Interactive streaming sounds great on the face of it -- lean-forward experiences offer levels of engagement that passive viewing can't compete with. However, according to Parks Associates' Jennifer Kent, survey data reveals that consumers have privacy concerns, don't want their shows interrupted, and voice other likes and dislikes regarding interactive streams. Meanwhile, Bulldog DM's John Petrocelli discusses what is working with interactive live streams and predicts new revenue opportunities will ignite much more activity in the interactive streaming space in this discussion with Ring Digital's Brian Ring at Streaming Media Connect 2024.

Ring asks Kent to talk about what Parks Associates has found to be the chief concerns of consumers regarding interactive programming.

"When we're asking consumers what they think about interactive TV experiences, we certainly want to understand [their concerns]," Kent says. "What's their fear? What's their concern? The number one thing is the privacy and security of their personal data and also payment information. So, we're talking about commercial experiences here. You're trusting perhaps a new entity with your payment information. A lot of these subscription services already have your billing information, so there are some services that you're already trusting there, but how is that [new] payment going to work?"

Kent also emphasizes viewers' concerns over interactive features disrupting their viewing experience. "36% said they are concerned about that," she says. "You've got to make it something that is additive, complementary, and does not compete for attention. And so I think that we're going to learn a lot from the initial engagements here about what works, what's too much, and different consumers are going to have different sensitivities to it. So the ability to have something where it's intuitive to find, but not [something that you] necessarily see all the time."

Petrocelli of Bulldog DM discusses why Netflix has opened the gates for a newly competitive live-streaming marketplace.

"If you recall, I think it was two years ago, Ted Sarandos made this pretty stark comment: 'Hey, we're not anti-sports, we're pro-profit.' And they went on to power things like the Chris Rock comedy show, the Love is Blind finale, and the Tom Brady Roast. And I would wager that Netflix probably said, 'Wow, we're getting pretty interesting tune-ins to these experiences, and people are watching for an eye-popping amount of time. Why not go in and get into bigger sports plays?' So now it's the WWE once a week and two NFL games on Christmas."

Petrocelli continues, "So I think a pretty interesting business is unfolding at that company. I also read that 70 million ad-supported users are now on that particular tier. And live video opens up a multitude of possibilities for any content platform. You've got the opportunity to do customer acquisition and customer loyalty further so that they can now drive revenue. I expect to see similar thoughts happening across platforms like Apple and Disney. Hulu's already doing a couple of major music festivals in partnership with Live Nation. So I think we'll see a lot more of that happening."