The Bulletin Edition 8
From The Desk of
December! That month where I usually zip off to London to wrap up some work projects, visit family and also experience the sights and delights of the city in all its festive glory (note to readers, please add a trip to London to experience the Christmas lights and holiday mood to your to-do list)
If you visit London during the holidays and enjoy the comforts of an English pub business lunch, you might find yourself surrounded by long tables of office Christmas parties, with the CEO, executives and every level of employee jostling and arguing as to who is wearing the most hideous Christmas sweater. The Christmas sweater trend (or jumper as it’s known in my home country) seems to have caught on in North America although this year, gaudy knits with flashing lights and hanging baubles will sadly only be seen on Zoom or Teams, as companies scrabble to figure out how the office Christmas party will function this year. An office party on zoom? Who cooks? Who serves the drinks? How can we coordinate this? Will we have 75 sets of cutlery all clanking on plates at the same time? “Please, can you mute yourself, I can hear you chewing your food.” The irony is that after 9 months of spending our days on video, the last thing most of us will want to do is dial into an office Christmas party on Zoom. Digiday explored this very topic this week, with hopefully some helpful tips for panicking HR departments around the globe.
Continuing the travel tone, I travelled more in the month of January this year than the entire rest of the year, with trips to NATPE in Miami and a short trip to London to meet with business partners. It is strange to think back that during both of these trips there was no social distancing, no rules or regulations on greeting each other, no sanitizing stations and plenty of packed bars, restaurants, airports and planes. The television industry mood also seemed upbeat and relaxed, even though “these new streaming services” were nipping at the heels of the traditional TV model. I think we all knew the shift would come but there would be this gap of having one foot in the cable world and one foot in the new OTT world and we all had time to work things out, no?
“The transition from pay TV to OTT video occurred faster than forecast” during the pandemic, although it predicted that the rate of OTT signups will slow down next year”
“Timing is everything, because cord-cutting is now spreading beyond the US and will be increased by the COVID-19 pandemic, which coincided with the launch of direct-to-consumer (D2C) services from globally recognised brands,” said Fateha Begum, principal analyst, TV, video and devices at Omdia and author of the report, Trends to Watch: Consumer Trends in a Connected World.
“Pay TV operators must act quickly to retain their customer bases and drive the value of their offerings and services. Pay TV operators still benefit from wide reach and ownership of a high-powered media device: the set-top box. The STB represents a key connected device in the home, one that is managed by the pay TV operator and is a key driver of value perception for pay TV against OTT services.”
One thing for sure is that 2020 will be the year of the “big reset” in many areas of our lives and for the media industry, the window to figure things out just got smaller and smaller. 2020 was meant to be a year where predictions were more on the side of comfort and familiarity than one of panic, yet also opportunity. Perhaps this year is like the band-aid you don’t want to pull off in one yank? We all knew change was coming but wanted it to happen slowly. I’m still on the fence on this one.
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
Discovery is set to launch
During their investor day this week, Discovery announced that it will be launching Discovery+, a new service that will be available on the 4th January, costing $5 a month with ads and 7$ a month without ads. The service will roll out initially in the U.S. but with big plans to expand into Europe and Asia. Discovery+ will combine programming from across the conglomerate's brands, including HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Animal Planet and OWN. It will also include programming from A&E Networks channels A+E, History and Lifetime. The company says the offering will give subscribers access to more than 55,000 episodes of over 2,500 shows, however it should be noted that in the U.S. pay-TV subscribers of Discovery will not be able to jump ship to the new OTT service and watch all the same content. The U.S. version of Discovery+ will be more to “compliment” the cable version rather than replace it. Launching a new service in such an already crowded marketplace is a bold move, especially with many other similar offerings out there (including Curiosity Stream)
HBO Max rattles the cinema industry
The cinema industry hasn’t had a good year with the pandemic closing all locations and many consumers still uncomfortable with going to a theater for at least the next six months. Cinema stocks plunged around the globe as the lockdowns rippled around the world, then last week cinema stocks bounced back (some up 20%) on news of vaccine roll outs. Then this week the pendulum swung back the other way and seems to have come crashing down as Warner Bros announced that they will release all 2021 films in cinemas and on their U.S. HBO Max service simultaneously. There was certainly quite a bit of uproar with critics saying “Warner is sacrificing the cinema industry to save itself” and many cinema industry supporters are worried other studios will follow suit. With HBO Max planning on expanding into Europe in the second half of 2021, this may not be just a pandemic response. Studios cannot continue to sit and “wait and see,” although it puts cinemas in a devastating position that the pandemic has caused the historically exclusive “cinema first window” to shatter. At the same time, if HBO Max now has the latest releases it’s not just the cinemas losing out. Roku still doesn’t have an agreement with HBO Max so on the flip side, streaming platforms suddenly need the content more than the content needs the platforms.
