Backscreen and NPAW bring next-gen video analytics to online video providers in the Baltics

Norberts Osītis
CEO 

#VideoAnalytics, #Npaw, #FashionTV, #LatvianTelevision 

THE NEED FOR PURPOSE-BUILT VIDEO ANALYTICS 

A good amount of online video providers in the Baltics still rely on Google Analytics to keep track of content consumption and video playback performance. However, while Google Analytics is great at helping content owners understand how users get to a website and how they navigate it — i.e. what content they click on, or how they get from one page to another — its video-related analytics capabilities stop once the user hits the “play” button. 

Online video providers need an analytics tool that, in addition to providing audience insights such as geolocation and user type, can track how viewers behave during the video play as well as the quality of the video’s playback. They need to understand how long the video took to start, if the user experienced drops in quality, or at what point throughout the video a viewer dropped off. 

As a dedicated video streaming analytics tool, the NPAW Suite is built around events directly affecting the viewing experience. It starts where the Google Analytics tool ends to give content providers full visibility into their streaming platform, allowing them to make more informed decisions to optimize their streaming experience, content curation, and purchasing. 

A FLEXIBLE MULTI-TENANT VIDEO ANALYTICS SOLUTION 

These were exactly the kinds of functionalities that Backscreen wanted to make available to their customers in the Baltics, so, in 2021, the company started working with NPAW to integrate the NPAW Suite’s video analytics into its cloud video platform and services offering. Thanks to NPAW’s multi-tenant approach, Backscreen customers have direct access to the NPAW Suite via their own child account to monitor its audience behavior and playback performance. 

Equipped with NPAW’s video analytics, customers like Lsm.lv can get reliable end-user insights in real time. The team at Lsm.lv can test assumptions regarding the portal’s audience’s content preferences and use that information to design a more engaging content experience. They can also monitor playback issues like buffering or in-stream crashes and mitigate them before they affect a larger portion of the user base. 

“With NPAW’s tool, we get comprehensive data insights, from what types of videos are more relevant to our users to the optimum length of videos. AI alerts help us detect streaming errors as they arise and troubleshoot them proactively and with minimal resources.” 

Voldemars Olins, LTV’s Lsm.lv director 

Another Backscreen customer, the international fashion and lifestyle broadcasting television channel FashionTV, integrated NPAW’s video analytics into its apps’ video player in 2021. Since then, FashionTV uses the tool to monitor content consumption and derive actionable insights to improve its content strategy and maximize its advertising revenue. Although FashionTV relies on a third-party ad server for its ad insertion and analytics needs, its teams can use NPAW’s audience behavior insights to identify prime advertising slots and high-engagement content. 

“The NPAW suite lets us take the pulse of our audience’s content preferences and behavior. We can see in real time what content our viewers favor and how they interact with it, and we can then use that information to design a more engaging and profitable content and advertising strategy.” 

Yuri Aleksandrov, VP of R&D at FashionTV 

There is a tendency for content owners in the Baltics to use tracking tools like Genius or Google Analytics to monitor video events, but the truth is that you cannot compare them with the NPAW Suite. NPAW’s tool not only provides clients with video analytics but it also allows to combine it with application, ads, or user retention analytics to gain visibility into the entire user journey. But, most importantly, the real-time data insights, user-friendly UI, and advanced filtering capabilities of the NPAW Suite are some the key reasons why Backscreen recommends it and why customers choose to use the NPAW Suite. 

RESULTS 

Equipped with NPAW’s video analytics, Backscreen customers like Lsm.lv, the web portal of Latvian Television (LTV), and FashionTV can get a clear picture of their platform’s audience and streaming quality, as well as leverage those insights to optimize their content strategy and quality of experience, resulting in higher user engagement and lower churn.