Case Study: TV Spielfilm LIVE achieves doubled first-time purchases and 15% subscriber growth with Mixpanel

How TV Spielfilm uses data to stay ahead of the changing entertainment industry

TV Spielfilm LIVE, the streaming arm of the long-running German TV guide TV Spielfilm, has evolved from print to web to apps and streaming. Facing a classic freemium dilemma—whether to prioritize a large free audience or the smaller paying base—the team needed cross-platform user data to understand sign-ups, trials, feature adoption and churn across devices.

Partnering with analytics consultants Finc3 and using Mixpanel for server-side and SDK tracking with user IDs, they discovered free users rarely returned while premium users watched more and showed higher lifetime value. TV Spielfilm LIVE refocused on the premium product, doubling first-time visitor purchases in the first month and growing paid users by 15% within two weeks, then used analytics to expand content and drive further retention improvements.

TV Spielfilm LIVE

Carina Schwarzmueller

Business Intelligence Manager / Business Analyst