Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Thursday, April 4th, 2024:
IS THERE A PLACE FOR SOCIAL CONTENT DISCOVERY ON SVODs?
I've written a number of times in the past about various schemes streaming services have experimented with in hopes of creating a social component to their platform. The earliest effort I know of was maybe 7 years or so ago at the entertainment-centric vMYPD Philo, which created a never rolled-out social framework that created a Spotify-like profile setup.
I've reported about a couple of other efforts by other streamers in the years since, and I recently had the opportunity to get a tour of a new effort. The identity of the streamer is embargoed for now, but I can tell you it's one of the large SVODs.
The centerpiece of this effort is driven by a subscriber profile identity that is public, but not identifiable. In other words, my public profile would have some username such as "AYSRick." But there would be no private messages, no way for one user to contact another or determine their identity without it being shared willingly. For instance, I could tell people in this newsletter about my profile name, but otherwise, it wouldn't be identifiable.
So why have a public profile at all? Based on the sandbox version of the service I saw, one feature that is really useful is that it allows for social-driven content discovery. Subscribers could create a feed of titles they have watched or that they recommend, which could be shared several different ways. One way is via email, with the service creating a personalized weekly email that listed recommended titles aggregated from profiles they follow. Charts can be created on the fly along the lines of "Top Movies From Accounts You Follow." All of this is an effort to sharpen the content discovery process. And in theory, subscribers would be more likely to follow profiles that match their overall tastes.
And there has been talk about allowing users to create a list of just watched or recommended titles that could be subscribed to and would appear in the UI as a horizontal navigation row. Or one scheme an engineer mentioned was allowing subscribers to publish their favorites list publicly on other sites, in a similar fashion to the way that Spotify users can embed playlists outside Spotify.
So why hasn't a streaming service rolled out this idea? In the case of Philo, they decided that a social component would require a huge subscriber base to work and they didn't have the reach.
In the case of the service that just previewed this idea to me, there are two primary issues. The first is that no one really knows if would be workable on a widescale basis and whether users would find it helpful. In fact, there is one train of thought that rolling out an idea like this would increase subscriber churn, as subscribers who find the idea distracting bail from the service.
But perhaps the biggest issue is cost. Rolling out this idea would require a complete top-to-bottom rebuild of the service's tech stack. And that is a massive gamble to try on an idea that is completely untested in the wild. It would take a supremely confident executive team to make the decision to roll out features no other competitor can match.
So why did I get a sneak peek? I don't know for sure, but the service I looked at is maybe two years out from its next rebuild. And while the team working on this idea is passionate, I get the impression they are nowhere near at the point where higher ups are convinced that including it in the upcoming rebuild is a great idea.
This newsletter has a readership that includes a number of top executives at the various streamers. And I suspect the hope is that by giving me an early look (which I suspect might not be entirely authorized), the conversation about the idea will help their cause.
I'm not sure if that will happen, but it is a fascinating idea. I honestly am not sure if it would engage subscribers, but it would be fun to find out.
ROKU FILES PATENT THAT WOULD LET IT RUN ADS ON OTHER PLATFORMS VIA THE HDMI CONNECTION
One of the best ways to get a sense of where the industry may be headed is to watch the patents industry leaders are filing. The ideas may never be rolled out commercially, but the fact the idea has progressed to the patent stage gives you a sense of some possible future products.
In his Lowpass newsletter, Janko Roettgers reports that Roku is exploring ways to show consumers ads on its TVs even when they are not using its streaming platform by injecting ads into the video feeds of third-party devices connected to its TVs:
This way, when an owner of a Roku TV takes a short break from playing a game on their Xbox, or streaming something on an Apple TV device connected to the TV set, Roku would use that break to show ads. Roku engineers have even explored ways to figure out what the consumer is doing with their TV-connected device in order to display relevant advertising.
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One of those approaches is pretty straightforward: If a consumer watches something on their Apple TV and then presses the pause button, a Roku TV set could use either audio or video-based content recognition technologies (known in the industry as ACR) to identify what’s being watched, match the current scene to a database and extract relevant information to pair an ad with it.
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From the patent application: “The fingerprint and/or watermark may correspond to a certain movie title, famous actor, and movie genre. The metadata may correspond to a champagne bottle and mountain scenery. The relevant ads may include the famous actor, a type of champagne, vacation opportunities that include the mountain scenery recognized.”
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But what if someone plays a game, and there’s no database to match it to? Even knowing that a consumer is a gamer, and is using a certain game console, may be valuable to Roku.
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The patent application envisions using the type of control signals game consoles send to TVs to invoke low latency mode to differentiate gameplay from video viewing, and then for instance recommend different games, or even a newer game console.
While I don't doubt Roku could do this technically, it just seems like a bad idea. There are so many things that could go wrong, so many ways this could negatively impact the usability of their TVs.
TWEET OF THE DAY
ODDS AND SODS
* Thanks to a licensing deal with Sony Television, all nine seasons of the Kevin James 1998-2007 CBS comedy King Of Queens is now available on Paramount+. The first three seasons will also be available on Pluto TV. The deal also includes linear TV rights for several of the Paramount Global networks.
* Lifetime will premiere the Theresa Caputo: Raising Spirits companion series, Theresa Caputo: Beyond the Readings on Thursday, April 18th.
WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND TOMORROW
THURSDAY, APRIL 4TH:
* A Condition Called Love Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
* An Archdemon's Dilemma: How To Love Your Elf Bride Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
* Crooks Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Hop Series Premiere (Max)
* Invincible Season Two Finale (Prime Video)
* I Woke Up A Vampire Season Two Premiere (Netflix)
* Laid Back Camp (Netflix)
* Musica (Prime Video)
* Ripley Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Son Of A Critch Season Three Finale (The CW)
* Star Trek: Discovery Season Premiere (Paramount)
* The Influencer (ALLBLK)
* The Tearsmith (Netflix)
* Tokyo Vice Season Two Finale (Max)
* Wind Breaker Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
FRIDAY, APRIL 5TH:
* Alex Rider Season Three Premiere (Freevee)
* Astro Note Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
* Baghead (Shudder)
* Dinosaur Series Premiere (Hulu)
* Festival Of The Living Dead (Roku Channel)
* Girls State (Apple TV+)
* How To Date Billy Walsh (Prime Video)
* Judy Justice Spring Finale (Freevee)
* Mary & George (Starz)
* Monsters At Work Season Two Premiere (Disney Channel)
* Mysteries Of The Abandoned: Hidden America Season Premiere (Discovery)
* Parasyte: The Grey Series Premiere (Netflix) - [first look video]
* Scoop (Netflix)
* Sugar Series Premiere (Apple TV+)
* The Antisocial Network: Memes To Mayhem (Netflix)
* The Irregular At Magic High School (Crunchyroll)
* Yannick (Mubi)
SEE YOU ON FRIDAY!