The Stream Team
Winners and losers are emerging from the streaming melee. Or at least the winners are.
As the “Big Four” – Amazon, Disney, YouTube and Netflix – solidify their position, other players struggle to justify their commitment to streaming, writes industry consultant Hernan Lopez in a Variety column.
Amazon’s advantage is its shopping data and inventory scale. When Amazon launched ads on Prime Video, it automatically opted more than 100 million US subscribers into seeing ads, which generated massive scale literally overnight.
Disney, the only legacy TV broadcaster on Lopez’s list, has a legendary content portfolio, from family-friendly favorites on Disney+ to mature humor on Hulu and live sports on ESPN. The Mouse House commanded the highest percentage of TV viewership in April, according to Nielsen – until, that is, YouTube took the lead in July.
YouTube’s specialty is content accessibility. Need an instructional video on how to install a carseat? Movie trailers? Video podcasts? Creator content? It’s the only open platform where content production pretty much takes care of itself.
Last but not least, Netflix has what Lopez refers to as “the primacy advantage.” It’s become almost synonymous with streaming. But it’s also under pressure. Advertisers – and investors – are waiting, and not all that patiently, for Netflix to ramp up its advertising business.
Feeding The Meter
Starting next month, CNN will begin testing metered content, The New York Times reports. Regular readers will see a paywall and a prompt to subscribe.
This isn’t a CNN+ joke. Many digital media outlets are getting into (or reinvesting in) subscriptions. Vice debuted a subscription this week and will relaunch a print magazine. The New York Times, meanwhile, is partnering with Spotify and Apple to sell audio subs not long after announcing a subscription-based partnership with Instacart.
For any news publisher only half-sold on the idea of a paywall, the summer and early fall of a presidential election year are the time to try. Traffic will be up, for one, and news subscriptions tend to increase as political tensions rise.
Earlier this year, CNN started experimenting with a “registration wall,” which required readers to share an email address. That data collection tactic catalyzed the new paywall plans, according to the Times, by supplying CNN with user data to target ads and market its paid product.
Digital Get Down
Fans of physical media have another reason to feel smug about their DVD collections.
Starting next year, a new California law will compel digital storefronts to disclose whether customers are actually buying something – often, people license content – when they spend money on digital media.
According to The Verge, stores will face a fine for false advertising if they use the words “buy” or “purchase” without disclosing whether customers can have their access revoked at any time.
Digital video game platforms are notorious for retroactively pulling content from stores, making it impossible for users to redownload the software if it wasn’t already installed on their devices. (This sometimes inadvertently ends up creating a secondhand market for devices still carrying discontinued games, as in the case of infamous titles like “P.T.” and “Flappy Bird.”)
Most recently, Ubisoft was accused of reaching into user accounts and deleting copies – sorry, licenses – of “The Crew,” a now-defunct, online-only racing game.
For many consumers who’ve already been burned, this new law doesn’t do much to address the inherent fragility of digital media ownership. But from an advertising perspective, at least it’s forcing companies to be a little bit more honest about it.
But Wait, There’s More!
Should brands and agencies have marriages rather than flings? [Adweek]
Mozilla faces a privacy complaint from Noyb, the Max Schrems-led privacy advocacy org, over Firefox’s “privacy-preserving” attribution solution. [Engadget]
Mike Shields: Why would The Trade Desk want in on the TV operating system wars? [Substack]
How streaming has upended the broadcast season. [Ad Age]
Meta debuts new mixed reality hardware and AI-powered product updates at its Meta Connect developer conference. [Digiday]
You’re Hired!
TripleLift promotes Jennifer Lee to chief customer officer. [release]
Alison O’Keefe joins SMG-owned retail media agency Threefold as partnership director for North America. [post]
