Beyond analytics: How BBC uses Piano to drive engagement and subscriptions across the entire funnel

Melissa Chickering and Stephen Macleod explain how a 5+ year partnership with Piano has evolved from Analytics to Activation to support the entire funnel. 

Key takeaways: 

Data quality as the foundation 

Data quality is a foundational principle for everything the BBC does. Connected data allows them to track and analyze experiments using Piano Analytics and generate reports within minutes after the experiment is deployed. 

“Piano supports most of our critical analysis and activation pipelines: that’s everything from top line metrics for ad sales, to editorial dashboards powered by live streaming data from Piano’s Snowflake integration to downstream activation strategies”.  

Using Piano, BBC was able to look at the full funnel instead of isolated metrics, which helped them personalize user experiences. Moreover, teams finally saw the ROI on marketing initiatives and were able to prove returns for the business. 

Insights guiding decisions 

BBC’s prioritizing further understanding what audiences want to consume, how products perform in their markets, and how to drive the business forward. Working with Piano, they created a new North Star metric that helps them identify content that retains user attention and personalize their offerings. 

Subscription management first, integrated with analytics 

Supported by Piano, the BBC unveiled their new premium paywall model in June 2025, giving most engaged users unlimited access to news reporting, feature stories, and a 24/7 livestream of the BBC News channel. They rolled this out slowly: first asking people to create free accounts, then showing a paywall to a small number of visitors. They track what people read, listen to, watch, analyze it quickly, and send audience segments to marketing tools for smarter campaigns and recommendations. 

Early-stage rollout with more to come 

Subscription is only one component; next steps involve further using data to personalize user experiences and potentially tying in social and other channels, with Piano supporting end-to-end. “This is just phase 1,” says Tara Maitra, President Global News and Streaming at BBC. 

Some of the plans include implementing Piano’s dynamic paywall model (an AI‑driven paywall that decides the best time to ask each person to subscribe), a real-time “you might like” content boxes that update based on what you just viewed, a new library of subscriber‑only documentaries for premium, ad‑free viewing, and more.