Hurdles to a 5-Star TV Everywhere App Review

Millions of people use TV Everywhere apps on iOS devices every day. Yet no TV Everywhere app has cracked the code to a 5-star rating in Apple’s App Store. For instance, the top 10 TV Everywhere iOS apps have ratings that range between 2 and 4.5 on a 5-point scale.

To identify how to get these ratings up, Adobe conducted an informal qualitative review of iOS TV Everywhere apps powered by Adobe authentication. The review was based on over 4,000 user reviews posted to Apple’s App Store between January 2015 and August 2016. It identified common pain points that users have with respect to ads, performance, usability, and login.

The infographic below shows how 80% of reviews mentioned a problem with ads. This research aligns with new survey data from Adobe, which reveals the most disliked attributes of online video ads and how to improve the video ad experience.

% of App Store Reviews Referencing Each Type of Pain Point

http://insights.adobeprimetime.io/

The infographic also shows that 70% mentioned a problem with performance, 40% mentioned a problem with usability, and 25% mentioned a problem with login. If a TV Everywhere app provider can optimize the ad experience while minimizing these other pain points, it can significantly increase the likelihood that new reviews will be 5-star reviews.

Ads, performance, usability, and login are just the broad categories of pain points. You can get detailed insights into the specific complaints that users have within these categories in Adobe Primetime’s online report, “Insights into TVE Apps.”

Here’s a short sampling of the user reviews included in the report:

“One episode, which I watched in four slices, required me to go through roughly 22 ads.”

“Every time a commercial comes on it plays perfectly. When the show comes back on it skips, lags, fast forwards, reverses, buffers just in time for the next commercial.”

“No way to resume if you have to stop?!?!?!”

“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.”

Overall, the “Insights into TVE Apps” report highlights the need for further research into the user experience across all TVE apps as well as within each app individually. It also empowers TVE app providers with the knowledge they need to begin to address these pain points and receive better reviews from users.

To learn more about how to provide a seamless login experience, visit the product page for Adobe Primetime authentication.