Commentary
Can Streamers Slow Down Production And Retain Network Subscribers?
- by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, April 11, 2023
Slow down your streaming TV and movie consumption.
That may the new message from premium streaming services in the coming years, as all look to moderating production costs due to a maturing market.
One bit of news really raises the volume on this: Netflix has commissioned a "pilot" for the first time for a comedy series called "Little Sky."
So what, you say? Well, Netflix has been in the business of commissioning entire TV seasons of a TV series, not just one episode.
It seems Netflix now wants to be more proactive in making better decisions on its content going forward.
The next question then comes to this: Will Netflix or others move to a point of releasing one episode a week at a time?
Right now, Disney+, Apple TV+, and others have a release schedule for TV shows that way -- keeping what legacy, live-linear TV networks still adhere to.
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Proponents of releasing one episode a week at a time say this approach helps existing streaming customers around --- eliminating/minimizing what has become the one major problem of the current streaming business: churn.
Churn is the month to month cancellations by subscribers who typically focus on one particular TV series, where they can binge an entire season of episodes (9 to 12 episodes) in just a few days.
One has to believe Netflix is still far from abandoning this. That because over the years, so-called binging has been a positive attraction for Netflix subscribers.
But appetites and cravings for some content may go unmet.
One Ampere Analysis report a year ago found that engagement declined faster for those streamers that release a full-season of episodes. Still, other analysts say Netflix has had a advantage over other streamers due to its many must-see TV series.
And there Netflix overall current financial situation to consider. Even if it adjusts its current TV and movie production schedule it still is in a better position than other streaming competitors, it is profitable. Other big name premium streaming operations are not even close to that important financial picture.
All that will put even more pressure on those platforms -- HBO Max/Discovery+, Paramount+, Peacock, Disney+ and perhaps Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+ -- to adjust their production costs and TV release habits.
Dosing your TV series episodes? This could be the new TV medicine.
Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost. You can reach Wayne at wayne@mediapost.com.
Interesting question, Wayne.
The basic problem that streaming services have---whether they are ad-supported or not--- is that there isn't enough viewing activity to support a large number of services with each trying to maximize its subscriber base and "win" the streaming "war".
When linear TV viewing peaked at about five hours per adult per day----this including those times when the "viewer" was absent from the room or paying no attention-----it was generally assumed that most of this consumption would shift to streaming and quite soon. That proved to be a wildly unrealistic premise as many consumers were perfectly happy with "pay TV" while many cord cutters --- who were driven mainly by price---- had no intention of switching to streaming and then paying through their noses to subscribe to ten or more services---three to four being a more realistic norm. So now, the streaming services are faced with a slow buildup of viewing time---currently about 1.8 hours per adult per day and, eventually this will rise to about 3---but probably not not 5 hours daily---unless virtually all pay TV content---sports, news, talk shows, game shows, prime time sitcoms, dramas,reality shows, specials, etc.--- switches exclusiveley to streaming---a very unlikely proposition.
So the only solution is to cut back on over priced "originals" and rely mainly on the depth and appeal of your"library" to woo subscribers---recognizing that each competing service will have to find its natural level and, in many cases, this may not be 50 or 60 or 70 million U.S. households. Keep costs in line with reasonable expectations of subscriber attainment and you might just begin to operate profitably---especially if you can also solicit and win ad dollars.