The Retention Game: Managing Subscriber Acquisition and Churn
On Thursday 13 August, Chris Pfaff, CEO, Chris Pfaff Tech Media LLC, will moderate the Streaming Media Connect panel “The Retention Game: Managing Subscriber Acquisition and Churn.” Join this closing panel for a candid discussion on which subscriber acquisition and retention strategies work in 2026 and which ones fail to move the needle, from bundling strategies and free-trial optimisation to targeted win-back campaigns and the early behavioural signals that predict churn before it happens. Learn how leading streaming platforms are drawing on data science insights and leveraging personalisation to turn one-show drop-ins into long-term, loyal subscribers.
Confirmed panelists include:
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Chris Pfaff was the first to use IRC for an interactive corporate webcast; he produced one of the first DVDs, the first HD animated logo, and some of the first mobile short films; he led numerous multipoint broadband events; and he produced the first Twitter Wall. His company, Chris Pfaff Tech Media, has provided strategy and marketing services for leading technology service providers, technology firms, and new media companies worldwide since 2002. Pfaff was also one of the founders of the Producers Guild of America (PGA) New Media Council East and a founder of the New York chapter of the VR/AR Association.
“The streaming bundle is showing remarkable effectiveness in reducing churn,” Pfaff says. “In an age of media consolidation, and the post-Peak TV subscription fatigue, the bundle has blunted the growing monthly churn rate. This has brought strange bedfellows together—bitter rivals—that are showing great success in maintaining high retention rates. We see that Disney+/Hulu/Max achieved a resounding 80% retention rate after its initial three months. U.S. households are increasingly bundling streaming with ISP deals, which satisfies value insulation, and multiple content satisfactions. Streamers are constantly fighting content ‘dry spells,’ and bundles appear to be the only strategy that successfully locks so-called nomadic viewers into long-term billing cycles.”
David Guinan has more than 25 years of experience in media and sport entertainment, specialising in direct-to-consumer strategy, digital transformation, and streaming sport product development. He’s consulted for Major League Table Tennis and LIV Golf and advised the English Premier League and Chelsea Football Club on their U.S. direct-to-consumer strategy. Guinan served as chief digital officer for The Cowboy Channel, where he created and scaled the Cowboy Channel+ OTT platform. He is currently president of Horse & Country.
Guinan said of how sport streamers can retain viewers (at Streaming Media 2025): “It needs to be good live as an actual live event. It needs to be good on a couch. And it also needs to be good on your phone. All tier one sports do this very, very effectively.”
Nicole Fencel is director of premium subscriptions at Roku, where she architected the evolution of the business from its early stages into an international digital ecosystem. In her role, she oversees strategic product vision and commercial execution, driving multiyear roadmaps that scale subscriber growth and platform monetisation. Fencel specialises in driving critical business outcomes for Roku and its partners, including ARPU optimisation, international market entry, and long-term retention frameworks.
“With so much fragmentation and an overwhelm of choice in streaming, winning the subscriber is only half the battle. Keeping those subscribers engaged with your service is the real indicator of long-term success,” Fencel says. “I’m looking forward to sharing how platforms like Roku have a unique ability to help our partners do just that through greater personalisation and discovery touch points at every step of the viewer’s streaming journey.”
Steven Chang is head of product marketing at Philo, where he leads product marketing strategy and serves as a key marketing partner to product and business teams. With experience spanning streaming platforms, gaming, and digital media at companies including Roku, Amazon Studios, Yahoo, and Disney, Chang specialises in customer intelligence, GTM strategy, and product-led growth initiatives that drive engagement and revenue.
“For Philo, the key to mitigating churn is to identify where a subscriber sits in their user journey,” Chang explains. “We segment subscribers on two dimensions: what they watch and how they watch. What they watch is stable and drives recommendations. How they watch—and pay—shifts seasonally. For example, when a favorite show is out of season, we lead with our FAST offering. When it returns, our subscribers often shift naturally back to paid. Ideally for us, we never have to make a true win-back offer, because our customers never leave the ecosystem.”
Deepali Narsiker is a media and streaming growth executive who has helped scale streaming platforms across EMEA and APAC. She played a pivotal role in launching Hooq, one of Southeast Asia’s first premium OTT services. She helps streaming platforms navigate market complexities while driving subscriber acquisition, reducing churn, and delivering measurable commercial growth. Narsiker also advises platforms on applying AI to improve content discovery, subscriber engagement, and retention, translating emerging technology into tangible business outcomes. She heads the Allyship Pillar at Women in Streaming Media.
“Acquisition and churn are two ends of the same problem—you spend heavily to bring subscribers in and then lose them because they can’t find enough value. That gap is a discovery problem and fundamentally, a metadata problem,” Narsiker says. “Having built content and metadata operations from the ground up, I’m looking forward to discussing why the platforms that win aren’t the ones that spend most on acquisition or win-back, but the ones that describe their catalogue well enough to turn a new sign-up into a long-term commitment.”
Register now for Streaming Media Connect!
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