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What would happen if Walmart found a way to sell Giorgio Armani dresses alongside its mass-market Time & Tru skirts and T shirts? This mashup of a prestige and mass consumption just happened with the official launch of the new Max streaming service from Warner Bros. Discovery. Starting May 23, Max will combine content from HBO Max and Discovery+ into a single (blandly named) New Hollywood streaming service. Oh, and the HBO Max name is going away. HBO Max content such as “Succession” will now be available alongside mass market offerings such as “Dr. Pimple Popper.” This is happening because Warner Bros. Discovery believes scale is the only way to win the New Hollywood streaming wars. To achieve scale, the company believes it must appeal to the widest possible audience by creating a mishmash of content. Warner Bros. Discovery seeks to reach 130 million subscribers by 2025 (versus about 100 million now, compared to 230 million for Netflix). But why kill the HBO name, arguably one of the most recognizable and valuable brands in entertainment? It’s all about the kids. In announcing the newly named service, JB Perrette, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery’s global streaming and games, said, “We want [Max] to be welcoming to all and easily recognizable, including to a key customer segment, kids and families. We all love HBO. And it’s a brand that has been built over five decades to be the edgy, groundbreaking trendsetter in entertainment for adults. But it’s not exactly where parents would most eagerly drop off their kids.” In the words of of The Los Angeles Times, the decision results in HBO, the crown jewel of any media empire, being tossed “onto the ‘75% off’ table.” That said, here’s what I like about Max: 1. . Max delivers what streaming services promise but seldom really offer: a buffet of content. This assumes Warner Bros. Discovery has the budget to sustain that scale. Time will tell. 2. . Max offers three tiers, including an ad-supported option. Consumers want choice, as Reed Hastings said when Netflix embraced advertising. Max also faces some big challenges out of the gate including: 1 d. And Warner Bros. Discovery just killed a brand that would have provided instant cachet. This is especially problematic given how saturated the streaming industry is. 2 in the quest to appeal to a wider audience. Disney+ is building content that appeals to kids and grown-ups alike. And Disney+ has a brand. Max does not. But Warner Bros. Discovery also enjoys a potential advantage: a willingness to exhibit movies in theaters for periods of time before streaming. In 2022, when the Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. merger was announced, Chief Executive David Zaslav , “We are not trying to win the direct-to-consumer spending war.” The company resisted the popular trend of taking movies directly to streaming amid a pandemic-era decline in moviegoing. Instead, he actually increased the number of theatrical releases for the company’s movies. Mary McNamara Scale Flexibility Max is a no-name bran Disney+ already has a head start on Max said He reasoned that movies in theaters would create buzz for their eventual streaming release while making box office revenues at the same time. “There’s an ecosystem of economic return when you open something in the theaters,” he said during an analyst conference in November 2022. For instance, the WarnerBros. movie Elvis was a before going to HBO Max, . A number of films by rivals have enjoyed huge, extended, box office runs followed by successful streaming premiers in 2022: smash in theaters where it also proved to be popular earned $750 million globally before Warner Brothers premiered the film the HBO Max streaming service. then enjoyed a first-week viewership of an estimated 4.1 million households (per Samba TV) – the second best first-week for a theatrical release on HBO Max.One of the biggest movie success stories of 2022 (or any year), , took to arrive on its studio’s streamer (Paramount+), which didn’t stop it from immediately becoming the service’s . banked $842 million globally during an 82-day run in theaters – and then . The Batman The Batman Top Gun: Maverick seven months No. 1 offering Black Panther: Wakanda Forever became the most-watched Marvel premiere on Disney+ based on hours streamed within the first five days Meanwhile, audiences seem to be returning to theaters. Domestic box office totals as a whole are indeed showing signs of an emergence from the depths up the pandemic. To date, domestic box office sales are up 37.6 percent over 2022, . And although domestic box office is down 16.6 percent compared to 2019, the drop is much less than the disastrous decreases of 35.6 percent (2020), 87.8 percent (2021), and 39.4 percent (2022). And , two-thirds of Americans say the length of time from a movie’s release in theaters to its availability at home has little or no impact on their decision to see a movie in theaters. Only 33 percent of the movies respondents said they had most recently seen were original films made for streaming platforms. About 75 percent of respondents said they plan to maintain or increase their moviegoing pace in 2023. Only 28 percent said that having access to enough movies at home is why they are going to the movies less often or not at all. according to Box Office Mojo according to a new report from UTA IQ Amid the criticism and ridicule of MAX, WarnerBros. Discovery might be laughing its way to the bank.

