Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Wednesday, November 20th, 2024

When it comes to original content spending, size matters

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Wednesday, November 20th, 2024:

WHEN IT COMES TO ORIGINAL CONTENT SPENDING, SIZE MATTERS
I suspect that on some level, every top streaming executive knows that the ideal streaming business model is to have a lot of original content. Study after study of consumer behavior has shown that the most important factor in lessening subscriber churn and lowering the cost of new subscriber acquisition is whether or not users feel as if there is always something new they can watch.

But as I have mentioned before, streaming spending is a zero sum calculation. Every streamer starts with a budget and every bit of their programming costs come out of that. So the more a streamer spends on live sports or licensing, the less is available for original content.

And because executives realize this, when they don't have a lot of money to spend on originals, they claim they are focusing on making "fewer projects, but better ones." A claim that…