Monday marked the 25th anniversary of Netflix’s incorporation and the 15th year since it started streaming. nScreenMedia looks at four ways Netflix has revolutionized TV since then which include proving the web can deliver a great TV experience, going direct to consumer, opening the world to foreign content, and broke the dominance of cable TV.
Read More
In the competitive business of unlimited wireless, entertainment bundles matter, and T-Mobile has added another key compliment with the addition of permanent free Apple TV Plus service for its premium “Magenta Plus” customers.
T-Mobile was already offering these subscribers Apple TV Plus free for one year. Starting on August 31, these subscriber will have free access to Apple’s $4.99-a-month SVOD service for as long as they stay on their T-Mobile Magenta Plus plan.
Notably, Magenta Plus users also get a year’s free of Paramount Plus ($4.99), in addition to 4K/UHD streaming quality.
In terms of rival U.S. carriers, Verizon offers its premium unlimited wireless users the Disney Bundle for free, in addition to Apple Arcade and Apple Music.
Read More
Hollywood is finally stumbling into the Moneyball era of streaming video. It’s time, especially now that Netflix has corrected course, and Wall Street is finally looking beyond dumb old stat lines like subscriber additions.
Average revenue per user is starting to matter, but so too is a useful questioning of one of the internet’s long-held beliefs, in the Long Tail. Everything has an audience, somewhere, the Long Tail suggests. Making everything you have available and find-able can build big audiences out of lots of little niche ones. Zaslav begs to differ, and perhaps others will start to do so, too.
Read More
Netflix’s upcoming ad-supported plan could cost anywhere from $7 to $9 per month according to Bloomberg. For comparison, the streaming service offers a basic single-screen plan in the U.S. for $9.99 per month, while its most popular plan, which offers full HD streaming on two screens, costs $15.99 per month.
The report noted that Netflix plans to show roughly four minutes of commercials for an hour of programming, which is on par or less than its competitors. It also said that the company might show ads before and during a show, but won’t show anything after an episode ends.
Read More
The value of a hit show was clear when traditional live TV ruled home entertainment. It was a simple battle for eyeballs. Big audiences drove higher ad values and even higher ad revenues. In the on-demand world of SVOD, the equation is not that simple, and it is not even clear that a certified hit is necessary at all.
Yet services continue to plow huge amounts of money into creating hits for their streaming services. Amazon is reported to have spent $715 million, or $58 million per episode, for the first season of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Netflix paid $30 million an episode for the fourth season of Stranger Things, and HBO paid $20 million an episode for House of the Dragon. Why are top SVODs willing to spend so much for big titles, and are they necessary for survival?
Read More
