Fan management #

The Viewers section of the sidebar is where you look after your fans. Fans is your directory of everyone who has signed up to your channel: look a fan up, see what they hold and what they paid, grant free access, and issue refunds. Notices emails the fans who bought a stream or subscribed to a plan. Groups holds audience groups, and Live Support is where you answer fans' chat messages.

Finding a fan #

1. Open Fans

   In the sidebar, go to Viewers > Fans.

2. Search

   The list stays empty until you search. Type at least 3 characters of the fan's name, email or identifier into the search box.

3. Open their profile

   Select the fan from the results to open their Fan Profile.

Creating a fan account #

You can set up an account for a fan yourself, for example for a guest or someone who has trouble signing up.

1. Open the form

   On Viewers > Fans, select Create User. The "Create New User" dialog opens.

2. Fill in Basic Information

   Enter the fan's First Name, Last Name and Email Address. Phone Number (optional) must include the country code, in the format +447700900123.

3. Choose a password option

   Under "Password Setup", leave "Generate temporary password (recommended)" selected, or choose Set specific password and type one.

4. Choose verification options

   Under "Verification Options", tick Mark email as verified and, if you entered a phone number, Mark phone number as verified, when you know the details are correct.

5. Create the account

   Select Create User. The dashboard confirms "User created successfully".

The fan gets an email with a temporary password and a link to sign in, and they choose their own password the first time they sign in. If that email could not be sent, the dashboard tells you.

What's on a fan's profile #

A Fan Profile is split into tabs.

Account details tab

Read-only. "Account Details:" shows their email address, name, the date they became a fan ("Fan since:"), when they were last active, and their country. "Notification preferences:" shows whether Email Notifications and Mobile Notifications are Enabled or Disabled.

Authentication tab

Their email and account status, with Verify Email, Reset Password, Suspend Account (or Enable Account) and Schedule Deletion (a 30-day grace period you can undo with Cancel Deletion). See Suspending or deleting a fan account.

Plans & Matchpasses tab

Active plans and matchpasses: what the fan currently holds. This is also where you grant free access.

Billing history tab

Their payments. Refunds and plan cancellations are issued from here.

Billing details tab

Read-only. "Personal:" shows the billing name, email and mobile number. "Address:" shows the billing address: country, address lines, city, province or state, and postal code.

Group memberships tab

The audience groups the fan is in, and where you add them to or remove them from groups. See Adding a fan to groups from their profile.

Engagement tab

"Engagement Analytics" for the fan, over a period you choose (the last 7, 14, 30 or 90 days, or the last 12 months). While the fan is watching, a live card shows what they are watching and on which browser, operating system and device, with any errors. "Viewing Summary" shows Total Views, Watch Time, First Watched and Last Watched; a "Preferred Device" card follows; and "Content Watched" lists each title with its views, watch time and when they last watched. Click a row in Content Watched to open "Stream Quality Metrics" for that title.

Reading a fan's plans and matchpasses #

Each card on the Plans & Matchpasses tab can show:

• Live now, Upcoming or Aired.
• Expires and a date.
• Auto-renew off for a subscription the fan has set to end at the close of the current period.
• "Free access granted", with no price, for access you gave for free.

Checking subscription status #

Monetise > Subscriptions lists every fan subscription on your channel. Filter tabs, each with a count when it has any:

The table columns are Date, Plan, Amount, Status, Next Payment, Last Payment and User. The Status pill shows the underlying status word in capitals, which is not always the tab name: an overdue subscription, for example, reads PAST_DUE. Some rows carry an extra pill:

• Collection paused: billing is paused on this subscription, so no payments are taken while the pill shows.
• Auto-renew off: the fan has set the subscription to end at the close of the current period.

You can search ("Search by name, email or plan"), sort by date, next payment or last payment, and use Export to CSV. The CSV includes an Auto-renew ON/OFF column.

Granting free access #

1. Open the fan's plans

   Find the fan, open their profile and go to the Plans & Matchpasses tab.

2. Start a grant

   Select Grant free access. The Grant Access dialog opens.

3. Pick what to give

   Choose a tab (Live Streams, OD Media or Plans), search, and pick one item from the list. Only paid content is offered; drafts, streams that never aired and items the fan already holds are left out.

4. Add a reason and grant

   Optionally fill in Reason (optional), for example "VIP guest", "Competition winner" or "Press access". Select Grant.

The fan gets an email saying they have been granted free access, and the card on their Plans & Matchpasses tab reads "Free access granted".

Refunds and cancellations #

Refunds are issued from the fan's Billing history tab.

• A one-off payment row has Refund.
• A recurring plan row has Cancel Plan instead. Individual payments under the plan can still be refunded.

1. Open Billing history

   Find the fan, open their profile and go to Billing history.

2. Select Refund

   Select Refund on the payment.

3. Fill in the refund

   Choose the Refund type (Full or Partial) and the amount, a Reason category (Requested by customer, Duplicate or Fraudulent), and a Reason.

4. Decide on access

   The refund dialog has an "Issue free" switch (it names the item type, for example the plan or matchpass). It starts on, so the fan keeps access after the refund. Turn it off if the refund should also remove their access to that plan or matchpass.

