Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Tuesday, May 17th, 2022

Is social the future of content discovery on streaming?

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Tuesday, May 17th, 2022.

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I completely understand the financial limitations we all work under. I certainly can't begin to pay for all the subscriptions on my list of "must read" publications. But if you're able to subscribe, I appreciate the support.

And now on to the important stuff....

THE SOCIAL COMPONENT OF CONTENT DISCOVERY
I spend a lot of time here talking about content discovery, marketing, and PR efforts because it's both an under-appreciated part of the business and it's seen as a less sexy subject than writing about output deals and whether or not shows should be released on a weekly or binge schedule.

But because I focus on the topic a lot, I tend to hear from a lot of individuals at the various streamers who want to discuss whatever project they're working on at the time. I've learned a lot from off-the-record conversations about various parts of the industry and I continue to be amazed by how much I don't know. It's a complex subject and I can never learn too much about it.

I recently had the opportunity to receive a briefing about a new social-oriented content discovery effort at one of the major streamers. I was invited to a walk-through of what seems like a revolutionary approach to streaming UX. I was guided through it by the project manager, one of the lead engineers, a PR VP, and an exec at the streamer. There were a number of guidelines about what I can and can't report. I can't identify the streamer or talk about anything that might identify the company. And there were a couple of proprietary UX features they asked me not to disclose right now.

So why talk to me at all, knowing I would write about it? I had been talking to the project manager for quite a while, without knowing this project even existed. But the reason they had originally reached out to me made sense, now that I know about the project. The original contact came as a result of an item in this December 2nd, 2000 newsletter, where I discussed a presentation I had received from an engineer at Philo:

Maybe three years ago an engineer at Philo gave me a rundown of an integrated social sharing tool they were experimenting with in-house. You could share programming suggestions with friends, connect with people who shared your love of a show, and create viewing lists you could share publicly or privately. The plan was eventually to offer networks the opportunity to send direct messages about shows to viewers who opted in. According to the engineer, the features had been very popular internally. But it hadn't been rolled out to the public, because it required a large subscriber base in order to scale correctly.

"Social" is a very mushy term, but in the content of SVODs, it really is about sharing your viewing experiences. Sometimes the sharing is direct - think of the various experimentations with watch parties. But the very nature of the way an SVOD works (and various content restrictions) makes those types of sharing difficult to bring to scale. But there are ways of creating a social experience that doesn't require actual direct social interaction.

As it turns out, this streamer has been working on a somewhat similar approach and it's now far enough along they wanted to begin getting feedback from outsiders. "We think we are far enough ahead of everyone else that we're not as concerned about general info being out there," the exec told me during the presentation. "And to be honest, we need people to start thinking about this and getting comfortable with the idea before we roll it out."

Every streamer allows users to set up a profile, but those profiles are very general by design. They're primarily used as a way to track an individual user's viewing preferences and data. Maybe you can add one of the pre-selected images as your profile icon, but that is generally the extent of the personalization.

But what if your profile was more like one you'd have on a social media platform? You could add custom icons, and create "playlists" that could be shared publicly and that other users could subscribe to. You could follow favorite actors or directors, so you'd be informed when anything new by them was added to the service. And because you would be providing additional data points about your viewing habits, the service would be able to weed out some of the noise in its recommendation engine.

I was walked through a very early Alpha test of the idea and at least on the face of it, the experience is as jarring as it was the first time I logged onto a streaming service. The UX is extremely unfamiliar at first, but it quickly becomes clear that this could be a massive sea change in how users interact with the service. Users can temporarily hide content that doesn't interest them, and there are content verticals that surprisingly haven't existed before, such as "every new item added in the last week." Users can follow other users, which means they can see which content the other person has been watching (it's very similar to the feature available on Spotify). Users have the ability to decide which data they want to share with others, ranging from profile names and viewing choices to playlists. But they can also decide to not share anything, and there isn't a way to message other subscribers.

That lack of messaging is by design, said the engineer, who told me they had real concerns about potential abuse, ranging from spam to more personal attacks. "We don't this to become Twitter with videos. The primary function of this is discovering new things to watch and tapping into the expertise of people you trust."

