)
All you want for Christmas is views, but despite our favorite festive delights already filling up the supermarket isles, let’s not get too carried away just yet. Being the last month before the Christmas floodgates open, October did not fall short in terms of packing a punch in the entertainment arena.
Making the most of the “spooky season”, we saw the likes of Disney+, Max and Paramount+ taking to the digital storefronts to flaunt their Halloween offering to users. Not only did Paramount+ blow their competitors out of the water with the help of some epic promotions, but the app also officially launched a “Peak Screaming” hub within its service to further highlight their impressive slate, appropriately dressed for the occasion. Now, I believe that’s what you’d call a “double whammy”. Despite this, the App still sits in 8th place amongst its competitors for Media Placement Value on the digital storefronts, and therefore overall merchandising performance. If you would like to see the full rankings, as well as what all of the fuss was about, take a gander through Looper Insight’s October issue of Merchandiser of the Month here. Either way, a huge well done to Paramount+, but we do have something even bigger to discuss.
On the topic of sports, some mega news came straight from the offices of Netflix this month. If you are as enamored with Netflix’s ‘Formula 1: Drive to Survive’ as I am, you’ll be quite happy to hear that Netflix is making a major move into live sports with ‘The Netflix Cup’, a celebrity golfing event which will feature our favorites from the popular racing programme. This will be Netflix’s first-ever live sports event. Now, this will really spice things up amongst the giants, don’t you think? I’m predicting a wonderful future that sees a steep drop in divorce rates, thanks to increased monogamous marriages to one’s favorite streaming service that can now satisfy all of their partners’ needs. Let the battles commence. As for the contenders? Amazon, Apple TV and Peacock already have a place in the ring with their own NFL Thursday Night Football and Major League Baseball coverage. We’ll be keeping a close watch to see how this will affect each opponent’s standings across the major Connected TV Devices.
Concentrating again on October’s activities, Paramount+ weren’t the only ones knocking it out of the park. Disney+ Hotstar witnessed a world record across any format of cricket for a peak concurrency of 43 million during India vs New Zealand, which comes at no surprise with ‘ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup India 2023’ being spotlighted in the top real estate of the major platforms in India. Take a look yourself here, we’d recommend taking notes.
Another October shocker came in the form of Disney+ announcing that their subscribers are quite happy to be sitting through advertisements, in order to enjoy their favorite content. Disney stated that 50% of their new subscribers (March to September 2023) signed up for the $7.99 per month plan, over the more expensive, ad-free option. Perhaps we really are going back to the good old days, the likes of PG Tips and Twinings benefitting once again from increased cuppas born out of breaks. Before you know it, we’ll be seeing David Tennant return as our beloved Doctor Who, just in time for Christmas… hold on a second.
