Podcasts

On this week’s episode of Inside the Stream nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and I discuss whether the Big Ten (and sports more generally) can help slow broadcast and cable TV’s viewership decline. This week the Big Ten announced a new $7 billion, 7-year media rights deal with Fox, CBS and NBC, which triples the annual revenue the conference receives compared to its current deal.

Meanwhile Nielsen revealed that in July streaming accounted for 34.8% of TV consumption by Americans, beating cable’s share of 34.4% and broadcast’s 21.6%. It was the first time streaming eclipsed cable. And in Q2, the biggest pay-TV operators lost another 1.9 million subscribers, underscoring cord-cutting’s impact on the industry. All of this raises the question whether the Big Ten, as well as other major sports, can stabilize or reverse broadcast and cable’s decline.

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On this week’s episode of Inside the Stream nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and I discuss Disney’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) performance in its fiscal third quarter, ending July 2, 2022 and the impact of upcoming price increases across all of its streaming services. Disney now has over 221 million streaming subscribers of which 152.1 million are Disney+ subscribers (up 14.4 million in the quarter).

But these Disney+ subscribers will see their monthly fee increase by 38% in December, from $7.99 to $10.99, no doubt causing higher churn. Disney hopes to offset this with its new ad-supported “Disney+ Basic” tier which will run $7.99 per month. Hulu will increase by $1 per month to $7.99 and ESPN+ will increase by $3 per month to $9.99 as previously announced. Colin and I explore all these changes and what impact they’re likely to have (and Colin has a nice recap of the changes).

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This week on Inside the Stream nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and I welcome our friend and industry analyst Alan Wolk to discuss his new report, “FASTs are the New Cable” (complimentary download). Alan is the co-founder and lead analyst at TVREV. He is a veteran TV industry follower who coined the term FAST for free ad-supported streaming TV.

Alan explains the similarities between FASTs and cable TV networks. He views FASTs as one of two streaming business models, with the other being paid subscriptions. But both models feature on-demand and linear content. The FAST ecosystem is complex and Alan describes the three key levels and how they interrelate. He also shares a number of predictions about where FASTs are heading.

For anyone interested in better understanding FASTs and the impact they’re having, the interview and report are highly valuable.

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This week on Inside the Stream nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and I explore the launch of NFL+, the new direct-to-consumer streaming service the NFL announced earlier this week. The service is mobile-only and most of the content is non-exclusive, leading Colin and me to wonder who is the target customer, and how big a market is it?

But given the contraction in the pay-TV industry, in the long-term the NFL may be heading to all streaming future, either direct-to-consumer or with partners. So NFL+ gives the league a new opportunity to connect directly with fans.

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This week on Inside the Stream nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and I discuss Netflix’s plans to launch ad-supported service tiers and introduce paid account sharing options. Netflix provided updates on both during its Q2 ’22 earnings call earlier this week. Colin and I agree that both are important steps for the company but that there are myriad execution challenges as the moves will introduce new complexity and decision-making for subscribers.

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This week on Inside the Stream nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and I interview Geir Skaaden, EVP and Chief Products and Services Officer at Xperi, which recently acquired Vewd to push further into the TVOS market. Geir walks us through the deal’s rationale and the value of providing an independent TVOS platform to TV OEMs who can retain a share of post-sale streaming economics. Geir also explains how Xperi’s TiVo+ service that includes 160 FAST channels enhances the company’s appeal as a partner for TV OEMs.

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This week on Inside the Stream nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and I explore how the recent launch by Cinedigm of the Elvis Presley Channel illustrates the FAST opportunity for content providers. Cinedigm struck deals with seven different platforms to gain access to over 100 million devices at launch. This demonstrates the reach connected TV now offers though Colin highlights how discovery challenges remain.

Ad-supported streaming services continue to gain, creating a tailwind for FAST channels. We reference recent comScore data showing the growing popularity of ad-supported services, especially among certain ethnic groups.

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This week on Inside the Stream nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and I discuss conflicting data about Netflix’s customer satisfaction from ASCI and Whip Media. Netflix remains an essential streaming service for many people, especially for watching drama, according to Parrot Analytics. However, new data from Antenna indicates that in April almost a quarter of Americans who signed up for Netflix dropped it within a month. We try to make sense of it all.

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Apple has signed a ten-year deal with Major League Soccer to stream all MLS matches starting in 2023, without any local broadcast blackouts. The deal moves sports deeper into streaming, and away from traditional pay-TV.

