The next evolution in the streaming wars? It’s a new spin on the old cable TV model: cross-company bundles of streaming services.
Consumers like bundles, especially if they’re getting a price break. Media companies like bundles because they help reduce churn and lower customer-acquisition costs, even it means working with would-be rivals.
Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are teaming for a Disney+-Hulu-Max combo to bow this summer, and Disney, Wbd and Fox Corp. are hoping to launch the Venu Sports bundle of live channels in the fall. (Pricing for those packages is Tbd.) And on May 29, Comcast started selling StreamSaver — a bundle of Peacock, Netflix and Apple TV+ at a discount of 35% or more — exclusively to its TV and broadband customers.
The Disney and Wbd partnership “presents a powerful new road map for the future of the industry,” Wbd’s Jb Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming and games,...
Consumers like bundles, especially if they’re getting a price break. Media companies like bundles because they help reduce churn and lower customer-acquisition costs, even it means working with would-be rivals.
Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are teaming for a Disney+-Hulu-Max combo to bow this summer, and Disney, Wbd and Fox Corp. are hoping to launch the Venu Sports bundle of live channels in the fall. (Pricing for those packages is Tbd.) And on May 29, Comcast started selling StreamSaver — a bundle of Peacock, Netflix and Apple TV+ at a discount of 35% or more — exclusively to its TV and broadband customers.
The Disney and Wbd partnership “presents a powerful new road map for the future of the industry,” Wbd’s Jb Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming and games,...
- 6/5/2024
- by Todd Spangler
- Variety Film + TV
Happy Amazon with Ads Day!
It’s January 29, 2024, which can only mean one thing: commercials have finally come to Amazon Prime Video. Whether you realize it yet or not, unless you’ve manually opted out (to the tune of an additional $2.99 per month), you are in on Prime Video with ads. And that’s just the way Amazon likes it. Prime Video customers probably won’t like it as much; at the very least, many of them are about to be confused.
Amazon already has an ad-supported streaming-video service, Freevee. And Freevee, unlike say Pluto TV to Paramount+, is within the Prime Video ecosystem.
Freevee “has always been an odd duck,” Tvrev co-founder and lead analyst Alan Wolk told IndieWire. “I suspect that most people who watch Freevee are not even aware they are watching it.”
The former IMDb TV is a combination on-demand and Fast platform. Given its integration with Prime Video,...
It’s January 29, 2024, which can only mean one thing: commercials have finally come to Amazon Prime Video. Whether you realize it yet or not, unless you’ve manually opted out (to the tune of an additional $2.99 per month), you are in on Prime Video with ads. And that’s just the way Amazon likes it. Prime Video customers probably won’t like it as much; at the very least, many of them are about to be confused.
Amazon already has an ad-supported streaming-video service, Freevee. And Freevee, unlike say Pluto TV to Paramount+, is within the Prime Video ecosystem.
Freevee “has always been an odd duck,” Tvrev co-founder and lead analyst Alan Wolk told IndieWire. “I suspect that most people who watch Freevee are not even aware they are watching it.”
The former IMDb TV is a combination on-demand and Fast platform. Given its integration with Prime Video,...
- 1/29/2024
- by Tony Maglio
- Indiewire
Netflix might want to think twice about that reported post-SAG-strike price hike.
According to a new study by CivicScience, if the streamer raises prices on its ad-free tier 39 percent of all Netflix users say they will “most likely” cancel their subscription outright. Another 31 percent say they will mostly likely choose to subscribe to Netflix with ads. The rest, about 29 percent, plan to subscribe to ad-free Netflix.
When isolating the ad-free users, the numbers change a bit: 35 percent say they’ll likely cancel Netflix, 17 percent plan to downgrade to ad-supported Netflix, and 48 percent will probably stay put. The main difference between the two POVs is, obviously, that those already on Netflix’s ad-supported tier would be unaffected by a price increase at ad-free, and thus would maintain their own status quo.
Readers can see the data in graph form below.
CivicScience had “close to” 4,000 U.S. (and Puerto Rico) adult respondents to its survey,...
According to a new study by CivicScience, if the streamer raises prices on its ad-free tier 39 percent of all Netflix users say they will “most likely” cancel their subscription outright. Another 31 percent say they will mostly likely choose to subscribe to Netflix with ads. The rest, about 29 percent, plan to subscribe to ad-free Netflix.
