The Bulletin Edition 12
From The Desk of
This week Elon Musk learnt that he had become the world’s richest man to the tune of $190 billion, surpassing the fortune of Jeff Bezos. Musks response on Twitter was “How strange,” before responding back to this Tweet shortly after and adding “well, back to work.”
This response seems fitting for how I felt this week, the first Monday back to work since the two-week break over the holidays. Just to clarify, I didn’t accumulate billions of dollars (although this video is on my playlist whenever I need a motivation boost) however after everything that happened last year, this week really was “well, back to work.” Emails needed to be responded to, happy new year wishes sent to all, projects that I put on pause for the break were picked back up and even though there was some “now where was I at with this?” after a day or two of adjusting, it was back to full throttle with a definite mood of excitement. I think many of us appreciated closing our computers for two weeks but were then eager to move from the couch back to the home office where some familiarity and stimulation still existed.
It was also a needed pause to sit back and reflect and look towards this new year with new projects on the horizon and some new ideas for The Bulletin. Each weekly edition is always the result of news, trends, opinions, discussions and thoughts of the week. This week the usual chatter around travel and events didn’t happen and I even had to remind myself that about now, CES plans would be in the works and I would also be prepping to attend NATPE in Miami. With both events being virtual this year, it will be interesting to see how an online CES plays out, especially with such a landmark industry event historically based around an enormous in-person presence in Las Vegas combined with the sheer size and overwhelmingness of the event itself. I’m usually grateful for the quieter and more visually appealing vibe of NATPE and certainly hope 2022 will see us all back in Miami. Despite being more regarded as a retirement city or somewhere for “those up in the north” to escape the cold during the winter months, this article caught my eye. Perhaps an early, yet still working, retirement is in order! I’ll see you on the Miami Beach boardwalk.
As ever, thank you all for your support and words of encouragement and I wish you all the success for your coming week [C]
The Weekly Dispatch
Roku
Another big week for Roku with a ticker-tape shower of news coming out that the company has purchased the content catalogue from the failed service Quibi and will stream the content for free on their ad-supported channels. The company also announced that Roku is now the number one selling smart-TV operating system in the U.S. and Canada, breaking the 50 million active accounts barrier with an additional 14 million new accounts in 2020 alone.
The acquisition of the Quibi catalogue is a strange one as the day before the news came out my daughter was watching vertical TikTok compilations on Youtube on our TV and the spacial layout of vertical content on a widescreen device just didn’t please the eye at all. It is unknown if all “the content” from Quibi has already been produced or that the deal also includes contractually signed content which could end up being formatted for regular TV.
One thing for sure, the news of the deal sent Roku’s stock price to a record high, yet again, and the company’s market cap increased significantly more than the supposed $100 million they paid for the content. An interesting take, even if they decide not to do anything much with the content.
Strumm
This week former Disney and Discovery execs announced that they are developing a new streaming service called “Struum.” The service aims to move to the next phase of streaming technology and service offering by creating an easier way for users to discover new programming from across an increasingly fragmented and cluttered SVOD marketplace. With a subscription that is linked to a credit model, Struum subscribers will be able to discover and watch content from a wide range of third party content partners and streaming services.
Struum is expected to launch in the next few months and has already struck deals with over 35 existing streaming services, with an offering of over 20,000 TV series, movies and shorts.
As AVOD and FAST are being used to upsell users to the channels SVOD subscription services, could Struum offer the same opportunity for streaming platforms to have users try their content but without the ad load? It will be interesting to see how the Struum model evolves.
Discovery+
It was all about the “+” again this week as Discovery announced the launch of their Plus streaming service. Offering more than 55,000 TV episodes and 50 original series the service will cost $4.99 a month or $6.99 a month of the ad-free service. The company will launch with 150 hours of exclusive content, increasing the catalogue by planning an additional 1,000 hours of original programming in the first year post-launch.
There is no doubt about the strength of the Discovery brand, even globally, after the company has occupied top tiers on cable subscription packages around the world for decades, however, I don’t think this service should be compared to a Netflix or Disney+ in terms of reach and subscriber targets. The non-fiction streaming arena is already quite crowded with the genre offered heavily on Netflix and Amazon and also other same genre services such as Curiosity Stream but I do think the global brand could rack up a substantial number of subscribers in the first year. What remains to be seen is whether Discvovery+ will be the consumers must-have or a nice to have.
