How things have changed

[Bruce]

This is more how things are not changed, going back to ad supported Television.

Streaming Ad Tiers Catch Fire, Make Up Nearly Half Of U.S. Subscriptions For SVODs That Offer Them, Study Says

Ad-supported tiers made have driven 70% of premium SVOD net adds over 9 quarters and account for half of the subscribers for streamers that offer them.

deadline.com

Advertising-supported tiers made up 46% of streaming subscriptions at SVOD platforms that offer both options — with and without ads — at the end of March, up by 33%, or 7 percentage points, year-on-year. Over the past nine quarters, ad plans drove 71% of net subscriber additions for premium SVOD (streaming video-on-demand), according to the latest State Of Subscriptions report from leading market research firm Antenna.

If a service starts killing off their no ads packages, I will drop it, do not care if it is Disney, Netflix or Paramount ( my three favorites), gone, time is short to be constantly interrupted by ads.

I have almost every service ad free, except Peacock, it is still less expensive then the least expensive packages from Cable/Satellite.

 

[b4pjoe]

If a service starts killing off their no ads packages

I think that is a real possibility in the not too distant future. I think once it goes above 50% of subscribers using the ad-supported tiers they will either eliminate the ad-free plans or make them so expensive no one will pay it. I'm sure advertisers hate knowing there is 54% of streamers not watching their ads.

 

[Bruce]

On Demand Streaming Services are only 1 point behind Cable Channels and Broadcast Channels combined, in the month of April.

Quite soon, streaming will top them.

 

[ncted]

I think that is a real possibility in the not too distant future. I think once it goes above 50% of subscribers using the ad-supported tiers they will either eliminate the ad-free plans or make them so expensive no one will pay it. I'm sure advertisers hate knowing there is 54% of streamers not watching their ads.

As long as ad sales are soft, I expect the ad-free tiers to stick around:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-tariffs-tv-ad-sales-63e6b670?st=twHGmq&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

 

[telstar_1]

What about the other side of the coin; why wouldn't they drop their ad service so folks will have to pay in full to get it at all?

Would it be possible to stream to DVR and delay-skip ads?

 

[navychop]

I'd love for the H3 to do that. However, …

 

[ncted]

https://www.wsj.com/business/media/streamers-are-finally-making-money-for-consumers-its-getting-messier-5aa54c8f?st=yrZPVU&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

 

[savarese04]

What about the other side of the coin; why wouldn't they drop their ad service so folks will have to pay in full to get it at all?

Would it be possible to stream to DVR and delay-skip ads?

they make a killing on the ad-support services. I have no idea of the exact numbers, but I would have to guess an ad-supported subscriber at $10 is way more profitable to them than an ad-free subscriber at $20

 

[Bruce]

they make a killing on the ad-support services. I have no idea of the exact numbers, but I would have to guess an ad-supported subscriber at $10 is way more profitable to them than an ad-free subscriber at $20

That is my guess also.

The other part about advertising on streaming vs Cable/Satellite/Broadcast, the advertisers receive accurate numbers about how many are watching, vs the old way, which was estimated.

Precise numbers can be worth a lot of money for those selling the ad time, specially for a higher rated/watched show.

 

[navychop]

I believe Dish provided excellent metrics for viewership.

 

[Bruce]

I believe Dish provided excellent metrics for viewership.

How?

 

[dishdude]

How?

If the receiver is connected to the internet or in the old days phone line, it's possible.

 

[Bruce]

If the receiver is connected to the internet or in the old days phone line, it's possible.

But again, that would only be some, not all.

Also, only a smaller percentage use Satellite TV now, 12 Million of about 66-68 Million that has a paid Live TV service.

Using Netflix as an example, they know exactly how many are watching, by the minute.

 

[navychop]

I think a large majority of Dish customers are Internet connected, and have been for years.

 

[savarese04]

I think a large majority of Dish customers are Internet connected, and have been for years.

While you might be right, the metrics on streaming are exact.

They know the exact person watching, their time zone, location, when they tune in, when they tune out, what they watch next, etc etc. It is extremely granular.

While Dish might have an idea what's being watched and what's popular, they have no idea who is actually watching and they have no way to connect the dots on what that person watches.

Keep in mind that with streaming, many people (weirdos!) don't have tvs and watch on phones/laptops, which means they're capturing this data next to site-tracking cookies.

 

[Bruce]

Keep in mind that with streaming, many people (weirdos!) don't have tvs and watch on phones/laptops, which means they're capturing this data next to site-tracking cookies.

My kids do that, each of them have 85" TVs in their homes, I went to my son's house, there he was, watching a movie on his ipad.

Most of what my daughter watches, is YouTube on her computer.

And they are not that young, daughter is 30, son hits 35 in a few months.

 

[ncted]

Based on what I know from working in the media space for a dozen years, but I'd guess the accuracy of viewing numbers aren't that different between streaming and cable/satellite. Pretty much everyone took the money to provide viewership stats collected from set top boxes. This even includes OTA Tivos. So, they have a very clear picture of what is being watched and when, along with other data like what scenes were re-watched (think Timberlake/Jackson SuperBowl moment). They even have decent data on who is in the house and likely to be watching a given show.

Where streaming advertising diverges is the increased ability to target ads. Dish and DirecTV both have been inserting ads that could theoretically be targeted somewhat for a decade or more. Streaming gives a much better profile of a given viewer for real-time decision making about what ad to show. This accuracy drives up the CPM (ad placement price) compared to ads on cable/satellite.

While media companies might prefer to sell ad-supported plans to everyone, they also understand that some people just aren't going to go for that. They know that certain households never watch FAST services and always pay for ad-free tiers. They'd rather have the revenue they can get than lose those households over the forced watching of ads.

 

[dishdude]

I was at an Italian restaurant having dinner tonight seated by the bar. I hear one guy say he has the DirecTV guy coming to his house tomorrow because his satellite keeps going out. Guy replies, you still have DirecTV?

 

[Jimbo]

I was at an Italian restaurant having dinner tonight seated by the bar. I hear one guy say he has the DirecTV guy coming to his house tomorrow because his satellite keeps going out. Guy replies, you still have DirecTV?

Could be D* via Internet at this point ... people will continue to say Satellite for years, many don't know any different as long as they have a picture.

 

[Bruce]

Could be D* via Internet at this point ... people will continue to say Satellite for years, many don't know any different as long as they have a picture.

DirecTV needs people to forget Satellite and to know they offer services via the internet.

It is their only path forward into this new world we are going into.