Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Monday, October 9th, 2023

So how committed are the streamers to promoting live news streams?

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Monday, October 9th, 2023. 

PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT THEY PROMOTE, NOT WHAT THEY SAY
One of the things I learned while I was a financial reporter is the best way to determine a company's true priorities is by shrugging off most of the pronouncements any CEO or top-level executive makes in public. Those comments are more about managing press expectations and share prices than actual strategy. To understand a company's business, you have to pay attention to what happens when no one is looking.

A CEO can spend hours with journalists and investors touting the company's new line of diesel-powered toaster ovens. They'll be described as an "innovation" and "the future of the industry." But none of that matters if there isn't a real buy-in internally. How are decisions made when marketing budgets are being determined? What happens when executives have the bandwidth to push one product onto the store shelves for the holidays? Do they choose the sexy new diesel-powered appliance or do they opt to continue supporting an older product that still has an engaged customer base?

Those are the decisions that tell you what is truly a priority inside the company. And in this regard, streamers are no different than diesel-powered toaster oven manufacturers. It's not what you say, it's what you do.

All of this comes to mind today because we are arguably in the middle of what should be an important moment in the streaming news business. War has broken out in the Middle East and while news isn't a high viewer priority in normal news cycles, this is the type of event that engages even the most casual viewer.

So it's also a good time to see how the major streamers are pushing their live news assets. How are they working to capitalize on the subscribers who think "hmm, I wonder what's going on in Israel?" Or even more relevant, those subscribers who didn't realize they wanted to see the news until it is pushed out to them in the user interface.

Max is a good place to start, given the amount of time Warner Bros. Discovery executives have spent touting the importance of news - especially live news - to their streaming future. CNN has a new head who keeps telling the staff that the future is digital and WBD recently added a news tab to Max, along with extensive live streams and other programming from its core CNN linear TV channel.

But inexplicably, there's no mention of that at all on the home page of Max. The revolving promo carousel window at the top focuses on live sports, along with 90 Fiance, Last Week With John Oliver and a couple of Max original scripted programs. But nothing breaking news-oriented:

If you click into the news tab, there is what looks to be a live CNN stream highlighted at the top of the page. Although if it were me, I would swapped the generic show description for something more along the lines of "the latest news from the Middle East." 

I also think Max missed a chance to promote their live news capabilities more by not replacing that "News & Talk" promo bar with some edited coverage from the Middle East. Or even quickly creating some content that is Max exclusive. Even if it's as simple as having a correspondent in the area do a five-minute interview about what might happen next (for example).

From talking to some engineers at Max in recent weeks, I get the impression that part of the problem is that the streamer just isn't set up yet to deal with breaking news. The templates are too difficult to change on the fly and there isn't a clearly established workflow for getting video pieces quickly input into the system and posted on the live site.

While Max's efforts can best be described as "minimal," Peacock does a better job of highlighting its news assets. The live NBC News Now feed is highlighted in the third position on the home page, which is reasonable given the state of the news cycle right now:

The news tab is also much more focused than the Max effort. The NBC News Now live stream is in the number one promo slot in the carousel, with a live stream of UK's Sky News in the second spot. Although I think you could argue that a minimal Sky News logo might not be the best incentive to convince casual viewers to click in. But more importantly, the promo bar just below the top carousel includes a number of recent news stories from the Middle East:

And what about Paramount+? No matter what the subject matter, this streamer always manages somehow to figure out a way to ensure that whatever you are looking for is nearly impossible to find. 

There is no mention of breaking news on the front page, which is especially galling considering some of the older titles being promoted in the top carousel window. But clicking into the news tab brings up either a live feed from CBS News or from CBSN (its streaming news service). And Paramount+ also includes news stories in the bar below the top window.

So the takeaway - at least for today - is that for all of the talk about news being a priority on Max, the decisions being made at the streamer are favoring other priorities. Which is a bit of a shame, given that this is a time when subscribers are most likely to be engaged with news if given the chance.

One engagement effort that none of the streamers are taking advantage of when it comes to news are the subscriber-only promo email blasts. I receive near daily ones from Peacock, touting live sports, new episodes of broadcast TV programs and originals. But I don't recall any of the recent ones even mentioning live news or the NBC News Now feed. And as for Max and Paramount+, in both cases their email promotions are infrequent. And none of them in recent weeks have given even the slightest indication that live news might be streaming on the app.

ODDS AND SODS
* Lara Logan is a talented journalist. But after going down a conservative news rabbit hole, she's gone from working on 60 Minutes to being fired from NewsMax after stating during an interview segment that "the open border is Satan’s way of taking control of the world" and that the global elite "want us eating insects" while they "dine on the blood of children." She now has a new interview show streaming on Twitter/X and it is everything you might imagine.

* This month might be October everywhere else, but at AllYourScreens it is "Streaming Rocktober." Each day brings a review of another music documentary available for streaming. Today's choice is the Paramount+ doc Sometimes When We Touch: The Reign, Ruin & Resurrection Of Soft Rock. Much of the three-episode series is pretty lightweight, but it's worth watching for the real-life stories that inspired some of your favorite 1907s light rock hits. After hearing from Toni Tennille, I guarantee you'll never look at The Captain & Tennille the same way ever again.

* The 4K restoration of Snow White And The Seven Dwarves is coming to Disney+ on Monday, October 16th.

TWEET OF THE DAY

WHAT'S NEW TODAY AND TOMORROW:
MONDAY, OCTOBER 9TH:
* Basketball Wives Season Premiere (VH1)
* Basketball Wives: Orlando Series Premiere (VH1)
* Dead Mount Death Play [dubbed and subtitled] (Crunchyroll)
* Harry Wild (Acorn TV)
* Kawagoe Boys Sing Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
* Run The Burbs Season One Finale (The CW)
* Son Of A Critch Season One Finale (The CW)
* Stardust Telepath Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
* Stranded With My Mother-In-Law Series Premiere (Netflix)
* The Matthew Shepard Story: An American Hate Crime (Investigation Discovery)
* The Mill (Hulu)

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10TH:
* After-School Hanako-Kun [dubbed and subtitled] Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
* BET Hip Hop Awards (BET)
* Deadly Women Series Premiere (Viaplay)
* DI4RIES (Netflix)
* Farmtruck And AZN Down Under Series Premiere (Discovery)
* Last Man Standing (Netflix)
* LEGO Jurassic Park: The Unofficial Retelling (Peacock)
* Mr. Dressup: The Magic Of Make-Believe (Prime Video)
* No Accident (HBO)
* Painkiller: The Tylenol Murders (Paramount+)
* Press Your Luck Season Premiere (ABC)
* Street Outlaws vs The World Series Premiere (Discovery)
* The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs: Halloween (1978) Special (AMC/Shudder)
* Welcome To Rap City (BET)

Click Here to see the list of all of the upcoming premiere dates for the next few months.

SEE YOU TUESDAY!

If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.