Discussed
This weeks Focus edition has been changed to Discussed, another new section that emerged itself from my own thoughts on content, comments from you the reader and what has been going on in the media and entertainment industry. The Focus section isn’t going away but will soon take up a new home on this website which will give me more time to dig deeper into the topics that previously appeared in the Focus part of this weekly.
I read, research, plan and write The Bulletin every week in my spare time outside of my work and family responsibilities, yet at the same time, there is also so much more I would like to write about. So stay tuned.
In Discussed, I will cover a few topics that came up this week during my interactions on social media and in communication with colleagues that I think are worthy of sharing. Hopefully, they will get you thinking and additional contribution to the topics are always welcome so get in touch. Some of these topics will eventually find their way into the new Focus part of this website.
Fitness on TV: This week some numbers came out that 69% of gyms will never reopen and that started off a flurry of discussions around the rise of fitness on TV, especially with the integration of wearables. There is no doubt that gyms will close or have closed due to the pandemic. Think of all those gyms near your office that are now empty. However, at the same time running a gym isn’t very profitable even if you have a flurry of signups in January and then the user keeps paying but never comes back. The pandemic and work from home have really created a new segment of the fitness industry to bring workouts into the home and especially on the TV. Apple, Peloton and many others are getting into this space and I see it as being a huge market this year with many opportunities. Physical gyms will reopen but I predict more local neighbourhood gyms, with online companion classes for when you can’t get there in person.
What’s next for Netflix: I think everyone would like to know the answer to this question. Stay tuned for my thoughts and insights that will be published on the new format of The Focus.
Aggregation and bundling: Both topics came up this week, one being about how streaming is now so fragmented, subscribers have to switch from one service to another, or don’t know what service a show or a film is on leading to a poor discovery experience. At one time it was assumed that everything would just end up on Netflix but now we have over 300 streaming services that carved up all the content and separated it into their own platforms. The other topic of bundling was also discussed on how we could be going back to a cable and lean back viewing model where the consumer wants all the content in one place and also still enjoys the linear experience of just sitting down and letting someone else tell them what to watch.
Niche services: More niche and hyper-niche streaming platforms are being launched either around a particular special interest or a genre. Whilst I see many falling by the wayside, there are some that have picked up hundreds of thousands of loyal subscribers who are more than happy to pay $10 a month. The trick is, of course, finding that niche and that loyal fan base to serve.
Unpacking “The Streaming Wars”: Perhaps the most overused industry term of 2020, what are the streaming wars? How can we look at a battle based on multiple players with different offerings, all targeting the same consumer? Do subscriber numbers mean anything? What about churn, subscriber value, households, active users, reach potential, distribution. Just because Roku is in 50 million homes doesn’t mean an app on its platform has 50 million users.
Where does Spotify go from here?: With all the recent news on Spotify stepping heavily into the podcast arena, much was discussed this week on the future of Spotify. On-demand music is not a high-profit margin model and the more your subscriber streams the more you have to pay rights holders. Secondly, Spotify owns no music, they are merely a distribution pipe. With the three major music labels now looking at other more lucrative revenue channels, such as social media and gaming, it will be interesting to see how much leverage Spotify continues to have over the music industry.
The big catalogue selloff: More news came out this week of artists selling their music catalogues to investment firms or new startups that are raising hundreds of millions of dollars in financing to buy musicians works. The shift to digital certainly accelerated this trend and many legacy artists are fortunate to have recorded in the “back catalogue” days to accumulate so much material. What about today’s artist who isn’t part of the back-catalogue generation?
Comparing music to film and TV: this discussion still rages even though the two are very different in terms of consumption, consumer usage, business models, content structure but there are also some interesting lessons to learn from how music evolved from physical product to digital streaming. This is definitely a topic to explore further.
On Point
$450,000 - the amount Nicki Minaj will have to pay Tracy Chapman for infringing on the singer’s rights after Chapman denied Minaj a sample request, with Minaj releasing the song regardless (United States District Court)
75 million - the number of viewers who tuned in to watch Jean-Michel Jarre’s new year’s eve live-streamed concert.
