Cordkillers 405 - The Everything/Nothing Store (w/ Merrill Barr)
Netflix has bad numbers and oh hey they will look at selling ads! Streaming is down in UK--why? Plus, a Minecraft movie and dinosaurs come to AppleTV+. All that and more on Cordkillers! With special guest Merrill Barr ( https://twitter.com/merrillbarr ).
This week on It's Spoilerin' Time: Picard (208), Moon Knight (104), Better Call Saul (601-602), Barry (301)
Next week: Picard (209), Moon Knight (105), Better Call Saul (603), Barry (302)
CordKillers: 405 - The Everything/Nothing Store
Recorded: April 25 2022
Guest: Merrill Barr
Intro Video
Heartstopper
Primary Target
Netflix hints at password sharing crackdown as subscribers fall
Netflix Q1 net subscribers unexpectedly decline, revenue misses expectations
- Netflix reported it overall lost 200,000 subscribers in Q4. The company had expected to gain 2.51 million. It did gain 1.1 million in Asia Pacific but it lost 700,000 because it terminated service in Russia and also lost 600,000 subscribers in Canada and the US.
- Netflix now expects to lose 2 million more subscribers this quarter.
- This is the first decline in subscribers in more than a decade for Netflix.
- The knee-jerk analysis would be to blame the price increases in North America and UK, which Netflix acknowledges had an effect. But keep in mind that Netflix earnings were $3.53 a share beating expectations of $2.91. So the idea that revenue would increase even if subscribers stalled, proved true.
- The other effect to acknowledge is competition. People have choices and Netflix acknowledged this too.
- Netflix definitely had responses. Perhaps panic is too strong a word, but the company has flipped its position on multiple issues including password sharing, advertising and maybe even live sports.
- Netflix said it estimates about 100 million users share passwords. In the past, co-CEO Reed Hastings said that was something you have to "learn to live with." Now he says "When we were growing fast, it wasn't a high priority to work on [account sharing]. And now we're working super hard on it."
- In Chile, Costa Rica and Peru, Netflix has been testing a way of messaging people who share passwords and asking, not forcing them to pay. Netflix says it will take what it learns from those tests and expand it worldwide in a year or so.
- Netflix did a total about face on an ad-supported tier.
- Hastings said, "I've been against the complexity of advertising" but now he is “quite open to offering even lower prices with advertising, as a consumer choice.” He says they will begin looking into how to do that over the next year or two.
- Netflix has the advantage of a huge subscriber base and previous collaborations with brands on marketing, but it doesn't have an ad model or infrastructure and the market is crowded now with Peacock, Paramount Plus, HBO Max, Hulu and Disney+ all about to pitch advertisers at upfront. And don't forget the FAST services like Tubi and Pluto.
- And if THAT wasn't enough, Netflix also softened its stance on live sports. Instead of the usual falt no, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said, “I’m not saying that we’ll never do sports but we’ll have to see a path to growing a big revenue stream and a great profit stream with it.” And Deadline notes that Hastings told German newspaper Der Spiegel that it might consider buying the rights to F1 if it could get enough control. Though Sarandos emphasized that sports-adjacent programming like the Formula 1: Drive To Survive docuseries is still the focus.
Netflix says it will eventually charge more if you share your account
Reed Hastings: Netflix is ‘trying to figure out’ ad-supported streaming
Netflix Will Face Challenges Courting Advertisers for Cheaper Model
Netflix & Live Sports? Ted Sarandos Revenue & Profit Stream F1
How to Watch
UK Streaming Subscriptions Shrink As Households Look To Cut Costs
What Consumers Want to Pay for Netflix, Disney+ and More Streamers
Super fans, franchises and unique content could be the answer to reducing streaming churn
Fandom State of Streaming 2022
Tom talked about the UK subscription numbers some more with Charlotte Henry on her podcast at The Addition
Streaming subscriptions are shrinking in the UK. A survey from Kantar showed the number of UK households with at least one streaming service fell in Q1 for the first time by 215,000. That still leaves 58% of households, or around 16.9 million, subscribed. And on average, each household subscribes to 2.4 services. But it's significant that the overall number fell. Kantar said Netflix and Amazon services were the last to go when households cut back. Apple TV+ bucked the trend, raising its subscriber share to 9.2%, that's its highest point yet. About a third of cancellations were attributed to the need to save money.
