Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Wednesday, January 26th, 2022

Is some version of "channels" coming to Netflix?

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Wednesday, January 26th, 2022. 

NETFLIX CONSIDERS ADDING CHANNELS (AGAIN)
One consequence of writing a lot about streaming service UX is that I've developed sources at most of the major streaming services. Engineers love to shop and I've learned a lot about the process of developing and testing platforms by speaking with them on a regular basis.

As you might imagine, a lot of testing goes on and much of it never makes it to the consumer-facing version of the service. Priorities change, people gain and lose faith in new ideas. More often than not, when someone shows me something new, it will never make it to the public release. That is especially the case at Netflix, which seems to devote a lot of resources to testing features that never quite make it to the public. That's not a criticism, by the way. One reason why Netflix's interface is rock solid is that they don't do things impulsively. The Netflix UX might not be flashy, but it works flawlessly.

I've been told by several sources at Netflix the company is once again considering the addition of some version of the "channels" feature to its service, although it's far from clear what that might look like and when it might happen.

Here's what I do know. This is an idea that has been bouncing around in product development circles at Netflix for several years and a couple of different iterations have been developed and discarded. The idea makes a lot of sense from a business standpoint. Consumers are more comfortable with the channels concept, both on AVOD services and on streaming services. Like everything else on Netflix, the channels would not include ads. Instead, they would be used to increase customer engagement and provide another way for content discovery. Most of the proposals seem to focus on genre-centric channels as opposed to show specific. So you would be much more likely to see channels for Comedy, Food or specific countries than ones for Seinfeld or NCIS.

As I said, this idea has been considered in the past and put to the side. In part, because adding them opens up a lot of complicated questions. How do you best integrate them into the platform? Do they make as much sense in territories where mobile is a large piece of the customer base? How many channels do you offer at launch and do you need to swap them out regularly to cut down on tuneout? For that matter, what do you even call the idea? Early testing by Netflix seemed to show that subscribers were confused by the "channels" name, but recently tests seem to show subscribers are now  more familiar with the concept. Still, no one inside Netflix seems to like the name. But no alternative seems to have reached the consensus level.

The last time Netflix seriously considered the idea of a channel-like product, they ended up with the "Play Something" feature, which randomly plays content based on a subscribers previous viewing habits. This piece by Joe Adalian in Vulture is a great look at the evolution of that idea. But that so-called channels idea persists and remains on the Netflix "to-do" list.

I reached out to Netflix through official contacts hoping to get some sort of comment about whether or not channels (or some variation) were set to roll out across the service and didn't get a response. After speaking to multiple sources on background, it seems clear that channels are seriously being considered again. But that's just about as much clarity as I have at this point.

It's also worth noting that there is a Chrome extension created by an outside developer that creates "channels" of your favorite shows on Netflix. I'll have a deeper look at that later this week.

IS OLD MUSIC KILLING NEW MUSIC?
This piece by Ted Giola in Atlantic has received a lot of attention, because it deals with an uncomfortable reality for the music business in 2022: catalog music is MUCH more popular than current releases:

The 200 most popular new tracks now regularly account for less than 5 percent of total streams. That rate was twice as high just three years ago. The mix of songs actually purchased by consumers is even more tilted toward older music. The current list of most-downloaded tracks on iTunes is filled with the names of bands from the previous century, such as Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Police.

I encountered this phenomenon myself recently at a retail store, where the youngster at the cash register was singing along with Sting on “Message in a Bottle” (a hit from 1979) as it blasted on the radio. A few days earlier, I had a similar experience at a local diner, where the entire staff was under 30 but every song was more than 40 years old. I asked my server: “Why are you playing this old music?” She looked at me in surprise before answering: “Oh, I like these songs.”

Never before in history have new tracks attained hit status while generating so little cultural impact. In fact, the audience seems to be embracing the hits of decades past instead. Success was always short-lived in the music business, but now even new songs that become bona fide hits can pass unnoticed by much of the population.

The piece attempts to answer the question about why this is the case. But it dodges a couple of the obvious reasons. 

First, while all music is subjective, I think it's fair to say that the way most hit music is created in 2022 almost ensures it will be disposable. Hit singles have ten or twelve names on the credits and there are lots of people who make a living doing nothing but creating some very specific part of songs. The fact musicians can make a good living doing nothing by writing the hooks for songs means that you end up with a lot of music that sounds the same. Whether you're talking hip-hop or electro pop, so much of the music is indistinguishable from everything else. And when music matters less, listeners become fans of the face of the star, not the song itself.

The second problem is more complex, but it also offers up a warning to the streaming and television world. 

Beginning in the early 1980s, the music industry began a rapid label consolidation. Despite the existence of a handful of large labels, a major portion of the music industry was still controlled by medium and small labels. In the pre-radio consolidation era, it was possible for a very small label to sign some local group for peanuts and get enough radio airplay to create at least a regional hit. If the song became popular enough, it might be picked up by a larger label and promoted nationally. But the lions share of the artist development costs was spread across a large number of labels and companies. 

Music industry consolidation was built around the premise that if the larger labels controlled more of the business, they could use market efficiencies to do things cheaper. Controlling all parts of the product pipeline meant a more predictable flow of product at a fixed cost. And as the radio industry underwent its own massive consolidation in the late 1990s, labels could deal directly with the big radio groups, which in theory made record promotion cheaper and more efficient.

Spoiler: that didn't happen. It now costs more than $1 million in marketing costs to launch the average hit single. Because while there are fewer radio groups to deal with, the ones that remain have a near-monopoly and price access accordingly. And as you might have predicted, fewer independent labels with national ambitions means the music that does make it through the major label semi-monopoly are the most predictable and safe choices. All you have to do is listen to some of the crazy songs that became hits in the 70s and 80s to understand why market diversity isn't just good for the business. It also offers up more choices for the consumer.

And that is one of the biggest dangers of the ongoing consolidation in the television and streaming industry. Yes, that WarnerMedia/Discovery merger might make bankers very happy. But does anyone really believe it's going to lead to more content diversity or better programming options? Fewer people who have the ability to say yes to an idea means fewer unexpected choices. And that's bad for everyone involved. 

FOX ANNOUNCES SPRING 2022 PREMIERE DATES
Fox has announced some premiere dates for March and April:

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9TH:
The Masked Singer (season premiere)
Domino Masters (series premiere)

THURSDAY, MARCH 17TH:
Masterchef Junior (season premiere)
Welcome To Flatch (series premiere)

MONDAY, MARCH 21ST:
9-1-1 (spring premiere)

TUESDAY, MARCH 29TH:
Name That Tune (season premiere)

WHAT'S NEW FOR WEDNESDAY
Here's a quick rundown of all the new stuff premiering today on TV and streaming:

American Detective with Joe Kenda Season Premiere (Discovery+)
American Rock Stars (Peacock)
Astrid & Lilly Save The World Series Premiere (Syfy)
Let's Make A Deal Primetime (CBS)
Resident Alien Season Two Premiere (Syfy)
Smithsonian: The Hate We Can't Forget-A Holocaust Memorial Special

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

SEE YOU THURSDAY! 

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