I strongly believe that there is still a place for the cinema in the future, however there is also a place for watching movies in the comfort of your own home if you choose. The role of the cinema will need to change though, with less locations and probably less seats or maybe personal “booths” and more of a premium experience. I would be curious to know your thoughts on this.
The Focus
The paradox of choice
There is a show called “Kitchen Nightmares” where Gordon Ramsey comes in to save a restaurant that usually has 336 choices on their 19 page menu and then wonder why the service and quality of the food is so confusing to the customer. The customer is then overloaded with choice and at the same time, experiences the lack of quality. The first thing Mr Ramsey does is to cut the menu down to 10 key dishes that are made well and presented well. The customer always thinks that they want many choices, as it makes them feel in control, yet as we see in many areas of consumer products, the customer still wants to be told what to buy, recommended and to be cocooned into a small selection of items that make sense and don’t overwhelm.
The streaming marketplace is starting to remind me of the Gordon Ramsey scenario. As traditional cable TV customers, we were all taught to think “more is better,” even if you don’t watch the channel in the package that you’re paying for. Remember when your friends parents had 780 channels and you only had 438!
We used to sit in front of the TV, flip the remote and the TV would tell us what to watch and when to watch it. As the years rolled by and we subscribed to more channels, the EPG started to look more like the menus in “Kitchen Nightmares,” overloaded with choice and this TV experience continued for decades. The same scenario happened in the music industry with albums and singles. If you wanted that one song you had to buy the entire album. Then came along music streaming and Rdio, Napster, Spotify et al and suddenly you could choose exactly what you want to hear! No more DJ’s, no more advertising, no more switching radio stations in your car because you don’t like the song and then had to tune back 4.5 minutes later. With on-demand streaming music services, you could listen to anything you wanted to, as long as you create the playlist, choose the songs and build up your library in your own time. Choice is a good thing but having to choose all the time started to lose its appeal. Suddenly Spotify et al curated channels start to sound attractive again when you just want music playing in the background and then when you want to listen to a specific song or album, you have that option as well.
Television viewing has always had the same engagement patterns as music and I believe this will not change due to new on demand streaming platforms. Lean back or casual viewing, when you just want to sit down at the end of a long day and tune in and zone out, is still very much in demand. At the end of a long day, I just want to watch a familiar and comforting TV show that I have already watched ten times over (wonder why Friends and The Office are still so popular?) and then full length films or more intense “commitment TV series,” I schedule for a damp and cold weekend or the evenings when I have more mental focus.
With the rise of video streaming, I don’t believe our viewing patterns have changed, apart from the middle part. The middle part is what happened in the music industry when on-demand music came along and suddenly we had choice and for a short period of time “the new shiny object” syndrome took over. The same thing is now happening in the television world. We have gone from being tied into cable packages and now suddenly have so much choice of what to watch, we don’t know what to do with it and now we are starting to get to the point where we have too much choice. What platform is that TV show on? Which watchlist is it on? What do I feel like watching? Can’t someone just tell me what to watch? Why does it take me 20 minutes to find something to watch? Starting to sound familiar? Ever wonder why linear viewing is making a comeback? Why are free ad supported channels booming on streaming boxes? And why has Netflix launched a linear channel recently?