When isolating the ad-free users, the numbers change a bit: 35 percent say they’ll likely cancel Netflix, 17 percent plan to downgrade to ad-supported Netflix, and 48 percent will probably stay put. The main difference between the two POVs is, obviously, that those already on Netflix’s ad-supported tier would be unaffected by a price increase at ad-free, and thus would maintain their own status quo.
Readers can see the data in graph form below.
CivicScience had “close to” 4,000 U.S. (and Puerto Rico) adult respondents to its survey,...
- 10/12/2023
- by Tony Maglio
- Indiewire
Netflix is already enjoying the spoils of its crackdown on password sharing. Watch other streamers follow in its footsteps, again; let’s call it the new Netflix effect.
The early returns on paid-sharing are promising. Immediately following Netflix’s note to U.S. subscribers on May 23 implementing the new rules, Netflix had its four biggest days of U.S. signups in more than four years. (Probably longer; that’s just as far back as the Antenna research goes.) At least partially on those efforts to monetize former freeloaders, last week, a pair of Wall Street analysts strongly increased their price targets for Netflix stock (Nflx). The equity analysts at Wells Fargo sees the stock worth $500 per share again in the not-too-longterm future.
March research from those same number crunchers estimate Netflix’s paid-sharing plan could bring $3 billion in additional annual revenue. Ahead of its paid-sharing rollout, Netflix estimated that 100 million...
The early returns on paid-sharing are promising. Immediately following Netflix’s note to U.S. subscribers on May 23 implementing the new rules, Netflix had its four biggest days of U.S. signups in more than four years. (Probably longer; that’s just as far back as the Antenna research goes.) At least partially on those efforts to monetize former freeloaders, last week, a pair of Wall Street analysts strongly increased their price targets for Netflix stock (Nflx). The equity analysts at Wells Fargo sees the stock worth $500 per share again in the not-too-longterm future.
March research from those same number crunchers estimate Netflix’s paid-sharing plan could bring $3 billion in additional annual revenue. Ahead of its paid-sharing rollout, Netflix estimated that 100 million...
- 6/14/2023
- by Tony Maglio
- Indiewire
Why isn’t Disney+ with ads on Roku yet? It’s a match made in streaming heaven: Roku is the No. 1 streaming portal in the U.S. with 40 percent market share, according to a Q3 Parks Associates survey. (A Q4 Npd report placed it at 38 percent.) And by the time Disney+launched its ad-supported tier last December, it already claimed “more than 100 advertisers across all major categories.”
In a research note to clients of Australian global financial services group Macquarie (and obtained by IndieWire), senior media tech analyst Tim Nollen described Roku’s omission of Disney+ Basic with Ads as “hard to fathom.” However, there may be a simple reason: Not enough ads to go around.
Subscription-based streaming services kick back some money to the gatekeeper if a subscriber uses their platform or device (like Roku) to sign up. Ad-supported apps split advertising revenue with the device-maker who is bringing eyeballs into their shared ecosystem.
In a research note to clients of Australian global financial services group Macquarie (and obtained by IndieWire), senior media tech analyst Tim Nollen described Roku’s omission of Disney+ Basic with Ads as “hard to fathom.” However, there may be a simple reason: Not enough ads to go around.
Subscription-based streaming services kick back some money to the gatekeeper if a subscriber uses their platform or device (like Roku) to sign up. Ad-supported apps split advertising revenue with the device-maker who is bringing eyeballs into their shared ecosystem.
- 3/30/2023
- by Tony Maglio
- Indiewire
Peacock’s three-tiered approach to streaming was innovative. It was also a total accident.
Following its failure with Seeso, NBCUniversal was poised to re-enter streaming just in time for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Peacock was also a silly name, but at least it had NBC-mascot brand recognition. Just one problem: No Summer Olympics.
The early stages of Covid canceled everything in the spring 2020 and the pandemic pushed the Summer Games into 2021. Without value-adding originals and no Tokyo opening ceremony, NBCU was forced to launch its Peacock platform… for free. On January 31, the company finally righted that wrong and withdrew the option for new users. That announcement came mere days after Peacock finally crossed 2o million paid subscribers — and reported a 2022 loss of 2.5 billion.
