Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Wednesday, November 17th, 2021
Is "Blood & Treasure" headed to Paramount+?
I’m resending today’s newsletter, because apparently a number of people didn’t receive it this morning. If you did, just delete this one. My apologies for the confusion.
And just a quick note to thank everyone for the Cups of Coffee and subscriptions following Monday's newsletter. I really appreciate the support.
WHERE IS SEASON TWO Of 'BLOOD & TREASURE?'
When CBS premiered the breezy new treasure-hunting series Blood & Treasure in May 2019, the show garnered overall positive reviews and the decent ratings. Which led the network to order a second season of the show, presumably to air in the summer of 2020. But production was shut down due to the pandemic and when production resumed, it was too late to make the summer 2021 schedule. The second season is apparently done and sitting on the CBS programming shelf, waiting to be rolled out at some point.
And when might that happen? No one at CBS was willing to discuss it on the record, but speaking with some people associated with the show, one rumor seems to be the new season might be headed to streamer Paramount+.
Which is a smart move on several levels. ViacomCBS has already moved several shows from CBS to Paramount+. And season one of the show is already on the streaming service, so it's a natural fit. Also, it's a very solid show and Paramount+ could certainly use another action drama or two right now.
AND SPEAKING OF PARAMOUNT+
I am not quite sure what the contractual issues might be, but once again, Paramount+ is stuck without the ability to have a high-profile CBS special on the service the following day.
While you could watch Sunday’s Adele special on the CBS app and on demand if you have a live television service (Hulu Live TV had the special front & center on Monday), you still can’t watch it on Paramount+.
This is one of those situations that civilians don’t understand. They don’t understand the complexities of streaming contracts. What they do understand is that you should be able to watch the special on the streaming service that bills itself as the home for CBS programming.
NETFLIX DEBUTS NEW TOP TEN WEB SITE
Netflix has launched a new web site which offers up Top Ten most-watched lists for both television and movies, ranked either globally or by a number of specific territories. The data goes back to the week of June 28th and it ranks the titles by the number of hours watched.
So why wait until now to release the site if it includes data going to to June? Well, it's likely the company waited until they had a title that received an unusually large debut and they got it this week with Red Notice. That film received 148,000,000 hours of viewing in its first week, which places it just outside the Top Ten list of popular Films (English), based on hours viewed in their first 28 days on Netflix.
But releasing data that is based on total hours watched is also a brilliant marketing move, since it's difficult to compare Netflix's performance to rival streamers. Amazon won't even release how many people use Amazon Prime Video each month, so they're certainly not going to release any total viewing hour numbers. And other than Disney+ or maybe HBO Max, none of the other major streaming services have a subscriber base big enough to generate a hundred million plus viewing hours in a month for one title.
So while the site does offer a small bit more clarity on viewing numbers, it's more of a way for Netflix to show they are trying to be more transparent while simultaneously throwing a bit of shad at the competition.
THIS IS WHAT TARGETED ADVERTISING LOOKS LIKE
I suspect most people realize that streaming offers the ability to really drill down and offer targeted advertising, although most of us don't have a real sense of what that means in the real world.
Discovery Advanced Advertising Sales Solutions is pitching the advertising options on Discovery+ in a new presentation and looking at what's available really provides a sense of what can be done when you have access to viewing habits and subscriber behavior:
Discovery’s Advanced Streaming Advertising Products include:
Green-Light Ads: A one-day immersive sponsorship that allows advertisers to be the very first ad that all viewers see on discovery+.
High-Light Ads allow advertisers to own the first ad break of a show, which reduces clutter and makes brand messages more impactful.
Lime-Light Ads: A limited commercial interruption experience that puts advertisers center stage with consumers, assuring maximum brand awareness and affinity.
Stop-Light Ads interact with viewers even when they take a break from viewing. This pause ad delivers relevant messaging to consumers at the right time and place, creating an ownable, positive and entertaining viewer experience outside of the traditional ad break.
Showcase Ads: Our proprietary shoppable ad format allows viewers to take action right from their TV screen and purchase the items and products that align with our Food and Home show content.
Spot-Lite Ads: This sponsorship allows advertisers to reward committed viewers with an ad-free environment. Available after viewers binge three episodes in a row, Spot Lite ads deliver the best viewing experience in exchange for the viewer’s attention.
Marquee Collections are custom curated collections that allow advertisers to select episodes from Discovery’s streaming library of over 60,000 episodes to tell their story.
Search-Light Ads help advertisers align their message with contextually relevant content. These ads allow advertisers to match their message with the right episodes, extracting all parts of speech and multi-word expressions like ice cream, garage door and beach trip to provide advertisers with contextual alignment on an episodic level.
PEACOCK 'CONTENT DESTINATION' LAUNCHES IN UK & IRELAND ON SKY
The streaming service Peacock might not be rolling out across the UK & Europe anytime soon as a standalone service. But curated Peacock content did launch Tuesday in the UK and Ireland in a "content destination" inside the Comcast-owned Sky TV service:
NBCU has said that “thousands of hours” of content will be made available to Sky and NOW customers at no extra cost. This includes Peacock originals such as Rutherford Falls and Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol and movies including O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Tower Heist.
At present, there have been no announced plans to rollout Peacock as a standalone streaming service within Europe.
Following this soft launch, Peacock will expand as a “content destination” across Sky platforms in territories including Germany, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland in the coming months.
THE WORD 'METAVERSE' HAS ALREADY LOST ALL MEANING
It didn't take long, but the word Metaverse has already evolved from referring to an interconnected virtual environment (the entire world is Fortnite) to basically just any online environment, no matter how traditional.
Gather is a service that combines Zoom and messaging inside a graphics interface that looks a bit like an old-school 8-bit video game. Amazon has created a world inside Gather devoted to its upcoming new series The Wheel Of Time. Fans can visit The Randlands pixel by pixel and explore every tavern, field and forest shown in the series. Which is a fun idea, although I don't know if referring to it as "part of the Metaverse" is all that accurate. The customized world launches on November 19th, in conjunction with the series premiere.
NETFLIX ROLLS OUT TWITTER-BASED 'RED NOTICE' GAME
I just noticed this on the Netflix India Twitter account, although I suspect it will be shared by a number of regional Twitter accounts. I've signed up, so I'll let you know what it involves as I play:
ODDS AND SODS
* The Staples Center - home of the Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Sparks - will wear the new name Crypto.com for 20 years under a deal between the Singapore cryptocurrency exchange and AEG, the owner and operator of the arena. And in the spirit of crypto currencies, next month a group of hackers will hijack the electric signage and rename the building "69...Nice Arena" while diverting the arena payroll funds to an untraceable account in the Ukraine.
* AVOD Pluto TV has added five more channels: Iron Chef, More TV Drama (shows like Burn Notice, The Unit), 48 Hours, Teen Mom and Pluto Vs (competition shows).
* Starz has announced that the Greg Kinnear/Courteney Cox drama Shining Vale premieres on March 6th, 2022.
SEE YOU THURSDAY!
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