The MAX Streaming Buffet Is Open 

MAX স্ট্রিমিং বুফে খোলা আছে

Das MAX-Streaming-Buffet ist geöffnet

MAX 스트리밍 뷔페가 오픈되었습니다

MAX Yayın Büfesi Açık

Remember when Warner Brothers announced that it will release its entire 2021 slate of films simultaneously in movie theaters and the HBO Max streaming service? The move sounded like a bold action to save Old Hollywood from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, when movie theaters were shut down, and streaming was practically the only way to see movies. Not so fast. Old Hollywood over-reached. Too many movies were dumped on to streaming services during the worst of the pandemic. True, simultaneous in-theater and streaming releases were understandable. No one was going to movie theaters as the pandemic raged. But partly as a result of the pandemic-era release strategy, the film industry now faces a shortage of movies available to exhibit in theaters. In 2021, that with major Hollywood studios paring back their release calendars (or shipping movies to their own streaming services) theater chains were expecting to be short of programming for at least three years. We’re now seeing the outcome as Thanksgiving Week 2022 . Usually, Thanksgiving Week produces a bumper crop of new movies, . Fortunately, Walt Disney’s November 11 release , . All told, the number of releases on 2,000 screens or more is down by 36 percent. But people are returning to theaters in 2022. , total gross sales are nearing $6.6 billion in 2022, up nearly 50 percent from 2021 (but still about $5 billion short of 2019 sales). In fact, two movies released in recent months – and – . But there are just not as many movies to see in theaters. Box Office Mojo reports there have been 442 releases in 2022, compared to 993 in 2019; on a per-movie basis, the average gross is at its highest mark since 2010. But ironically, the Old Hollywood film distribution system might receive a boost from streaming companies. The Wall Street Journal reported experiences a shortfall of available movies but only four movies have hit theaters in 2022, and none has produced impressive results Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has been a monster hit According to Box Office Mojo Spider-Man: No Way Home Top Gun: Maverick are among the 15 highest grossing movies of all time New Hollywood “Knives Out” for Netflix In an interesting move, to exhibit in movie theaters during Thanksgiving Week before going dark until December 23, when the film will re-appear on Netflix exclusively. Netflix won’t release financial results for , . By contrast, Disney’s Thanksgiving release was on track to make about $24 million during Thanksgiving Week – but the movie was distributed across 4,174 theaters. Netflix agreed with movie theaters Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery Glass Onion but it’s estimated to have raked in $14.5 million during its one-week showing in only 638 theaters Strange World Is a lost opportunity to make even more for Netflix? In fact, there is ample evidence to suggest that New Hollywood should release movies in theaters first in order to build buzz for streaming releases. For instance, earned $750 million globally before Warner Brothers premiered the film the HBO Max streaming service. then enjoyed a first-week viewership of an estimated 4.1 million households (per Samba TV) – the second best first-week for a theatrical release on HBO Max. Glass Onion The Batman The Batman With Netflix releasing on about one movie a week for viewers at home, the potential for gaining more revenue streams is big. Netflix, to date, has resisted exhibiting movies in theaters first.  But amid an economic downturn , Netflix must surely be tempted to rethink its strategy going into 2023. and a harsh year for New Hollywood A Big Move for Amazon? Even more significantly, that Amazon plans to spend $1 billion a year on theatrical film releases in 2023. Amazon seeks to make between 12 and 15 movies annually that will get a theatrical release. In 2023, Amazon will release a handful of films and increase its output over time. (That number of releases puts Amazon on a par with major studios such as Paramount Pictures.) it was reported recently To date, Amazon has been steadily getting into the movie business over a period of years by purchasing titles and releasing them under the Amazon Studios name. It earned Academy Award nominations for and , which were modest box office successes. Recently Amazon announced its intent to become major movie studio to be reckoned . The Big Sick Manchester by the Sea with when the company purchased MGM The news about Amazon making titles for theatrical release will spark an . Well, it’s clear that one way or another, New Hollywood streaming companies are expanding their presence through the Old Hollywood distribution system, too. (Of course, New Hollywood/Old Hollywood hybrid Disney is already there.) ongoing conversation about Amazon potentially buying theaters A few New Hollywood companies actually own theaters: Netflix owns the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, and the Paris Theater in New York. Disney owns the El Capitan Hollywood theater, where it plays its own movies. Owning a limited number of brick-and-mortar theaters gives New Hollywood a means to hold special events and build buzz for major releases without competing with chains. But would it make sense for a streaming company to expand even further?  I could see movie theaters becoming cash cows for Amazon to hustle its private label brands in the lobbies and offer special rewards for Prime members. The time may or may not be right for Amazon given the economic headwinds the company faces right now. But then again, theater chains are still hurting financially. And Amazon is clearly moving into brick-and-mortar industries such as retailing (most notably via the acquisition of Whole Foods a few years ago). Will Amazon make a move? As for Warner Brothers: the company dropped its simultaneous movie/streaming strategy (known as day-and-date releases) for 2022 releases. This was a wise strategy given that ’s phenomenal success. Moviegoing ain’t dead by any means. In fact, it’s quite possible that movie going is being reborn into a new kind of experience where theatrical exhibits drive buzz for the streaming release. No one has figured out the right approach yet. New Hollywood and Old Hollywood are in test-and-learn mode. The Batman

Will New Hollywood Save Old Hollywood?

For the first time, Netflix will distribute one of its titles through three major Old Hollywood theater chains, AMC, Cinemark, and Regal. , the sequel to the hit , will be distributed to 600 theaters on November 23. The movie will run for one week, followed by a blackout period, and then a streaming premiere on Netflix December 23. Even though will see a limited theatrical run (Netflix calls the theatrical release a sneak peek), the agreement is a landmark. For years, Netflix has locked horns with the major theater chains because Netflix has refused to give its movies a wide theatrical release before taking its films to streaming. AMC and Regal have flat-out boycotted Netflix’s films. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery Knives Out Glass Onion Because Old Hollywood and New Hollywood need each other. The Old Hollywood theaters are still reeling from the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Even though box office sales are rebounding strongly from 2020 and 2021, when the pandemic virtually closed theater chains, moviegoing has tallied off sharply in the second half of 2022 because of a shortage of available films. (Too many films had their production delayed because of the pandemic, and studios sold a number of titles to streaming companies to recoup their cost during the shutdown.) Meanwhile, Netflix is suffering from declining subscriber totals. (The streaming giant lost 2 million subscribers in the first two quarters of 2022.) The company is adopting an advertising tier to bring in revenue. Exhibiting a major title in movie theaters could become a permanent strategy if the approach works. Netflix acquired the rights to and for $450 million in 2021 before the company’s fortunes declined. It’s likely that Netflix is betting that a theatrical run of will: 1. Generate revenue from box office sales. 2. Create excitement for the movie’s streaming premiere, which could result in more subscribers and a spike in engagement levels. The success of the WarnerBros. title should be encouraging to Netflix. earned $750 million globally before WarnerBros. premiered the film the HBO Max streaming service. then enjoyed a first-week viewership of an estimated 4.1 million households (per Samba TV) – the second best first-week for a theatrical release on HBO Max. The appeal of to movie chains is clear: even with a limited run, the movie is likely to generate foot traffic. received a rousing reception at the Toronto International Film Festival and is building strong buzz. The title is also benefitting from a halo effect created by the wildly successful . Glass Onion Glass Onion Knives Out 3 Glass Onion The Batman The Batman The Batman Glass Onion Glass Onion Knives Out Even still, we won’t know for sure just how much Netflix will benefit from this limited run because Netflix keeps its own metrics close to the vest. The company has been criticized for potentially leaving millions of dollars on the table with its strategy of bypassing movie chains. For Netflix, actions will speak louder than numbers.

A New Direction for Netflix?