So when will this idea be rolled out to the general public? When I asked the question to the group, it provoked a lot of somewhat nervous laughter. "The technology challenges of this are just staggering," said the project manager. "Especially when you are talking about rolling it out to tens or eventually hundreds of millions of subscribers. There are a massive amount of data points that need to be managed and we also have to figure out how to do it seamlessly across multiple platforms."

And then there is ironically the marketing aspect of this idea. "We know that even if we get everything perfect, there will be a lot of negative pushback from stakeholders," said the PR VP. "From users confused by a new approach and from content owners who have concerns about whether their content will be properly handled." One of the current contentious issues internally is whether the idea should be rolled out incrementally to subscribers who opt-in or just roll it out whether subscribers want it or not. "Supporting two vastly incompatible versions simultaneously is a nightmare from a technology standpoint. The flip side is that some unknown percentage of the subscribers won't like the change and you run the risk of losing a substantial number of subscribers in the short term," I was told.

Whether or not this particular idea comes to fruition, I think it's another indicator that the next new frontier of content discovery is social. The only question is what form that will take and when it will arrive.

DISNEY, ESPN AND XFL REACH WIDE-RANGING DEAL
The Walt Disney Company (TWDC), ESPN and the XFL have reached an exclusive, global multi-year agreement that calls for every regular-season and playoff game to be presented on an ESPN/TWDC platform. The professional football league is planning to kick off a return season on Saturday, February 18th, 2023, and continue through the spring with 40 regular-season matchups, two semifinal playoff games and the championship:

XFL matchups will be featured on a combination of ABC, ESPN networks and FX. Additionally, the agreement includes exclusive content rights across TWDC/ESPN’s digital, social and direct-to-consumer outlets such as ESPN+. Specific details on scheduling dates, times and platforms will be determined and announced on a later date. Global rights for TWDC/ESPN are also included in the agreement.

The interesting wrinkle in the deal is that FX will carry some undetermined number of games. Which continues the trend of general interest cable networks shoring up their live viewing numbers with live sports events. 

ABC ANNOUNCED ITS FALL PRIMETIME SCHEDULE TODAY
(all times listed are Eastern/Pacific). New shows are in bold.

DAY                              TIME               SERIES

MONDAY                   8:00 p.m.          “Bachelor in Paradise”

                                10:00 p.m.        “The Good Doctor”

TUESDAY                 8:00 p.m.          “Bachelor in Paradise”

                                10:00 p.m.        “The Rookie: Feds”

WEDNESDAY           8:00 p.m.          “The Conners”

                                8:30 p.m.          “The Goldbergs”

                                9:00 p.m.          “Abbott Elementary” (new night)

                                9:30 p.m.          “Home Economics”

                                10:00 p.m.        “Big Sky” (new night)

THURSDAY             8:00 p.m.          “Station 19”

                                9:00 p.m.          “Grey’s Anatomy”

                                10:00 p.m.        “Alaska”

FRIDAY                   8:00 p.m.          “Shark Tank”

                                9:00 p.m.          “20/20” (two hours)

SATURDAY             8:00 p.m.          College Football

SUNDAY                7:00 p.m.          “America’s Funniest Home Videos”

                              8:00 p.m.          “Celebrity Jeopardy!”

                              9:00 p.m.          “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune”

                              10:00 p.m.        “The Rookie”          

ODDS AND SODS
* I've picked up a sponsor who wants me to write about a daily piece about 1970s music, which is a dream deal for me. That doesn't start until next week, but I'm rolling the feature out beginning today with a look at the song "Avenging Annie" by Andy Pratt.

* Disney+ won't take ads for alcohol, politics or other streaming services, in order to keep the service family-friendly. And cut down on those awkward "Disney is grooming kids" commercials.

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

Black Gold (Paramount+)
Katt Williams: World War III (Netflix)
Little People, Big World Season Premiere (TLC)
Supermarket Stakeout Season Premiere (Food)
The Future Diary Season Two Premiere (Netflix)
Welcome To Plathville Season Premiere (TLC)

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

SEE YOU WEDNESDAY!

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