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Get Intel Report EmailsThe Great Streaming Wars
Tactic #1. With competition as fierce as ever in the streaming world, the big players are each enacting their own strategies and tactics. Peacock announced that it will no longer provide free ad-supported access to new subscribers. Newbies will have the choice of two tiers – $4.99 for on-demand content and live sports or $9.99 to tack on livestreaming with the option to skip ads. With the competition rushing to the FAST category, perhaps this is the tactic to beat the rest.
Tactic #2. Now, months since it announced a crackdown on password sharing, Netflix announced details of the effort, or so we thought. The streaming giant just claimed the details were posted by mistake and were meant for test markets of Costa Rica, Chile, and Peru where users whose IP does not match the home address will have to pay an extra fee. The immediate public backlash to the “accidental” post may be fair warning of the outcome of the strategy.
Tactic #3. Warner Bros. Discovery jumps from a subscription-only to partnering with free ad-supported streaming models. Partners Tubi and Roku will distribute Warner Bros. Discovery’s shows by creating new channels dedicated to their content. Shows include popular series like Westworld, The Bachelor, Cake Boss, and Say Yes to the Dress.
Sincerest Form of Flattery
Just ask QVC. Fanatics Inc. is getting into the live-streamed shopping business. Fanatics Live will be hosted programming initially focused on “breaking” new boxes of sports cards and selling the contents. With a current database of some 90 million sports fans, Fanatics likely hopes to mimic the success of category pioneer, QVC, whose two channels generated more than $14 billion in revenue in 2021.
Alright, alright, alright. Yellowstone star Kevin Costner’s limited availability has the series’ producers considering replacing the show with a spin-off starring Matthew McConaughey, according to some reports. This on the heels of finding out McConaughey will also be the voice of Elvis in an upcoming Netflix series.
Let ‘em all talk to each other. Both Google and Microsoft are announcing that AI chatbots are the future of search. Google is calling its new AI “Bard” and it will be going head-to-virtual-head against OpenAI’s ChatGPT in Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
Let’s Run With It
Sold out. Fox has sold out all of the in-game advertising inventory for Super Bowl LVII, with peak prices topping $7 million for a 30-second spot. Most slots ran between $6 and $7 million according to people familiar with the sales.
Crypto goes missing. Some called last year’s Super Bowl the “Crypto Bowl” because a record four cryptocurrency companies ran big-budget commercials. This year, though, following the high-profile collapse of FTX, the category is entirely absent in the big game.
A glass half full? Anheuser-Busch remains the biggest advertiser with three minutes of national airtime but gave up its long-time deal to be the exclusive alcohol advertiser this year. So, this year, Budweiser will have buddies including Heineken, Diageo, Remy Martin and Molson Coors.
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