49.6% - the percentage of households in France that have Netflix accounts (CNC)
2 billion - the projected number of global streaming subscribers by 2025 (Juniper)
487,000 - the number of UK households that watched Disney’s “Soul” movie over the holidays (Samba)
1.1 trillion - the number of viewing minutes in 2020 on the Vizio platform (Vizio)
16% - the percentage of foreign films that account for China’s total box office numbers (Maoyan)
$1.75 million - the ticket revenue for Andrea Bocelli’s Christmas live stream (Pollstar)
90% -the percentage of Portuguese households that still have a pay-TV subscription (ANACOM)
$1,000 - the cost of Hisense’s huge 85-inch 4K TV at Best Buy (The Verge)
Productivity
I have always believed that your career or job hunting is the same as sales. You are the product and it is not about just applying or hoping your career goes in the right direction. It’s about selling yourself and demonstrating to a client or an employer why they need to hire you and how they will benefit from your skills and experience.
This short 90-second video from Fast Company offers some great tips on how to communicate in this now mostly online world, including adopting a “customer service mindset” to those around you, especially to your peers, team or clients.
One To Read
Even though I am not even halfway through this book, it is good enough to recommend already and I know it will be in my top 10 books of 2021.
Sarah Frier’s book “No Filter” takes us on a journey deep into the foundation and the beginnings of Instagram, its rise, the creative significance of the app in modern-day culture and then the app’s acquisition by Facebook. An absolutely fascinating read that highlights how an idea so simple revolutionized how we take photographs, see the world around us, interact with brands and celebrities and how Instagram fought a long hard battle to remain unique and independent, even after it was swallowed up by the Facebook giant.
Diversion
Many of you have commented on how much you enjoy the Diversion section in each edition of The Bulletin and I enjoy finding these red herrings to throw in to pique your interest in something different. With the video above for you to watch, this week it was announced that Sweden’s Goteborg film festival is taking applications for one person to be taken to a remote lighthouse on the bleak island of Pater Noster, where the lucky candidate will have their cellphone taken away from them, will have no access to books but will watch the festival’s 60 premieres over the course a week. With zero contact to the outside world, anyone who feels like escaping the house for a break can apply here.
Report
This week’s Visual section has been replaced “Report,” a new section that serves to introduce an interesting and relevant whitepaper that I believe will be of interest to you. Many whitepapers run up into the hundreds of pages (and cost thousands of dollars) and while some contain very insightful information, the key is more about what you can easily take away from the report as opposed to the length of the report itself.
This weeks report, “2020: Essential Facts About The Video Game Industry” is a concise, short and snappy overview of an industry that has typically remained outside of traditional “entertainment,” in terms of television, film and music. However, as we know, this is changing and this report is a good “get up to speed” on the gaming space.
And Finally
The BBC steps into homeschooling
As many of my friends and colleagues back in the U.K. struggle with lockdowns and the closure of schools (and widespread lack of school online learning) the BBC announced this week that they will bring together a number of their services (BBC 2, CBBC, BBC Red Button and BBC iPlayer) to deliver a new education service through television to ensure that every child in the UK has the opportunity to follow the core parts of their schools curriculum. The TV offering will come with an online companion portal, however with many households lacking laptops, iPads and even internet access in some instances, bringing this education initiative via public television is a great initiative.
TikTok and Rataouille
You may, like me, have read a number of articles or comments about Pixars wonderful movie “Ratatouille” being turned into a crowdsourced musical. Well, sadly the finished piece was shown this week (and won’t be available to re-watch) raising over $1 million in ticket sales, with proceeds going to The Actors Fund. If you want to find out more about how this entire event unfolded, Forbes has put together a great write up and coverage of the project from start to finish.
What to watch in 2021
If, like me, you spend a large part of your evening trying to find something to watch on a variety of streaming services, to which by then it’s almost bedtime, these two lists came out this week giving us all time to plan ahead and make a note of some great upcoming TV shows and films being released this year.
This concludes this week’s edition of The Bulletin. If you would like further details on anything mentioned or have questions or suggestions that you would like to discuss on email or to schedule a call, please drop me a note.
Cheers and thank you for your support and I wish you all the success for your coming week.