Randal B.’s Post

Not just FAST but easy... One danger of being deeply embedded in the film/tv industry is that you risk losing touch with the tastes and needs of the audience you're ostensibly producing movies and series for. My wife and I are the kinds of media junkies who keep lists of movies (old and new) to watch, browse the "newly added" and "leaving soon" sections across multiple streaming services to make sure we don't miss anything, and generally put a lot of time, energy and money to curating our media diet. That's great for us but, I imagine, would be exhausting for most. Which is why I'm not surprised to see FAST services continue to grow. In a way, FAST's value proposition is akin to how binge exploded on SVODs. It's easy to sit back and let the next episode start rather than think about finding something else to stream. Likewise, it's easier to flip on a FAST channel devoted to your favorite show or genre—much like a generation ago you might flip on VH1 or Comedy Central as your default—than to spend minutes or more browsing in the hopes of finding something decent, plus the not-insignificant cognitive burden of having to make a choice. Don't get me wrong — I'm not saying one mode of viewership is better than the other. For those who get pleasure, like me, in curating their experience, great. But there's nothing wrong with taking the FAST and easy way, especially if that lets you spend more of your time and energy on things that matter to you more. The question for those in the industry trying to surf the FAST wave is: how do you get an audience's attention in an ecosystem with infinite channels — and with AI and algorithmic programming potentially offering more channels than there are total viewers! In that endless sea of choice, the old ways no longer cut it—even compared to the 500-channels-and-nothing-on heyday of peak cable. https://lnkd.in/eGtiduC7 (h/t to my former colleague Lou Fazio for previously sharing this link) #streaming #FAST #media

Hub's 2024 survey reveals that consumers are indeed pulling together more than a handful of TV sources - both traditional and digital - to get what they want. In fact, this year saw a bounce back to an average of 7.4 services used, after a dip in 2023. The number of viewers "stacking" three or more of the major streamers (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu & Max) grew to half of users in 2024, with even more growth coming from the nearly two-thirds of people using FAST services (like TUBI or Pluto) to round out their TV diet. https://lnkd.in/gkfxvfS2

"Cable providers can see the shift happening. It’s why companies like Comcast are now taking an “If you can’t beat them, join them” approach, announcing streaming-service bundles—like a forthcoming Netflix-Peacock-Apple package—that will cut them into the profit flow. Whether they’re pivoting to meet the realities of the moment or contributing to their own eventual obsolescence remains to be seen." Comcast was quick to announce this bundle in response to the upcoming Disney-Warner Bros Discovery streaming-service bundle (as well as the soon-to-be Disney-Fox-Warner Bros Discovery sports streaming bundle called Venu Sports). #livesports #streamingbundles #sportsstreaming #netflix #nfl #comcast

Interesting read. 🤔 Balance in the force returns. In my opinion👇🏻 BIG WINNERS: 1)Broadcast TV - the engine that drives it all. Across every daypart, genre and adult demo. (Reminded of great qoute last year from Barry Diller re what Big Studios need to do - “[They should] say, ‘We each own a great television network, fully distributed in every household in the United States. Let’s go into competition (with the big streamers) let’s not treat it (broadcast) as some yesterday’s sliver. Let’s go compete. Look, it isn’t the end of the business of hits. Let’s take some of our shows and our creativity and build our networks back up. It’s there for the take.’”) 2) MVPDs: Lesson learned. Painfully. (Consumers want to pay less. There is such a thing as too many channels. Broadcast is key!) BIG LOSER: Cable TV Networks - Duh. Inspired in the 70s, 80s & 90s w/ MTV, Nick, CNN, ESPN, Discovery, Disney Channel. Lazy corp dev/drive stock schemes after that. (Can’t count how many flawed biz plans I’ve been asked to look at - all assumed the same thing - sub fees will kick in by Yr 3 w/positive EBITDA in Yr 5/6. Actual viewership? 🤷 Does it really matter? Stop the madness. Finally.) *** Cautionary note for FAST: Just because you can make a “channel” doesn’t mean you should make a channel.

