Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Wednesday, March 17th, 2021

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Wednesday, March 17th, 2021. I'm writing this from the Twin Cities suburbs, where AllYourScreens HQ is powered by donut shop coffee and leftover hot and sour soup.

WILL NETFLIX EVER INCLUDE ADVERTISING?
Of all the topics I end up being asked about in interviews and on social media, the #1 question is whether or not Netflix will ever add advertising to its service.

Stock analysts in particular love this question, because they see advertising as free money laying on the ground ready to be picked up. Netflix is still losing money and plenty of streamers have an advertising-supported version of their service. So why not Netflix?

The simple answer is that at least for now, Netflix executives have repeatedly said that the idea of advertising is just not going to happen right now. And while they certainly could change their minds, I haven't seen (or heard) even the slightest indication that they are reconsidering their stance. But aside from that caveat, people arguing Netflix should include advertising are generally people who don't have a firm grasp on the challenges that would face Netflix if they moved in that direction.

One advantage Netflix has in this increasingly crowded streaming business is that its considered a "premium" service by many of its subscribers. Netflix isn't a streaming version of a broadcast network or an AVOD that you watch when you just want background noise. In the same way that HBO had a unique status in the pay-network business, Netflix is able to charge top dollar because of their perceived value and that includes no advertising. It seems impossible to imagine Netflix including advertising in their core service without destroying the DNA of what had made it a success.

So the next possibility would be to take the route of HBO Max or Peacock and develop a lower-cost, advertising-supported version of Netflix. Maybe it doesn't include the hottest new programs, but it does include advertising and a lower monthly subscription rate - say $6 a month. Great idea, huh?

Aside from some potential incremental revenue, what is the upside for Netflix? Netflix customers in the U.S. and other established territories have proven to be willing to accept higher monthly rates, even in the midst of economic hard times. So why give those customers an easy way to trade down to a cheaper version of the service? Netflix is already pushing up against the limits of how many potential new subscribers are left in its established territories, so it doesn't need an entry level option to lure new subscribers.

And it has the opposite problem in newer, growing territories. In some of the its emerging markets, Netflix is already facing pricing challenges and is offering subscriptions - some of them mobile only - for the U.S. equivalent of a few dollars per month. In that environment, there's no place for an even cheaper version of its service.

But I do think this is why you are seeing some talk about Netflix licensing some of it content to other streamers or traditional linear networks. It's a back door way of monetizing older content. But rather than doing it via a Netflix-branded AVOD, they can do it by syndicating their content to other services and letting them do the hard and dirty work of selling advertising against it.

I am not foolish enough to say that Netflix will never add advertising to is service. I am saying that it is about as unlikely as any move you can consider in the streaming world.

A MUST-READ INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN MAYER
CNBC's Alex Sherman has a fabulous interview with ex-Disney/Tik Tok executive Kevin Mayer. He's now at the sports streamer DAZN and his comments on that service are well worth reading. But Sherman does an excellent job of getting Mayer to answer some hard questions with candor and insight:

Why? Why did he leave earlier than he expected to?

That’s a question for Bob Iger, not for me.

That whole announcement seemed really rushed. Suddenly, he’s announcing ‘I’m going to step down effective immediately.’ He’d previously said he was expecting to step down this year, in 2021. I don’t know if it caught you off guard, but it sounds like it did.

I didn’t know that was coming at all. Look, my interpretation of it is that Bob Iger wanted to focus more on the creative side of things. He has a lot of affinity for that. And it just sort of escalated quickly. And he and the board of directors needed to make a call about who would be the next CEO.

What I’ve heard is I needed a little bit more seasoning. I’d only been in that role for a couple of years, in an operating role. Before that I was chief strategy officer and a staff role, even though I had a lot of people working for me around the world and all that stuff. And I think that the timing of his ascension to being executive chairman, coupled with the fact that Bob Chapek had a lot of experience....Bob Chapek is a good guy, by the way. He’d worked throughout all of the different areas of Disney. He was in the studio, he was running consumer products, had been running the theme parks. It’s not a bad choice. So I can’t....someone wins and someone loses in that situation. And given the timing of it and in the immediacy of it, I think that people felt that he was the safer pair of hands at the moment.

So that was the answer you were given? Simply that you needed a little more seasoning? Because people can go back and read it. I was public about it. I wrote at the time you should have gotten the CEO job because it only made sense to put the person who led the development of Disney+ in charge of the company. That was going to be the narrative to Wall Street, and it has been. And, that’s no knock on Bob Chapek.

Yeah, look, I don’t feel like I should be in the place of explaining this. You really should ask Bob Iger or others who made the a decision, not me. Did I want to be CEO? Of course I did. Who wouldn’t want to be CEO of the Walt Disney Company? It’s a great job.

It's just a great interview and Sherman's questions are a textbook example of how to frame issues in a way that extracts the most information from media-savvy executives.

TODAY'S PREMIERES
1) A Grammy Salute to the Sounds of Change (CBS)
The special will feature top contemporary artists, including Yolanda Adams, Leon Bridges with Terrace Martin, Eric Church, Andra Day, Cynthia Erivo, John Fogerty, Gayle King, Patti Labelle, Brad Paisley, Billy Porter, Leann Rimes, Chris Stapleton and more, performing songs that have seen us through the darkest hours and greatest triumphs of the 20th and 21st centuries. Notable performances include Gladys Knight singing Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On?” alongside Adam Blackstone, Shelia E., Israel Houghton and D Smoke, Erivo’s interpretation of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and Fogerty bringing his “Weeping in the Promised Land” and “Fortunate Son” to the stage.

2) Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal (Netflix)
An examination that goes beyond the celebrity-driven headlines and dives into the methods used by Rick Singer, the man at the center of the shocking 2019 college admissions scandal, to persuade his wealthy clients to cheat an educational system already designed to benefit the privileged. Using an innovative combination of interviews and narrative recreations of the FBI’s wiretapped conversations between Singer and his clients, Operation Varsity Blues offers a rare glimpse into the enigmatic figure behind a scheme that exposed the lengths wealthy families would go to for admission into elite colleges, and angered a nation already grappling with the effects of widespread inequality.

3) The Pole/The Summoner Series Premiere (Syfy)
After a scandal involving “Saint” Nick (Bobby Moynihan) rocks the holly jolly foundations of the North Pole, all hell breaks loose as the future of Christmas turns into a twisted power struggle for the Red Suit. As Nick, the 20th to wear the Suit, struggles with the age-old question of naughty vs. nice, his wife Mrs. Claus, aka Gretchen (Jillian Bell), works to keep the political machine (toy production) afloat. It isn’t easy as they juggle the factory elves, including Nick’s head elf Matilda (Nicole Byer) and political activist Helenor (Sasheer Zamata), as well as parenting two sons – Nick’s mini-me Harry (Sungwon Cho) and the crown prince, Jack (Timothy Simons), who’s not only next in line for the Suit, but also looking to rebrand it. Reporting on all the drama at the Pole? Cocoa (Colin Jost), host of “Morning Cocoa,” the North Pole news program.

4) Under Suspicion: Uncovering The Wesphael Case (Netflix)
This docuseries follows the high-profile case of Belgian politician Bernard Wesphael, who was accused of murdering his wife in 2013.

This newsletter is called "Too Much TV" because....well, it's hard to keep track of all the new television premiering everyday. To help you prioritize your viewing, click here to see our list of more than 400 upcoming television premieres, movies and finales. You'll find listings from more than 70 networks, as well as streaming services and web shows.

I'll be back with another one tomorrow. If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.