TBI Weekly: Two ways an SVOD burst impacts the industry

As news of NBCU’s planned streaming service designed to ‘pay’ users to watch was revealed this week, it begged the question: what does this burst in new SVOD concepts mean for content?

In the past month we’ve seen three major SVOD developments that will no doubt shake up the industry.

Firstly it was revealed that Walmart will be entering the streaming-video-on-demand space for “middle America”. Then we heard that Jeffrey Katzenberg’s New TV short-form platform raised $1bn in its initial funding round just before it was revealed, as mentioned, that NBCU is planning a service that rewards consumers for watching.

In the space of five years the direct-to-consumer streaming space has gone from one credible service, Netflix, to numerous valuable contenders which are only multiplying as time moves on.

Ampere Analysis research director Guy Bisson told TBI that there are two ways this will impact the industry:

Total viewing goes up by a “tiny amount”

“What our research shows is that when people have one SVOD service they watch a certain amount of content, when they have a second they watch more, and when they have a third they watch that bit more. It’s tiny increments more each time,” says Bisson.

The analyst has seen this trend before when digital TV first burst onto the scene near 20 years ago. He says a more fragmented landscape always adds to viewing just that little bit more.

Players have to diversify and find their niche

Bisson explains that to fight for viewers players have to differentiate their content, and with more players this difference becomes more extreme.

“What we’ve seen in recent quarters is a big reality content  uptake appearing on SVOD. You don’t think of reality as an SVOD type of thing, it’s more of a linear-TV-Saturday-night-slot thing, but we’re increasingly seeing this on platforms.” adds Bisson.

Also in the news…

Kedoo Entertainment is to license  children’s animation Booba to distribution partner Monster Entertainment and Russia’s 3D Sparrow

Anthology series The Romanoffs, is set to premiere on Amazon Prime Video on October 12, making it Amazon’s first anthology series to roll out on a weekly basis

TLC is set to launch a Northern UK-focused version of hit franchise Say Yes To The Dress, hosted by Gok Wan

ITV Choice is set to host Mammoth Screen’s period drama Vanity Fair, this September

National Geographic and Nat Geo Wild gained 13 million total viewers for Plimsoll’s four-night live event special Yellowstone Live

The week’s top TBI stories…

• NBCU eyes streaming service that pays users to watch
• Virgin Media TV seeks pitches for drama series
• Starzplay to launch branded channels in France, Italy and Spain
• Netflix CFO David Wells steps down
• Viacom launches digital unit with new VP in place