Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Thursday, April 6th, 2023

Entertainment industry reporters in the age of streaming

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Thursday, April 6th, 2023.

ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY REPORTERS IN THE AGE OF STREAMING
There are many days when I look back and think how sweet it must have been to be writing about the business of television in the golden days of broadcast TV. The overriding metric for success was ratings and those were publicly distributed numbers. Sure, it wasn't *quite* that simple. You had to factor in production costs and upfront sales and a few other pieces of data. But generally speaking, it was pretty easy to determine what was a hit and what wasn't. That didn't mean a successful series might not end for some weirdly random reason. But it was a much simpler world.

One of the most common complaints you hear from people in the entertainment industry in 2023 is that streamers aren't sharing enough data. Studios, showrunners and stars have only the vaguest idea of how many people are watching their shows. And, they argue, "how can we determine our value if we don't know how many people are watching?"

But the problem isn't that there isn't any data available or even that it should be shared with more people. The challenge is that the streaming business considers so many factors besides raw viewing numbers that just knowing how many people watched your series is of limited value.

For instance, I was talking today with someone at a studio and they are intimately involved in the data analysis surrounding a drama which had moved from a linear TV home to streaming only. They walked me through some of the data they track in order to determine the show's "success" and even after a 20-minute explanation, I'm left with more questions than answers. The easiest way to describe it (especially since I can't share many details) is that there are all of pieces of data - how many watched the episode, the demos, completion rates and whether they were regular viewers of the show - along with numbers that tracked ad revenue estimates for the episode and a half dozen or so other financial metrics.

All the data goes into a proprietary piece of software (imagine a big TV industry Excel spreadsheet) and what comes out at the end is an estimate of the episode's value. In a range of timeframes. Analysts can then tweak the input numbers to see if the financials change. Will more people watch if the streamer drops two episodes a week instead of one? Did a new marketing campaign appear to have any impact on viewer numbers and engagement? It's not foolproof and in many cases, "estimate" is a kind way of describing the process. But it's generally more accurate the more it's used, so this type of number crunching is becoming the norm.

All of this just scratches the surface and it's the reason why the "how many people watched my show?" question is almost beside the point. To determine the value of a show, you have to have some grasp of what the priorities are for the streamer. Do they want the show to increase engagement with current subscribers? Bring in new viewers? Unless you know those things, you're basically operating in a vacuum. Which is why so many people inside the entertainment industry are frustrated right now. They know they're in a battle, but they have no idea what will be required to win. Sometimes, they're not even sure what weapons they should be using.

As an example, in the case of this unnamed drama, the one data point that jumped out was that while the number of people watching was just hitting the early estimates, what made the show a success for the streamer was the behavior of the viewers. A significant number of viewers of the show increased their visits to the streamer from 1-2 time per month on average to 5-6 times. And even better, the viewers in that particular behavior pod were not just coming back every week to watch a new episode. They were watching more programming overall. That engagement has a value and while that value is a rough estimate, it’s one that can be quantified enough to factor into the “is this show a success?” internal discussion.

It's unlikely anyone on the production side of the show knows how much those data points matter to the streamer. So even if they wanted to tweak the series to improve it, they don't have any context about what is really going on with their show.

A lot of streaming industry reporters face a similar challenge. The success matrix of the streaming industry is opaque, even to a lot of people working in it. Most reporters don't have the time to spend days digging up sources. And in order to provide an in-depth analysis, you need access to data which the streamers aren't sharing and third-party data firms consider proprietary. The result is a lot of stories that don't require a lot of context. i.e. "Is Comcast going to buy Warner Bros. Discovery?"

There is so much about this industry that remains a mystery to me, although I'll modestly argue I understand better than a lot of reporters. But as I mentioned to someone today, after years of talking with people, I mostly just know what I don't know.

Which isn't frustrating at all.

TWEET OF THE DAY

ODDS AND SODS
* Three international matchmakers put their skills to the test by helping seven Americans who are looking to find love only abroad in the new TLC series Match Me Abroad. Given that one of the seven is a 41-year-old who recently moved out of his parent's house and another is a 25-year-old with three failed engagements, I don't think their problem lies with the potential dating pool in the U.S.

* I posted another Voices Of The WGA piece, this one a video from veteran writer and producer Bill Wolkoff (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, 

* Here are some video looks at the upcoming Apple TV+ documentary Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie and the Apple TV+ series Silo, which both premiere in May. And The Gentle Art Of Swedish Death Cleaning premieres April 27th on Peacock.

* The new season of Mama June: Family Crisis will premiere Friday, May 5th on WE tv.

WHAT'S NEW FOR THURSDAY

Beef Series Premiere (Netflix)
Bridgend (Topic)
Celebrity Game Face Season Four Premiere (E!)
Celebrity Prank Wars Series Premiere (E!)
Dr. Stone: New World (Crunchyroll)
Ghost Hunters Season Premiere (Travel)
Grease: Rise Of The Pink Ladies Series Premiere (Paramount+)
I Got a Cheat Skill In Another World And Became Unrivaled In The Real World, Too (Crunchyroll)
IRL: In Real Life Series Premiere (Netflix)
Jeremy Renner: The Diane Sawyer Interview (ABC)
Lizzy Hoo: Hoo Cares!? (Prime Video)
Looney Tunes Cartoons (HBO Max)
Murder At Blackthorne Manor (LMN)
Slasher: Ripper (Shudder)
The Ancient Magus' Bride (Crunchyroll)
The Legendary Hero Is Dead (Crunchyroll)
Wild West Chronicles Season Three Premiere (INSP)
Yuri Is My Job! (Crunchyroll)

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.