These insights should surface pain-points that all TVE Apps share, as per users reviews. Fixing these issues should be the first step in improving these applications and get them to deliver the experience that today’s users expect.
These insights represent an informal, qualitative review of iOS applications. It is based on over 4000 AppStore user reviews collected between January 2015 and August 2016.
Top 10 TVE iOS apps (as per Adobe Primetime authentication data) have been reviewed in this study.
Almost every app is criticized for a frustrating experience in regards to commercials:
It’s not that there are a lot it’s just that they are The Same! Constantly from show to show! And they are never not having to do with this channel.
I’m beginning to hate the stuff that’s advertised and therefore will never buy the stuff.
Advertising is one thing. Pummeling your viewers with the same content until they lunge for the remote to switch off the volume or leave the app completely is a whole different story.
Having to miss game coverage because of car ads is infuriating.
[…]One episode, which I watched in four slices, reuquired me to go through roughly 22 ads.
Because of ads and technical issues users often end up spending almost double the duration of the show to actually watch it.
My wifi always has three bars so I don’t know why the heck it keeps freezing and reloading.
Every time a commercial comes on it plays perfectly. When the show comes back on it skips, lags, fast forewards, reverses, buffers just in time for the next commercial.
“It is constantly crashing (every 5 minutes) and then it freezes my iPad for a couple more minutes. I have to exit the app, reload it, find my game and sit through more commercials before I can actually see the game again and then the cycle repeats.
Interface Design, Features, Flows
No way to resume if you have to stop?!?!?!
Scrubbing on the time bar for a two hour show, just to go back a few seconds, is a hopeless endeavor. Especially since the darn controls fade out after a few secons.
Searched for a show and it randomly selected episodes but not episode 2. After wsting my time with an ad ridden episode one, wasted ten minutes trying to find episode 2. Gave up, uninstalling this junk. Will watch the show on Netflix if it ends up there.
I have to login after every time I open the app and after every crash. I’ve logged in more than I’ve been able to watch.
I have a special needs eight year old, […]it was frustrating for our child when we had to re-log in every time he wanted to watch.
I never write reviews for apps unless they’re really horrible…and this is it. Can’t you just remember that I’ve already signed in? It’s called a token. Save the token.
It is amazing how TVE Apps have become extremely important in people’s lives. Also, it’s great to see the level of quality they expect from TVE apps. It shows that people genuinely care about these apps.
TVE apps are now replacing conventional TV
These high quality expectations are raising the stakes sky high for every actor in the TV ecosystem, adding to the challenge of pushing the industry forward into the digital era.
Viewers are expecting personalized ads delivered acording to the content they watch and their interests. They also expect as little of them as possible and delivered without issues in performance. We can help.
Users are expecting seamless transitions, no freezing, no buffering.
We know that this is not always totally in your control, however it can drastically be improved through a better implementation with the TVE infrastructure.
Contact us for more details.
Users are expecting easy to use and personalised, interactive experiences from their TVE apps. While this is certainly not as easy as it sounds, it should become a prioritary focus. You can find some useful information in the CTAM Guidelines.
Users are expecting to sign in as rarely as possible. We recommend working with your MVPD to address TTL configurations.
In the meantime, we at Adobe Primetime are also working hard to ensure the TVE platform continuous uptime and error-free environment.
Contact us for more details.