Week In Review: Catering To Cord-Cutters

Originally published at TVREV.com on November 20, 2015


It’s been a relatively slow week in TV-land, meaning nothing over a 7 on the Richter scale. Still, plenty going on to talk about.

1. LOTS MORE CATERING TO PEOPLE WHO THINK THEY’RE CUTTING THE CORD
In the last 7 days, we had a number of stories come out about the broadband-only services the MVPDs are starting to offer. Comcast exempted “Stream” from bandwidth caps. Verizon added some VICE programming to Go90. And Cox announced it was launching it’s own OTT service “FlareMe TV.”

WHY IT MATTERS:
While the names of some of these services may be inexcusably lame (Cox!), the concept behind them isn’t: cater to millennial and Gen Z consumers who have zero need for a full-on cable package and get them into the ecosystem where they can be tracked for the valuable data they provide now, and upsold at a later date too.

In the interim, the MVPDs can start serving as the middlemen (middlepeople?) for all the new standalone OTT services the networks are launching, Univision being the latest, with it’s $5.99/month Univision Now. If you only watch a few channels, going the solo route can be cost-effective, but with network apps coming in at $6 a pop, that number quickly adds up. That’s why it’s likely (as we noted earlier this week) that the MVPDs will step in and become the primary vendors for these services along with hardware manufacturers like Apple and Roku, thus sparing the networks the pain of setting up their own billing and collections departments.

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO ABOUT IT:

Get over your fear of cord-cutting while simultaneously coming to grips with the notion that the world where everyone has an 1800-channel, $150/month pay-TV package is over. Keep on figuring out ways to reach your audience wherever it might be, but realize that you’re not going to disintermediate the MVPDs. Maybe call some of your MVPD contact up this week, see how they’re doing—you might want to get your programming on their soon-to-be-released broadband-only app.


2. THE FIRST TV SHOW OF THE SEASON GOT CANCELLED

ABC’s Wicked City got that dubious honor, followed shortly by NBC’s The Player (which wasn’t cancelled outright; NBC just “reduced the number of episodes ordered.” Because that’s different.

WHY IT MATTERS:
As we noted last week, networks are coming around to the realization that shows with low ratings sometimes get a second wind via streaming and on-demand. They get the notion that a smaller, more passionate audience trumps a larger, indifferent one.

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO ABOUT IT:
Figure out how to empower that smaller, more passionate audience. Involve the showrunners and use social platforms and second screen to give them the content they need to enable their obsessions. Listen to what the audience is saying and what moments are resonating. Think long term, not short term.


3. PEOPLE WATCH ROKU TOGETHER
A new Nielsen study showed that 27% of Roku viewing involves multiple viewers—friend and family watching together.

WHY IT MATTERS:
It confirms what we’ve long suspected—people use their Rokus for Family Movie Night and to binge shows together.

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO ABOUT IT:

Understand that a lot of binge viewing and other streaming happens on big screen TVs, not just iPads and smartphones and plan accordingly. TV is still a social activity— IRL and on Facebook.