Timing aside, this transition to the original two-tiered subscription-revenue model (4.99/month for ad-supported “Premium” and 9.99 for ad-free “Premium Plus”) was “always built into the plan,” a person...
Following its failure with Seeso, NBCUniversal was poised to re-enter streaming just in time for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Peacock was also a silly name, but at least it had NBC-mascot brand recognition. Just one problem: No Summer Olympics.
The early stages of Covid canceled everything in the spring 2020 and the pandemic pushed the Summer Games into 2021. Without value-adding originals and no Tokyo opening ceremony, NBCU was forced to launch its Peacock platform… for free. On January 31, the company finally righted that wrong and withdrew the option for new users. That announcement came mere days after Peacock finally crossed 2o million paid subscribers — and reported a 2022 loss of 2.5 billion.
Timing aside, this transition to the original two-tiered subscription-revenue model (4.99/month for ad-supported “Premium” and 9.99 for ad-free “Premium Plus”) was “always built into the plan,” a person...
- 2/3/2023
- by Tony Maglio
- Indiewire
If David Zaslav knows anything, it’s lean-back, pre-programmed, ad-supported TV channels. So it only makes sense for his Warner Bros. Discovery to go all-in on Fast, otherwise known as free, ad-supported streaming television. Given his recent high-profile scrubbing of HBO Max’s library, most notably with “Westworld,” consider it the method to his madness.
Warner Bros. Discovery is going at Fast, well, fast. On the company’s most recent quarterly earnings call, Zaslav said Wbd “will be aggressively attacking the AVOD market with our own Fast offering in 2023.” Between that and the pending combination of HBO Max and Discovery+, Wbd engineers should probably plan to work through the holidays.
Zaslav sees his company’s giant film and TV library as providing a “unique opportunity to increase our addressable market and drive real value.” Given the April mega-merger between Discovery and AT&T’s WarnerMedia assets, he’s right.
There’s...
Warner Bros. Discovery is going at Fast, well, fast. On the company’s most recent quarterly earnings call, Zaslav said Wbd “will be aggressively attacking the AVOD market with our own Fast offering in 2023.” Between that and the pending combination of HBO Max and Discovery+, Wbd engineers should probably plan to work through the holidays.
Zaslav sees his company’s giant film and TV library as providing a “unique opportunity to increase our addressable market and drive real value.” Given the April mega-merger between Discovery and AT&T’s WarnerMedia assets, he’s right.
There’s...
- 12/14/2022
- by Tony Maglio
- Indiewire
Disney, the once undisputed king of animated movies, has lost the box office race to archrival Universal Pictures for the last three years running — and there’s no sign of magical turnaround on the horizon.
From Pixar’s “Onward,” which opened to a disappointing 39 million in March 2020 to Walt Disney Animation’s “Strange World,” which barely cracked 25.5 million in its first 12 days of domestic release, Disney’s theatrically released animated films have grossed just over 1 billion worldwide.
Meanwhile, in that same period, with the same burdens of Covid and on much lower production budgets, Universal’s combined theatrical output from Illumination and DreamWorks Animation have earned 2.06 billion worldwide from a series of animated hits like “Trolls: World Tour,” “The Croods: A New Age,” “Spirit Untamed,” “The Boss Baby: Family Business,” “Sing 2,” “The Bad Guys” and “Minions: The Rise of Gru.”
NBC Universal CEO Jeff Shell on Monday trumpeted his studio’s achievement.
From Pixar’s “Onward,” which opened to a disappointing 39 million in March 2020 to Walt Disney Animation’s “Strange World,” which barely cracked 25.5 million in its first 12 days of domestic release, Disney’s theatrically released animated films have grossed just over 1 billion worldwide.
Meanwhile, in that same period, with the same burdens of Covid and on much lower production budgets, Universal’s combined theatrical output from Illumination and DreamWorks Animation have earned 2.06 billion worldwide from a series of animated hits like “Trolls: World Tour,” “The Croods: A New Age,” “Spirit Untamed,” “The Boss Baby: Family Business,” “Sing 2,” “The Bad Guys” and “Minions: The Rise of Gru.”
NBC Universal CEO Jeff Shell on Monday trumpeted his studio’s achievement.