How do you measure the financial success of a movie in the streaming era? This question keeps arising amid coverage of the Christmas Day showdown between from Disney’s Pixar and ( ) from Warner Brothers. Soul Wonder Woman 1984 WW84 What made these two film releases special was their streaming distribution strategy. Disney released exclusively on its Disney+ streaming service. Warner Brothers distributed on HBO Max (owned by AT&T, which owns Warner Brothers) alongside a release in traditional movie theaters. Soul WW84 Both Disney and Warner Brothers bypassed the traditional approach of giving movie theaters a 90-day window to exhibit a film before going directly to viewers online. That’s because during the pandemic, , and theaters are on the verge of collapse. attendance in movie theaters has plunged dramatically With the Old Hollywood distribution system dying, studios are adopting a , streaming-first approach. and are two prominent examples being watched closely. And this much is clear: we don’t know what success looks like. New Hollywood Soul WW84 New Hollywood Rising How did we get here? Let’s take a quick recap. First of all, the rise of streaming and the decline of movie theaters precede the pandemic. Before 2020, . movie theater attendance was already declining Meanwhile, New Hollywood streaming companies emerged to upend the staid Old Hollywood system of distributing films through movie theaters. The Old Hollywood studios leaned first on movie theaters to earn money, and success was measured in box office sales. The movie theaters shared in that success, protected by a 90-day theatrical window before studios distributed movies direct to consumers via DVD or streaming and earned additional revenue. But the streaming companies began to create their own movies, and when they did, they either shortened that 90-day window considerably or bypassed movie chains completely, which angered the Old Hollywood establishment, especially movie chains. And then, something unexpected happened: a global pandemic shut down movie theaters en masse, denying Old Hollywood their all-important global revenue streams. As a result, movie studios, saddled with expensive films in the can for 2020-21 but nowhere to show them, find themselves crawling to the streaming services for help. Some studios have sold their titles to streaming companies. Others have taken their chances distributing movies in theaters. But others have tried some more creative approaches: Universal Pictures released r by skipping theaters and going straight to digital rental for $19.99 – . In fact, was more lucrative for Universal than its predecessor, , even though earned more revenue than Trolls , because Universal didn’t have to split revenue with movie theaters. Trolls World Tou which accumulated $100 million in revenue Trolls World Tour Trolls Trolls World Tour Trolls World Tour Disney and Warner Brothers are in the unusual position of enjoying access to in-house streaming platforms, which are proving to be labs for experimenting. is not the first movie Disney has released on Disney+ -- the company released on Disney+ and movie theaters in September. And Warner Brothers said that in 2021, the studio will release its entire slate of films on HBO Max first before showing them in theaters, a highly controversial move especially because HBO Max subscribers lag far behind competitors such as Amazon Video, Disney+, and Netflix. Soul Mulan v. : Who Won? Soul WW84 And here’s where measuring success gets really complicated and murky. Several days after the release of and , the only clear yardstick of financial success is the – a far cry from the $103.3 million that the first earned in pre-pandemic days, but a record for the pandemic era. Soul WW84 $16.7 million domestic ticket sales that WW84 pulled down in theaters on its opening weekend Wonder Woman And that’s the only solid number we have for either or . AT&T also said that . Disney released no viewer numbers for . But measurement firm Samba TV that 2.4 million Disney+ households in the U.S. watched over the holiday weekend, versus 2.2 million U.S. households streaming on HBO Max. (Samba TV tracks data from audiences who have opted-in to share their viewing activity.) But who really knows? And how does tracking viewer data figure into understanding a movie’s success? Soul WW84 “nearly half” of HBO Max subscribers watched WW84 on Christmas Day Soul says Soul WW84 Four Ways to Measure Success Thus far, these measurement models have emerged: , which are still very relevant because they provide hard numbers, even if movie theaters are barely clinging to life. After all, Warner Brothers pointed to that $16.7 million in domestic movie ticket sales as a reason for , which will be distributed the old fashioned way, through theaters. , the action comedy film , released during the dog days of January, was the Number One film of 2020, with a worldwide gross of $426 million. Most certainly its top ranking is a result of the January release date occurring before the pandemic took hold. By contrast, the top film of 2019, , raked in $2.8 billion globally. Up until 2020, every top movie since 2010 had earned at least $1 billion globally. Traditional box office sales approving the production of a new Wonder Woman movie According to Box Office Mojo Bad Boys for Life Avengers: End Game – another hard number because it’s all about revenue. As we’ve seen with , digital rental revenue can be even more lucrative for studios than theaters. Disney’s approach with also relied on digital rentals because Disney charged Disney+ subscribers $29.99 to watch the movie. based on that fee. ( .) (DEG) tracks digital rentals and sales, but unlike Box Office Mojo, DEG does not provide actual figures. According to DEG, during the week of December 26, was the most watched film, based on U.S. Digital Sales, digital rentals (VOD), DVD, and Blu-ray sales. (The data does not premium video on demand or disc rentals.) Digital rentals Trolls World Tour Mulan Mulan earned $33.5 million on its opening weekend So far, Mulan has also earned $66.8 million in theaters globally Digital Entertainment Group National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation . Although streaming services report subscriber totals, they do not attribute those numbers to any single movie. So industry watchers are relying on app downloads as a proxy statistics. According to Sensor Tower, research firm, ; and Disney+ saw a 28 percent . , 554,000 users signed up for HBO Max over Christmas weekend, when was released. Of course, app downloads provide an incomplete picture. But for now, app download data will need to suffice, and understanding the interplay between downloads and a movie’s streaming success remains a complicated affair. App downloads downloads of Disney+ spiked 68 percent the weekend of Mulan’s release surge in app downloads over Christmas weekend during Soul’s release According to market research firm Apptopia WW84 . Different companies use different formulas to measure audience viewership. For example, Nielsen that the Martin Scorsese 2019 film was watched by 17.1 million unique viewers in the United States in the first five days of its streaming release. Nielsen relies on a metric known as average minute audience -- a measure of time spent viewing (i.e., the average number of viewers calculated based on a movie’s total runtime) rather than the total number of people who watched a title. Meanwhile, Netflix released its own viewership totals for . , more than 26 million accounts globally viewed within its first seven days on Netflix. Netflix said it counts as a viewer anyone who completes 70 percent of a film. The aforementioned Samba TV tracks opt-in viewership with a technology known as automatic content recognition to track audience levels. But, it’s unclear how useful viewership data really is. Viewership totals are useful for marketing and PR. But those figures are typically used by networks to attract advertisers, and neither Disney+ nor Netflix accepts advertising. Streaming views said The Irishman Netflix The Irishman According to Netflix The Irishman It’s clear that most New Hollywood streaming services as a whole are succeeding based on their . At the same time, creating movies (and original content for TV) is a costly business, and it remains a mystery how well individual movies contribute to the bottom line of a New Hollywood company. As Michael Pachter, an analyst from Wedbush, , “The streaming metrics provided by Netflix are pretty useless. Who cares how many people watched a particular movie (other than them and the press)? It doesn’t translate to revenue unless the movie is the reason to join the streaming service.” soaring stock prices and subscriber growth complained to CNBC But as film viewership continues to shift online, and streaming becomes more competitive, New Hollywood may need to become more transparent. Note: I invest in AT&T, Disney, and Netflix.

