Photo illustration: Vulture and AMC
Worried about how to beat the increasingly high cost of streaming? Good news: Although Netflix recently increased its monthly fee – and Disney + is going to do the same – a price war has broken out among several of the newer platforms. While struggling to show cost-conscious consumers, baby streamers have been offering particularly attractive deals over the past few weeks. The savings can be significant – especially if you are willing to make a long-term commitment.
➽ Before the upcoming month of transforming CBS All Access into Paramount +, owner ViacomCBS lets consumers sign up for a year of the platform for a huge 50 percent off the usual price. The commitment to an annual plan currently costs just $ 30 (or $ 2.50 per month) for the ad-supported version of the streamer. The ad-free version of the service is available for $ 50 per year, or $ 5 per month. The $ 30 plan is similar, though not quite as appealing, as Hulu’s recent Black Friday offerings, which reduced the price of the service to just under $ 2 a month with a one-year commitment. However, Hulu does not offer the best discounts for its ad-free plan.
➽ Just launched Discovery + reduced prices for two of its ad-free plans by 30 percent, at least until Sunday. As part of a Valentine’s Day promotion, a six month subscription is lower at $ 29 (instead of the normal $ 42), while a year currently costs $ 59 (compared to the usual $ 84). Warnings: The discount does not apply to the ad-supported version of Discovery + (which stays at $ 5 per month), and remember that if you are a Verizon subscriber, you may be eligible for a free trial subscription of six or 12 months. .
➽ HBO Max has expanded a holiday promotion that finishes a little more than 20 percent off the cost of a subscriptionwhich reduces the normal price of $ 15 per month from the streamer to $ 70 if you pay six months in advance (that is $ 11.67 per month). This follows a promotion in September that will allow customers to lock in savings for a full year. (HBO Max is still offered for free to many AT&T wireless and telephone customers.)
Given the number of major streamers that have flexed over the past 18 months, it’s not so surprising that companies have to make the effort to get consumers watching. The pandemic has people watching more TV shows and movies, but unemployment remains high and millions are likely to cut costs for non-essential budget items. Plus, spreading new platforms means Jane Q. Streamer has to add another $ 5, $ 10 or $ 15 for another service is a big question – especially as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and now Disney + are so heavily established is. Making streaming more affordable can be an easy way to get cost-conscious potential customers to smash the subscriber button. “It’s about grabbing the stock in the ground,” explains Rich Greenfield, a partner and media analyst at LightShed, who says Wall Street wants to know that these new services last at least longer than a one-week trial period (or one month) is. ‘Investors reward companies for subscribers [tallies]. ”
Most of the current transactions keep the basic monthly rate unchanged, but only offer an interruption if a consumer is willing to make a minimum commitment of six months or longer. This is not an accident. “They try to lock people up to avoid stains,” Greenfield says. Unlike cable TV – where to get rid of an HBO or Showtime add-on, it’s necessary to call in, wait for a customer service representative and then hope you are not assaulted by a desperate plea not to downgrade, it is someone to cancel a streaming service. A few clicks, and you’re good to go. Long-term plans offer new services breathing space as they work to build their subscriber base and their programming libraries. (The last point is important at the moment, given the ongoing impact of the pandemic on the production pipeline.)
This is also the reason why we have been seeing more current bundles popping up lately, avoid it. Disney, for example, offers Disney + packaged with Hulu and ESPN + for a discounted price of $ 13 per month (compared to $ 18 per month if purchased separately). Although the bundle is not much, unless you are a regular user of all three services, it gives consumers the value of value and an extensive choice. This again reduces numbers, as someone who has not felt Disney + for a few months is likely to stay if they are well served by Hulu and ESPN +.
By the way, Disney has been something of a pioneer in offering deep discounts in exchange for loyalty: it offers a cheaper annual plan for Disney + since it started reporting customers, and even gives its best super fans the chance to enter a low price closes for a whopping three years. (Since next month’s planned price hike was a very good price for consumers.) Disney’s flow strategy takes a page from its consumer parks division, which has allowed California and Florida residents to buy annual cards for decades in loyalty to the Disney brand. (and keep the parks full if it’s not a tourist season).
Bundles are also a great way for businesses to maximize the value of smaller platforms. AMC Networks, for example, has put together an impressive collection of niche streamers such as Shudder, Sundance Now and IFC Films Unlimited. They are all quality platforms, but separately they have a limited appeal. Therefore, the company recently decided to place the entire library of content from all three services on a new supersize app called AMC +, with a variety of applications from AMC proper and BBC America as a bonus. The whole package costs $ 9 per month, which is not cheap but also less than half of what the three special streamers cost on a standalone basis.