- So what price would be better? Well, Fandom put out its annual State of Streaming Report. Among the questions it asked users of the platform was how much they thought they should pay for streaming. It's no surprise that they all thought they should pay less. The average overall was $7.46 a month.
- However, some services were valued more than others. Netflix was valued the highest at $10.60 a month, followed by HBO Max at $9.30, and Peacock was the least valued at $5.50. [[[[Netflix ($10.60), HBO Max ($9.30), Disney+ ($9.20), Hulu ($8.60), Amazon Prime Video ($8.60), Apple TV+ ($6.9), Paramount+ ($6.8) and Peacock ($5.5).]]]]]
- The report also recommended ways to retain subscribers.
-A few others results from the Fandom study indicate exclusives and fan communities around fictional universes are huge for streaming services
62% claim genre is a key to how they pick a streaming service.
73% value exclusivity in movies and TV shows (89% of Disny+ is exclusive, 83% of Netflix.)
76% say they value a large library of shows
55% want originals
46% want a community and culture around their shows (franchises) Disney+ strongest in this.
What to Watch
Jason Momoa to Star in ‘Minecraft’ Movie for Warner Bros.
- The Hollywood Reporter's sources say Warner Brothers has got Jared Hess Napoleon Dynamite) to direct a Minecraft movie and is close to landing Jason Momoa for a starring role.
‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ Crosses $20M & Puts Arthouses Back On The Rails As Daniels’ Pic Looks To Become 4th-Highest For A24
- Everything Everywhere All at Once has brought in $20.5 million at the box office, which is a good sign for indie films that aren't part of an ongoing franchise. The movie debuted March 25th in 10 theaters with a $50,000 per theater average, the second best theater average of the pandemic for a limited release, right behind Licorice Pizza. But Everything has passed Licorice Pizza in domestic gross, and from where we sit looks to have had less of a marketing budget.
Netflix's Love, Death and Robots has a new trailer and season 3 arrives May 20th
Dinosaurs Look Real in Trailer for 'Prehistoric Planet' on Apple TV Plus
Eyes On
Merrill: A trivia question
Brian: Everything Everywhere All At Once
Tom: Atlanta
On the Lookout: Undone
Front Lines
CNN+ Streaming Service Is Shutting Down a Month After Launching
- CNN+ will shut down April 30th. Why? The short version is the people who wanted to launch it are no longer with the company after it was sold from AT&T to Discovery. CNN Chairman and Chief Executive Chris Licht told staff that some of the CNN+ content will end up on other platforms. At a town hall meeting last week, CEO David Zaslav told employees he would rather have all content under one platform anyway, rather than separate services for channels or types of content. Licht also said "consumers want simplicity and an all-in service, which provides a better experience and more value than stand-alone offerings."
Netflix launches a new way to find shows with its ‘Category Hub’ for TV viewers
- Netflix added a new feature to its menus called the Category Hub. The section will show your top 3 categories based on viewing history plus curated collections around holidays as well as general genre categories. Each users will see a different selection of categories.
HBO Max, HBO Hit 76.8M Global Subs In Q1, Up 3M From Year End; WarnerMedia Profit Squeezed By CNN+, Streaming Spend
- I know. It's unfair. Netflix has horrible numbers and we spent so much time on it. Yet HBO Max goes up 3 million subscribers int he same period to reach 76.8 million worldwide and here we are near the end of the show before we even mention it. But hey, congrats HBO Max. These are your last numbers under the old AT&T ownership. Best of luck in the new Warner Brothers Discovery world. Oh and now that they'r free of AT&T HBO Max will be part of Verizon's upcoming +Play streaming hub scheduled to launch later this year. We'll cover more details on that hub once wit gets closer to launch.
