"I've had conversations with DirecTV, who said they are reluctant to spend money marketing a free service," said Brett Sappington, director-research at Parks Associates, a market-research and consulting firm. "They only have 30 seconds; why not use the money instead to promote a paid service that drives revenue?"
Similarly, instead of embarking on a broad marketing campaign, Verizon is promoting multiscreen services only to those who use Flex View (its VOD service) because Flex View users are more likely to take advantage of TV Everywhere, Mr. Sappington said. But those who are not Verizon subscribers, and even some who are, may not know about its TV Everywhere offerings.
"The ability to follow our FiOS customers to view their content anywhere is, and will continue to be, a major focus for us from a product rollout and marketing standpoint in 2012 and through 2013," said Heather Wilner, a spokeswoman for Verizon.
DirecTV contends that it is marketing TV Everywhere heavily to existing subscribers, but concedes its primary focus is on those products that are revenue drivers and exclusive to DirecTV, such as Sunday Ticket, according to Jon Gieselman, senior VP-marketing, advertising and public relations at DirecTV.
Dish Network has chosen not to invest in marketing its TV Everywhere service, focusing instead on brand campaigns and advertising the Hopper (a set-top box that can record prime-time broadcasts and play back recordings sans commercials), said spokesman Aaron Johnson. "Set-top boxes offer so much opportunity," he said. "TV Everywhere is just one of the many things you can do with the Hopper."
It's hard to quantify the value of TV Everywhere for multiple-system operators since there are no real incremental revenue opportunities when it comes to getting subscribers to use it.
"How do you know you've won against Netflix? It's difficult to measure, and telcos are all about measuring to determine success," Mr. Sappington said.
Only about 20% of U.S. pay-TV customers are aware they have TV Everywhere available to them, and just half of those actually use the service, according to a consumer survey released in June by Parks Associates.
From the article, "The Universal Problem With TV Everywhere" by Jeanine Poggi.