New Hollywood Needs New Metrics

Where is Netflix headed in 2023 under the direction of co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters? On January 19, Reed Hastings, arguably the most important and influential person in the rise of New Hollywood, , having shared the position with Sarandos since 2020. Hastings, who remains executive chairman, made an impact on the entertainment industry that will be felt for years to come. Now Sarandos and Peters, who had been Netflix’s chief operating officer, are calling the shots. stepped down from his role of CEO They’re taking over at a time when Netflix is storming into 2023 with guns blazing. In its , Netflix said it added 7.7 million paid subscribers for the quarter. This figure easily surpassed the 4.57 million Wall Street expected. Revenue also slightly exceeded Wall Street’s expectations. fourth-quarter 2022 earnings announcement This is the second consecutive big quarter for Netflix. Its stock price is gradually rebounding from a freefall in 2022 following a harsh year that rocked the streaming industry. With the wind at their backs, Team Sarandos/Peters will likely not rock the boat and instead will stay the course – for the most part. Even so, many questions and hot button issues loom. Here are three big questions the company faces in 2023: How Soon Will Netflix Expand into Cloud-Based Gaming? -- which is too big for Netflix to ignore. So, in November 2021, the company games for mobile devices, available to Netflix subscribers in an ad-free format. (Mobile accounts for 86 percent of the global video gaming market, .) Gaming is a $300 billion market launched according to Statistica Since then, the company has built a portfolio of 50 games and acquired four game studios. The company will expand its offerings in 2023. According to Vice President of Gaming Mike Verdu, Netflix is “ ” beyond mobile. very seriously exploring a cloud-gaming offering so that we can reach members on TVs and on PCs A potential move into cloud gaming is important because the global cloud gaming market size is expected to reach $20.94 billion by the year 2030, according to market research store . Research and Markets What are Netflix’s chances of growing profitably in gaming overall? On the one hand, Netflix can offer well-known entertainment titles that lend themselves to games and an audience that is receptive to gaming. According to Karol Severin, lead gaming analyst for MIDiA Research, 46 percent of Netflix’s weekly active users play games on mobile devices and 33 percent play on consoles, “ .” which over-indexes significantly compared to the consumer average Indeed, Netflix’s most recent letter to shareholders noted, “In the fourth quarter of 2022, the company launched season four of the unscripted series Too Hot to Handle, which was a top 10 title for us globally for three consecutive weeks. Simultaneously, we debuted our Too Hot to Handle game, which has been our biggest game launch to date and is another encouraging sign in the long-term opportunity to entertain members with Netflix intellectual property (IP) across different mediums.” Gaming creates the potential for revenue through features such as in-app purchases, a model that Fortnite has mastered – should Netflix choose to go down that path (which it currently is not). But the company has a long road ahead. In 2022, only 1.7 million Netflix subscribers out of 220 million were playing one of its games on any given day, – although it must be said that even if daily active usage is low. according to Apptopia downloads of Netflix games have been improving It’s too early to say yet how much value gaming will deliver to Netflix from the standpoint of growing and keeping subscribers and generating revenue. That said, the potential value cannot be denied. Kevin Westcott, who leads the U.S. technology, media and telecommunications practice of Deloitte, The Los Angeles Times, “The more entertainment services that are on a platform, I believe it will make it much more sticky and reduce churn.” told Reducing churn, or subscriber loss, is important at a time when analysts are concerned that the streaming industry is over-statured. The Los Angeles Times noted that many consumers prefer not to pay for mobile games and instead play free ones that are supported by ads, or that charge for additional gameplay or bonus items. This suggests that gaming will be more valuable as a customer retention strategy, not an acquisition strategy. In 2021, Netflix Epic Games, TikTok, and YouTube as rivals for customers’ screen time. Keeping people engaged is important to Netflix. The company , which is all about viewer retention. cited counts total streaming minutes of any program as a key performance indicator for successful content Adam Levy of The Motley Fool , “The way I view Netflix's foray into games is as a moonshot. The biggest mobile games seemingly come out of nowhere and go viral (think Wordle). The same thing happens with some of Netflix's biggest shows (think Squid Game). The more shots the company takes, the more likely it's going to find a hit. And it has the resources and experience to capitalize if and when it finds that hit. That could result in stronger subscriber retention and monetization down the road. concluded So, while games have been disappointing so far, there's no need for Netflix to give up on them anytime soon.” An expansion into cloud-based gaming makes sense for Netflix, and I predict that’s exactly what Netflix will do in 2023. Cloud gaming involves streaming games off the internet instead of outright downloading them. It’s a more natural experience for Netflix subscribers and keeps Netflix’s audience locked into its own platform more easily. In 2022, the appearance of multiple Netflix for cloud-based gaming positions fueled speculation that the company would go in this direction -- as did Mike Verdu’s about cloud-based gaming at TechCrunch Disrupt in October 2022. job postings bullish comments In doing so, Netflix enters a crowded field that includes the likes of Microsoft’s Game Pass, Sony’s PlayStation Plus, and NVIDIA’s GeForce Now. Google made a run at cloud-based gaming . Before the advent of cloud-based gaming, Disney tried to launch video gaming and also before instead of trying to do all the heavy lifting of creating games in-house. and failed gave up licensing its properties to gaming companies Neil Barbour, an analyst at Kagan, , “While Netflix does have the infrastructure set up to stream video as well as an existing consumer base, there is a pretty deep chasm between video streaming and game streaming. Microsoft and Nvidia have been working for years at this and are just now approaching usable experiences for the average consumer.” said Netflix has a major advantage: the ability to develop games based on its marquee shows. After you’re done watching , with cloud-based gaming, you can play the game without having to fuss with downloading. This depends on Netflix quickly developing games that capitalize on the popularity of its content – and, of course, games that appeal to gamers. Gaming is a different experience than passively watching television. (At TechCrunch Disrupt, Verdu did not say whether  Netflix would build its own game controllers like Google did for the unsuccessful Stadia service; he did say that the titles wouldn't rely on TV remotes for input.) Stranger Things Stranger Things This is why Netflix has been fast tracking its growth by acquiring gaming studios. Even still, Netflix has its work cut out for it. How Successful Will Content Monetization Be? Reed Hastings must be relieved he is stepping back from his CEO role now that Netflix has launched its own ad-supported tier. During Netflix’s glory years when seemingly no one could touch the company, he was a content purist – insisting on building a business by creating great content that drives subscriber growth. But he eventually changed his thinking as his competitors grew their ad-supported offerings and Netflix’s subscriber growth showed signs of slowing before 2022. By 2022, he was , “Every major streaming company excluding Apple has or has announced an ad-supported service. For good reason, people want lower-priced options.” admitting to shareholders And so, under his watch, Netflix launched its own ad-supported tier in November 2022 – just as Disney+ unveiled its own. Netflix has not released any performance numbers on its ad-supported offering, but it looks like Netflix is delivering promising results. , daily subscription signups rose by more than 50 percent during the first few days the ad-supported tier was available. Ampere Analysis said that almost 10 percent of new customer signups are now for the ad-supported tier. According to Ampere Analysis Peters and Sarandos say they are going to push the ad model forward full throttle. They believe the model is succeeding already. Peters , “We have knocked this thing outta the park. We literally went from zero to get this thing launched in six months. And then we were within this much of what our predictions were. We’ve got a crap load of work, there’s no doubt. We're gonna be busy building this out for years to come.” He predicted its growth trajectory as follows: “Think about it as zero two months ago [when the service was launched in November 2021] and then about mid-single digit billions of dollars in three years” by catering to price-sensitive consumers. assured Bloomberg recently In its letter to shareholders discussing Q42022 growth, Netflix was equally sanguine about its prospects: While it’s still early days for ads and we have lots to do (in particular better targeting and measurement), we are pleased with our progress to date across every dimension: member experience, value to advertisers, and incremental contribution to our business. Engagement, which is consistent with members on comparable ad-free plans, is