A bit of a look back at a previous life, but I’ll share a few observations based on a view from afar and my time in the entertainment industry. Taking a bit more time to think this through as obviously markets change and we can all relate to the idea of external factors pushing to drive both change and opportunity.

1) Quibi is out of business. #failfast or simply #fail – I’m not sure. Regardless, the rush for new audience with the pandemic seems to have not worked in their favor as they did not have enough time to find their way, particularly without a library to backstop them.

2) Netflix is not on this list – read the article for details but I found that very interesting. Their stock took a hit after their Q3 earnings. They seem to have more misses than hits recently and their ability to rent content from others is getting expensive – that said a few of their big writer deals should be coming into market soon. We’ll see how they change the game now that there are some new players, but change the game they will.

3) Amazon Prime – seem to be a land grab play as their catalogue still feels very light to me. I get it – a pandemic creating a unique window, but if feels like they are overinvesting now so they don’t have to spend even more later – as the world starts to move into ‘how many services will you subscribe to’ I’m sure the drop off from 1, to 2, to 3 will be pretty steep for consumers. And getting people to trade out will be very expensive – just ask the cable operators what they are willing to spend to prevent churn. If anyone understands Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) it would be Amazon…

4) The CBS investment in CBS All-Access has not paid off as far as I can see. I have not seen much in the way of this ad buy, but I suspect it is primarily across Viacom properties, of which I’m not currently watching much of these days – my way of saying that perhaps their costs are not as high as they appear to be.

5) Disney+ seems like the big winner here. They seem to have made the most of their impressive content library without having to provide much in the way of new. The new they have provided has been pretty massive – Mandalorian and Hamilton for sure; Mulan not so much. Bye the way… if you include Disney+ and ESPN+ then Disney is at the top spot in terms of spend.

Interesting times indeed and I’m sure media streaming at this time in the midst of a pandemic will be the subject of many case studies as a perfect storm for innovation and opportunity.

Disrupting a market. Innovating a space with a new model. All kinds of enhanced delivery opportunities. And a health crisis that dramatically changes the market to be more favorable to a space. And as I said, this is not limited to just entertainment.

https://www.emarketer.com/content/streaming-services-spend-heavily-on-marketing-amid-pandemic?ecid=NL1009

Originally published by David Gadarian on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/race-streamingmedia-eyeballs-stay-home-world-david-gadarian/