Spin Master’s Post

There’s an ongoing debate in the streaming world right now: Should we revert to weekly episode releases or stick with the binge-release model? In my view, the weekly release strategy is not only more sustainable but also crucial for building strong intellectual property (IP). While binge-watching has its perks, it comes with significant costs. Producing 8 to 10 episodes at once requires a lot of money, and once viewers finish binging, if they don't find anything interesting on your platform they might move on to another platform, leading to a higher churn rate. This isn’t ideal for either the business or the audience. Furthermore, binge releases don’t support the development of lasting IP. In today’s content-rich environment, establishing and nurturing IP is essential for long-term success. Strong IPs allow creators to explore new avenues, even after the original show ends. However, to build meaningful IP, creators need to foster a continuous relationship with their audience, which is challenging if everything is released at once. The anime industry offers a successful model: they release episodes weekly, which not only keeps viewers engaged but also helps build robust IPs that extend into print, toys, games, and conventions. Creating lasting IP can help transform a studio into a well-known brand, and it all starts with a weekly release schedule. What are your thoughts on this? Share in the comments below! Follow Arjun RK for more stories from the World of Movies and Content Creation!

Full binge. Batched binge. Weekly. Hybrid. If it seems like every streamer is experimenting with how to roll out shows, it's because they are. I took a close look at how the leading streaming services deploy different options, and spoke with HBO's Senior VP of strategic content planning, to explore the WHY behind each strategy. Some findings: • Binge is best for intense, immersive shows like The Bear • Spreading out a season of Bridgerton in two batches allows for two separate full-force marketing pushes • Amazon Prime leads with full-binge drops, and if a show like The Boys or Reacher succeeds, it moves to hybrid. (Except with Rings of Power, which needed to follow the Game of Thrones playbook to the letter) Read the full story below, from Fast Company 👇

How can you come up with innovation ideas for a mature, highly successful product and service? Today, I am writing you that one small change with the BreakBias Toolkit can break your cognitive biases and enable you and your team to generate unique perspectives for innovation. Innovating Netflix with a Simple 'Shift': Discovering New Tech Horizons Using the "Shift" tool from the BreakBias Toolkit, we've transformed how viewers interact with Netflix, turning passive binge-watching into an engaging, active experience. Here’s what we found: • Active Viewing: By shifting from continuous play to "Activity-Based Viewing," Netflix can encourage healthier habits by directly integrating viewer activities into content consumption. • Leveraging Technology for Engagement: Explore how this shift can use technology to create a more interactive viewing experience, fostering a balance between screen time and active living. • Community-Centric Viewing: See how changing from individual bingeing to a community-driven approach can enhance the social value of watching shows, making every episode a shared and more meaningful experience. Interested in how these innovative shifts can redefine entertainment? Dive deeper here: https://lnkd.in/ekGAwS7A #Netflix #Innovation #TechForGood #DigitalWellbeing #UserExperience #BreakBiasToolkit

In the streaming era, how can we secure commitments to fully realized and concluded narratives? Just finished "The Three-Body Problem" on Netflix and it’s left me with a lot to think about, especially from the perspective of both a marketer and an avid consumer of content. The series, stemming from the brilliant mind of Liu Cixin and brought to life by creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, showcases an exceptional cast. This ensemble, combined with the intricate storytelling, really sets the bar high and has kept me thinking since the episodes ended. Reflecting on this, there’s a broader conversation to be had about the state of streaming today. As marketers, we’re in the business of creating lasting connections between brands, content, and their audiences. Shows like "The Three-Body Problem," or others like "Stranger Things" with its captivating narrative and "The Crown" with its deep historical storytelling, have the power to cultivate dedicated fan communities. These communities thrive on engagement, eagerly anticipating each season's release and passionately discussing every detail online. However, there's always that underlying concern with starting a new series: Will it be allowed to fully tell its story? The early cancellation of promising series like "Sense8" or "The OA" leaves both fans and marketers in a lurch, disrupting the opportunity to build and maintain long-term engagement. So, how can we, as a collective of viewers, creators, and marketers, encourage streaming platforms to commit to storytelling that sees through to its rightful conclusion? This isn't just about ensuring series like "The Mandalorian" or "Bridgerton" have their stories told in full; it's about guaranteeing that the investment of every viewer and the community built around each show is respected and valued. Could there be a new pact between streamers, creators, and audiences to support narratives with the assurance they will be completed? How might this shape the future of content creation and consumption in a way that benefits everyone involved? Just food for thought and something I probably think about way too often and from way too many angles. What do you think? #disneyplus #amazonprimevideo #HBO #peacock Peacock Hulu HBO Max #StreamingContent #Storytelling #DigitalMarketing #FanEngagement #ContentCreation #SeriesFinale #ContentStrategy #ViewerExperience #communitybuilding #paramountplus Paramount+

