Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Thursday, June 13th, 2024

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Thursday, June 13th, 2024:

THIS IS WHY PEACOCK IS RUNNING THAT $20 ANNUAL DISCOUNT DEAL
Peacock is currently running a deal offering an annual subscription for $20 and I've seen a lot of really misguided talk about the reasoning behind the decision. Ranging from "they must really be desperate" to "they're going to lose a lot of money on this deal."

And while there certainly might be a bit of truth in both of those comments, the decision to offer a severely discounted rate is a pretty savvy move for Peacock, given its current challenges.

The service is leaning heavily into its live sports programming in 2024, and it's not a surprise that the last time Peacock offered this deal was earlier in the year when it streamed a live NFL Wild Card Playoff in January. The assumption from a lot of casual observers at the time was that a lot of viewers would sign up to Peacock for the month, then unsubscribe. But by offering a $20 annual rate, Peacock converted a lot of otherwise skeptical viewers, who compared the monthly to the annual rate and decided they couldn't afford to pass up that deal.

And it is a similar situation for Peacock going into the Olympics. It's a chance to lure in new subscribers and given the costs associated with acquiring new subscribers, retaining new subscribers for only a couple of months would likely be a money loser.

Antenna released its "State Of Subscriptions: Pricing & Packaging" report today, and it is full of interesting data that seems relevant to this discussion. 

Here are a couple of charts that might provide some insight into Peacock's strategy. First, very few people sign up for annual plans:



But, (at least in the case of Max), the percentage of people signing up for an annual plan jumps significantly if there is a promotional price:



And while it might seem counterintuitive, streamers make money per subscriber from offering discounted annual rates than by receiving a full-priced monthly subscription.


I've written before about CLTV (customer lifetime value) and customer acquisition costs (CAC), but here's a bit of a recap.

All streamers work under the same set of financial guidelines. You figure out your customer acquisition cost (CAC) - or what you have to spend for each person who subscribes - and measure that against the customer lifetime value (CLTV) and you have a pretty good metric to use to help determine how much you should be spending on everything from salaries and marketing to content production and overhead.

Simply put, the customer lifetime value is the total worth of each customer throughout the life of your relationship with them. That includes all sorts of data points, ranging from how long each subscriber is likely to stay before churning off, the price they're paying each month, etc. If you can accurately figure that out, you can compare the customer acquisition costs to the customer lifetime value and use that to help you predict a wide variety of future business decisions. 

It's not just whether or not you'll be profitable, but it helps you to make all sorts of related strategic decisions.  If accurate, it gives you a bird’s-eye view of your marketing expenses, efforts, campaigns, and strategies. You can use it to balance short and long-term financial goals. You can figure out which spending is bringing the best return and where to focus future efforts.

It can also help you identify high-value customers. In the case of SVODs, that means customers who are likely to stay subscribed for a long period of time. 

The related side of this is that you can also determine which decisions might help that overall customer lifetime value. Increasing that CLV at a rate lower than you are increasing spending is basically increasing your revenue stream and your profits.

So in the case of this move by Peacock, they likely examined all of these factors and determined that retaining a subscriber for a year (especially on a plan that is ad-supported) is worth more to the bottom line than the hit they'll take from a promotional annual price.

A RELATED POINT ABOUT APPLE TV+ KIDS PROGRAMMING
One of the most difficult things to remember about streaming is that way content is valued can get really nuanced and complicated. Sometimes shows have value beyond the bottom line or in ways that might seem odd to anyone who grew up in the linear TV world.

Apple TV+ has a new season of Camp Snoopy premiering tomorrow and I read another piece arguing that Apple is wasting money on kids programming. Because they don't have a substantial library of kids shows - although what they have is generally quite good - and none of their kids programs have any "buzz."

I don't have any specific knowledge of Apple TV+'s bottom line, but I do know of two factors which might weigh heavily in the company's decision to lean into creating more original children's programming. First, I was told that account which regularly consumed kids programming were nearly twice as likely to continue to subscribe to the service for more than a year. They were also spending a higher-than-average amount on related services, including PVOD and other Apple digital services.

Which would make these viewers much more valuable than the average Apple TV+ subscriber. I have no idea if that difference is enough to make it financially worthwhile. But based on the decisions being made at the streamer, I would have to assume to answer might be "yes."

ODDS AND SODS
* Sunny stars Rashida Jones as Suzie, an American woman living in Kyoto, Japan, whose life is upended when her husband and son disappear in a mysterious plane crash. The show premieres Wednesday, July 10th on Apple TV+ and here is a first look video.

* The eighth and final season of Elite premieres Friday, July 28th on Netflix.

* Season two of The Ark premieres Wednesday, July 17th on Syfy. Here is a first look video.

* Adult Swim has ordered Oh My God, Yes! A Series Of Extremely Relatable Circumstances, inspired by the book of the same name. It also ordered Joe Cappa's Ha Ha Ha You Clowns and renewed Smiling Faces for a third season.

* Season two of How I Caught My Killer premieres Thursday, July 18th on Hulu. 

* HBO has ordered a third season of the Game of Thrones prequel series House Of The Dragon ahead of the season two premiere on Sunday.

* MGM+ has ordered The Institute, an adaptation of the 2019 Stephen King book of the same name. 

* Fox Sports has signed a new media rights deal with IndyCar which will include all of its major races airing on Fox, with qualifying days available on FS1 and the Fox Sports app. It also means that the Indy 500 will move to Fox after spending 16 years on NBC.

WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND TOMORROW

THURSDAY, JUNE 13TH:
* Alone Season Eleven Premiere (History)
* Blue Lights Season Two Premiere (Britbox)
* Bridgerton Season 3b Premiere (Netflix)
* Brats (Hulu)
* Death Down The Aisle (LMN)
* Doctor Climax Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Faithful Planet Series Premiere (Curiosity Stream)
* Hannah Einbinder: Everything Must Go (Max)
* The Boys Season Four Premiere (Prime Video)
* The Dirty D (Peacock)

FRIDAY, JUNE 14TH:
* Blood Free Series Premiere (Hulu)
* Camp Snoopy (Apple TV+)
* Deb's House Series Premiere (ALLBLK/WEtv)
* Elkhorn Season Premiere (INSP)
* Greatest @Home Videos: Father's Day Edition (CBS)
* Hoffman Family Gold Season Three Premiere (Discovery)
* Joko Anwar's Nightmares And Daydreams Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Mama June: Family Crisis Season Premiere (WE tv)
* NFL Draft: The Pick Is In (The Roku Channel)
* The Big Bakeover Series Premiere (The CW)
* Ultraman: Rising (Netflix) - [review] - [photo gallery]

SEE YOU ON FRIDAY!