THE LATEST
Netflix Games Engaging Less Than 1 Percent of Subscribers
latest engagement figures are unlikely to be warmly received by Netflix, as less than 1% of Netflix’s 221 million subscribers play the games according to Apptopia. In total, the games have reportedly been downloaded 23.3 million times and average 1.7 million daily users, which is far short of leading mobile games.
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STARZ adds 1.8M subscribers to hit 26.3M globally
The total includes all of STARZ’s streaming services including STARZ, STARZPLAY International, and STARZPLAY Arabia.
The service’s latest quarterly total represents a 9.6 million subscriber year-over-year increase from the 16.7M that the streamer reported in August 2021. In the past, Lionsgate executives have touted a target of 50-60 million global subscribers by the end of 2025, but recent reports about the company’s future might put that into question.
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Warner Bros. Discovery Considers Free Streaming Service for Classic Movies
Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav confirmed on the company’s latest earnings call that a FAST service is in the works.
According to Reuters, one proposed service would open the Warner Bros. vault for free streaming of landmark movies like “Casablanca,” “The Maltese Falcon,” and “Citizen Kane.”
While it’s unclear if Warner Bros. Discovery will launch a FAST service and what content may be included, this would be a lucrative option. A standalone library of classic films may not draw as many eyes as a general entertainment offering, so it remains to be seen if this is the path the company takes.
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The Streaming Wars Weekly Recap 08/05/2022
Every week, we curate the best news and analysis from the OTT video industry.
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HBO Max & Discovery+ Combined Streamer To Launch In U.S. In Summer 2023
JB Perrette, CEO and President, Global Streaming and Interactive at WBD, revealed the news on the company’s earnings call Thursday.
“Our primary focus for the rollout will be in the markets where HBO Max has already launched,” he said. “We plan to launch the service sequentially starting in the U.S. next summer. Latin America will follow later in the year. European markets with HBO Max will follow in early ‘24, with additional launches and key Asia Pacific territories and some new European markets coming later in 2024.”
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Paramount Global Q2 DTC Subscribers At 64 Million
Total DTC subscribers rose to nearly 64 million, reflecting the removal of 3.9 million subscribers in Russia where Paramount and other media companies suspended operations in Russia in March after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Paramount+ added 4.9 million subscribers, growing the count to over 43 million. Some 1.2 Russia subs were removed.
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Paramount+ joins The Roku Channel’s premium subscription lineup, bringing more live sports
Paramount+ and all its films, TV shows, originals, 24/7 news, and live sports will arrive on The...
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FX Boss John Landgraf Now Says 2022 Will Be the Actual Peak of ‘Peak TV’
I can’t with this guy’s “peak TV” predications. Landgraf has been wrong before, and he’s the first to admit that his prediction might be done “foolishly.” But he has data on his side, courtesy of the number-crunchers at FX research.
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Why succeeding in gaming is critical for Netflix’s long-term plans
Netflix already boasts ample potential advertising inventory in its homegrown intellectual properties; according to observers, the popular Netflix series “Stranger Things” could generate millions of dollars through product placement. But building up a library of original games could help increase the variety and scale of Netflix’s available ad inventory, particularly as in-game advertising becomes a more fully developed channel.
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In an Ad Sales Slump, Netflix and Disney+ May Become a ‘Holy Grail’ for Advertisers
Disney and Netflix are betting big on introducing ads to their flagship services. They’ve got an edge with broad reach and premium content, but in a soft market they need to give advertisers something better than what they have now — namely, returns on investment and the ability to precisely target users.
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MyBundle.TV scores deal with National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative
MyBundle.TV has scored a new deal, inking a strategic partnership with the NRTC, as the company advances its ambitions of becoming the go-to-partner for broadband providers that want to offer simplified aggregated streaming options to customers.
The new agreement means the 1,500 members of NRTC – the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative – can take advantage of MyBundle.TV, which provides aggregation tools and products to help make it easier for providers to offer (and consumers to find) the streaming services they want in one place.
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Why a Strong Disney+ Launch for ‘Lightyear’ Would Be Bad for Pixar
Should “Lightyear” prove successful on streaming, then, the value of Pixar movies as big-screen releases would come under severe scrutiny. Why spend millions mounting a theatrical rollout, Disney would surely reason, when Pixar’s movies are such effective subscription generators for Disney+.
“Lightyear” underwhelming on Disney+ would tell a different story. It would be easier, in that case, to frame the film as a one-off flop, a failed franchise extension whose potential appeal was overestimated. In and of itself, that’s not great for Pixar, but it could be enough to convince Disney to keep giving the company’s films a chance in theaters.
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Roku has a problem — its buttons aren’t printing enough money
It’s easy to see why Roku makes the buttons so prominent; in 2019 Bloomberg reported that streaming services paid about $1 per customer to put their button on the remote. If that number is still accurate, that means Roku could be making up to $4 per remote, just from streaming service fees. Multiply that across most of the 63 million active accounts Roku reported in its Q2 2022 earnings (pdf), and that’s a big chunk of change.
If you’re Roku, that’s a stroke of genius; each time you sell a remote, you get money from whoever’s buying it and from four streaming services.
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Estrella Media launches 3 FAST channels on LG smart TVs
Estrella Media is expanding its free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) presence, debuting today Cine EstrellaTV on LG Channels.
Estrella Media has gradually gained exposure on smart TV systems. The company is a content partner on Roku’s Espacio Latino – a recently launched hub for Roku’s Spanish language programming. And Estrella Media last year launched EstrellaTV and Estrella News on Vizio’s SmartCast TVs.
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Amazon Prime Video launches localized services for top three markets in Southeast Asia
Amazon Prime Video launched localized versions of its streaming service in Southeast Asia’s biggest markets — Indonesia, Thailand and The Philippines. The company is attempting to boost its subscriber base in the three markets by increasing its investment in local production, releasing original slates for each territory and giving customers special offers like seven-day free trials and discounts.
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Giant Interactive Sold to Global QC Company Testronic Labs
Giant Interactive has been acquired by Testronic Labs, a global QC and localization company providing services to publishers and developers around the world.
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Has Hulu outlived its usefulness?
Hulu has proved that a hub for broadcast content online is a very appealing proposition for consumers. Had all the broadcasters remained committed to the service, Hulu would be an essential entertainment service for most homes in America. As such, it’s not hard to believe it could command a healthy $20-$25 monthly subscription cost.
Instead, broadcasters have decided to go it alone, forcing viewers to subscribe separately to each “channel” of content. All will struggle to reach Hulu’s current penetration, and none will achieve the penetration they could have if they had worked together. Broadcasters would have been far stronger together than they are apart.
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Broadway on Demand Launches Free Streaming Channel
Broadway on Demand has announced that it will launch a FAST service, which will exist alongside the existing paid streaming platform.
The FAST version of Broadway on Demand will be featured on seven platforms at launch, including Local Now, with a goal of 20 million homes by the end of the summer.
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Weekly Recap – July 29, 2022
Each week, we break down the most impactful news, insights, and analysis in the OTT video industry.
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Apple’s services revenue growth slows to $19.6B in Q3, reaches 860M paid subscriptions
Apple released its third-quarter earnings on Thursday and reported $19.6 billion in services revenue (which includes businesses like the App Store, Apple TV+, Apple Music, cloud services and others), marking a 12% year-over-year increase, but narrowly falling short of Wall Street predictions of about $19.7 billion.
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