Streaming Video Can be Tailored to Any Taste, Any Budget

Streaming Video Can be Tailored to Any Taste, Any Budget

Andy Marken October 12, 2023

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We do not know why we are here. We do not know who built the Silo. We do not know why everything outside the Silo is as it is. We do not know when it will be safe to go outside. - Mayor Jahns, Silo, Apple TV , 2023

With all the bravado they could muster, networks rolled out their fantastic fall offerings - contest, reality shows. Cheap to produce, they hope the offerings will keep their dwindling audiences a while longer until they can get some of their scripted series back in production or long enough to figure out the streaming stuff.

We have nothing against Pat Sajak or Steve Harvey, but watching folks guess a bunch of stuff or people pitting their strength/endurance against someone else isn't something we can't wait to watch this - or any evening.

The days of 600 new scripted shows being rolled out by networks/studios didn't happen because of the strike and probably will never come back as they struggle to meet the demands of Wall Street for better returns and the push to make their streaming services profitable.

Glad the only thing we have left from our cable bundle is the fiber to the home.

The pandemic and recent U.S. writer/actor strike hurt all of the streamers but some more than others.

The one-two punch really hurt the network/studio streamers who largely focused on their home markets in the Americas.

They had to dig into their libraries for movies/shows they shelved for a tax write-off or retired projects they hope consumers don't remember they saw them a few years ago.

The techies - Netflix, Amazon, Apple, YouTube - who have been global from the get-go were inconvenienced but they had options.

If you want to stream content to the millions of viewers in the other 190 countries around the world you also have to produce a percentage of the content locally.

Shows from Germany, France, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Nigeria and everywhere else were just as interesting and thrilling as those produced in the U.S. studios.

But the money mongers of Wall Street cited studies from organizations such as Whip Media and said all of their investments were going to suffer from the same virus churn.

Source - Whip Media

Catching - Churn is the natural order of a subscription economy. People sign up, enjoy what they want, get attracted to something newer, better and move on. Maybe they come back, maybe they don't but churn is more expensive than retention.

Sure, it's everyone's fault and no one's fault.

Movie houses are now only meaningful for tentpoles or projects that need to/want to be considered for a statue.

The cable bundle is only worthwhile for advertisers interested in reaching a shrinking audience of a certain age who watch middle of the road stuff that doesn't make you think too hard.

All of the networks and studios saw the direct connection the tech folks were having with their audience and wanted in on the action.

Source - Castle Rock Entertainment

Satisfaction - Breaking out of their pay TV bundle gave folks a new sense of entertainment freedom and when people saw how much others enjoyed it, they wanted the same thing.

They started with the no-hassle subscription offering and offered their best stuff at a monthly charge below the market leader Netflix.

They added services to take advantage of watching all the new stuff at home and without any ads because additions only cost about $10, the volume of entertainment was awesome and they could drop them in the blink of an eye.

Source - Hub Research

More is Better - While there were basic SVOD services people signed up for, they quickly added multiple other options because what the heck, they're only $10 /- and it was okay until it became a burden to find the show/movie you wanted to watch and total budget became a concern.

Folks were like a kid in a candy store adding this one, that one, even the guy's stuff that looked sorta, kinda interesting. After all, it was only $10.

Of course, adding content cost money lots of money.

So, they did what any studio/network executive making $20-$30M would do, they raised their subscription fee knowing it was only a couple of bucks and people would see it was still a value.

Source - Deloitte

Brand Loyalty - Younger streaming viewers tend to binge-watch their content more than older people and then move on to another service's content to see what's new, enjoyable. A constant flow of new content is expensive and difficult for most U.S. focused networks/studios with production on hold.

Unfortunately, it didn't quite go as planned.

Folks reduced their home entertainment budgets by dropping one or two optional services after they had watched the stuff they wanted to see, added a new list of gotta see films/shows, watched them and moved on yet again.

Some people, like our friend Mark, had the add/drop cycle down to a science.

He signs up with a new service that has a bunch of projects he wants to watch, binges through them and before the billing cycle kicks in, he's gone to the next great set of adventures.

He's not alone.

Tens of thousands play the game!

But gaming the system takes a lot of work and exquisite timing.

Using the rules that are meant to favor the house (streaming service), they precisely time their entrances/exits to get the most and best entertainment for little or no cost.

However, most folks who escaped the clutches of the pay TV bundle with 20-minutes of ads for each hour of entertainment are first amazed at how much they save, how much really good content is available to them and how much uninterrupted stuff they enjoy.

But in the early stages it's overwhelming - six-eight services, 100s of shows/movies - almost euphoric until it's not.

It

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