ViacomCBS also tested a bundle of types. It sells Showtime and the ad-free version of CBS All Access / Paramount + – $ 21 if purchased à la carte – for only $ 10 per month. The only problem: you must also be a subscriber to Apple TV +. Given Apple’s own commitment to discounts at the moment – most of its current users get the service for free as a bonus for purchasing Apple products – the ViacomCBS bundle is a particularly sweet deal, at least if you have a is a fan of CBS and Showtime programming.
Of course, everyone who signs up for these deals should know that we will most likely endure what will soon be known as the good old days of power outages. Just as Netflix has finally gotten rid of the once 30 standard free trial runs as these new streamers mature, they will almost certainly discontinue the offerings. Attracting new subscribers is currently important (pun intended) for beginner services, but as Greenfield points out: “The question is ultimately going to be what the profitability of these subscribers is.” It’s great to have 50 million subscribers, but if they only pay a few dollars a month, they probably do not earn a lot of money.
In India and a few other countries, for example, Disney offers Disney + along with its general entertainment Hotstar for something like $ 20 a year. It gives a wide reach (and helps increase global Disney + subscriber increases), but it results in Disney earning less per revenue than in other countries. While newer streamers do not offer Hotstar-like discounts in the US, they certainly sell their stuff well below sustainable long-term costs. It will not last. “At some point, if your service is good enough, it should be good enough to sign up” at an unlimited rate, Greenfield says. What’s more, even if something is (relatively) cheap, consumers do not stay logged in forever if they do not think a service is worthwhile. “People are not going to stay if they are not engaged.”
Will Disney + exceed 100 million subscribers? Probably no, but I would not be shocked if the Mouse House continues to be stunned when it reports its earnings in the fourth quarter – and its current number of subscribers. December’s investor offering (you know, the one where the company said it was going to extract something like 5,000 new shows from its IP library), not only captivated Wall Street; it also served as a brilliant marketing ploy aimed at seeking holiday shopping to give the gift of Disney +. This, combined with the strong figures for Pixar’s Soul, would in theory be able to manage a series of logins and place the Big D over the magical milestone. It will be close: Disney + was at 87 million at the beginning of December and analysts like JPMorgan’s Alexia Quadrani are very optimistic (she predicts 95 million). We will get the news after the stock market closes this afternoon.
Random fact: I have never listened to the whole song of the “Baby Shark”. My personal boycott aside, people whose children cannot get enough of the musically monotonous fish now have reason to go watch the Roku channel. Roku’s free, ad-supported streamer adds a live, linear channel dedicated to nothing but Baby Shark content, offering parents another way to keep their kids busy. The Baby Shark channel is today one of the 13 virtual channels performing on Roku’s live series. Other new options:
➽ Six channels dedicated to different music video genres, including music from the ’80s and’ 90s for our seniors (plus channels that play hip-hop, country, and party jams.) The programming comes from Loop, a new company which serves claim video playlists via its mobile and TV apps, and is already doing the live thing on the Roku Channel rival Plex. This is very good news for those of us who still remember when MTV played music videos (but when is anyone going to bring back VJs?).
➽ K-Pop stans can get Korean variety and reality shows, music shows and drama on K-ID, and K-Korean dramas like Secret Garden on Kocowa Classic.
➽ Hallmark Movies & More collects content from the Hallmark Channel Library.
➽ Bloomberg Quicktake presents news for millennial audiences (see also: Cheddar).
➽ CineVault Westerns features oaters from the Sony library, while Cine Romántico plays Spanish language films.
While we’re working on the ad-supported VOD, it’s a big week for the Fox-owned Tubi. The streamer is in the midst of a massive promotional push, it’s called Free Like Tubi Week, which basically consists of a lot of targeted promotional stunts and gifts on social media (including Fox’s various show handles). This morning, it announced plans for a massive expansion of its already impressive News On Tubi Center, announcing that it will add live news feeds from more than 80 local TV stations across the country over the next few months.
And perhaps most interestingly, Tubi said Monday that he acquired director Danny Madden’s Sundance picks Beast Beast and will begin streaming the feature film Friday. Although it undoubtedly paid close to $ 25 million, Apple TV + came down for the much bigger Sundance sensation CODE, that Tubi spent money on a feature film at all, is a sign of how serious it – and other companies – are about the free on-demand streaming space. Amazon’s IMDb TV is already producing original shows, Roku has recently invested serious coins for the remnants of the Quibi and I expect we’ll be going to see even more ambitious plays as 2021 goes on. The race to turn AVOD into the new TV show is underway.