better than what we had expected and we believe the lower price point is driving incremental membership growth. Also, as expected, we’ve seen very little switching from other plans. Overall the reaction to this launch from both consumers and advertisers has confirmed our belief that our ad-supported plan has strong unit economics (at minimum, in-line with or better than the comparable ad-free plan) and will generate incremental revenue and profit, though the impact on 2023 will be modest given that this will build slowly over time. Advertising doesn’t tell the whole story about Netflix’s aspirations for monetizing content. The company for years. has been quietly building a merchandising operation as well For example, in 2019, Netflix and bike maker Mongoose agreed to offer a limited edition Mongoose based on a fictional bicycle used in , which was followed by the licensing of more -inspired bikes. Netflix also launched , including those with , , , and Stranger Things Stranger Things 75 co-brands Burger King Coca-Cola H&M Nike. These relationships — hybrid in-show product placements plus real-world merchandising — offered a glimpse of how Netflix would monetize its titles more broadly. Notably, the tie-in capitalized on the growing popularity of , which was a turning point for Netflix’s commitment to monetizing the value of its titles. Stranger Things Selling licensed products is a massive revenue opportunity. Global sales revenue generated by licensed merchandise and services grew to $315.5 billion in 2021, a 7.75 percent increase over the $292.8 billion generated in 2019, according to the by Licensing International, a trade group. In 2020, Netflix hired Nike and Disney veteran Josh Simon to lead its Consumer Products division. Since, then, the company has merchandized its content in a number of ways, including: most recent study of the industry A to distribute Netflix-inspired clothes, toys, beauty supplies and housewares on the . Initially this was an online operation, but the two companies recently said they’re . (It’s not clear what the Hubs actually look like – a row of merchandise? A kiosk? A store within a store?) In addition, Walmart is making available a Netflix Streaming Gift Card, exclusively at Walmart. The low-priced Netflix Streaming Gift Card gives customers a chance to use the streaming service without having a credit or debit card. Walmart will also offer Concession Kits to help fans create a movie theater-style couch-watching experience with themed items like popcorn, confections and collectible cups. partnership with Walmart Netflix Hub expanding the Netflix Hubs across  2,400 Walmart stores Distribution deals beyond Walmart. For instance, and sell Netflix-inspired merchandise. Target Amazon The launch of the , an online store built with Shopify to nimbly create merchandise based on the popularity of series like Squid Games. Netflix Shop Pop-up stores in major markets such as and . Los Angeles New York A for a live experience for Pat McGrath Labs’ collection. partnership with YouTube shopping Bridgerton makeup The Walmart relationship is intriguing because Walmart has a deal in place to offer a competing streaming service, Paramount+, to members of the Walmart+ premium service. Nevertheless, I predict Netflix and Walmart will double down on the Netflix Hub by rolling out more Netflix Hubs across all 10,500 stores globally -- especially because global markets are essential to Netflix’s growth. Walmart offers Netflix: An in-store, web-based, and mobile distribution channel to millions of Walmart customers. . . Its website is the . The company is the world’s largest retailer Walmart’s app is the most popular shopping app in the United States most visited eCommerce and retail site in the world Insight about how its shoppers behave – what they buy, when, and where. Walmart has mastered the science of collecting and analyzing first-party data, or the information people share with Walmart about themselves when they shop in store and online. First-party data has helped Walmart launch its successful Walmart Connect ad network, one of  many such retail-based networks emerging in recent years. Brand strength. Netflix is a newcomer to merchandising. Walmart gives the company visibility and legitimacy. As with gaming, merchandising is an early-days effort for Netflix. The company has not disclosed how much money it actually makes from merchandising, and based on earning reports, the mount must be immaterial for now. Disney sets the gold standard in this area, but streaming levels the playing field. Even Disney is still just figuring out how to develop synergies between Disney+ and Disney brands such as its theme parks and stores. Walmart is Netflix’s ace in the hole. Will Netflix Rethink Movie Distribution? For years, Netflix has locked horns with the major theater chains because Netflix has refused to give its movies a wide theatrical release before taking its films to streaming. AMC and Regal have flat-out boycotted Netflix’s films. The conflict eased up in 2022 when, for the first time, Netflix distributed one of its titles through three major Old Hollywood theater chains, AMC, Cinemark, and Regal. , the sequel to the hit Knives Out, was distributed to 600 theaters on November 23. The movie ran for one week, followed by a blackout period, and then a streaming premiere on Netflix on December 23. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery Netflix didn’t release financial results for , . By contrast, Disney’s Thanksgiving release was on track to make about $24 million during Thanksgiving Week – but the movie was distributed across 4,174 theaters. Glass Onion but it’s estimated to have raked in $14.5 million during its one-week showing in only 638 theaters Strange World It’s been widely discussed that Netflix should have exhibited longer in theaters and cashed in on an opportunity to make much more money – especially because Netflix paid a reported $450 million for two sequels to . Box office analysts it could have earned four times as much if it had been released in more theaters and perhaps hundreds of millions if it had stayed in theaters longer than a week. Glass Onion Knives Out said Jeff Bock, a senior media analyst at Exhibitor Relations, , “This is probably one of the biggest gaffes in modern film release history in terms of bungling what could have been made at the box office with ‘Glass Onion.’ In my mind, they left hundreds of millions of dollars at the table. If they can afford that, that’s great, Netflix — but any other studio in town is just shaking their head at this decision because any other studio in town would have loved to have this film in the marketplace right now.” told The Los Angeles Times Sarandos countered, “There’s all kinds of debates all the time back and forth, but there is no question internally that we make our movies for our members, and we really want them to watch them on Netflix. Indeed, a short theatrical run for did exactly what Netflix had hoped for: build buzz for its streaming release. turned out to be the fourth most popular movie in Netflix’s history. As the company reported in its Q4 letter to shareholders, “We believe people typically sign up for a streaming service because they’ve heard about a title ‘you simply must watch’ from a friend, seen the excitement on social media or read about it in the press.” Glass Onion Glass Onion That was then. This is now: Sarandos and Peters are operating in a wary-to-hostile investing climate. The movies were expensive to acquire. And movies are enormously risky: unlike TV shows, which build buzz over multiple episodes, movies have only one shot at generating fan love. Knives Out And surely Sarandos and Peters are watching what their competitors are doing. A number of films enjoyed huge, extended, box office runs followed by successful streaming premiers in 2022: earned $750 million globally before Warner Brothers premiered the film the HBO Max streaming service. then enjoyed a first-week viewership of an estimated 4.1 million households (per Samba TV) – the second best first-week for a theatrical release on HBO Max. The Batman The Batman One of the biggest movie success stories of 2022 (or any year), , took to arrive on its studio’s streamer (Paramount+), which didn’t stop it from immediately becoming the service’s . Top Gun: Maverick seven months No. 1 offering banked $842 million globally during an 82-day run in theaters – and then . Black Panther: Wakanda Forever became the most-watched Marvel premiere on Disney+ based on hours streamed within the first five days I predict that Netflix will loosen up even more and allow a longer theatrical run for its titles (which it should do for the upcoming , starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston). Murder Mystery 2 The company can still cater to subscribers by releasing movies in theaters and then versions exclusively for streamers, as Peacock did following the movie’s successful box office run. And Disney+ often includes the standard and the IMAX versions for Marvel movies, plus often commentary tracks and a ton of extras, like you’d get on a DVD release. has a 90-minute making-of documentary. by streaming two versions of Jurassic World Dominion West Side Story New Hollywood is learning it can have its cake and eat it, too, by exhibiting movies in theaters as a way to maximize revenue and also build excitement for their streaming releases. What does Netflix have to lose, besides money on the table? Big Shoes to Fill Netflix is looking at a much brighter year than it did in this time last year. Reed Hastings’s legacy is secure, and Netflix has re-asserted its role as the leader of New Hollywood. Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters have big shoes to fill. Gaming, monetizing content, and rethinking Netflix’s movie distribution strategy are three ways to do that.

