VideoNuze Posts

Alphabet announced strong Q3 ’20 results last week, which included several YouTube metrics: $5 billion in quarterly revenue (up 32% vs. a year ago), 30 million music and premium paid subscribers, and 3 million paid YouTube TV subscribers. For YouTube TV, that’s a  jump of 50% from the 2 million subscriber level that Alphabet reported earlier this year in February.

That’s surprisingly growth from my perspective for a number of reasons. First, YouTube TV raised its rate to $65 per month in June, an aggressive 30% hike from $50 per month. The primary justification YouTube TV offered for the increase was the addition of 8 ViacomCBS cable TV networks, BET, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, TV Land and VH1. But of the group, only Nickelodeon was among the top 25 most viewed networks in 2019 and it was number 25.

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I’m pleased to present the 536th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.  

Smart TVs have been a big beneficiary of the pandemic-driven viewership shifts as Conviva’s Q3 State of Streaming report showed this week. Colin and I explore what’s driving smart TVs and connected TVs and what’s ahead.

NBCUniversal announced continued growth for its Peacock streaming service this week, now with 22 million signups. We’re both impressed and in the wake of Quibi’s demise, are reminded how important free is for attracting initial users.

Finally T-Mobile announced its TVision pay-TV service this week. Colin is skeptical and summarizes all the reasons why.
 
Click here to listen to the podcast (23 minutes, 49 seconds)

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Smart TVs accounted for 14.8% of streaming viewership time globally in Q3 ’20, double their 7.7% share in Q3 ’19, according to Conviva’s new State of Streaming report. Smart TVs’ share was approximately even with Q2 ’20.

Thought smart TVs’ growth was the fastest of all devices Conviva tracked, connected TVs (e.g. Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, etc.) still maintained 50% share of viewership in Q3 ’20, roughly flat from a year ago. Mobile and desktop each declined from 13% to 10% share with tablets and gaming consoles holding steady at 5% and 10% respectively.

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A forecast from The Diffusion Group last week calls for the rate of cord-cutting in the U.S. to nearly quadruple over the next 5 years compared to the rate for the prior 5 years. TDG expects by 2025 pay-TV subscribers will contract by 36% from 2020, compared with a 9.5% contraction experienced in the 2015-2019 period.

Overall TDG sees legacy pay-TV providers ending 2020 with around 76 million subscribers. TDG also sees virtual pay-TV providers ending 2020 with around 11 million subscribers.

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I’m pleased to present the 535th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.  

By far the biggest story of the week was Quibi’s quick demise. On today’s podcast Colin and I discuss where Quibi went wrong in its pricing, content and audience strategies and what it might have done differently. It’s far from clear if these steps would have made a difference to Quibi’s ultimate outcome, but we both think they would have improved its odds of success.

We also ponder the question, with the list of failures growing, is it possible to succeed with a pure play mobile video startup?
 
Click here to listen to the podcast (24 minutes, 45 seconds)

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The VideoNuze podcast is also available in Apple podcasts, subscribe today!

It’s no surprise to anyone that the TV industry is being roiled by huge viewership changes accelerated by the pandemic. Samba TV’s new State of Viewership Quarterly Report for Q3 provides useful insights about the key trends that unfolded in the quarter, following an unprecedented first 6 months of the 2020.

Among Samba TV’s key findings:

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Quibi and Snap appear to be two companies moving in opposite directions in mobile video. Quibi, the high-profile, well-funded startup, has belatedly broadened its scope beyond mobile, enabling its app on Fire TV, Apple TV and Android TV, a recognition that a pure-play mobile video offering from scratch is unsustainable, especially during Covid.

The Information also reported yesterday that Quibi has unsuccessfully shopped its content catalog to NBCU and Facebook and that founder Jeffrey Katzenberg has told people he may have to shut down the company. This follows a WSJ report from late September that Quibi was seeking a buyer for the whole company. Previous reports revealed that initial advertisers were seeking to revamp their deals, due to smaller audiences and lagging app downloads.

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Bloomberg reported Friday that Disney has curtailed Hulu’s international expansion because Disney does not want to significantly increase Hulu’s valuation which would trigger a higher eventual payout to minority owner Comcast. Hulu’s valuation in early 2024 will set the payout Disney owes Comcast for its one-third share in Hulu under a deal struck in May, 2019. Comcast’s Hulu stake is worth at least $5.8 billion under the deal.

Bloomberg said that Hulu’s late 2019 proposal to Disney to expand internationally was initially supported, but then in August 2020 Disney switched gears and decided to embrace Star as the international brand for its non-U.S. entertainment service. Disney acquired Star, the India media company, as part of its $71 billion Fox deal. Bloomberg also cited Disney’s concerns about extending Hulu’s losses, Covid’s negative impact on Disney’s various businesses, and its commitment of resources to Disney+’s international expansion as other reasons it decided not to support Hulu’s international expansion.

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