TCTTS said:

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The new NFL Sunday Ticket/YouTube deal will accelerate cord-cutting — and may impact the spikes in TV subscription over the league’s season https://t.co/7V5PskEUCt pic.twitter.com/qnJyilMeLA

— Variety (@Variety) December 27, 2022

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The full season of NFL Sunday Ticket will cost $349 for people who subscribe to YouTube TV’s base video-service package and $449 for those who don’t https://t.co/Jo9b4LKF35

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) April 11, 2023

Oh man when I saw that I thought welp no, not for me. And then I wondered how pricing will work for NBA League Pass next year. Yikes.

Confirmed that HBO Max will now just be "Max" which is lame. People have been pointing out how Googling "max" won't necessarily lead to a hit as easily as just "HBO" or "HBO Max" would.

https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/hbo-max-renamed-max-pricing-launch-date-1235532179/

In happier news, a Dunk & Egg (game of thrones) series has been ordered, and an Aegon's Conquest series is being discussed. The rumored Harry Potter series has also been ordered.

A century before @GameofThrones, there was Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire, Egg.

Executive produced by George R. R. Martin, Ira Parker, Ryan Condal, and Vince Gerardis, A Knight of the #SevenKingdoms: The Hedge Knight has received a straight to series order. #StreamOnMax pic.twitter.com/MRPUke5Upt

— HBO Max (@hbomax) April 12, 2023

Your Hogwarts letter is here.

Max has ordered the first ever #HarryPotter scripted television series, a faithful adaptation of the iconic books. #StreamOnMax pic.twitter.com/3CgEHLYhch

— HBO Max (@hbomax) April 12, 2023

superunknown said:

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Oh man when I saw that I thought welp no, not for me. And then I wondered how pricing will work for NBA League Pass next year. Yikes.

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I guess a lot of people have never seen the pricing for NFL Sunday ticket before? Looking through the comments on twitter and the outrage over the price shows that people really didn't understand what this was. With DirecTV, which you were required to have service to, the price was a little under $300. So with a subscription Google only raised it 50 bucks. Still pricey as hell, but at the same time it's not that much of a difference than before.

Tbh I've never had dtv or Sunday ticket but a friend of mine did back in the day and it's so hard to watch NFL without it now. RedZone channel is so great especially for fantasy football.

superunknown said:

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Tbh I've never had dtv or Sunday ticket but a friend of mine did back in the day and it's so hard to watch NFL without it now. RedZone channel is so great especially for fantasy football.

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No worries, didn't mean to single you out specifically it was more on the amount of people shocked on twitter and other places. I agree RedZone channel is the best for background watching and fantasy football tracking. I'm just thinking about Sunday ticket this year primarily just for the novelty of being able to watch all the games again (it's been a while since I was on DirecTV), and also to see how Google presents the games in this new format.

Sunday Ticket never had much appeal to me, especially at full price. Directv gave it to me "free" a few times, and it was worth about what I paid for it. It's nice, but even without it, there are at least six games on tv each week.

I could see the appeal for someone who lives out of market of their favorite team. Or for someone obsessed with fantasy. But I got two young kids. Ain't no time for that.

This was a good read....did Peacock get a prime late season exclusive AND a playoff game because Comcast outmanuvered the NFL? The NFL is far and away the crown jewel of broadcast rights. This was a huge get for Peacock and it might have all been due to Comcast threatening to shut off NFL Network.

https://awfulannouncing.com/nfl/roger-goodell-brian-roberts-phone-call-peacock-playoff-game.html

Not sure if this requires a separate thread but dang...

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It has been discussed for years, and now it is reportedly in the process of finally happening. ESPN is preparing to sell its linear television channel directly to consumers (DTC), according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

This drastic, yet inevitable shift means ESPN could soon no longer require a cable subscription to view as cord-cutting continues in the United States and abroad. In a recent study, 93% of American adults currently access streaming platforms, while 40% have an active cable or satellite television subscription service.

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https://barrettsportsmedia.com/2023/05/18/espn-preparing-direct-to-consumer-launch/

I think that is pretty big news, yet inevitable.

ESPN was getting a lot of $ from cable subscriptions, whether the person watched ESPN or not. If they were charging an average of $9.42 per cable subscriber, what will the streaming cost be, $15/month?

