Every day, the streaming landscape looks more and more like the beast it wants to slay: cable TV.
Discussions about platform bundling are coming as major streamers roll out ad-supported plans, limit password sharing and lean toward live sports coverage. Driven by the pandemic lockdown, the goal of exponential user growth has changed. Wall Street wants profits.
The key may be depth, not breadth.
Last year, many streaming services began shrinking their once-robust content libraries to pay less for licensing fees. (Streamers even have to pay to license their own movies and TV shows, as NBC spent more than $500 million to buy back the rights to NBC’s “The Office” in 2019.)
Faced with profit pressure and increasing competition for viewers, streamers have begun removing content to avoid remaining payments and licensing fees. This dynamic has divided the major streaming companies into two camps: buyers and sellers.
One side is Netflix, Amazon and apple – Companies that agnostically license content from other studios to enhance their streaming libraries.And then there are disney, common, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramountthey build their services on decades of legacy content and generate capital by auctioning it off to the highest bidder.
“Brands that acquire these games are thinking about how to operate more efficiently by buying licenses rather than creating products,” said Stephanie Fried, chief marketing officer of Fandom, the world’s largest entertainment fan platform.
Sellers get cash, and buyers get content with a track record of reliability and consumer value. This is especially important for Netflix, which is a new entrant to Hollywood and therefore has fewer feature-length blockbuster series. Just look at the success of NBC’s “Suits” on the service last year.
Notably, Netflix is already profitable. Amazon and Apple have said they view streaming as complementary to their overall businesses, rather than core. The remaining major streaming players are still struggling to achieve profitability.
Narrowing your content library naturally means the need for differentiation.
In the initial boom of new platforms over the past 15 years, most entrants have taken a “something for everyone” approach in an attempt to be the only streaming service you’ll ever need. This means that, aside from the user interface, most streaming services are starting to look similar over time.
Fried said this lack of differentiation could ultimately have negative consequences as the landscape becomes sparse. She advises streamers to look at the type of content their subscribers are consuming and select supplemental shows and movies that haven’t been licensed yet.
This model works well for smaller streaming services like BritBox, which offers a slew of British dramas, mysteries, and period pieces; and Shudder, which focuses on the horror genre.
Netflix, for example, has had success with nostalgic sitcoms like “Friends” and “The Office,” and it could add similar shows like Nickelodeon and Paramount’s “Pretty Odd Parents” and “Hey Arnold,” Disney’s “Boy Meets World” and “American Dad,” according to Fandom, as well as NBC’s “The Bell.”
Fried said Fandom, which has more than 50 million Wiki pages covering television, movies, games, comics and other entertainment content, “has a very good sense of the overlap between all these walled gardens.”
Original shows on Apple TV+ like “Severance,” “Defending Jacob,” “Home Before Dark” and “Servant” fascinate and scare audiences. Fried said the dark investigative thriller, which centers on character-driven narratives, would be a good fit to pair with films like Warner Bros. Discovery Channel’s “The Last Day,” Netflix’s “The Haunting of Hill House” and early seasons of Disney’s “Twin Peaks.” . .
On Amazon Prime Video, subscribers have chosen action-packed series like The Boys, Jack Ryan, Reacher, and Invincible, as well as fantasy series Ring of Power and Time wheel”. ” Fandom’s data suggests that shows such as Netflix’s “Jupiter’s Legacy,” Warner Bros. Discovery Channel’s “My Adventures in Superman,” Paramount’s “The Mayor of Kingston” and Disney’s “The Americans” will further attract Streaming viewers.
Likewise, Fandom’s data can tell streamers what types of programming they should invest in as they seek to create new products.
On Disney+, family entertainment is everything. Fried noted that Disney’s best chance to differentiate itself is to double down on its efforts to become a leader in kid- and family-friendly content. Meanwhile, Disney-owned Hulu has found success with “feel-good” 30-minute sitcoms and high-profile dramas, Fandom data shows. According to Fandom, Hulu viewers could be well served by NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” and the ’90s version of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and Paramount’s “The Babysitter,” along with Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit” and “The Queen’s Gambit” Black Mirror” and the BBC show “Orphan Black.”
Universal’s “Peacock” focuses on crime dramas and medical dramas, while Paramount+ offers viewers a place to watch sci-fi movies. at Warner Bros. Max, high-quality, well-known shows have long been a mainstay at HBO, with fantasy titles like “Game of Thrones” and “The Last of Us” attracting younger viewers.
Doing well and doubling down on certain segments means keeping your viewers around longer, Fried said. “When they think about cutting your service, they’re going to say, ‘I can’t because they have All my X-type shows.'”
Revealed: Peacock is the streaming service of CNBC parent company NBCUniversal.
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