Streaming Made Easy -September Edition

Welcome to the 3rd LinkedIn instalment of Streaming Made Easy (Monthly).

I’m Marion Ranchet & this is your monthly European take on the Global Streaming Video Business.

For weekly updates, head over to my Substack → marionranchet.substack.com

Enjoy today’s read and don’t forget to comment or share.

Today at glance:

• Favourite Report: Antenna's State of Subscriptions Report, Specialty SVOD
• Most Read Post: The 7 features I expect from a streamer
• Most Read Piece: Who will drive growth for FAST in Europe??

My Favourite Report:

Antenna published the latest instalment of a new quarterly report series called "Antenna's State of Subscriptions".

After an edition on Premium SVOD, they dug into Specialty Video aka Niche Streamers.

It's a goldmine of information about the rest of the streaming universe in the US as yes there is life outside of the big 5.

I read it so you don't have to. Here are a couple of interesting data points:

The good news first:

• +37% CAGR for the past four years for Specialty Streamers (vs 21% CAGR for Premium SVOD).
• Subscriptions grew from 10M in 2019 to 28M in June 2023.
• Specialty Streamers represent 11% of total SVOD subscriptions in the US.

The nuanced news:

• It's an incredibly crowded and fragmented ecosystem meaning that every new sub is won fighting off competition.
• Today, AMC+, BET+, MGM+ and Britbox are the largest players.
• The next largest growers were MGM+ (thanks to Amazon), BET+, Crunchyroll, and AMC+.

The bad news:

• Volatility is the norm.
• Churn hits them just as hard as Premium SVOD.

How about their distribution strategy?

Ubiquitous distribution shouldn't be the goal pursued by Niche streamers.

Why?

→ They are not meant to appeal to everyone.

→ It will break their model to try to be badly everywhere.

Instead they should design a balanced and iterative distribution strategy. Hear me out:

→ Balanced: a mix of models (app, Amazon channel, branded corner) and distribution partners (Smart TV, MVPDs, vMVPDs).

→ Iterative: focus is key, they should launch on new platforms only if they have the resources to grow within said platform. A deal with no account management is worthless.

What happens if you don't?

→ You rely too much on one distribution platform and you are therefore at their mercy.

→ You leave untapped distribution opportunities.

Reach out if you want to understand how I work with Niche Streamers to design the right distribution strategy for their service.

→ Full report

My Most Read Post:

One of the biggest challenges the streaming industry faces today is usability and discoverability.

Simple but effective should be the motto in how we design UX/UI for streamers.

Below I detailed my 7 must-have features. The rest is fluff to me.

What's your take?

The post:

My Most Read Piece:

In August, this was the most read piece amongst SME's Substack subscribers.

The topic:

Who will drive growth for FAST in Europe??

CTV alone can't do it.?

With a more resilient Pay TV ecosystem in Europe, Telcos and Pay TV providers should play with their unfair competitive advantage now.

Find out who's already active in the space.

The piece:

That's it for today.

Enjoy your week and see you next month for another LinkedIn edition of?Streaming Made Easy.

If you can't wait for the next monthly edition, head over to my Substack for weekly updates → marionranchet.substack.com

#streamingmedia