It will be interesting to see what the other streamers do since this will likely accelerate people dropping cable*. Does TNT/TBS sports start showing up on MAX?



I don't know if people would ever return to cable/sat after significant time away, but is there any moves those companies can make to bring people back? Maybe really do more tiers or cable channels, but they have to be close to being able to claim that cable really is cheaper than streaming 8 services. Perhaps stopping the 2 year contract stuff would be a good start.

Man, i have no idea. Feels like a rubber band being stretched and then contracting and then re-stretched into a slightly different shape. It's an absolutely terrible time to be in media right now. Everyone knows the future is online but all the money (ok not all but the overwhelming bulk) is on traditional methods and these corporate leviathans are having a hard time transitioning.

I find myself often wondering if it's too late for me to be a farmer or something.

Guessing all current contracts would be fine, new ones would be very interesting. ESPN getting by far the most $ per subscriber on basic cable is seeing a hit from cord cutting but they can and will recoup some of that money from fewer cable subscribers if they go direct to consumer/ott because it's not like they'll be showing fewer ads. They'll just get all the money from those ads as opposed to splitting with cable/mso providers. Right now the way content is delivered is that ESPN (or any provider of content) sends out the programming and a certain amount of commercial time is theirs and the rest of the commercial time is sold/delivered through the cable/mso provider, which is how you can see a local business on Monday Night Football, etc. ESPN going direct would mean they can use ALL that commericial time themselves. I'd guess it would still be mostly national advertisers but that also might mean Disney gets some other rep firm or whatever to sell individually in local markets.

It's the same pattern any new industry experiences.

Growth.

Then consolidation.

Good read on traditional vs digital marketing.

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While tech advancements have brought some digital capability into these traditional channels, the ability to track and measure isn't perfect, especially in comparison to what platforms like Meta or Google offer. For example, fragmentation in the streaming ad space means advertisers have yet to reach the connected TV promised land.

As people spend more time online, traditional channels have taken the brunt of the changes in the ad landscape. Last year, Insider Intelligence reported that linear television's shrinking ad share was getting even smaller, declining from 71% in 2020 to 62% in 2021, before dropping to 57% in 2022.

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https://digiday.com/marketing/why-some-advertisers-are-reconsidering-old-school-marketing-channels/

Max Will Offer 1,000 Shows & Movies In 4K At Launch https://t.co/lvk1Ca3vQt via @TVAnswerMan

— The TV Answer Man (@TVAnswerMan) May 22, 2023

Paramount has confirmed the launch plans, including date, for the merged Paramount+ with Showtime service. The company will launch the rebranded bundle on June 27 https://t.co/qX3kiwzujH

— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) May 22, 2023

Question for the group: will you keep paying for bundled services that charge more? I already rotate most services except the core few I watch a lot. These mergers and increased prices just make it more likely I'll have even fewer going simultaneously. Have had HBO for forever but may consider rotating it eventually if "Max" gets too crazy.

10 key changes - HBO Max to Max

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Max makes several subtle enhancements aimed at making the service easier to use and more engaging while execs say it should also be more stable than HBO Max.

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Thoughts on this?

He breaks down the cost of watching sports if things keep going the direction they're going...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/it-s-about-to-get-incredibly-expensive-to-watch-sports/ar-AA1bzBPI

I read that earlier. The author is Will Leitch, who was one of if not the first editor of Deadspin (back when it was good) and he does a pretty good job of breaking it down.

I don't disagree with his takes at all. Its profit time, not "grab market share and we'll figure it out as we go" time like it's been for so long... and the ad market sucks so bad right now...my word. I'm starting to look for parachutes because I'm not sure I want to to be on this plane when it lands because its gonna be ugly for a lot of people.

New Max Credits Display Irks Creatives Amid Labor Standoff https://t.co/jny1MuiFfC

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) May 24, 2023

Serious Question.

Aren’t there actual, contractual obligations to credit people properly and in a specific order?