Three Questions for Netflix’s New Co-CEOs

Over the past months, I've been slowly assembling a suite of self-hosted tools and services on a shiny new RaspberryPi 400, and finally, I think I am finished and ready to write up my experiences. At the least, it will help remind me what I have, but I hope it might also help others taking similar journeys. Disclaimer Blogs take time to write, and I hope this helps you. Some of the products here are affiliate links, but If you don't like affiliate links, but would still like to say thanks, subscribe to my or channel, or find . YouTube Twitch other ways to support me on my website Hardware - RaspberryPi 400 I chose a RapsberryPi 400 because of the built-in keyboard. I remember my experiments with a more traditional RaspberryPi in the past and found the short-term need for a keyboard annoying. Though I admit, I have used the keyboard (and mouse included in the package) probably for less than 5 minutes and am now quite happy with VNC and SSH connections for management, and considering swapping it for another RaspberryPi with a smaller footprint. Those concerns and changes of opinion aside, the 400 has been flawless, never had any memory or performance issues, and the only time I had any issues with it was when a cat sitter accidentally unplugged it. I connected the 400 directly to my router via Ethernet, a , which are feature-full and quite fantastic, but largely unavailable outside Europe. Plugged into the Pi is a for archive data I don't access that much, and for regularly accessed data, i.e., Nextcloud data (more on that later). Fritz!Box 6490 4TB Seagate Backup Plus a SanDisk Flash drive Basic Raspbian setup I didn't change much from the default settings, but here's a few small things I changed after installation. Raspbian Uninstalled packages I would never need, such as LibreOffice, etc. Enabled SSH and VNC, and disabled just about everything else I wasn't going to need, such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and audio. I installed , a convenient browser-based interface to manage services, logs, updates, and more on a Linux machine. Cockpit Allowing access across the internet As I step through the various services in this post, to access them, you need to expose ports to the internet. How you do this depends a lot on your setup, and you should be aware of the prerequisites and security aspects of doing so. My Fritzbox allows you to expose individual ports to devices and matching ports and configure an address online (with an unmemorable address which I guess makes it more secure 🤷‍♂️). If you want to, it also lets you set up an SSL certificate (but not in the most flexible way), a VPN, use a Dynamic DNS service, and more. I can't really show you what I did without giving away a bit too much detail about my setup, but exposing the ports was all I needed to do. Your setup may be more or less complex if you have a different router or need to route traffic through another service. Self-hosted cloud with Nextcloud My initial intention with the RaspberryPi was to attempt to reduce my personal dependence on cloud-based file storage such as Dropbox or Google Drive. I'll sadly always need access to some of these for collaboration or some apps that only sync with them ( !), but I want to reduce it as much as possible. Looking at you Scrivener I can't remember how I ended up discovering it, but I ended up using the wonderful . Finding the correct and/or best instructions to follow is a little confusing, and I feel like I chanced upon a random post somewhere that ended up being the easiest option. Whether my memory fails me now, I am not sure, but if you want to take a more organised approach, . I don't recall having any major issues, and the installer took a little time to download, install, and setup all dependencies that Nextcloud needs. Once it's installed, access the configuration interface via one of ; again, whichever option suits you varies. NextCloudPi from Own your own bits follow the official documentation the methods mentioned in the documentation NextcloudPi handled a lot of the configuration for me, but there's a couple of specific things worth bringing to attention or changing. Setting up the data directory for Nextcloud, which in my case was the USB drive, formatted to BTRFS. I automount all USB drives. I am not sure if I need this enabled, but just in case. I enabled the Web UI. I like UIs 😁. I forced HTTPS. I think this is essential when making the instance public. I activated "pretty URLs", in URLs is so early 2000s. index.php I have the RaspberryPi on a static IP address, so I enabled that in NextcloudPi too. I have most of the autoupdate features enabled. SSL Certificates So I can access the domain over HTTPS across the internet, I initially used the configuration option provided by NextcloudPi, but as I also needed an SSL certificate for other subdomains on the domain provided by Fritzbox, I ended up using , following instructions in their documentation. Let's Encrypt with certbot If you only need SSL for Nextcloud, then using the feature is probably enough for you. File sharing over the internet I wanted to share two other folder and file locations across my internal network as well as the internet. The first is a large archive of miscellaneous data from across my years of computer use, and a couple of large libraries that contain things like RPG books and comics, i.e., several GBs in size each. Calibre I wanted a solution that was relatively easy to access on a local network and elsewhere. Preferably the same solution used the same way in both cases. This requirement ruled out shares, as it's not designed for sharing across the internet. I looked at , but encountered speed and reliability issues, and recent macOS support is poor with documented workaround to enable version 4 seemingly not working anymore. Samba NFS So far I am most happy with using the curious , which allows you to mount directories across networks as an extension to the SSH protocol. It needs no extra components on server side, and I have found it performant and stable. On client side it needs some extra components, depending on your operating system. Unfortunately, on macOS, this requires installing the closed source , it used to be open source, and . This license change has also caused issues for projects that used to bundle macFUSE, including installing it with Homebrew. SSHFS macFUSE recent decisions to become closed source have attracted much discussion Anyway, I digress. These issues aside, SSHFS works really well, and I have had next to no issues with speed or stability. If you're happy mounting and unmounting drives from the command line that is. If you are reading this post, then I assume you are, but I have been pondering the ways my not-so-happy-with-the-command-line partner could mount and unmount the drives. I haven't figured that out yet, so watch this space for updates. For more details on the commands to use, I have so far (bizarrely) found from the most useful guide, but a quick search finds many more. this wiki page the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics So I didn't need to keep using a password, I set up password-less login using key pairs, , and now this means I can mount drives with commands such as: following these instructions sshfs pi@{RASPBERRYPI_ADDRESS}:/media/Data/Calibre /Volumes/Calibre -o volname=Calibre And unmount with: umount /Volumes/Calibre Sharing eBook libraries over the internet Calibre is one of those tools with many issues, and every few months, you look for an alternative. But every time you look for an alternative, you can't find one and carry on making do with its esoteric ways. Walled garden ecosystem tools aside, it's basically the only option for eBook management, editing, serving, and more. I have cultivated multiple libraries containing gigabytes of eBooks, PDFs, CBZs, and mobi files for years, and they're precious to me. I wanted to find a way to offload these files to network storage, give my partner the ability to access them in their copy of Calibre, and be able to access them in reader applications (or elsewhere) via the protocol. OPDS I weighed up a variety of Calibre and OPDS aligned tools but eventually settled on just getting the component to work well for my aims. If you , it's two versions behind, and . For reasons I can't even remember now, I had issues with following the official steps (ARM processor maybe?) and stuck with the outdated version, experiencing no compatibility issues so far. I'll upgrade it at a later date. Calibre server install Calibre from Debian repositories the official method involves running a shell command Another caveat. Once you start searching around for options to sharing Calibre libraries, you generally encounter harsh warnings discouraging you from doing so, accompanied by workarounds to get it to kinda work. The setup I describe is mostly just me accessing the libraries, and while I intend my partner to access them too, it's unlikely we will ever access them at the same time and cause the issues Calibre warns against. As always, your mileage may vary, and the workarounds may work fine for you if you're careful. Before I get into the solution, let me summarise the requirements, as that explains some of the decisions I made. When I refer to a "library", I mean the Calibre library file(s) as well as the actual folders and files, as this is where some of the complexity came in to play. One library that is my "current reads", I wanted this hosted in my personal Nextcloud sync folder so I could sync it to my Mac, as well as available via OPDS for reader application. Three other libraries that host comics, RPG books, and an archive of books we've read but want to keep somewhere. These libraries needed to be accessible in Calibre, network-mounted storage is fine, and available via OPDS. I start with the three archive libraries as they are the simplest. They are spread across the various storage attached to the RaspberryPi, based on which I access the most frequently (USB drive for comics and RPGs, HDD for book archive). There are a bunch of CLI and GUI ways to add and manage libraries with Calibre, but because I am used to the GUI version, I created all the libraries there and pointed the libraries at the various folder locations. The "current reads" library proved more problematic to get working as Nextcloud expects certain permissions on any storage it accesses. This includes those you set as "external storage", which is how I set up the folder so it could live outside of the main Nextcloud folder, and Calibre and OPDS could access it. I followed , but then ran into issues with using the permissions Nextcloud mentions, as then Calibre was unable to write metadata. I took the drastic step of giving full read and write permissions to make every application and service happy. I didn't face any issues with this approach, but there's probably some good reasons not to do it. I am not completely sure what other solution there might have been. the local external storage documentation For the Calibre server to resume after restarts, it's best to add it as a service, and there are a lot of different instructions for this online, but I found these steps best for up to date versions or Raspbian. Create a systemd service in with something like the following depending on what setup you want: /etc/systemd/system/calibre-server.service [Unit]
Description=calibre content server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User={USER_NAME}
Group={GROUP_NAME}
ExecStart=calibre-server \
--port=8090 --enable-use-bonjour