From Variety: After a decade of brinksmanship in content spending among the largest #media conglomerates, old-school #TV shows along the lines of procedural dramas and multicamera sitcoms fell far out of favor with the creative community. But viewers never gave up on these tried and true forms. That’s one big lesson that Landgraf has learned during the past few years as FX has embarked on a journey of transformation into a branded hub on Hulu (and The Walt Disney Company+ outside the U.S.) while also maintaining its roots as a linear, ad-supported cable channel. Landgraf noted that the norms have shifted so much that the industry’s challenge is to find a way to bring some of the old model’s protocols into a world that is awash in entertainment options. One of the biggest challenges for programmers these days is that series aren’t built to go the distance of 10 or even 20 seasons in success. “How do we create a system where it’s actually a more normal process for something to go multiple different seasons? And I don’t just mean two or three, I mean we need, we need sitcoms and procedurals and the kinds of things that people are still actually watching inside the streaming systems,” Landgraf said. His understanding of the problem has been shaped by the insight he’s gained from seeing what clicks in #streaming for Hulu and Disney+ and competitive platforms. “Friends,” “Seinfeld,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “ER,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “NCIS” and other sturdy classics from the not-so-distant past drive an extraordinary amount of streaming viewing. That should be a flashing neon sign to programmers. Landgraf sees this as part of the larger problem of changing compensation terms for creative talent — issues that were shouted about for months on picket lines during last year’s writers and actors strikes. “I look at the #data. I know what people are watching, and they’re watching a lot of the output of this industry back from an era when we had a profit participation model and we had people incentivized to keep working on one television show year after year after year and to make hundreds and hundreds of episodes,” Landgraf said. “It’s a challenge figuring out how to rebuild that model inside a new entire ecosystem right now. But I think the audiences tell us that that’s television. That’s something they really want from television. I don’t think we’re very good at giving it to them right now.”

Samba’s data shows that viewers are generally invested in a specific piece of content, choosing to leave the platform after they’ve finished watching. The only exception to this is Netflix, which is unsurprising given that the streamer has proven highly effective at using its algorithm to draw users to new content and keep them engaged on the platform. It’s a tool that many of the newer platforms have yet to perfect. Netflix had the lowest level of churn and also represented 60% of the Top 50 shows in the first half of the year with series like Fool Me Once, Griselda, American Nightmare, Bridgerton and The Gentlemen in the Top 10. Elsewhere, subscription cyclers come back for buzzy new shows, Samba says, including Peacock’s Ted, AppleTV’s Masters of the Air, and FX’s Shōgun, which aired in Hulu and Disney+. New seasons of House of the Dragon (the second most-popular premiere of the half, behind Fool Me Once), True Detective, and Reacher were also a big draw. But still, once those shows are over, subscribers often leave the service until they’re enticed back again for another anticipated release.

#Netflix, #Amazon, #Disney, #Max - the major premium SVOD services have all figured out how to develop and deliver broad appeal blockbuster shows that drive subscription growth and engage infrequent viewers. Netflix’s #FoolMeOnce, Amazon’s #Racher, Disney+’s #PercyJackson, and HBO/Max’s #TrueDetective were prime examples of this over the first half of 2024. The problem is that the industry has over-emphasized this type of programming in the green light, renewal and cancellation process at the expense of retention and low risk subscribers. This imbalance poses problems for the long term viability of the streaming business model. My latest for Observer https://lnkd.in/dh_GwG4X

The television landscape is evolving rapidly, and as we step into 2024, a myriad of compelling TV shows awaits audiences. Streamers and networks are embracing fresh narratives that resonate with modern viewers. Here’s a look at some of the must-watch TV shows of 2024, exploring the trends and themes that make them essential viewing.

✅🖥️ LA Times (3/14): “Media companies are looking to expose the programs to broader audiences and fill out their lineups to help pay the freight as they battle to keep pace with Netflix. This summer, CBS will be running the first season of the Taylor Sheridan crime drama “Tulsa King” starring Sylvester Stallone — a show that was made for streamer Paramount+. You can binge rival Peacock’s new reality series “The McBee Dynasty,” but if you want to kick it old school, individual episodes air weekly on parent company NBCU’s USA Network. In January, ABC aired the first season of the Hulu hit “Only Murders in the Building,” It performed well enough for the network to plan on airing another season at some point in the future. The trend runs counter to the perception that viewers looking for non-sports entertainment programming have abandoned linear TV. It may be true that many younger consumers who have grown up with streaming don’t even own a TV set, which they see as a gadget to bombard their parents and grandparents with pharmaceutical drug commercials all day. But for media companies, linear TV, while on the decline with shrinking ratings and cord-cutting, has turned into a marketing tool that expands public awareness of their streaming shows.” ⬇️ #streamingtv #ctvadvertising #primetime

💡 Short-Form Streaming: The Next Big Thing or Another Quibi? DramaBox and ReelShort are reviving a familiar idea: bite-sized, vertical video storytelling. Their model? Chop feature-length films into one-minute clips and make you pay to see what happens next. The result? 💰 $28M+ in revenue each. 📈 Rankings above Hulu, Netflix, and Peacock on app charts. Personally I think this might be just a passing fad. Why wouldn't I just enjoy TikTok and Instagram Reels for free? Let me know if I'm crazy in comments below. https://lnkd.in/g7mB_vut