The Missed Opportunity in Streaming.

I love television. I want Netflix to win. I want Disney+ to win. I want Paramount+ , Peacock , HBO Max … I want everyone to win. But, it’s kind of hard when no one works even a little bit to distinguish themselves from the others. Sigh.?

Having been called brash and arrogant for my entire career, I cop to it. I certainly don’t walk in the shoes of the people making billion dollar decisions; I don’t live with the pressures they have to endure. They’re all very smart and well heeled and one day they’ll certainly figure things out. But please! I know a missed opportunity when I see it.?

The new kid on the video block –Netflix– has stumbled, but as a tech driven company,? they have a unique perspective on how to win. However, the former media giants are 100 year experts in popular culture and yet, they’ve completely abandoned that expertise. They don’t know where to turn next.

? Lucas Shaw in Bloomberg: "[Netflix] didn’t market any of [their shows]. It inspired its? competition to do the same."

? Matthew Belloni in Puck: “These companies are scrambling to remake themselves for the next 20 years of digital distribution, and this transition is happening in real time. Streamlining. Fewer executives. Lean and mean. That’s the new Paramount, and all of Hollywood, really.”

OK, got it. But whether in linear TV or streaming, the trap has always been that many “programming” executives are actually creative bigwigs. Programming is a completely distinctive craft from production. Great programmers realize that their most valuable asset isn’t the show, it’s the audience. It doesn’t seem like too many folks realize it.?

There is a “build it and they will come” mentality in television. The production assumption is if you have a “great” show the viewers will somehow magically appear. If you’re lucky, it’s true. Who would have guessed that “The Walking Dead,” “Yellowstone” or “Breaking Bad” would end up being three of the top performers of the era? But, all three? got their starts on traditional linear channels. And, completely aside from the non-on-demand nature of those channels, there is one thing that separates them from streamers.

Promotion. Promotion. Promotion. Specifically, on-air promotion. A seductive call to existing viewers to fall in love with something new. Or, if you’re not interested in being in love, at least, give them a blind date.

Going back to the days of radio drama, comedies and non-fiction programming, and later, in broadcast and cable, and even in the YouTube era, the most surefire, efficiently priced way to get an audience, was to grab the attention of the people you already have. Not all of them would bite, but if the show was good enough, it didn’t really have to be superb – those fans would spread the word. It remains the most cost effective method of getting a running start. If the ratings and research showed promise, then a public relations push and, occasionally, paid external advertising might be worth the investment.?

Let me repeat all that in the clearest language. It doesn’t cost anything to communicate with your existing viewers. Nothing. And the benefits in media –broadcast, cable, streaming– are clear for all to see.?

When MTV launched in 1981, we had no advertising budget; meanwhile, the big foot of HBO was spending $10 million for every original movie they made. MTV became a phenomenon by playing music videos.? But let’s be real, who in the business thought that old Rod Stewart and Billy Joel videos, and newbies like Madonna and Duran Duran, were going to set the world on fire? To make MTV special, our team committed 500 promotional spots a week on the channel, more than 25,000 a year (and no external advertising), to our then very small audience (we launched in fewer than 3 million American homes). The rest is legendary. MTV became “the” video brand of the late 20th Century.

Nickelodeon started in much worse shape than you can imagine. Five years after the channel launched, in spite of seven days a week of premium kids programs, we were dead last in the ratings of the 30 cable channels distributed in the US. In 1984, our team created an organized series of on-air branding campaigns, that based on its ad rates was the 80s equivalent of $25 million (Today? $75 million). The result? Six months later Nickelodeon went from worst to first in the cable ratings, where it stayed for 25 years.

What distinguished the cable era from broadcasting was the huge volume of channels available. So how do you persuade a viewer to watch one of your channels? Answer: You create an individual personality for a channel that entices a viewer to sample new shows. Hence, the rise of the media “brands.” Whether it was Fox News or CNN, Nickelodeon or Disney, FX or HBO, the networks asked you to not only fall in love with them, but more importantly, to trust them. That love and trust could evolve into a group of dependable viewers.?

(Not for nothing, one of the most regular pushbacks I get on this strategy from the everything-for-everyones, whether streaming or broadcast, is that a mass appeal service just cannot have a personality, lest it alienate one group or another. If I mention 塔吉特百货 as a counter example, silence fills the void.)

When I first started a programming company on YouTube in 2006, it paralleled cable in surprising ways. Yes, the channel volume was staggering (50+ million), but the ability for individual programmers to control their destinies and promote a personality made it familiar to those of us from “traditional” media. Quickly enough, individual viewing communities sprung up and became deeply dedicated to their favorites. And today, with billions of monthly viewers, the platform continues to be driven by those programmers who have the ability to distinguish themselves.?

Now, think about your favorite long form streamer.?

They aren’t interested in forging a trusting relationship with you. All of them, the MO is purely transactional. The hope is you’ll click and stay for a while.?

Can you imagine William Paley, the genius behind CBS –what he called “The Tiffany Network– operating in such a haphazard fashion??

Netflix tells you nothing about Netflix and next to nothing about its new programs, relying on an exhaustively tested thumbnail. Imagine, someone goes on a date, sits down and holds up an empty frame around their smiling head, then doesn’t say anything. That encounter is not going to end well.?

The rest of the streamers have followed suit, relying on (sometimes) a “meh” trailer, and for the adult programming only, a smattering of press and some more “meh” social media. They don’t care if you fall in love with them, they just hope they can complete a “transaction” with you so you’ll click and stay for a while.?

The media players and their broadcast ancestors? –the Disney combine, Warner/HBO Max, Paramount+, NBCU/Peacock and the others– spent 75 years perfecting a ridiculously low cost strategy of marketing themselves and their shows on their own platforms to their existing viewers, a terrific baseline. Now, with their streaming descendants they (sometimes) run a short promo before the show you’re going to watch, encouraging you to watch some other show. And that’s it. Nothing about the streamer, nothing about why they’re delightful and dependable.?

Oh… and whenever possible they “reboot” something you used to like, hoping for that ever elusive click. Heaven forbid they use their tried and true pop culture skills, honed over decades, to help you decide whether to give something new a chance.?

Why should the media players depend on the loyalty and love of their viewers to piggyback exciting new programs into the culture’s consciousness? Netflix didn’t do it, why should they??

The emperor has no clothes. And sadly, now the former rulers have decided that it’s nudity for themselves too.

So far, the media companies and streamers have blown it. But it’s not going to last.?

Missed opportunities create new possibilities. Someday someone’s going to learn to love their audience, then the audience is going to love them back. And they’re the one that’s going to win.

#streaming #entertainment #MTV #radio