April was a rather exciting month for all you musical fanatics out there. As one of the biggest, most renowned, and most financially successful music festivals in the United States and globally, news from Coachella was hitting us left, right, and straight in the face. And one app took this opportunity to crowd-surf off of the buzz. With YouTube offering live stream access to the highly anticipated festival in California, there was no need for anybody to get upset that they could not afford the general admission ticket, which sits at a hefty $400 to $500, blimey. The Coachella 2024 festival marked the 12th year that YouTube has served as its exclusive worldwide live-streaming partner, 2024 being the first year the streamer offered a “Multiview” option, “so that viewers everywhere can watch up to 4 of the live stream stages on their TVs at once.” This was made possible with tech brought in by the Google division, used for NFL Sunday Ticket, to ” bring fans into the Coachella experience wherever they are” (The Hollywood Reporter, 2024). All sounds good, as long as YouTube managed to promote this offering well enough on the major digital platforms, to capture the attention of those longing to get an “in” to the party. So, did they? Find out in our latest Merchandiser of the Month April here.
One streaming app saw huge success in April, for its New Release title. Having a digital prominence that was 24% higher than its closest rival title, Prime Video’s Fallout was undoubtedly the one to watch this month. The title sat at number one for its prominence to users on the major digital platforms in the US. That’s not all, with Prime Video claiming that within 16 days of its launch, Fallout raked in 65 million viewers, making it the second most-watched title on their platform and the most-watched title since their 2022 release of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” (Variety, 2024). But, where did this leave the other streamers and their respective titles in terms of digital merchandising performance? You can check out the rankings within April’s Merchandiser of the Month here.
One of the platforms that spotlighted Fallout included PS4, which went under the knife for a well-deserved nip and tuck on its user interface. Within PS4, the ‘Featured’ row has been removed from the ‘Discover’ tab, with a series of Wide Banners being added. The number of Banners available now has reduced from 15 down to 5, compared to those available in the old UI, and so the competition for streaming services increases to obtain this key promotional space.
On the topic of having to divvy up with others, sharing is not caring apparently, and Netflix isn’t the only one feeling this way. Disney Plus’s password-sharing crackdown is set to start in June, as it has been announced by Disney CEO, Bob Iger, that there are plans to roll out paid sharing in ‘a few countries’ to start (The Verge, 2024). Even though the streaming service already has rules against password-sharing among users, they have now formulated a timeline for implementing payment measures for sharing passwords. So, who out of your family or friends will be getting the boot, losing access to all of their animated favourites?
