The pandemic has significantly accelerated what already was a healthy growth trajectory for streaming platforms. That was the word from varied speakers at Digital Media Wire’s annual Future of Television Conference, a series of fully digital Zoom-centric discussion sessions held over a three-day stretch (11/10-12) last week.
Rob Gelick–EVP and general manager of streaming services, and chief product officer for ViacomCBS Digital–noted during “The Streaming Revolution: Is Streaming the Future of Television?” session that paid subscribers for CBS All Access and Showtime standalone streaming services have climbed to 17.9 million, a Q3 tally that’s a nearly 4.5 million jump from subs reported earlier this year.
In a prior confab session, “The Future of the Post-Pandemic Television Business,” which kicked off the Future of Television Conference, another exec in the ViacomCBS Digital family, Jeff Shultz, EVP and chief business officer of Pluto TV, noted that the ad-supported TV service had reached more than 28 million monthly active users and more than doubled its revenue compared to the previous year. He said that Pluto projects that it will have some 30 million domestic users by the end of this year, contributing to a worldwide base of 40 million users.
Thus what Gelick describes as ViacomCBS Digital’s “three-pronged strategy” has experienced explosive growth, further fueled by a pandemic which has people turning to streaming forms of entertainment and information. Those three streaming prongs are in the free ad-supported service space (Pluto), a mainstream stalwart pay service (CBS All Access) and premium pay (Showtime).
And momentum figures to build as CBS All Access is slated to become Paramount Plus in early 2021. The rebrand will see original series emerge from different verticals across the company such as Paramount, CBS, MTV and BET. Additionally more than 30,000 additional episodes and movies from the overall company’s content shops will be brought to the Paramount Plus streaming service.
Alison Hoffman, president, domestic networks at Starz, was among the panelists alongside Pluto’s Shultz, at the “Post-Pandemic Television Business” session. She reported that Starz recently enjoyed its best domestic OTT subscriber growth quarter ever with an increase to 9.2 million, up from 7.4 million the prior quarter.
And a fellow panelist of Gelick at the “Streaming Revolution” session, Mark Rotblat, chief revenue officer at Tubi, too cited record growth with 33 million monthly active users in September, with collective time spent on Tubi in excess of 200 million hours monthly, a 100 percent increase over the previous high-water mark. Rotblat said that the growth curve has long been in place but has accelerated exponentially during the pandemic.
Another “Streaming Revolution” participant, Mark Garner, EVP, global content sales & business development at A&E Networks, pointed out that the streaming revolution is not just a U.S. phenomenon but a global one that has opened up a powerful new revenue stream as well as opportunities to realize diverse content.
There’s also a place for niche services as “Streaming Revolution” panelist Joanne Wage, general manager of Crunchyroll, can attest. She observed that among the biggest streaming successes thus far are those with a firmly established brand. For Disney+, the brand is family entertainment. HBO Max has a brand reputation for premium top-level content. Crunchyroll, she contended, is known for animation, specifically having a major foothold in the anime category. Young video gamers, for example, have a voracious appetite for this fare, giving Crunchyroll a dominant identity and position in this community. If you are interested in anime, she affirmed, then Crunchyroll is on your radar. This in turn helps Crunchyroll maintain a committed subscriber base, not one that is jumping from one service to another based on a particular original content title or titles.
Production
While the pandemic has hastened subscriber growth, it has slowed production. Still, some inroads are being made as Hoffman noted that Starz successfully completed three productions during the pandemic and is back in production on a number of other series and shows.
Hoffman’s fellow session panelist, Bill Bost, president of Skydance Television, shared that production plans had to be significantly revised for the sci-fi series, Foundation, based on the book series of the same title by Isaac Asimov. Skydance is producing Foundation for Apple TV+. The TV series was in pre-pro in March but production had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis, Production has recently resumed with Bost noting that the breadth of countries originally slated for shooting had to be pared down and that the path of production had to be adjusted. Rather than bouncing about from one country to the next, production has been initially confined to Ireland and will methodically move on elsewhere. Even before the pandemic, the prospects of realizing such an ambitious tentpole series, said Bost, were challenging. Those challenges have multiplied with COVID-19 considerations now in the mix.
Also participating in the same Future of Television Conference Session was panelist Janet Carol Norton, partner, board member and co-head of the television production department at ICM Partners. She said that the pandemic has spawned safety guidelines and health protocols which could have a long-lasting positive impact on production. Even with the advent of a viable vaccine, she conjectured that many of the precautions that have evolved will remain with us in the years to come. She contended that with protocols being implemented and adhered to, even in today’s challenging times, “Production is one of the safest jobs you can have.”
Diversity, inclusion
Starz’s Hoffman observed that increased opportunities for diverse content creation carry responsibilities. She noted that Starz is making a concerted effort to bring more women and people of color into the showrunner space. “Eleven of our 16 showrunners are women,” said Hoffman, citing such bright lights as first-time showrunners Katori Hall on P-Valley, who created the series, and Rebecca Perry Cutter, series creator on Hightown. They are examples of what Hoffman described as new, fresh authentic voices who are making their mark in the industry.
The Streaming Revolution and Post Pandemic Television Business panel discussions–just two of the multiple Future of Television Conference sessions–were moderated, respectively, by Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia, and Dawn Chmielewski of Forbes.
