Playing it Safe
A few ways streamers are leaning into what people love - sports, "Star Wars," and paying one monthly price instead of 5.
A Netflix Christmas Now Includes Football
Netflix steadily continues accruing live sports rights, despite claiming just a few years ago that they were more interested in the drama of sports with documentaries like “Drive to Survive” than shelling out for live events. But now live programming is all the rage at Netflix, and sports, particularly the NFL, are the biggest draw of all. Which explains why it was announced in May that Netflix had signed a deal with the NFL for the rights to air two Christmas Day games this year (plus one in 2025 and 2026). It cost a reported $150M for this year’s games (or $75M per game). As with most of what Netflix does these days, I think this’ll be a huge success for the company even with the expensive price tag.
Branding the Bundles
You’ve probably seen or read more than a few articles by now about how streaming is basically becoming cable, particularly since more companies are teaming up to let consumers pay one price for access to several of their streaming services. The main appeal of a bundle is generally there’s some cost savings than if you’d pay for everything separately, plus it’s just less of a hassle to deal getting charged multiple separate times or if you want to cancel. Some of the latest entrants for bundle supremacy are Venue Sports, the now-announced name of a sports streaming service that’s a joint venture between Disney, Fox and WBD, as well as StreamSaver, which is an offering only for Comcast subscribers to pay a single price for Netflix, Peacock and AppleTV+. Venue is set to launch this year, while StreamSaver is available now. At least neither have pluses in the name…but what do you think?
What I’m Watching: Disney+ Edition
After pumping out tons of “Star Wars” content in the late 2010s and early 2020s, tough times for Disney+ and the industry at large (for instance, massive strikes and layoffs) led to a breather on major content for its massive franchises. But Disney+ is finally back with a new high-budget series in the interstellar universe, with “The Acolyte” releasing this week. Set 100 years before the core “Star Wars” films, it’s still a Jedi-centric story but one that bills itself as more of a mystery thriller than most of what we’ve come to expect from this franchise. After watching the first two episodes, I’m not that impressed. It doesn’t feel particularly new in any aspects, the storyline is full of unrealistic TV coincidences or conflicts that could be quickly resolved but aren’t to heighten the tension, and at least one of the main mysteries is already solved by the end of episode 2. Presumably there are more twists, which I will still keep watching to find out since I want to like it and hope it gives me reasons to.