Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Wednesday, April 19th, 2023

Keep it classy, Warner Bros. Discovery

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Wednesday, April 19th, 2023.

THE OTHER SHOE DROPS IN THE 'WOKE DISNEY' CULTURE WAR
I wrote earlier this week that if Disney wanted to play hardball with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the company could pull a trick out of the Amazon playbook and make public noise about possibly searching for a site outside Florida for a new amusement park. Even if the company had no interest in following through.

Apparently I am not the only person who was thinking along those lines, since a state legislator in North Carolina has just proposed a bill that would launch a panel that would be tasked with coming up with a plan to encourage the Walt Disney Company to move its Florida-based parks to North Carolina:

Now do I think this has the slightest chance of persuading Disney? No. But the discussion helps the company in its public relations battle with Florida. And it is the type of thing the company needs to do in order to protect itself. As I have been writing for months, entertainment companies can't sit out the culture wars. Critics won't go away and any concession you give in hopes of buying them off will only encourage them to press harder for more.

REDBOX OWNER WOULD LIKE TO BUY NETFLIX'S DVD BUSINESS
In yesterday's newsletter, I mentioned that I thought Netflix soon-to-be extinct DVD rental business still had some financial viability and could be a continued moneymaker in the right hands. And apparently I am not the only person who thinks this.

In an interview today with The Hollywood Reporter's Alex Weprin, Bill Rouhana, the CEO of Redbox owner Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment says that he wants to buy the business from Netflix:

And Rouhana says he has reached out to Netflix over the years expressing a desire to acquire the DVD business, to no avail.

“I have tried like three or four times to reach out to the corporate development people about it but just got rebuffed each time,” Rouhana says. “So when I saw it being closed, I thought, ‘Well, maybe they’ll do it now.'”

Netflix apparently still has no interest in selling the business and isn't sure what will happen to the collection of DVD discs once the service shuts down in September. But even without the Netflix DVD business, Rouhana seems fairly bullish about the future of the DVD business:

Even if that is the case, Rouhana says he believes Netflix’s decision to shutter the service will benefit his company. “This could be a great boon to us because now there are a whole bunch of people who are going to look for a new place to get their DVDs, and we’re close to 90 percent of them based on where our kiosks are located,” he says.

Netflix not selling off the DVD business might seem like a bad business decision at first glance. But aside from the fact that we're not talking about a billion dollar valuation, I suspect the worst fear of Netflix executives is that someone else would acquire the business and return it to viability. Prompting a lot of uncomfortable press in the future as the company is reminded they walked away from a business that continues to be profitable.

WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY WANTS TO BE IN THE KIDS BUSINESS AGAIN. NO, REALLY
I had planned on pointing out this piece yesterday, but the news of the day pushed it completely off the list. Rereading the piece today didn't make me any happier, so let's try this again...

It is difficult to get top streaming executives to sit down for an interview, or even offer up a few relevant comments to help with a story. And to complicate matters, the interviews can also come with pre-set guidelines for the interview, which dictate what topics the executive will or won't discuss. Still, there are few things that annoy me as much as a piece that allows a company and/or its executives to frame a story in precisely the way they want to see it framed. Yes, the reporter has gotten some access, but at what cost?

Yesterday, the L.A Times "Company Town" reporter Ryan Faughnder posted "Kids Weren't Watching HBO Max, Scooby Doo Is On The Case." The piece mirrors the argument that has been made by Warner Bros. Discovery executives since they recently launched the "new" streaming service Max: the company is serious about kids programming and it will be a core part of the upcoming service. 

The piece spends a lot of time blaming the low engagement with children's programming on the HBO name, which they argue confused subscribers:

The HBO brand — known for prestigious, grown-up, violent, sexy fare — was a deterrent to parents, they said.

Children’s programming isn’t totally alien to HBO, which has carried “Sesame Street” for years. In fact, HBO was the home of Jim Henson’s ‘80’s puppet comedy show “Fraggle Rock,” revived for the streaming wars by early-HBO-aping Apple TV+. Still, it’s never been the pay-TV network’s forte.

So what do you do? To borrow a lesson from the Stringer Bell School of Business and Management, you change up the name.

“If your storefront says in bright big lights, ‘best content in the world for adults,’ it’s just not a welcome mat for kids,” said JB Perrette, Warner Bros. Discovery’s chief executive and president of global streaming and games, in an interview.

After a lot of preambles, the piece does acknowledge that maybe the HBO name wasn't the *only* deterrent to kids. The overall terrible HBO Max UX might have some *slight* influence on the unhappiness of subscribers:

Sure, users could create a password-protected kids’ profile with parental controls that would take users to the shows meant for young-ins (call it HBO Jr.). But on the main user interface, the kids’ material was buried in subsections and tabs that required a combination of clicks and much scrolling before seeing a scrap of “Scooby-Doo.”

The new Max app promises to display family-focused programming much more proudly in its layout so that kids and parents can find their next show to watch without going to the search bar.

“We wanted to make it much more pronounced — much more explicit and overt — that there’s great kids content here,” Perrette said.

Great, the Max app will be a better experience. Which really would have likely happened regardless. So if WBD is planning to prioritize kids programming on Max, then that must mean lots of new kids programming. Especially after the company had previously shut down a number of planned animation projects set for HBO Max and executives such as Perrette repeatedly described animation as "not being a priority for the company." Actually, no:

Warner Bros. Discovery’s content purge last year included the cancellation of multiple children’s series, including “The Not-Too-Late Show With Elmo” and “Summer Camp Island,” as the company looked to streamline its offering and save money. Many classic “Sesame Street” episodes were removed from the service as well.

For the short term, Max’s strategy is to boost its family viewership with its existing lineup and library, before using viewership data to decide whether to invest more in shows for younger viewers, be they preschoolers, 6- to 10-year-olds or tweens.

So the high-level focus on children's programming for Max really just gets down to "kids might like it a bit more because the app won't suck?" Not exactly the branding campaign I would have chosen.

And btw, I love how once again, Perrette doesn't pass up the chance to talk a bit more smack about the previous Warner Media management:

That approach is meant to correct for the company’s previous structure under which, as Perrette describes it, the teams in charge of kids programming were “completely disconnected” from the streaming service.

“Neither Casey nor anybody on that team on HBO Max had any insights into what was being produced,” Perrette said. “And so that is, like, criminal, frankly.”

Keep it classy, Perrette.

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ODDS AND SODS
* ABC has renewed The Good Doctor for a seventh season.

* The entertainment-centric vMVPD Philo has added the USA Today Channel to its base package.

* On Friday, Buffalo Bills players Dion Dawkins, Jordan Poyer, Tim Settle Jr., and Tyler Matakevich will be competing against each other for charity in the celebrity pro-am cornhole tournament, the Johnsonville SuperHole IV. The event will be broadcast live from Topeka, KS on ESPN2 at 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT).

TWEET OF THE DAY

WHAT'S NEW FOR WEDNESDAY:

Algiers, America: The Relentless Pursuit (Hulu)
Changing Planet (PBS)
Chimp Empire (Netflix)
Dr. Lawyer Series Premiere (Hulu)
Food Truck Prize Fight (Food)
Home In A Heartbeat Series Premiere (HGTV)
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once And Always (Netflix)
Pretty Stoned (MTV)
Sacrificial Princess And The King Of Beasts (Crunchyroll)
The Marked Heart (Palpito) (Netflix)


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

SEE YOU THURSDAY!

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