Don't be (video on) Demanding

I thought 2 weeks of Olympic events would be enough content for my family, but somehow Netflix found a way to make a documentary about ice dancing teams, causing my wife to want to rewatch their performances.

Now, this should be a win for NBC and their on demand service. However, they have decided to only keep performances for 3 days from when it airs!

If the goal is to get consumers to watch your shows (or your ads), then giving them the content they want is the best way to engage with your viewers. Your content has a “long tail” of value, which doesn’t appeal to everyone, but engages your most loyal audience.

Churn, it’s not butter

Stats show that streaming service platforms churning massive amounts of users every month, we all know that Peacock will have a huge subscribe/unsubscribe wave with all of the February sports events finishing. This is where the primary hook to reengage them should happen by exposing what they still want to watch when they want to watch, not by your schedule.

How would you handle a huge library of content from this and previous Olympics? I would love to see linked content from favorite athletes that even links to performances from previous years.

Not only that, but think about the kids who only get TV on weekends, or certain days. They will miss many live sports events, or these limited windows. The only way they experience those memorable moments is thru ripped copies distributed thru TikTok or Youtube. That hands over tons of highly engaged fans and their revenue to companies who didn’t even work to produce the experience!

Your audience doesn’t live on your broadcast schedule; they live on their own.

Unlimited everything

We have an unlimited digital landscape of content today, where we can rewatch every episode of 60’s comedy instantly. It would most likely increase subscriber revenue to keep recent live content available for rewatching longer, surface shorter clips, and make it easier to find your favorite players.

Best value for your dollar

Even if you aren’t in sports broadcasting, think about what your audience wants to know. Expose it on multiple channels, make it discoverable, bundled, and relevant to the current day’s trends.

Content you already produced is much cheaper to continue monetizing than creating new content. This applies to broadcast networks, as well as independent agencies and especially small organizations or non-profits.

Production thoughts

Choosing when and what to show is primarily an executive function. But, what can the production crew do to make this better? I’ll share some thoughts tomorrow!