Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Friday, June 16th, 2023

The global impact of the WGA Strike

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Friday, June 16th, 2023.

WELCOME
I want to say hello to the large number of new subscribers I picked up today after an WGA member ran across my interview from a couple of weeks ago with an Apple TV+ executive. They shared it on social media and as a result there has been a non-stop wave of traffic to the web site as well as an unusual uptick in subscribers. 

I hope you stick around, I think you'll find I provide a distinctive take on the industry that you won't fine elsewhere. As an fyi, the Friday edition of the newsletter tends to be a bit shorter. Because we're talking about Hollywood in the summer and even without a strike not much happens after Noon on Friday.

THE IMPACT OF THE WGA STRIKE OVERSEAS
One of the parts of the Apple TV+ interview that popped out at readers today was the discussion about global productions and the fear from the studio side that other emerging markets that currently have much lower pay scales would see whatever gains the WGA is able to extract as a goal for their country:

I think the global aspects of the industry's cost structure have been very much underappreciated in Hollywood, particularly in the press coverage of the WGA strike. It makes sense that American-based trades would focus on the American-based unions. But all of the streamers have a global production component - albeit some more than others. It's a huge issue for Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, although it's also a potential problem for Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney. Although in both of those cases, the companies have already begun cutting back production in some territories that have a higher cost structure.

The nightmare for studios is that unions would begin to coordinate across borders, working to raise pay for all workers and make it more difficult a studio can shop for the lowest cost production assets. The industry is a long way from that future, but you can begin to see the first baby steps in that direction, with writer's unions across the globe offering up their support for the WGA.

I've been trying to put together a comprehensive look at the contractual obligations and governmental mandates in each country and it is surprisingly difficult to collect the data. I know that I have a large number of global readers, so if you're involved in the production process outside the U.S., please reach out and fill me in on your experience. You can email me at rick@allyourscreens.com or reply directly to this newsletter.

THE CHALLENGES OF CONTENT DISCOVERY
Inside app content discovery would seem like a problem that is relatively easy to solve. You're dealing with a known amount of data and if you have a half decent UI and accurate metadata, a streaming app should be able to consistently offer up new episodes of shows subscribers have watched before. Along with related titles which might be of interest.

But as I've written about in the past, it's never that easy. Aside from the tech stack problems at some streaming services, every content suggestion ends up being a war over conflicting priorities. Amazon has a famously bad user experience and part of that is due to the fact that Amazon really wants subscribers to rent/purchase movies and subscribe to apps through Amazon Channels. So those priorities are weighed heavier than things such as "what titles are similar to ones I've watched before?"

Vulture's Joe Adalian tweeted out a long thread today about his efforts to find the new episode of The Other Two on Max:

The entire thread is too long to include here, but you should check it out because it nicely lays out the convoluted process it took for him to find the show. And yes, you could just search for the show by its title. But while that might have worked in Joe's case for this show, the bigger problem is that in many cases subscribers don't realize/remember there is a new episode of a show they've watched before. Much less that a new season has begun.

There was a lot of effort put into rebuilding the tech stack for Max and one of the primary goals was to make content discovery easier for subscribers. While Max doesn't have some of the user experience problems that plagued HBO Max, the new app seems to have its own issues and I suspect some of it is related to the efforts to integrate content from Discovery+ and its related linear networks.

Because so many unscripted titles have been added to Max's library, there seems to be an effort to highlight them in the app in order to make them easy to find and subtly convince Discovery+ subscribers that all they need is Max. The problem is that a sizeable percentage of subscribers who originally joined HBO Max aren't necessarily interested in those unscripted programs and at some point it feels as if the shows are being pushed on them.

There is also just the reality that there are a limited number of new scripted shows each week and I suspect there's a fear that focusing primarily on those programs will mean the Max promo carousels won't feel fresh and current. At the same time, it's not clear to me what the theory was behind expending so much valuable promo space on weeks of promoting one-off specials like Bama Rush. 

The bare minimum for any major streamer's consumer-facing interface should be to make it easy to find a) what you just stopped watching, b) the newest episode of shows you've watched before (and by watched, maybe at least two previous episodes?), and c) highlight new titles, focusing on genres you've watched before.

It sounds so simple. And yet I am sure that your favorite streamer likely struggles with at least one or more of these tasks.

TWEET OF THE DAY

WHAT'S NEW FOR THIS WEEKEND:
SATURDAY, JUNE 17TH:
* Exposing Parchman (A&E)
* Extraordinary Birder With Christian Cooper Series Premiere (NatGeo Wild)
* John Early: Now More Than Ever (HBO)
* King The Land (Netflix)
* Mary J. Blige's Strength Of A Woman (Lifetime)
* See You In My 19th Life (Netflix)
* Strength Of A Woman (Lifetime)
* The Wedding Contract (Hallmark)

SUNDAY, JUNE 18TH:
* Beachside Brawl Season Premiere (Food)
* 1883 Series Premiere (Paramount+)
* Endeavour On Masterpiece (PBS)
* FAST: Home Rescue Season Premiere (Weather Channel)
* Fear The Walking Dead Season 8A Finale (AMC)
* Guns N' Roses: America's Most Dangerous Band (Reelz)
* Haunted By My Stalker (Lifetime)
* Ridley (PBS)
* Search Party With Brandon Johnson Series Premiere (Weather Channel)
* The Great Food Truck Race Season Premiere (Food)
* The Righteous Gemstones Season Three Premiere (HBO)
* The Secret Sauce (UP tv)
* The Walking Dead: Dead City Series Premiere (AMC)

MONDAY, JUNE 19TH, 2023:
* Black Pop: Celebrating the Power of Black Culture (E!)
* City Of Vice (Acorn TV)
* Hip-Hop @ 50: Rhythms, Rhymes & Reflections - A Soul Of A Nation Presentation (ABC)
* Juneteenth: A Global Celebration For Freedom (CNN/OWN)
* Not Quite Narwhal Series Premiere (Netflix)
* One Star Reviews Series Premiere (Vice)
* Street Outlaws: Mega Cash Days Series Premiere (Discovery)
* Summer Solstice (Acorn TV)
* Take Care Of Maya (Netflix)
* The Great American Recipe Season Two Premiere (PBS)
* Xernona Clayton: A Life In Black And White (Bounce)
* You Are Here Series Premiere (AMC)

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

SEE YOU FRIDAY!

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