Crowdtesting in the broadcasting and media industry
Increased viewer numbers, global audiences, and high demand for quality – these are only a few things broadcasters and media companies must deal with these days.
“It’s a real pleasure working with Testbirds. They have helped us to vastly increase our test coverage with various user configurations and devices. Their international presence in our key markets, along with their integration with our existing tools and adaptation to our processes, make them a good match for Qobuz.”
Read case study"The research carried out by Testbirds proved our instincts were right with a combination of invaluable anecdotal and quantitative data. The process was clear and the team at Testbirds provided useful feedback and advice throughout."
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Ensuring consistent, fast, and reliable experiences
Changing expectations, new media technologies, more platforms and devices, the need to create variable content (from long-form to snackable), and even being social and mobile-friendly, are just some of the challenges facing the media and broadcasting industry. Creating digital solutions that cater to diverse needs, deliver positive experiences, and work on an ever-increasing range of devices is essential to stay competitive.
Ensuring this happens is no easy task. You need to know that your solutions work in real-world conditions every time a user wants them.
Show moreCustomers, whether a family using a streaming subscription to watch their favorite shows, a sports enthusiast using a PPV service to watch the latest game, or a business receiving on-demand educational services, all expect an immediate and seamless service.
Not only must the solutions work with a range of devices and operating systems, but they also have to provide a consistently positive customer experience. Is there too much latency? Does the user interface make sense and is it intuitive? Are there appropriate parental and/or user controls? Is your sign-up process simple and secure?
Being certain that your device works in various environments with diverse users and multiple devices is extremely important. As is knowing whether it provides a wonderful experience.
Getting this right can help ensure your viewers stay tuned to your channel.
Show lessCrowdtesting fixes issues behind the scenes
Our crowdtesting solutions are based on our years of experience in testing digital solutions for multiple industries, including broadcasting and media. By taking an in-depth consulting approach, we help develop crowdtesting solutions, such as OTT testing, that perfectly fit any need, whether it’s ensuring your product’s streaming quality is second-to-none, that it delivers the highest possible resolution, that usability issues are discovered, or even to simply see if people enjoy using it.
By thoroughly testing your digital products and their features in real-world conditions with our carefully selected testers, we can help you develop solutions that your customers will love.
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This includes making sure that your solution does what is expected, regardless of the device or operating system that they are using.
A significant advantage Testbirds has is the ability to source from our 1,000,000+ crowdtesters in 193 countries to find the ideal people with the exact devices that you want to test with. They can download your app, open a streaming subscription, and use your solution under hugely diverse conditions to ensure it works as intended.
You can then receive detailed usability feedback and insights into actual consumer behavior to ensure that your digital products are secure, accessible, and optimized.
Our Crowd can also test any digital solution to help ensure that it’s correctly translated, customized, and localized to best fit the region(s) you want to do business in – anywhere in the world. Crowdtesting is an essential tool to let you create a truly seamless, user-friendly, and consistent viewing experience.
Show lessUse Cases: Real viewers, solid reviews
You don’t want your visitors moving on because of latency issues, bugs, or any number of usability issues. Their experience should be great at every step – from setting up an account, paying for specific content, and viewing it.
By using a variety of crowdtesting services our impartial and diverse testers can gather unbiased feedback on what works, what doesn’t, and where things can be improved, well before your actual customers use your solutions. Check out some of our use cases.
Our ability to source crowdtesters with over 1 million devices enabled us to test a streaming service’s subscription functionality across numerous platforms, operating systems, and devices.
When you’re a streaming service, the one thing that has to work perfectly is the subscription experience. But when your solution is global and installable on multiple OS, device and payment variations, how can you efficiently test for all contingencies?
This was the challenge that a global sports streaming service set us when testing the core experiences of their pay-per-view (PPV) service and subscription functionality. After sourcing multiple testers to access their pay-per-view service via their website (with Mac and PC), on their mobile app (iOS and Android), and a variety of devices, including gaming consoles and smart TVs, we then tested against three user experience scenarios:
- How everything worked when new customers bought a PPV and a subscription.
- What happened with existing customers when purchasing a PPV as an addon, and
- The experience when a user canceled their subscription after buying the PPV.
All of which included using both direct and third-party payment methods.
Ultimately, throughout their subscription journey, our crowdtesters were able to discover a range of device-specific bugs and issues with different subscription types (monthly, yearly, etc.). By taking the testing out-of-house, our client was able to quickly discover problems that would have been difficult to find with limited internal resources (and lack of devices) – or by using their existing customers to discover them (which would have resulted in negative experiences).
Using testers throughout the world, we ran through our client’s complete sign-up and paid subscription service flows, checking for bugs, usability issues, and payment errors.
There’s no doubt that the entire customer journey needs to be highly personalized and seamless. Especially when it comes to how payments and subscriptions are handled.
For a television sports network, this was what they wanted to test with their website.
With crowdtesters from Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, and Denmark (using a mix of Windows and Mac PCs and Laptops), we took a closer look at their sign-up process and paid subscription service flow by conducting an Exploratory Bug Test on their site.
An important aspect of the testing was that our client wanted to provide some incentives for customers to remain if they canceled their subscriptions.
After being told which payment method and subscription type to use (monthly or annual), each tester was assigned one of five different scenarios:
- Cancel subscription with no further action
- Cancel subscription and then take up the offer to renew the subscription with the same original payment method
- Cancel subscription and then take up the offer to renew the subscription with a new payment method
- Cancel subscription and then take up an email offer to renew the subscription using the original payment method
- Cancel subscription and then take up an email offer to renew the subscription using a new payment method.
Each test then took a detailed look at what happened at every stage of the cancellation process and when any redemption offer was activated.
Not only did the results provide a clear view of what was working and where there were issues, it helped our client further optimize their site’s usability to provide a better overall experience.
We conducted remote interviews on our client’s new mobile website to provide direct, unbiased feedback on usability and the entire user experience.
While content might be king, usability is arguably the true power behind the throne. You simply can’t afford to get it wrong, especially when a single bad experience can mean an online user will never return.
This was what another of our clients wanted us to test with their mobile website.
Still in the prototype stage, they wanted to ensure that its navigation and content findability provided both a positive user experience, that it met user expectations, and that any areas for usability improvement were identified. But as a global solution, they needed users from locations around the world. We then sourced crowdtesters from the US, Australia, and France who were both sports fans and TV decision-makers (half of which were users of our client’s website and the other half, of competitor sports websites).
This is one great advantage of crowdtesting. Being able to source highly specific and relevant people to do your testing.
We then conducted a remote interview with each tester, which included a quick test to gather early feedback about the overall user experience, and then five test cases for each country. Once completed, crowdtesters were asked to fill in a comprehensive questionnaire (in their local language) where they could rate their experience with the mobile site.
Results were then consolidated to provide an unbiased view of their mobile app and where areas could be improved.
Working behind the scenes
When using your products, visitors expect things to work fast and flawlessly, regardless of their device, OS, or browser. When you’re talking about thousands of different device and payment combinations, this makes it extremely hard to ensure that solutions work as intended.
Our range of flexible and fully customizable crowdtesting services, including functional testing and usability research, can thoroughly test your solutions on any device, in any location, and help you create digital solutions your customers will love. Keep customers happy, boost conversion rates, minimize bugs, and cost-effectively optimize your digital solutions to retain viewers and increase subscriptions.
The show must go on
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Stop guessing if your product meets the expectations of your users and start making decisions based on facts.
Do you have questions about testing in the broadcasting and media industry?
Would you like to have more information on how we can help you make your digital products even better? Just send us a message, one of our solution consultants will be happy to get in touch with you.