HBO Max to Be Available Through Verizon’s +Play Subscription Hub
‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ Bumped to 2023, ‘The Equalizer 3’ Announced in Sony Release Date Shake-Up
- Sony Pictures delayed "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" from October of this year to June 2, 2023. It also assign Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part II, a release date of March 29, 2024. Also Madame Web, starring Dakota Johnson got a date of July 7th, 2023. And I non-spider-related Sony news, The Equalizer 3 will hit theaters September 1, 2023.
‘Bridgerton’s Season 2 Debut Week Easily No. 1 With 2.5 Billion Minutes Viewed
HBO’s ‘Winning Time’ Scores Series High for Third Week in a Row With 1.4 Million
.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot to Produce ‘Hot Wheels’ Movie at Warner Bros.
Paramount Plus Banner Title ‘Bose’ Wraps Production, Unveils Further Key Cast
Bob Odenkirk-Led ‘Straight Man’ Lands Series Order At AMC
- Bridgerton Season 2 got double of any other show in the streaming world the week of March 21st
- HBO's WiningTime increased viewership for the third week in a row to reach 1.4 million viewers. It's been out for 7 weeks
-Warner Brothers announced Bad Robot has agreed to produce a live-action Hot Wheels movie. Matchbox Cars had no comment.
- Paramount Plus's 6-part biopic of Spanish singer-songwriter Miguel Bosé has wrapped production.
- AMC ordered an 8-episode series based on the book Straight Man, starring Bob Odenkirk"
Dispatches from the Front
Tom, Brian, Bryce and possible guest,
Your recent primary target about too many shows returning is very similar to a frustration that I have had with television shows for a while and that is my love/hate relationship with serialized episodes.
I love that television shows now have the freedom to have more complicated and detailed plots that don't have to be all tied up with a nice bow in a single 22-42 minute episodes. However, as shows have fewer and fewer episodes in a season, longer and longer breaks in between seasons and there are more and more good shows that we are trying to watch; it becomes increasingly difficult to remember all of these intricate storylines. This is one of the reasons that (as this show has noted many times) many shows become better when they are binged.
I'm so glad that I binged watched Breaking Bad after it was all over. I can't imagine what the long wait must have been like between some of those seasons or in some cases portions of seasons.
I also believe this is what became the major problem with the winner of your first abondonee ""How to Get Away with Murder."" I had trouble keeping track of all of the ways the characters in that show had gotten away with murder.
Again, I love these more complicated, detailed and intricate storylines. But shows nowadays are almost begging us to wait until they are finished and then binge them. However, if that is what we all did, I don't think the economics would hold up very well for the streaming networks and the studios. They would then produce fewer seasons of these shows and would in turn probably put downward pressure on the shows to have less complicated and detailed storylines. And I don't want that either.
Thank you,
- Bill
Since Gemstones wrapped up this season, I decided to revisit its predecessor “Vice Principals”. Have any of you seen it? A lot of the Gemstones’ DNA, but a little darker and more grounded. Brian’s favorite Edi Patterson even has a bit of a role.
Fin.
- Stuart
Bryce, Tom, Brian-
Just getting caught up on After Talk post-vacation, and wanted to thank you for the kind words when talking about our daughter at the Founders Day Picnic. We happened to be finishing the episode up as we picked Adria up from school, and she was beaming from the back seat listening to it.
We all had a great time at the picnic, but meeting all of you (and the others) and especially how much time and attention you each gave made it very special for Adria. Her spring break included other fun around Austin, and a trip to Universal Orlando - and the Picnic was very top of her list of experiences. I've attached an image she put together to send to her friends (before we even made in back to the hotel) that includes a few of her favorite pics.
thanks guys
- Joseph
Links
patreon.com/cordkillers
doghousesystems.com/v/rogue
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