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target Most of this I based on the instructions in , including the steps for enabling and starting the service. I couldn't find a full list of arguments for the command, but using gets you started. I didn't specify a library path, which means the server loads all libraries I defined with the GUI. I changed the port to something that doesn't conflict with other services and enable . I am not completely sure if bonjour works, but enabled it anyway. There's more I want to configure over time, , and/or SSL support. the Calibre Server docs calibre-server --help bonjour especially enabling user accounts That took care of the OPDS share, so what about when I want to connect to the libraries on my Mac? For this I mount the relevant drive hosted on the Pi with SSHFS and setup the library in my local copy of Calibre. When I am done, I unmount the drive. Depending on the file size, transfer speeds are reasonably fast, and I haven't experienced any disconnection issues so far. Sharing movies and TV shows I'm old, so I have an archive of ripped DVDs from when they were a thing. I don't watch them that much, but it's nice to have them around, especially as there are a lot of movies and TV shows that are hard to find on streaming services (legally). In the past, I had a Plex server setup, but it was a lot of overhead for something I didn't use much, and would frequently reset the library, or I would change network setups, and the library wouldn't work anymore, etc. I also found Plex's push for commercial versions got overwhelming, and my previous experiments with XBMC found it overly complex for non-technical users. You can install VLC or other apps (for example, our TV has one builtin) that can access media shared via or on pretty much any device, so this time I kept it simple and used minidlna . DLNA and UPnP (in particular) can open a lot of security risks, but it's only for local network usage, so I was mostly OK with using it. If I want to watch something stored on the RaspberryPi when not at home, Instead I connect to the relevant network drive, download the file, and watch locally. I tested connecting to the DLNA share from Android, our TV, and macOS, and all worked well. DLNA UPnP using these instructions Pi punch And that's it for now. It's taken a lot of time and experimentation to get to this point, and now I review the post it doesn't seem like much at all, but that's frequently the way with technology. I've tested the setup(s) at home, in Berlin, and when travelling, and have so far had no issues, variable speeds aside. I am still figuring out the best ways to make everything accessible to my partner, and that's something for future posts. That said I have been using Nextcloud to send files to clients and other external parties, and once I solved the SSL issue, that has also worked well.

