Brand and loyalty are two words almost never heard together in the media industry today. With Netflix’s strategic big spend in Cannes following their downturn, and an influx of consumer guides on strategically churning streaming platforms, it’s clear that the streaming landscape is as competitive as ever. If the streaming landscape is a war, then content is surely the ammunition, and the deciding factor in who gets out ahead.
As streamers scramble to fill their platforms with content that will keep viewers from churning, they tilt the scales of the landscape dramatically, leaving us all to adjust to an ecosystem that, on average, values individual titles less. With so much content moving around the market today, the value of an individual title has been reduced.
One of the greatest contributors to the streaming industry’s devaluation of content is the discrepancy of profitability between streaming and traditional TV. By unbundling content, and operating in a competitive landscape, streamers have found themselves with high operating costs and low margins. Viewers who once shelled out $100+ per month for a bundled TV subscription, now have access to content for as little as Hulu’s $6.99 subscription, or even free, with ad-supported offerings, like the base tier of NBC’s Peacock.
A distributor who might once have survived on just a few deals in a month, is likely scrambling to find a business model that will sustain them in the current ecosystem. So what business models are working for distributors today?
If you have the operational capacity to engage with streamers, the demand for content is palpable. Streamers are looking for a constant stream of content. This means sprawling avails sheets, and enormous deliveries, on an ongoing basis. When distributing to multiple platforms, this means the cycle is never-ending. Speed and volume are key to profit in the VOD market, but they’re only achievable if your operations are efficient and scalable. Tools and practices that once worked smoothly, quickly break down under the weight of the new streaming world.
If you can master the basics, the opportunity is endless. Some distributors are even taking it a step further by getting into production themselves. It’s an attractive option - with complete control of the rights and no one to report to or pay out at the end of the quarter.
The new world of digital media is upon us. One cannot even completely pivot away from traditional channels of distribution, when 2020 showed us that the demand for DVD, Blu-ray and EST was still present. Streaming is clearly here to stay, but so is television, DVD, and the movie theater, among others. The only way to stay ahead in the ecosystem of today is by optimizing all channels. The most profitable distributors are the ones who have figured out how to execute their operations efficiently enough to keep all their revenue-generating balls in the air.
Interested in seeing how MOLTEN streamlines operations to enable efficient distribution to streamers? Click here for a platform introduction.