Paywizard secures new investment to fuel further international business growth and innovation
Funding boost follows series of key business wins and two ‘Best of Show’ awards for pioneering new partner solutions at IBC 2017
London(27 Sep 2017)
Paywizard, the subscription, billing and customer relationship management (CRM) specialist, has announced it has secured new funding from existing investors to build on momentum from major new client signings and the launch of innovative subscription and pay-per-view (PPV) solutions with partners.
The announcement comes on the heels of Paywizard winning two ‘Best of Show’ awards at IBC 2017 – the premier international media, entertainment and technology event – both of which recognised collaborative solutions that enable pay-TV operators to take an end-to-end approach to managing customer relationships.
The company also secured a number of major business wins in the run-up to IBC, including: NHK Cosmomedia Europe, an affiliate company of Japanese national broadcaster NHK; ABS-CBN, the Philippines’ leading media and entertainment organization; and ITV Box Office, the live events PPV arm of UK commercial broadcaster ITV.
Bhavesh Vaghela, Paywizard’s Chief Executive, says: “We’re constantly innovating and showing great results for our efforts, and this funding will support initiatives driving further innovation and international growth. We’re not only winning accolades but getting traction with key broadcast players around the world, as evidenced by our recent business wins – all while forging new partnerships that extend our reach and capabilities.”
Paywizard and partner Massive Interactive received an IBC Best of Show Award from TVB Europe Magazine for their collaborative solution, which enables over-the-top (OTT) pay-TV operators to use rich data insight and predictive analytics to more effectively target subscribers and personalise the user experience at key points in the customer journey.
The company and partner Ostmodern also jointly won Best of Show from TV Technology Global Magazine for Venue, their revolutionary new end-to-end PPV solution, which treats viewers as long-term customers rather than one-off buyers – employing data-driven insights to optimise the content journey via Paywizard Agile’s ‘Decision Moments’ framework.
Paywizard launched the ‘Decision Moments’ dashboard for its Agile customer management platform last year, using research to identify eight critical points in the pay-TV customer journey: Find, Join, Consume, Upgrade, Downgrade, Bill, Leave, and Win Back.
“Partnerships with industry trailblazers such as Massive Interactive, Ostmodern, Cisco and Dativa (formerly Genius Digital), have extended the scope of our offering by providing innovative ways of leveraging behavioural, transactional and viewing data,” Vaghela adds. “This allows us to garner insights into both pay-TV subscribers and PPV customers and, in turn, precisely target offers, promotions and discounts to help operators better engage individuals at each Decision Moment.”
Paywizard research published this year highlights the critical importance of customer experience to enabling pay-TV providers to stem churn and grow customer relationships. The global survey of 6,200 consumers revealed that failure to understand customers – and consequently provide a consistently positive experience – can have a fatal impact on relationships, as a quarter of respondents had cancelled a pay-TV service due to poor customer experience, while half had retained a subscription they had considered terminating because of positive factors.
About Paywizard
Paywizard has been supporting subscription-based businesses for over 18 years, helping over 100 Pay-TV operators including: ITV, eir Sport, BT Sport and BoxNation. With over ten million customers acquired, the Paywizard Agile platform delivers advanced subscription, billing and CRM with performance marketing modules.