This is an official release of the movie, by the studio/distributor that made and/or is beholden to those agreements, isn’t it? https://t.co/TUtX8l1WZM

— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) May 24, 2023

Sue them. They have obviously broken contracts that cover this kind of thing. There are rules about how you credit directors and writers and actors and this breaks all of them. SUE. THEM. https://t.co/tn0SeJtWYs

— DrewMcWeeny (@DrewMcWeeny) May 24, 2023

Raging Bull, created by Peter Savage, starring Frank Vincent. https://t.co/oN23eICbuP

— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) May 24, 2023

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You stick to a dated binge model

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Any thoughts on what he means here? I have my own personal reasons for somewhat souring on binge watching, but I'm not sure how this author means that it has become dated.

Is he talking about returning to weekly releases to maintain subscribers who sign up for one or two series?

Basically, yeah. Really the only streamer left who still consistently releases all episodes at once is Netflix. Amazon and Hulu have mostly moved on from that model, and none of the "newer" players like Disney, Peacock, Paramount, etc do it either (with a few exceptions, I'm sure). The new trend, which seems to work, is releasing the first two to four episodes of a series/season at once, then going week-to-week after that.

AgGrad99 said:

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Thoughts on this?

He breaks down the cost of watching sports if things keep going the direction they're going...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/it-s-about-to-get-incredibly-expensive-to-watch-sports/ar-AA1bzBPI

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Interesting. He suggests that non-sports channels have been subsidizing the costs of watching ESPN, etc, but I always figured it was more the other way around. Maybe my relatives and friends are in the minority, but sports were the main reason for keeping cable. I assume it would be devastating to other channels I watch w/ cable if live sports moved to a stand alone model.

Have to think it would also amp up the big longterm changes people think are coming to the college football landscape, at the expense of 3rd and 4th tier programs.

Warner Discovery
WarnerMax
Warner+

… would have all been better than just "Max."

WB: Literally 100 years of classic cinema
HBO: For decades, branded itself as the home of the best shows on tv.
Zaslav: "Let's call it MAX, a name which means nothing to anyone."

— Victor Catano (@VGCatano) May 23, 2023

Do you think it has anything to do with Discovery folding in?

I think the name change is terrible fwiw

Ghost of Bisbee said:

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Do you think it has anything to do with Discovery folding in?

I think the name change is terrible fwiw

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For Zaslov - who was the Discovery CEO, and is now the Warner Bros Discovery CEO - I'm sure that was a big part of it. Discovery bought Warner Media, not the other way around. So my guess is, it was partly a pride thing, not wanting to name the new, combined service after the company they just swallowed whole. That said, no one gives a sh*t about the Discovery brand, which is mostly associated with mindless reality crap, so at some point one would think they'd want to capitalize on the name that has far better brand awareness, rather than generically calling the thing "Max," which is only a peg above calling it "Plus." It's just so stupid, made even dumber by the fact that the "a" in Max is meant to recall the "o" in the HBO logo. It's like they went with the first pass of a name/logo that any other company would have rejected in the first round of designs.

AgGrad99 said:

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EclipseAg said:

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The Dog Lord said:

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Question for the group: will you keep paying for bundled services that charge more?

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I'm an outlier, but I never canceled cable. I still enjoy watching a lot of traditional television, and I feel like Comcast offers value in three ways:

1) It provides some streaming services for free.
2) It offers an easy-to-use, voice-controlled portal for both cable and streaming channels without a lot of fuss switching between the two.
3) You have extensive DVR capability (300 hours, I believe).

Most importantly, I spend a lot less time trying to remember or figure out what show is on what service.

Do I wish it was cheaper? Sure.

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I finally broke down this year, because I ran out of viable cable options, and we're forced to sign up for streaming anyway (since most the new shows go directly there).

I miss it though. A cable/bundled service is so much easier and so much better. It's dumb, because no one 'cut' anything. All we did was trade one cord for another, and fragment/complicate the heck out of the entertainment vehicle we all enjoyed. I dont know why we can't combine the bundled service, with the convenience of streaming. Seems like that's where we'll go next.

And with streaming/internet, I'm paying as much as I ever was. It's not cheaper. Just more of a pain.

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I know it's not the case for everyone, but I believe a lot of people, including myself did cut a lot out. I usually have Netflix, hbo, and one other service at any given moment. I could start/stop the first 2 as well if I really wanted but like to have some options open. Paying for 3 services is a hell of a lot cheaper than cable or even YouTube tv nowadays.