5. Issue the refund

   Select Issue refund. The refund is sent straight away to the card the fan was originally charged on, and the fan gets a refund email. The fan's bank usually takes 5 to 10 working days to show it.

Cancel Plan stops future collections on a recurring plan. Add a Reason if you want; it is saved with the cancellation. The fan keeps access until the end of their current billing period and gets one email confirming the cancellation.

Suspending or deleting a fan account #

You do both from the fan's Authentication tab.

Suspend Account blocks sign-in only. It doesn't cancel the fan's subscriptions, which keep renewing and charging, and it doesn't delete the account. If the fan should not be charged while suspended, cancel their plans with Cancel Plan on Billing history. The suspension lasts until you select Enable Account. The Reason (optional) you type is recorded for your team; the fan doesn't see it.

Schedule Deletion disables the fan's sign-in straight away. Their subscriptions stop renewing, and an overdue one is cancelled at once. 30 days later their personal details (name, email, phone number, saved cards and login) are permanently removed. Payment and transaction records are kept.

To stop a deletion, select Cancel Deletion within the 30 days. It re-enables the fan's sign-in and emails them. Once the deletion date has passed it can't be cancelled. Cancelling a deletion doesn't restore their subscriptions: they stay set not to renew, so the fan has to turn auto-renew back on.

Helping with common issues #

Sending notices to fans #

Viewers > Notices emails everyone who bought a matchpass for a stream, or everyone subscribed to a plan. Use it for service notices, such as a change of kick-off time or a territory restriction. It is not for marketing. Admins with access to Fans can open it.

The page has two tabs: Compose, where you write a notice, and History, which lists the notices already sent. On Compose, start by choosing a Template: Blank for a notice you write yourself, or Geo restriction notice to tell fans about territory restrictions on a stream. Move through the steps with Next and Back. If Next is greyed out, hover over it to see what is missing.

Writing a Blank notice #

1. Audience

   Choose Upcoming Live (streams that are live now or still to come), Past Live or Plans (published plans only). Search if you need to, then pick one stream or plan. The number of fans it reaches shows below the list.

2. Write

   Enter a Subject (up to 150 characters) and a Message (up to 5000 characters). The message is plain text. Line breaks are kept and links become clickable.

3. Review & send

   Check the summary and send the notice. See Reviewing and sending.

Sending a Geo restriction notice #

1. Stream

   Pick the upcoming or live stream the notice is about. If the stream has no territory restrictions, the page tells you there is nothing to notify fans about.

2. Add a note

   The subject is set for you and cannot be edited. The email lists the restricted territories and links fans to the full list of places where the stream is available. Add a Note (optional) of your own if you want to.

3. Recipients

   Every group that can watch the stream is listed and ticked, with a count of fans: Matchpass holders and each plan that includes the stream. Untick any group you want to leave out. At least one group must stay ticked.

4. Review & send

   Check the summary and send the notice. See Reviewing and sending.

Reviewing and sending #

The Review & send step shows how many fans the notice is going to, the type, the stream or plan, the subject and your message. Select Send test to me to get a copy in your own inbox first. When you are ready, select Send to [N] fans, where N is the number of fans.

A fan in more than one group gets one email. Fans with no email address, a suspended account or an account scheduled for deletion are left out, and the summary shows how many.

Checking what was sent #

After you send a notice, the page switches to History. Each notice shows when it was sent, its audience, its Type (Custom or Geo restriction), the subject, its Status and who sent it. Recipients shows how many emails were sent, skipped and failed.

Groups #

Audience groups are named sets of fans. You use them in three ways:

• Private streams: a private stream is shown only to the groups you make it available to.
• Free access: with User Group Access on a paid stream, fans in the groups you add watch it for free.
• Country restrictions: fans in a group with Disable DRM Restrictions switched on can watch streams that are blocked in their country.

See Plans & pricing for how a stream's access options use groups.

Creating a group #

1. Open Groups

   Go to Viewers > Groups. The User Groups page lists your groups; use "Search group" to find one.

2. Start a group

   Select Add new group. Give it a Name (for example "VIPs") and a Description.

3. Decide on country restrictions

   Switch on Disable DRM Restrictions only if fans in this group should be able to watch regardless of the country restrictions on a stream.

4. Save the group

   Select Create group. You can add members once the group is saved.

Adding and removing members #

1. Open the group

   On User Groups, select Manage from the group's row menu.

2. Find a fan

   Under "Add Members", type at least 3 characters into "Search fans by name or email".

3. Add them

   Select Add next to the fan. Fans already in the group show "Member" instead.

The Members list shows each fan's name (Member), Email and when they were Last seen. To take a fan out, select Remove from their row menu and confirm.

To change a group's name, description or switch, open it with Manage, make the change and select Save changes. To delete a group, select Remove from its row menu on User Groups and confirm.

Adding a fan to groups from their profile #

1. Open the tab

   Open the fan's Fan Profile and go to Group memberships.

2. Move groups between the lists

   "Group Membership" shows the groups the fan is Included in: and Not included in:. Select Remove on a group to take the fan out of it, or Add to put them in. Remove from all and Add to all move every group at once.

3. Save

   Select Save.

Live Support #

Viewers > Live Support is where you answer fans' chat messages. You can reply with files and saved support templates, add internal notes for colleagues, close conversations, and escalate to MDL Support. See Live Support and support templates.