Single Sign-On for TV Everywhere Drives Record Viewing Numbers

Adobe Stock / daviles

Adobe Primetime developed single sign-on (SSO) functionality for TV Everywhere (TVE) to make it easier for pay-TV subscribers to watch their favorite shows online. This improvement to the TVE user experience also provides a clear benefit to broadcasters, cable networks, and pay-tv operators. It removes the friction associated with signing onto TVE sites and apps. As a result, viewers consume more video content.

SSO improves the traditional TVE sign-on experience, which required users to re-enter credentials every 30 days, on average, to access each individual app on each connected device. In the past, each time a TVE viewer encountered a sign-on prompt, the chances of a successful log-in were only 56 percent. In many cases, viewers were simply unwilling to search for their pay-TV credentials, or unaware that they existed in the first place. Thus, as TVE providers have adopted SSO to decrease sign-on requirements, the improved user experience has boosted TVE consumption significantly.

Across the industry, distributors including DirecTV and Dish have already enabled SSO on streaming platforms like Roku and across Android and Apple device ecosystems. These efforts are paying off.

Adobe data from September 2017 shows a new record in TVE consumption.

• Authenticated video starts have grown 46 percent year-over-year, reaching 500 million.
• Authenticated TVE viewers are up 25 percent year-over-year, at 20.45 million uniques.
• Up to 45 percent of authentications are happening via SSO, at an individual platform level.

TVE growth will continue as Adobe continues to roll out a multi-phase plan for SSO.

• In phase one, Adobe worked with platform providers and media companies to enable SSO across multiple apps, on the same device. This improved experience allows viewers to sign-on with their pay-TV credentials on a device such as Roku and then navigate from one TVE app to another, on the same device, without having to sign-on again.
• In phase two, Adobe is rolling out SSO across all devices. Once enabled, viewers will only be required to sign-on one time, on any device, to easily access all TVE apps across their desktop, mobile, and OTT devices. This represents a significant evolution of the TVE user experience. Today, this cross-device SSO functionality has already been enabled within specific operating systems like iOS, tvOS, and Roku OS.