Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Monday, October 31st, 2022

Peacock makes a move I don't hate.

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Monday, October 31st, 2022.

PEACOCK TO ADD HALLMARK CHANNELS, ON-DEMAND PROGRAMMING
A couple of weeks ago I offered up a few suggestions of what I would do if I ran Peacock and one of my suggestions was that Peacock should not worry about swinging for the fences and should instead focus on over-serving nichier audiences as a way to make itself a go-to choice for a collection of audiences:

The biggest challenge for Peacock is that it doesn't feel like a service most people "have" to commit to with a paid subscription. Sports is fine and it is moving the needle a bit on the the subscription acquisition and churn fronts. But sports isn't just expensive. You're also paying for content that you don't own. And because it's so expensive, a lot of the rights are scattered across multiple streaming services and networks. If a streaming service has to send out an email every week to remind subscribers which game they'll be able to watch, the value of that game on subscriber growth is limited.

So it comes down to targeting niche audiences and overserving them new stuff. There isn't some magic content wand that Peacock can wave which will turn things around. Even one massive hit that dominates the pop culture zeitgeist won't be enough. It's not sexy, but the best medium-term solution is to pick groups of viewers who are engaged in their specific niche and create content engaging enough that they'll subscribe to the premium service just to see their favorite stuff.

Today the streamer made a move I would describe as right in that "over-serving the niche" lane. Peacock announced that it is launching a Hallmark hub, which will include live streams of three Hallmark channels, along with next-day availability of original Hallmark movies and series. There will also be a large selection of Hallmark content available on-demand.

There is a lot to like about this idea. This is a type of content that Peacock doesn't currently offer for the most part. Even better, rival Hulu doesn't include any of the Hallmark networks in either its Live TV package or on-demand. 

The three live linear streams are an interesting twist. Back when Comcast was trying to figure out what Peacock would be, I reported that one idea had been to create a hub of Comcast-owned linear network live feeds. Essentially offering customers a cord-cutting alternative. At the time, I was told the main hang-up was that the company could only make it work contractually if it licensed the channels to Peacock at the same rate they offered it to competitors. Every carriage deal for the last twenty years has included a "favored nations" clause and being forced to carry every NBCU-owned network and pay the going rate would have added somewhere around $7 a month to the cost of a Peacock subscription. 

The idea was eventually tabled, in part because it felt to executives as a move likely to blow up what is left of the traditional linear TV universe. But by adding the three Hallmark Channels live feeds, it does open up the door for some other options.

It's not clear what the cost of this deal is for Peacock, although whatever it is it's going to increase losses at the streamer in the short-term. But it's an aggressive and unexpected move.

As for Hallmark Media, the company has been pretty aggressive about licensing its content and live feeds to anyone who will pay the price. It's Hallmark Channels are a core part of mini-vMVPDs such as Philo and Frndly and those networks are some of the few channels that still have solid branding with viewers.

I'll have more on what the hub looks like in Wednesday's newsletter, once it launches.

TWEET OF THE DAY

COMING THIS WEEK ON ALLYOURSCREENS
Here is a rundown of this week's planned reviews. Titles marked with a * indicate that I had a screener ahead of time and the review will we posted ahead of the premiere (depending on any embargo). Unmarked titles generally get reviewed with 24-48 hours.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1ST:
* God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down A Dynasty (Hulu)
* Meeting Mr. Christmas (Chicken Soup For The Soul) - [first look video]Missile From The East (Popcornflix)
The Takeover (Netflix)

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2ND:
* Killer Sally (Netflix)
The Independent Series Premiere (Peacock)

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3RD:
* Blockbuster Series Premiere (Netflix) - also: cast and creator interviews
Bose (Paramount+)
* Hip Hop Homicides Series Premiere (WE tv)
* Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty (HBO Max)
Mountain Men: Ultimate Marksmen Series Premiere (History)
The Suspect Series Premiere (Sundance Now)
* Titans Season Premiere (HBO Max)
Tut's Lost City Revealed (Discovery+)

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4TH, 2022:
Causeway (Apple TV+)
* Enola Holmes 2 (Netflix)
* Lopez Vs. Lopez Season Premiere (NBC)
* Manifest Season Four Premiere (Netflix) - also: Q&A with creator Jeff Rake
Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me (Apple TV+)
* The Mosquito Coast Series Premiere (Apple TV+)
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (The Roku Channel)
* Young Rock Season Premiere (NBC)

ODDS AND SODS
* Yahya Abdul-Mateen II will star as Wonder Man in a Disney+ series

* Olivia Wilde's Don't Worry Darling will make its streaming debut on HBO Max on Monday, November 7th.

* Peacock has given the greenlight to a Friday The 13th prequel series from A24, which will be helmed by Bryan Fuller.

* Season 2 of the Showtime legal thriller Your Honor starring Bryan Cranston will now premiere Sunday, January 15th, the network announced on Monday. That’s more than a month later than the original premiere date, which was slated for December 11th.

* Morgan Freeman is in talks to reprise his role from the movie Lucy in a spin-off TV series of the 2014 film.

WHAT'S NEW FOR MONDAY:

Here's a quick rundown of all the new stuff premiering today on TV and streaming:

Inside Man (Netflix)
Love & Hip Hop: Where Are They Now? (VH1)
The Haunted Museum: 3 Ring Inferno (Travel)
The 13 Scariest Movies Of All-Time (The CW)
Top Class: The Life And Times Of The Sierra Canyon Trailblazers (Freevee)
World's Funniest Animals: Halloween (The CW)

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.