- 12/7/2022
- by Scott Mendelson
- The Wrap
Bob Iger has many things to address in his Disney return, including the inheritance of a 1.5 billion loss in direct-to-consumer business. However, he might want to focus more on the Disney streamer that actually turns a profit: Hulu.
Iger has long been a fan of the service; he’s the guy that bought Fox’s one-third as part of the studio’s mega-acquisition in early 2019, about a year before Bob Chapek succeeded Iger. One former Hulu insider told IndieWire that during his final months as CEO, Iger indicated the streaming service (a key part of the Disney Bundle alongside Disney+ and ESPN+) had his full support as a standalone entity. Experts we spoke to for this story do not see any reason for Iger’s opinion from early 2020 to have changed in late 2022.
“Hulu plays a key strategic role for Disney in being the home for adult-oriented content that doesn...
Iger has long been a fan of the service; he’s the guy that bought Fox’s one-third as part of the studio’s mega-acquisition in early 2019, about a year before Bob Chapek succeeded Iger. One former Hulu insider told IndieWire that during his final months as CEO, Iger indicated the streaming service (a key part of the Disney Bundle alongside Disney+ and ESPN+) had his full support as a standalone entity. Experts we spoke to for this story do not see any reason for Iger’s opinion from early 2020 to have changed in late 2022.
“Hulu plays a key strategic role for Disney in being the home for adult-oriented content that doesn...
- 11/23/2022
- by Brian Welk and Tony Maglio
- Indiewire
NBC is getting out of the Hulu business. In September, NBC series will begin streaming new episodes next-day on NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock — the same arrangement it had for years with Hulu.
Losing NBC’s next-day programming is a significant blow to Hulu, which is co-owned by NBCUniversal parent Comcast (1/3) and Disney (2/3 and the controlling stake). Neither of Hulu’s parents are showing it much favor: While it once seemed like a natural home for the child-unfriendly content that Disney+ couldn’t abide, in March Disney pulled its R-rated Marvel series off Netflix but bypassed Hulu in favor of its core streaming service Disney+. In June, Disney+ nabbed R-rated superhero movies “Deadpool” and “Logan.”
Hulu’s subscriber growth was already slowing in the face of a saturated marketplace; then, the economy tanked. Now with NBC out of the picture, only ABC and Fox programming will be available next-day on Hulu.
Losing NBC’s next-day programming is a significant blow to Hulu, which is co-owned by NBCUniversal parent Comcast (1/3) and Disney (2/3 and the controlling stake). Neither of Hulu’s parents are showing it much favor: While it once seemed like a natural home for the child-unfriendly content that Disney+ couldn’t abide, in March Disney pulled its R-rated Marvel series off Netflix but bypassed Hulu in favor of its core streaming service Disney+. In June, Disney+ nabbed R-rated superhero movies “Deadpool” and “Logan.”
Hulu’s subscriber growth was already slowing in the face of a saturated marketplace; then, the economy tanked. Now with NBC out of the picture, only ABC and Fox programming will be available next-day on Hulu.
- 8/9/2022
- by Tony Maglio
- Indiewire
Peacock has a serial TV problem and is counting on a pandemic-delayed pipeline of programming to help overcome it.
More than a year after its launch, NBCUniversal’s streaming service lacks the buzzy original TV shows of its rivals or even the fan-friendly “Star Trek” offerings of Paramount Plus, the ViacomCBS service formerly known as CBS All Access. And while top brass praised Peacock as “headed in the right direction” during Comcast’s earnings call with Wall Street analysts last week, the lack of breakthrough hits, considered key to streamer growth, suggests the service has much work to do before it becomes truly competitive with its rivals.
Craig Moffett, co-founder of Moffett-Nathanson, says the investment community has concluded “that Peacock is simply not on a trajectory to be one of the major streaming services, and that they’re going to have to do something dramatic if they’re going to change that narrative.
More than a year after its launch, NBCUniversal’s streaming service lacks the buzzy original TV shows of its rivals or even the fan-friendly “Star Trek” offerings of Paramount Plus, the ViacomCBS service formerly known as CBS All Access. And while top brass praised Peacock as “headed in the right direction” during Comcast’s earnings call with Wall Street analysts last week, the lack of breakthrough hits, considered key to streamer growth, suggests the service has much work to do before it becomes truly competitive with its rivals.