We will come full circle with our TV viewing habits. Curated programming will become more popular, but more viewer focused. I will want to watch a channel curated just for me, out of all my casual interests and favorite “lean back and zone-out” programming. Then when I want to focus on a full length film or intense TV series, I will have that time schedule into my week. What is happening though, is that these “$10 a month” subscriptions are starting to build up and before you know it you are spending $200 a month on unlimited broadband internet and 6 streaming platforms. Starting to sound familiar? Is streaming becoming the old cable model, where you’re once again paying too much when watching so little?
On a closing note, the next step would be to have an aggregated platform of all the streaming platforms I subscribe to, all in one place. You turn on the TV and it’s all there. No more switching between Amazon, Netflix, Disney, Britbox, Curiousity Stream. No more six different wishlists. No more “what platform what it on again?” One step at a time.
On Point
52% - percentage drop of foot traffic into physical stores during this years Black Friday event (Sensormatic)
100 million - number of followers gained in only 9 months for the TikTok star Charli D’Amelio (TikTok)
21% - increase in daytime TV viewing in 2020 due to lockdowns and work from home trends (Neilsen)
5 million - number of global views for the recent paid livestream concert from artist Dua Lipa (Dua Lip rep)
79.5% - percentage of global recorded music revenue accounted to streaming services such as Spotify, Apple and Pandora (RIAA)
1.85 billion minutes - current viewed time of the The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix), putting it at the top of the charts for most popular title on a streaming service (Forbes)
37% - percentage growth of the global streaming marketplace in 2020 (Antenna Analytics)
$100 million - amount artist Stevie Nicks sold part of her music publishing rights for (Rolling Stone)
Diversion
Following on from my editorial opening piece on travel, the rumblings of “travel bubbles” are starting to appear in conversations with friends and colleagues. Where will these bubbles appear? How can I be in one of these bubbles? What documents do I need (such as vaccination certificates or a negative COVID test result?) This week’s diversion explores a little more into how this new way of travelling could work.
One To Read
I will admit that when I read the cover of this week's recommended read I was slightly put off with the books subheading. “Why you get more done when you work less '' came across as something I would see on the front of a life-hackers book, that promises success, fame and fortune if I just do these author recommended steps.
However, do not let this or my nitpicking, sway from this recommended read. A highly engaging and informative book, Rest delves deep into the historical and scientific importance of resting and how artists, authors, composers and politicians who have shaped this century, found resting to be a very important part of their daily routine.
“Many of us are interested in how to work better, but we don’t think very much about how to rest better”
The author has made me think about my own work and rest routine, which during this year, has taken a bit of a tumble and my schedule was completely upended. Like a number of the subjects studied in the book (Charles Darwin for instance), I have found that I do my best work very early in the morning and then my productivity and creativity starts to wane after lunch. This has led me to wake at 4.45am and start working right away (this also suits those emails coming in from Europe) After 1pm I get outside for a long walk (those daily 10,000 steps) sometimes taking calls on the move but after that, my energy and focus levels drop and my tasks switch over to more administrative activities that close up the day.
With the holiday season coming fast, I highly recommend ordering a copy of this book to read before you log out for your festive break. I know for 2021, I will not only be adding “how to do more” to my yearly plan but also “how to do less.”
Visual Insight
It seems like “experts” have had their best year yet on all matter of subjects, yet at the same time the predictions at the start of this year were quite the opposite of what happened just 3 months into 2020. I looked back at a wide range of predictions for 2020 and despite the dramatic shift in almost every aspect of our lives, some preductions did ring true however many would have exasperated even the most talented bingo players!
Source: The Visual Capitalist
And Finally
When scarcity becomes part of your marketing process
This week I was discussing a previous issue of The Bulletin with an industry colleague and the topic of promoting your business or service outside of the typical and predictable marketing message came up. As they always say “opposites attract” and this was apparent with the Calm app and CNN partnership during the U.S. Election last month.
British high-end outdoor clothing manufacturer Vollebak, pushed back on luxury retail giants desperate to stock their clothing and decided to make some of their products only available for sale in the most remote retail stores in the world. If you want that safari shirt, you’ll need to trek to the most remotest part of Australia to buy it. A bit of a gimmick? Maybe, but it is still a genius marketing campaign and is a reminder that, like the Calm app and CNN campaign, the opposite of the typical can actually be a good move.
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.