Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Monday, December 19th, 202

It's the end of the year. Which means streaming execs are out doing their year-end spin in the trades.

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Monday, December 19th, 2022.

PEACOCK ADJUSTS ITS PROGRAMMING STRATEGY
I think it's fair to say that Peacock is still struggling to find its place in the streaming world. The Comcast-owned service has added a bunch of live sports programming, ranging from soccer to the WWE. As well a recent deal to stream live feeds of the three primary Hallmark channels.

But it continues to struggle with its original content and while some of the shows have received a bit of buzz, the service has yet to have a break-out hit.

According to this long piece in Deadline from Nellie Andreeva, the streamer is focusing the bulk of its original content efforts moving forward on scripted dramas, reality TV and true crime documentaries:

Some of the projects under that strategy shift, which NBCU executives have been presenting to the agency community, include horror thriller from Ian McCulloch and genre film master James Wan and dating reality series Queen’s Court starring Tamar Braxton, Evelyn Lozada and Nivea, both of which have been picked up to series, as well as true crime docu series World’s Most Notorious Killers and Myth of the Zodiac Killer, which have been set for development.

After an early push in original comedy series, which didn’t get much traction, Peacock is shifting the balance with about 2/3 drama and 1/3 comedy development for next year but remains committed to comedy on the heels of the success of Pitch Perfect: Bumper In Berlin, which I hear is closing in on a Season 2 renewal.

In the true crime arena, Peacock is developing World’s Most Notorious Killers and Myth of the Zodiac Killer.

World’s Most Notorious Killers is an anthological series that dives into shocking crimes that have taken place around the globe. Its first six-episode installment, produced by UK’s ITN, will focus on the notorious British “Bonnie and Clyde,” Fred and Rose West, who went on a multi-year crime killing spree in the UK.

Myth of the Zodiac Killer is asking the question, what if the reason the Zodiac killer has never been caught… is because he never existed in the first place?

The series is produced by Texas Crew Productions and Pyramid Productions, with Brad Bernstein, Andrew Nock, Ann Paterno, Cynthia Childs, and David Karabinas executive producing for Texas Crew and James Buddy Day for Pyramid.

Peacock also has coming up competition reality series The Traitors hosted by Alan Cumming and The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning from Amy Poehler as part of her long-standing relationship with NBCUniversal.

There's a lot here and it's impossible to know how much of this programming will resonate with viewers. I am still not convinced that Peacock's reliance on familiar IP has been a successful strategy. But they certainly have some impressive original dramas on the way.

AMC'S STRUGGLES WITH STREAMING
Benjamin Mullin at the NY Times takes a look at the streaming business of AMC Networks and it's painted as not a pretty sight. And that framing comes in large part from company chairman James Dolan, who is unhappy that streaming can't provide the margins his company is accustomed to seeing from its linear business:

Though AMC Networks doesn’t tell investors how much of its profit comes from traditional television, the media analyst firm MoffettNathanson has estimated that about 30 percent of the company’s roughly $3 billion in revenue last year came from fees paid by traditional TV distributors, including cable and satellite companies. About 12 percent came from the fast-growing streaming business, according to MoffettNathanson, with advertising, content licensing and other businesses making up the rest.

Traditional TV advertising is waning, too: In November, AMC Networks reported that its third-quarter U.S. advertising revenue was about $180 million, a drop of about 9.9 percent compared to the same period last year. It attributed the decline to a variety of factors, including lower ratings. AMC+, which costs $8.99 a month for a subscription, does not run ads.

Dolan's comments are being seen as proof that AMC Networks isn't large enough to compete in the streaming world. But from what I can tell from the company's financials, the problem has less to do with the financial viability of the streamers and more about Dolan's unhappiness with their smaller margins when compared to the linear networks.

As I have mentioned before, the sooner the various media company executives and their investors come to terms with streaming's smaller margins, the sooner they can begin to restructure their business to the new reality. Streaming doesn't have the margins of the linear TV world. But to be honest, no other business does. 

WHAT QUALIFIES AS AN AMAZON PRIME VIDEO 'VIEWER?'
Executives from the various major streamers are making the rounds of the Hollywood Trades, giving their best spin for the New Year.

Today, Head of Global TV for Amazon Studios Vernon Sanders spoke to Deadline and passed along some viewing numbers for LOTR: Rings Of Power, which might (or might not) be impressive. If only we had some context in which to put the numbers:

He addresses the success of the show on Prime Video — where it broke records for most global viewers in its first day (25 million) and overall (more than 100 million), for minutes streamed (24 billion) and signups worldwide during its launch window, attracted younger viewers (record number of adults 18-34 for a Prime Video original) and affluent audiences (40% coming from households with income greater than $100,000) — and beyond, boosting Amazon’s sales of J.R.R. Tolkien books on which the series was based.

I have many questions about these numbers, including how the company attributes increased sign-ups to a specific show, especially when you're talking about a service that is bundled with so many other products.

ODDS AND SODS
* Hailing a cab in Duluth. Eating snow fallen next to a city street. Portraying the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs as a perpetually-losing hockey team. These are just a few of the headscratchers that make a strange trip out of Merry Kiss Cam, a new rom-com on Hulu that was filmed and set in Duluth, MN.

* There is nothing more on-brand for Discovery+ than having a special called January 6 premiere on January 5th.

TWEET OF THE DAY

WHAT'S NEW FOR MONDAY:

Deadliest Mums & Dads (Discovery+)
Holiday Baking Championship Season Finale (Food)
LEGO Masters: Celebrity Holiday Bricktacular (Fox)
Santa Claus: The Series (Hulu)
Trolley (Netflix)
The Wheel Series Premiere (NBC)

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

SEE YOU MONDAY!

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