Chris Harris, Publisher of World Soccer Talk, joins Colin and me this week to understand the significance of the deal and what impact it may have on sports going forward. Chris is an authority on global soccer and also wrote about how Apple might price the MLS subscription service. We explore all angles of the deal with Chris.

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VideoNuze’s Connected TV Advertising Summit virtual was this past Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, featuring over 35 speakers on 8 different sessions sharing tons of great market insights.

In this week’s Inside the Stream podcast nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and I discuss some of our takeaways from the conference, including specific reasons speakers are enthusiastic about CTV advertising, and also what challenges remain.

I’ll be posting all the session videos on VideoNuze.com early next week.

Separate, Colin released a new white paper, “O&O is Not Enough: Hybrid Business Models and Multi-Partner Distribution” which is available for complimentary download.  

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In this week’s Inside the Stream podcast nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and I discuss a number of topics including how FAST channels are evolving to include live content, whether there will be consolidation of video aggregators, and how complexity in the CTV value chain is being addressed.

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In this week’s Inside the Stream podcast nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and I cover a range of topics including the YouTube app’s new feature enhancing viewers’ TV experience, plus new FAST channels from 60 Minutes, The Weather Channel and the BBC.

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In this week’s Inside the Stream podcast nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and I mix up our usual format by discussing a range of topics that hit our radar this week, including data supporting SVOD’s strength, a new streaming service the NFL is planning to launch, a live-streaming commerce company called Firework which just raised $150 million, and others stories.

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In this week’s Inside the Stream podcast nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and I discuss how SVOD services are diversifying their monetization models beyond purely subscriptions. Examples of services doing so include Disney+, Netflix, HBO Max and Curiosity Stream. We examine what’s behind these moves and the multiple benefits they deliver.

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In this week’s Inside the Stream podcast nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and I discuss new data from Hub Research that highlights streaming’s ongoing surge. For example, 89% of survey respondents have a streaming subscription, with half of respondents to at least 3 of the “big 5” services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO Max and Disney+). Colin and I explore all of the data and what it means.

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In this week’s Inside the Stream podcast nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and I discuss some of our takeaways from the NewFronts presentations this week. Connected TV, original shows, audience targeting and shopability were at the forefront. We also touch on Roku’s recent results.

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In this week’s Inside the Stream podcast nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and I discuss the Q1 results of Comcast and YouTube, as well as a new report from Pixability that details YouTube’s massive reach.

Colin leads the discussion of Comcast, which lost 512K video subscribers, leading to a total loss of 1.7 million subscribers in the past 4 quarters. On the broadband side, subscriber growth slowed to 262K, compared with 434K a year ago. Peacock was a bright spot, reaching 28 million monthly active users and 13 million paid users.

Separate, YouTube’s revenue grew at a slower 14% rate in Q1, to $6.9 billion. We discuss more of the details of YouTube’s performance which remains very strong. Pixability also released a valuable new report showing the extent of YouTube’s massive reach and its proliferation on connected TVs. The report is available as a complimentary download.

Colin wraps up with a few takeaways from NABShow earlier this week.

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In this week’s Inside the Stream podcast nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and I discuss Netflix’s Q1 results which included a loss of 200K subscribers vs. a forecast gain of 2.5 million.

Netflix provided a number of reasons for the loss, which we explore. We’re both excited about the prospects for a lower priced ad-supported option, which is long overdue. We’re less sanguine about Netflix reeling in widespread password sharing, which it has traditionally sanctioned and now reaches an estimated 100 million households.

Listen on to hear all of our observations about Netflix’s challenges and what it can do to restart growth. (29 minutes, 46 seconds)

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In this week’s Inside the Stream podcast nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and I interview Ben Kaplan, president and CEO of Backlight, a media technology company that has launched. Backlight has 5 business units comprising companies it has invested in that span the video creation and distribution lifecycle. Backlight has been funded with a $200 million investment from PSG, a growth equity firm.

The companies include ftrack, iconik, Celtx, Wildmoka and Zype.

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Welcome to this week’s edition of Inside the Stream, the podcast where nScreenMedia’s Chief Analyst Colin Dixon and I take listeners inside the world of streaming video.

First up this week Colin shares thoughts on Philo’s pro-subscriber approach, based on an interview he listened to with CEO Andrew McCollum. He discusses holding the line on pricing, offering new content packages and personalized channels.

Next we explore Nielsen’s newly released survey data on streaming, highlighted by the data point that there are over 817K streaming titles now available in the U.S. No wonder that nearly half of respondents feel overwhelmed by all the different streaming options now available.

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