How to set up a RaspberryPi to share files and media

Surreal, eye-opening, melancholic, thought-provoking… 2020 has been like no other year in this century so far, as those wearing t-shirts with an "All I want for Christmas is 2021" logo will eagerly confirm. And though there’s a lot to be done before all pieces of the 2021 puzzle can be put together, the upcoming year has many hopes to fulfil. No pressure, 2021, but you'd better be good! On this cautiously positive note, let’s briefly revise 2020 based on the insights from the OTT Executive Summit before we can warmly welcome the upcoming year. Looking back at 2020 The reality of 2020 dictated new rules, values, people’s habits, and a new outlook on what “normal” was. Unsurprisingly, despite the overall doom and gloom, some industries, which fit in this transformed layout really well, actually skyrocketed. They say every cloud has its silver lining, and that was true even for 2020. Take for instance CTV, whose ad spend increased by this year, according to IAB, primarily due to the pandemic and mass lockdowns. 19% “TV forever has been a top funnel media, a media that you used to drive awareness but not to drive purchase. What’s so interesting about Connected Television is that it gives an opportunity to be both, a powerful branding media as well as a media that is very appealing to marketers who are trying to drive actual outcomes,” - Scott Rosenberg, SVP/GM of Platform Business at Roku Digital devices, including the CTV ones, to a certain extent became the guardians of people’s mental wellbeing. This fact is backed up by the Leichtman Research Group’s report that counted Connected TV devices in the US earlier this year. 400 million Another curious outcome of the pandemic is the shift that occurred in the way viewers started consuming OTT content. Nielsen shared their insights on the trend of co-viewing, as people were tied to their homes and family members for a long period of time. growing The developments of the Internet and 5G networks added even more points to CTV’s score, making the market magnetic for app developers. As a result, streaming soared, turning of Americans into streamers, according to Roku. 85% “Streaming for the first time is overtaking live TV,” - Andrew Hare, Senior Vice President, Research at Magid Associates, Inc. In addition to the number of subscribers of existing streaming services, outlined by eMarketer, the industry has seen a true upswing in the launch of new platforms, like Apple TV +, HBO Max, Disney +, Paramount +, Quibi (currently shut down), and others. accelerated “The streaming war up until this point has been really between the Big Three [Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu], however, with the entrance of all these high profile services from Disney, Apple, Warner Media, NBCUniversal, and others we could be seeing a huge upset of the hierarchy moving forward. And the interesting thing is that a lot of these new services have taken different approaches, trying to tackle the Big Three,” -Steve Nason, Research Director at Park Associates With a CTV viewing time growth by in 2020, as per Nielsen, and the abundance of entertainment opportunities CTV has in its goody bag, consumers admittedly started to have fewer problems with ads. Provided that ads could be the only price they would have to pay for the content. 81% “Consumers found our service and services like ours really viable. Ad-supported became a really good way of getting your news and your movies, and perhaps your content library,” said Colin Petrie-Norris, CEO at Xumo. “43% of US adults have paused a show they were watching to go purchase or consider the product that they just saw on screen. The conditions are very ripe between the consumers’ unwillingness to go to physical retail as well as more advanced ad products that can put the right ad in front of you at the right moment, have it be actionable,” said Scott Rosenberg, SVP/GM of Platform Business at Roku. In fact, eMarketer’s Q3 report highlighted an increase in AVOD revenue by in 2020. 31% This means that well-established AVOD platforms, such as Pluto TV, Xumo, Vudu, Crackle, and Tubi, will soon have to share the space with many newcomers, willing to hit the jackpot by adopting AVOD or a hybrid model that combines SVOD and AVOD features. “Two-thirds of all viewing time is on ad-supported platforms. For the first time 53% of people 18+ said they watch at least one AVOD service. 51% in the US tell us they would prefer an advertising-based free model versus a subscription with no ads or EST [Electronic Sell-Through],” said. Andrew Hare, Senior Vice President, Research at Magid Associates, Inc Looking forward to 2021 Though mysteriously staring at the crystal ball to see the future is always fun, eMarketer shared a few clues to make anyone’s predictions a bit more grounded. Following eMarketer’s estimates, the CTV ad spend will reach in 2021, which is around 40% higher than the year before that. Additionally, 2021 will bring a in Connected TV CPMs due to a meteoritic rise of supply. $11.36 billion reduction Without having our heads in the clouds, let’s take a closer look at where this may take us from different perspectives of the . CTV landscape Privacy concerns have consistently been the Internet's stumbling block. Users want to know who collects what data and for what purposes. Looks like a few years after the introduction of GDPR, 2021 will finally dot some i’s and cross some t's in this area. Transparency. Since Google announced its plan to opt out third-party cookies from the Chrome browser, the advertising world has been restlessly trying to come up with a new unified first-party data approach for all its channels. As advertisers aim to secure their access to consumers, direct deals via PMP (Private Marketplace) or PG (Programmatic Guaranteed) punched above their weight. And though these are effective ways of reaching audiences, they risk leaving smaller players out of the loop. In the meantime, the connected TV arena moved the question of transparency from high priority to critical. Hopefully, 2021 will bring some clarity to unified solutions for delivering first-party data to advertisers. Alternatively, we have good chances to watch further fragmentation of the market (which is not good) stitched together with a progress in addressability (which is good). Streaming of all shapes and sizes continues to soar, and 2021 is expected to reveal its potential even fuller. Live streaming, especially related to gaming and sports, offers marketers a unique opportunity to reach out to a growing segment of esport streamers and watchers, who in 2020 constituted of the US and UK Generations Z and Y populations, based on the data from GlobalWebIndex. Investments. 92% Certainly, anchoring consumers at home did oil the wheels and contributed a great deal to this trend. Outside of sports and gaming, another streaming playing field, that is gaining momentum as we speak, is certainly AVOD. A snowballing effect with which streaming services sprang up made watchers tight-fisted and less opposed to ads. This tendency is likely to stay the course. Therefore, if there is a perfect time and place to make the most of advertising budgets, it will undoubtedly be streaming in 2021. . Provided that customers’ attention span was in 2020, as stated by Oracle, it’s obvious that capturing this attention will only get harder for brands with time. This is where engaging formats will come in handy. Browsable galleries, shoppable ads, carousels, TV-to-Mobile elements, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), these are just a part of the mantra for all advertisers out there. Formats 8 seconds The only way to walk customers through all the stages of the funnel is to stay creative, up-to-date, and make their experience lightweight, yet memorable. As for the channels, it’s worth going out on a limb and adopting an omni-channel strategy that will include DOOH (Digital Out-of-Home), which has been rocking the boat of digital advertising for quite some time now. Given that consumers are expected to spend much more time out of their homes to make up for 2020, if/when restrictions are relaxed in 2021, experimenting with new formats would be the way forward. . Due to the fact that programmatic as a transaction method is going to reach in 2021, according to eMarketer, the talks about scaling up header bidding solutions for OTT and CTV have a clear rationale behind them. This technology will enable buyers to access dynamic auctions, while publishers will be able to send ad requests to multiple buyers and improve their monetization results. Advertising technologies $5.72 billion Furthermore, 2021 will surely expose marketers to more attribution and promotion opportunities, be it showcasing customer journey for OTT channel owners with the analytics software or providing across-the-board monetization capabilities through Allroll’s self-serve platform. Staying at the forefront of the AdTech innovation curve will open doors to windfall profits. Attriboost . A recent focus on a minimized face-to-face human interaction fuelled interest in automation powered by AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning). This ultimately sowed the seeds of acceptance and made these technologies more approachable for businesses. Intelligent automation In the context of Connected TV, the advancements of AI led to the kickoff of ACR (Automatic Content Recognition), that originated from smart TV players, e.g. Samba TV, Samsung Ads and LG’s Live Plus. Their predictive algorithms create an additional layer of personalization for CTV viewership. Taking into consideration how personalization is worshipped by marketers, beyond shadow of doubt, ACR will play an important part in the CTV industry in 2021. Takeaways The time to say ‘goodbye’ to 2020 has come. Digital space, in line with the rest of the world, has gone through a lot of rethinking and reinventing, demonstrated resilience and agility, trying to foresee and comfort consumers in every single shift in their behavior. These changes, however, mapped a whole new outlook for 2021. Data privacy, investment opportunities, engaging formats, advertising, and automation technologies will run the digital world in 2021 in an even more exciting manner than before. So, fasten your seatbelts, and let’s go!

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