HBO's Disco Party Is Over
It’s Just “Max” Now
Millions of “Disco Bros” fans are bound to be disappointed by news that the probable new name of the HBO Max/Discovery+ collab is going to be “Max.” (There’s a pesky bit of business about a pharma company that owns the rights to the Max URL that needs to be dealt with first.)
Still no word on pricing, or what happens to all those Discovery+ subscribers who were happily paying $5/month for the ad-supported version. Will they be grandfathered into the new app, and if so for how long?
It seems there was also much debate on the wisdom of removing “HBO” from the app’s name, given that it is such an iconic brand.?
But I think that moving away from HBO is the right move, especially now. [READ MORE]
RSNs Bumpy Move To Streaming
As has been noted here many times, in the grand scheme of things, regional sports networks (RSNs) are in many ways far more important to the survival of the TV industry than big deals like NFL rights.
Not that the latter is unimportant, it’s just that RSN fans tend to be hardcore.?
They are fans of a particular pro baseball, basketball or hockey team and will gladly pay to watch every single game their team plays. This makes them a very valuable subscriber base, as they are highly unlikely to churn. At least not during the season anyway.
Which is why we’re watching two developments this week.?
On the one hand, Diamond, the company that’s running Sinclair’s RSN’s and moving them all to streaming apps has been doing its best to disassociate itself with Sinclair and the $9.6 billion in debt it went into to acquire said RSNs.
On the other, NBCU seems ready to move its five RSNs onto Peacock and has been busily negotiating those deals.?
Two steps forward, one step back.?[READ MORE]
Featured Report:?
A new data-driven report from VIZIO takes a look at each audience and the overlap and finds, among other things, they aren’t that different from one another. And that brands with a heavy emphasis on the NFL and college football actually aren’t getting a ton of extra reach by advertising during both.
Knowing how viewers spend time with TV programming allows for a smarter, more sophisticated approach to advertising that maximizes ROI.
Best of all, the report is free.
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Cassillo's Corner: Shrinking Suitors For Sports Rights?
Recent years have seen sports rights agreements soar to unprecedented heights?as more suitors (via streaming) have helped drive prices up. But after more than a decade of boom times, could we finally see the long-anticipated pullback?
- For instance, WBD has been cutting costs everywhere, and?NBA rights may be next in the crosshairs.
- Netflix (currently)?wants nothing to do with live sports, and RSNs are?having their own existential crisis.
- ESPN and Fox have most major rights locked up for the next decade, aside from the NBA’s forthcoming negotiations, so less competition could start driving prices down – especially if traditional pay TV companies try to hurry along the migration to streaming for the sake of profitability. —John Cassillo
Featured
It also gives Peacock a bigger audience for its ads, because sports are always going to be ad-supported given that the alternative is listening to the announcers blather on during a lengthy time out or pitching change. (Plus the leagues usually insist on it.) So even though the RSN subscribers may need to sign up for ad-free Peacock, they are still going to see ads.?
Only The Super Bowl Beats Turkey Day Viewing?[Marketing Brew]
On Thanksgiving Day, NBCUniversal reached 40% of the ad market, or around 100 million viewers, according to iSpot figures. Over the course of the entire weekend, the broadcaster said ads on its channels and platforms reached more than 50% of US adults, or 128 million people.
And while companies with live sports may be able to leverage those events to minimize damage to their advertising businesses (Fox, for example, says that its sports ad business continues to boom), pure-play entertainment companies will feel the most pain, due to the macroeconomic hit, in addition to secular challenges.
Advertising
Streaming Wars
Data & Measurement
Sports
- Diamond’s RSN To-Do List?[Sports Business Journal]
- Netflix CEO Calls Live Sports A ‘Loss Leader’?[Front Office Sports]
- Would A Michigan-Ohio State CFP Title Game Bring A Record TV Audience??[The Athletic]
Landscape
- Why Coca-Cola Is Launching A Holiday Movie Series On Amazon Prime Video – And How Branded TV Content Is Evolving?[AdAge]
- Warner Bros. Discovery Closes In On ‘Max’ As The Name Of Its Combined HBO Max-Discovery+ Streaming Service?[CNBC]
- TikTok National-Security Deal Faces More Delays as Worry Grows Over Risks?[WSJ]