Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Wednesday, August 18th, 2021
Another long day in the world of television.
Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Wednesday, August 18th, 2021. I'm writing this from the Twin Cities suburbs, where AllYourScreens HQ is powered by cupcakes provided by Disney.
AS IF THE GLOBAL STREAMING MARKET ISN'T ALREADY CONFUSING ENOUGH
Comcast and ViacomCBS have announced plans to launch a new subscription video on demand service in more than 20 European territories encompassing 90 million homes. The partnership between ViacomCBS and Comcast will be structured as a joint venture, with equal investment and joint control. No subscription price has been announced.
Once the service passes regulatory muster in the various countries, Sky/Showtime will be available in mid-2022 in Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. SkyShowtime is being described as a "complimentary service to the recently announced Sky/Paramount+ joint service that was recently announced for the UK, Italy and Germany.
“With the launch of SkyShowtime we are well positioned to utilise our global content engine to create a compelling streaming offering, quickly and at scale, with a smart strategic phased investment," explained ViacomCBS Networks president and chief executive officer International Raffaele Annecchino. "SkyShowtime represents a huge opportunity to accelerate our market expansion and build a leadership position in SVOD in Europe."
“Our new streaming service, SkyShowtime, will combine the best of the US and Europe with iconic brands and world-class entertainment for millions of consumers in more than 20 new markets in Europe,” added Sky group chief executive Dana Strong. “On the heels of Peacock coming to Sky, this partnership provides an innovative approach to quickly scale internationally and monetise content across Europe. Drawing on the strength of the incredible programming from NBCUniversal, Sky, and ViacomCBS, and powered by Peacock’s platform technology, SkyShowtime will provide a truly compelling line-up for the whole family and strong brand recognition across these regions.”
NAT GEO NETWORK AT THE TCAS
The Disney-owned National Geographic Networks presented some of its programming to TV critics on Wednesday and here are some of the highlights:
* Nat Geo Greenlights Three Unscripted Adventure Series
* Nat Geo Wild Gives Thanks 'Fur' Its Stable Of Veterinarians With Super-Sized Serving Of Vetsgiving
* Nat Geo And Westbrook Studios Announce Five-Year, First-Look Unscripted Deal
POSTED WITHOUT (MUCH) COMMENT
Fox News is requiring all employees to enter their vaccination status into a central database — and requiring masking in confined spaces.
THE STREAMING FUTURE FOR NON-CLASSIC TV
I've written extensively about some of the reasons why older television shows aren't available for streaming. Some of the problems make sense once you look at the problem. But there are dozens if not hundreds of TV shows that aren't streaming for reasons that aren't readily apparent. Often, it just seems to get down to the fact that it would require a few contractual tweaks and the industry conventional wisdom is that no one watches old TV shows that aren't one of the few iconic titles. So the shows remain unavailable for streaming and in 2021, that means the shows may as well not exist.
Titus was a comedy starring Christopher Titus that aired for three years on Fox from 2000-2003. As far as I can tell, it was never available in syndication and it has never been available for streaming. After years it trying to make the show available legally, Titus posted all 62 episodes on his YouTube channel late last year. And that is a solution that might be fine for fans of the show. But it doesn't earn any revenue for the studio or for any of the other potential profit participants.
I believe to my soul that the streaming services are wrong about older television shows. There are plenty of shows that could be streaming with a modest expenditure of time and effort. I am frankly astounded that none of the streamers that are associated with major studios have bothered to strip mine their extensive catalogs for streaming.
ODDS AND SODS
* Fox has renewed Masterchef for a twelfth season.
* HBO Max has renewed the dating reality series FBoy Island for a second season.
* Roku has ordered four full-length episodes of Reno 911 after acquiring the show alongside the rest of Quibi's programming slate earlier this year.
* DCD Rights and Runtime Media are partnering to launch a Bridezillas channel for the various AVOD platforms.
* The three-part documentary Nuclear Family premieres September 26th on HBO.
SEE YOU THURSDAY
Tomorrow Netflix and Starz are presenting to the TCA. Nielsen will be revealing some SVOD numbers at Noon CT that I'll cover in tomorrow's newsletter. Some interesting stuff, although it's under embargo until then.
If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.