Craig Moffett, co-founder of Moffett-Nathanson, says the investment community has concluded “that Peacock is simply not on a trajectory to be one of the major streaming services, and that they’re going to have to do something dramatic if they’re going to change that narrative.
- 11/3/2021
- by Diane Garrett
- Variety Film + TV
At first glance, YouTube TV striking an agreement with Sinclair to continue carrying most of the cable company’s regional sports networks appears to be a deal it had to make. After all, YouTube TV is still relatively new, and it should be focused on adding as many customers as possible who are fleeing from traditional pay TV. Offering a robust slate of channels that includes local sports seems like a good way to go about doing that. But it turns out, this deal is more of a nice-to-have for YouTube TV than a necessity. Losing regional sports networks (RSNs) wouldn’t be a deal breaker for most of YouTube TV’s customers, according to Colin Dixon, CEO of NScreenMedia, a firm dedicated to analyzing the over the top market. “YouTube TV doesn’t need to have all the RSNs,” Dixon told TheWrap. “Most people leaving a cable company and...
- 3/5/2020
- by Sean Burch
- The Wrap
Digital brands are learning that while mobile is still a great place to reach a lot of eyeballs, consumers are spending more time and longer periods of that time streaming video content on their connected TVs (CTV).
Conviva estimates that CTVs had a 148 percent growth in plays last year, outpacing mobile, which saw a more modest 94 percent growth. While mobile is still a strong choice for watching content on the go, connected TVs accounted for a 56 percent share in viewing hours for 2018 — an increase of 9 percent from 2017.
The stats aren’t surprising when looking at the number of U.S. households that own a connected TV. At the end of 2017, 210 million devices were installed in consumer homes actively delivering internet connectivity to the TV screen, and by the end of 2021 there are forecast to be 275 million, according to The Npd Group.
For digital brands like Conde Nast-owned Bon Appetit,...
Conviva estimates that CTVs had a 148 percent growth in plays last year, outpacing mobile, which saw a more modest 94 percent growth. While mobile is still a strong choice for watching content on the go, connected TVs accounted for a 56 percent share in viewing hours for 2018 — an increase of 9 percent from 2017.
The stats aren’t surprising when looking at the number of U.S. households that own a connected TV. At the end of 2017, 210 million devices were installed in consumer homes actively delivering internet connectivity to the TV screen, and by the end of 2021 there are forecast to be 275 million, according to The Npd Group.
For digital brands like Conde Nast-owned Bon Appetit,...
- 2/22/2019
- by Matt Lopez
- The Wrap
Tyt Network has added three new shows to its recently launched YouTube TV channel, building out its programming slate to more than a dozen talk, news and entertainment shows for millennials.
Political analyst Michael Shure will host Reasonably Shure, a 30-minute weekly interview program where he’ll talk with artists, scientists, business leaders and politicians of various backgrounds and political leanings. The show aims to provide fresh insights and alternative viewpoints on topical issues.
The Young Turks Founder and Host Cenk Uygur will cover the grassroots political movement and candidates running to unseat establishment Democrats in Rebel HQ. The half-hour show airs three days a week, featuring interviews with progressive candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old political newcomer who defeated longtime New York Rep. Joseph Crowley in an upset primary victory.
Political satirist and self-styled nightclub comedian Jimmy Dore hosts The Jimmy Dore Show, where he skewers the corporate-controlled media...
Political analyst Michael Shure will host Reasonably Shure, a 30-minute weekly interview program where he’ll talk with artists, scientists, business leaders and politicians of various backgrounds and political leanings. The show aims to provide fresh insights and alternative viewpoints on topical issues.
The Young Turks Founder and Host Cenk Uygur will cover the grassroots political movement and candidates running to unseat establishment Democrats in Rebel HQ. The half-hour show airs three days a week, featuring interviews with progressive candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old political newcomer who defeated longtime New York Rep. Joseph Crowley in an upset primary victory.
Political satirist and self-styled nightclub comedian Jimmy Dore hosts The Jimmy Dore Show, where he skewers the corporate-controlled media...
- 7/12/2018
- by Dawn C. Chmielewski
- Deadline Film + TV
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