Tomorrow is Yesterday… A TV-Biz Overview: Historically, production companies licensed series made for one distributor (i.e., networks: ABC/CBS/NBC) to other distributors (i.e., local stations) in a system called syndication. At least 80 episodes were needed to make syndication-economics work. This “ancillary” income made studios money, and — from the 1960s/70s on, with the advent of broad-based residuals — was how most writers, actors & directors maintained middle-class lives. Series that aired a *lot* in syndication, all from Desilu (later acquired by Paramount): “I Love Lucy,” “Star Trek” & “Mission: Impossible.” Since widely watched shows of the 50s/60s were produced prior to those residuals, their syndicated boons accrued to production companies, allowing some cash to go into new shows. However, we should note that the pioneering writers, actors & directors of “I Love Lucy” & Classic “Trek” didn’t share in the ‘70s money-spigot, while Paramount was awash. Anyway, in theory, ancillary income from series like “Cheers” & the original “Frasier” (both produced by Paramount for NBC) could help make “niche” shows like “Fellow Travelers” (Paramount+) possible — providing work for today’s writers, actors, directors & crews (who also benefit from syndication, though differently than WGA, SAG-AFTRA & DGA). Circulating syndie-money became a system-feature, making licensing libraries a solid business, even when shows air on competitors’ services. What appears to be competition, can be mutual support. Again historically, from the mid-80s on (when Financial Interest & Syndication Rules ended), studios often licensed series to competitors. E.g., Columbia Pictures TV made “Married with Children” (1987-1997) for the nascent Fox network. Fox gave a negotiated license-fee to Columbia to produce eps for initial broadcasts, and Fox got all the ad-revenue when the show first aired. Columbia may have deficit-financed some overages that weren’t covered by Fox’s fees, especially in later, more expensive seasons, but Columbia banked all the syndication-licensing fees — minus residuals. This business model was highly functional, though disruption by the ever-evolving streaming model is taking the entire biz on quite a ride! Now, with the licensing of extant shows gaining momentum, some of TV’s best series will find new viewers. This is in addition to newer shows people just might’ve missed — e.g., “Suits” (produced by Universal for “sister” cabler USA), though I’d add “Hill Street Blues” (MTM/NBC), “China Beach” (Warner/ABC) & “thirtysomething” (MGM/ABC) to any TV-lovers “must watch” list. So many awesome shows are out there. Getting them onto screens can be a win-win — for everyone — with some smart visibility-support (a la “Suits”). Note: the narrative-styles of older shows are… different than streaming series, but that’s a whole ‘nother TV-Biz History. Thanks for reading this one! #entertainment #tv #television #streaming #syndication #residuals #netflix

I've asked this question hundreds of times: "𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙏𝙞𝙠𝙏𝙤𝙠 𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙙?" Your answer will explain why short-form content is dying 💁🏼♀️ YouTube recently becoming the top streaming platform. (𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘹, 𝘈𝘮𝘢𝘻𝘰𝘯 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘯𝘦𝘺+). Here's why long-form content wins: → It keeps viewers invested in your content for much longer → The content you create remains relevant for years → It drives deeper engagement with your audience → It allows you to tell more compelling stories → It helps you position yourself as an expert → It creates a memorable experience → It keeps people on the platform I've made hundreds of short videos. But since realising the 𝙃𝙐𝙂𝙀 power of long-form, I'm investing hours of my week into creating videos specifically for YouTube on TV. I'm challenging myself to create 1 video a week, for 52 weeks. I'll update you in three months with my progress 👌🏻

What to watch this week? How this marketing behemoth worked its magic! Whether #Bridgerton is your (strawberry) jam or not, there's no denying its pull on viewers and its concerted long-term marketing plan has been one to take notes from. #whattowatch #entertainmentmarketing #entertainmentindustry #tvcontent #netflix

Do three points indicate a line? The news (as reported in The Publish Press (article linked in the comments) that The Sidemen’s self-produced 10th anniversary documentary is going to Netflix is one of a growing set of recent data points illustrating increasing momentum in the expansion of creator-driven content to TV, and particularly connected TV platforms. Tastemade/Amazon Prime ➡️ Mr. Beast/Amazon Prime ➡️ The Sidemen/Netflix ➡️ 🚀 (apologies for using the rocket ship emoji but I couldn’t help myself) The phenomenon of creator-driven content expanding to TV is not necessarily new, but it does seem to be accelerating and gaining momentum, which is indicative of emerging trends in the broader media landscape. We are going to see more and more of it, and it’s evolving into a big opportunity even for creators without the scale of Mr. Beast and The Sidemen. The most interesting piece of the story is that “The Sidemen funded the film and made it themselves rather than go the “commission route,” where a company like Netflix oversees production.” This is not “let’s make something and cast a creator with 20 million YouTube subscribers.” It’s “let’s bring creators with their own voice, in a manifestation of their own vision to an expanded audience, and hope that authenticity and vision maybe brings some of their audience to our platform as well.” There’s space for more voices in this space and an opportunity for TV platforms with the foresight to lean into this model. #EquityCrowdfunding #Creators #CreatorFinancing #CreatorEnterprise #CreatorMiddleClass #NewHollywood

RELAX : WE MOVE F.A.S.T. (Buzzr) Curated content is wooing viewers to F.A.S.T.  Beyond the affordability (free!) and wide array of content (1,500+ channels in the U.S. alone), audiences are invited to unwind with the ease of preprogrammed schedules. F.A.S.T. channels like Buzzr help alleviate ‘choice paralysis’, saving Americans an anxious 10+ minutes per day and Brits almost 30 minutes each day on average spent deciding what to stream. #streaming #marketing #branding #entertainmentindustry #postproduction

Unmasking the Netflix Rating Secrets: What Makes a Hit? 🤫 Did you know that most Netflix titles fall within a specific IMDb rating range? I recently had a blast revisiting Tableau and diving deep into a Netflix IMDb dataset to uncover fascinating trends about viewer preferences and content success. Turns out, runtime doesn't guarantee a higher score, and popularity plays a huge role in IMDb ratings! My blog post dives into the data to reveal more surprising findings. Read my full blog post and discover the secrets behind Netflix's rating success: https://lnkd.in/gx8CwgKB #Netflix #DataAnalysis #IMDb #Streaming #Entertainment #Tableau