Mark your calendar for Mediaweek, October 29-30 in New York City. We’ll unpack the biggest shifts shaping the future of media—from tv to retail media to tech—and how marketers can prep to stay ahead. Register with early-bird rates before sale ends!
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, streaming services experienced record amounts of growth. Now, as people begin to venture outside more and more, these services are battling subscriber churn once again as they try to hold onto those new audiences.
For Lisa Holme, Discovery+’s group svp of content and commercial strategy, keeping consumers engaged comes down to content, content and more content.
“What people are signing up for and what people are sticking around for is something that they want to watch,” Holme told Adweek streaming editor Kelsey Sutton during Adweek’s virtual Convergent TV Summit. “So at Discovery+, we’ve focused on making sure that there’s a steady flow of fresh content onto the service.”
Ahead of parent company Discovery’s upcoming merger with WarnerMedia, Discovery+ hit 18 million subscribers in August. Holme said part of the reason Discovery+ is both able to grow and retain subscribers is because it lends itself well to habit viewing.
“[It’s] generally less appointment based,” explained Holme, though she did note when a new episode of 90 Day: The Single Life comes out, consumers are instantly watching. “But I think one of the things that makes Discovery+ such a unique proposition as a streaming product is similar to the consumer behavior that people had in their cable networks for the last several decades. It’s the service you turn on and leave on for hours, all day.”
Building viewing habits
Meanwhile, Disney+ has hit an astonishing 116 million subscribers in under two years since launch, but utilizes a different strategy to build habits, such as its decision to shift its weekly series premieres from Fridays to Wednesdays, starting with Loki this summer.
“Some of that had to do with really thinking about, is there an opportunity to think about another day than the weekend that is about entertainment?” said Andrea Cutright, vice president of product and subscriber marketing at Disney Streaming. “Everything doesn’t have to be dropped on the weekends, and we will continue that moving forward and I think that appointment-based viewing, combined with the always on, always available.”
Another important aspect of battling churn for Cutright is reducing friction at every point. “You want people to stay engaged, you don’t want to introduce anything that prompts them to move somewhere else, but that kind of friction and maintaining a habit over time is certainly really important,” she explained.
Part of that habit building for both streaming services is leaning into cultural moments and touchpoints, and then creating content around them that people want to watch.
Discovery+ has added the annual Shark Week event to its arsenal, which Holme described as “the Discovery Super Bowl.”
“That is a week that more people care about Discovery Channel, the Discovery brand and sharks than any other time of year, so this summer for us was huge,” she said. Holme also pointed to events such as Ghostober, and then food and home programming for the upcoming holiday season.
“As we think about those cultural moments it is where can we really delight the consumer based on what we have for them to consume?” said Holme. “Every service will treat it a little bit differently, but where do you have strength such that you can lean into something that a consumer already cares about, but you can really satisfy them with the content offering you have.”
Disney+ also carefully considers its content calendars, and not just when it comes to originals.
“I think Disney’s really focused in on a few ways of bringing delight to people as a way of celebrating cultural moments,” said Cutright, noting how early in the first Covid lockdown the streamer quickly brought Frozen 2 to the platform early, followed by Hamilton.
“[It was] a way of just acknowledging where the people were in the world, and what was happening in their lives and a way of bringing more smiles,” said Cutright.
Disney+ is continuing to look at its content calendar to further the strategy, with Cutright pointing to Star Wars’ May the Fourth day as a particular strength.
“It really comes down to the authenticity of what your brand is communicating” said Cutright. “So I think that for both Discovery+ and Disney+, really understanding the role that you play in the emotional lives of your subscribers and making sure that you’re celebrating those moments with them.”
