of the National Football League: NFL+ ↓
Today’s program
Do you really know the NFL?
How Cleeng is supporting NFL+
What Cleeng can bring to streaming in MENA
And… Action!
Do you really know the NFL?
The NFL, or National Football League, is where you’ll find top-tier American football. It’s made up of 32 teams, split between the AFC (American Football Conference) and the NFC (National Football Conference).
The NFL is huge in the U.S. and Canada, known for having the best of the best in American football.
Every year, the NFL season kicks off with a 3-week preseason in August. Then comes the main event: an 18-week regular season starting in early September and wrapping up in early January. Each team plays 17 games and gets one week off.
After the regular season, the excitement ramps up with the playoffs. Seven teams from each conference (4 division champs and 3 wild card teams) go head-to-head in a single-elimination tournament.
It all leads to the grand finale: the Super Bowl, held in February, where the AFC and NFC champions battle it out for ultimate glory.
Here is the map of the clubs from AFC & NFC:
Let’s now focus on their D2C streaming strategy:
Keeping up with the NFL's broadcast schedule can be a real headache. Even streaming services that carry NFL channels usually only show games that are in-market and prime-time.
This means if you're not in your favorite team's local area, you'll miss out on most of their games. It will also be challenging to watch “shoulder content”: interviews, analysis, documentaries, etc.
That's where NFL+ comes in.
This beefed-up version of the old NFL Game Pass lets you listen to every live NFL audio broadcast and watch game replays no matter where you are. You can even catch some live games.
NFL+ is only available in the United States. If you're outside the U.S., you can check out their Game Pass International, exclusively available on DAZN.
How Cleeng is supporting NFL+
Now, let's take a look at how Cleeng is managing churn and subscriber retention for NFL+. To understand this, we'll analyze the services they provide to the NFL's D2C platform:
ChurnIQ: Smart & predictive churn analysis
One of the key reasons the NFL chose Cleeng is their ability to limit churn with their service, Churn IQ.
Cleeng can quickly analyze subscriber data, identify churn risks, and segment subscribers based on behavior and preferences.
This enables the NFL to deliver targeted campaigns, including personalized offers, promotions or messaging.
Seasonal subscriptions
A major challenge for the NFL is dealing with their seasonal product, as subscribers tend to churn during the off-season.
Cleeng addresses this by offering and managing seasonal subscriptions tied to the football season's dates.
This way, customers won't need to re-register for the new season, their subscription will automatically renew
Hi5: Cloud based, AI enhanced customer care
Cleeng Hi5 can cut costs with efficient FAQs and tailored AI chatbot. The Hi5 team supports subscribers with a 24/7 service, from over 100 countries in 29 languages.
Ian Campbell, Senior Director of D2C Product at the NFL, highlighted the importance of robust customer service, praising Cleeng's dedicated Hi5 customer care suite: “Something that was very distinctive from Cleeng was their Hi5 customer service team, which we've come to rely on for more than just D2C.”
If you want to know more about Cleeng’s services, have a look at the article I wrote few weeks ago:
What Cleeng can bring to streaming in MENA
The NFL's strategy for its D2C offering, NFL+, is a valuable case study for other sports rights owners and content providers, especially in MENA where they can test the market et gather a community of local fans.
Here are the 4 main advantages I see from Cleeng and their SaaS model:
Time-to-market: A quick launch or migration possible thanks to the SaaS model.
Clear ROI: A clear pricing to predict returns on investment.
Flexibility: A flexible architecture featuring open APIs and over 35 connectors for seamless integration.
Scalability: Built to scale, capable of handling up to 48 million transactions every day.
Cleeng is already established in the region, supporting one of the top streaming service: TOD.
They already support them with their full Subscriber Retention Management suite in 22 countries, and started providing many payment options, improved analytics for quicker insights and advanced customer care.
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The Cleeng team is in Dubai for CABSAT 2024. The perfect opportunity to learn how you can future-proof your D2C streaming platform with their Subscriber Retention Management solution!
That’s all for today, how Cleeng is managing Churn and Subscriber Retention for NFL+. If you enjoyed this breakdown, please consider sharing it with your friends and colleagues.
This edition is part of my new “Tech Series”, dedicated articles analyzing tech companies, and how they can support the streaming industry in Middle East, North Africa and India. Expect in-depth reviews and expert insights, delivered straight to your inbox.
Read all the previous edition of The Streaming Lab here.
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