Viacom executives mentioned their upcoming direct-to-consumer over-the-top (OTT) service during the company's First Quarter 2018 financial report, but was fairly short on details. The execs said that it is on track to launch by this fall in the U.S. and will include “tens of thousands of hours” of Viacom content, according to CFO Wade Davis.
In other words, it’ll be a product similar to Netflix, but with mainly Viacom content.
Viacom has never been entirely satisfied with other streaming services, and it may be making this move as it appears Disney will own a 60% stake in Hulu, in addition to ESPN Plus and its still-unnamed Netflix competitor. Most of Viacom's cable content is streaming on Hulu at the moment, but why leave your content on a service where your foe makes most of the money?
That said, Viacom is leaping into a suddenly crowded market. In addition to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, a host of streaming services are already online, like CBS All Access - although Viacom and CBS are looking to reunite - or about to launch in the next year or two, with companies ranging from DC Comics to Apple spending billions to commission new series, dust off old ones, and get into the SVoD space. And if that weren’t enough, traditional programmers have to fight Netflix, which is always rapidly expanding its services.
However, Viacom is in a strong position; it’s got Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Comedy Central, MTV and Paramount Network, and it’s done exceptionally well across the board from Spongebob SquarePants and PAW Patrol to Broad City and Lip Sync Battle.
In further articulating the strategy, Viacom President and CEO Bob Bakish made a thinly veiled reference to Starz, whose OTT service has inflamed tensions with distributors such as Altice, which continues a carriage impasse with Starz parent Lionsgate. Compared with such an offering, “We do not view this as a substitute product. We view this as a complement.”
Davis said one MVPD (multichannel video programming distributor) partner, which he did not name, is exploring an integration of the Viacom OTT into its the “This is a product that we think works in that ecosystem.”
Also, from TechCrunch (via Engadget):
Viacom to launch its own streaming service this year
Is there room in the market for yet another streaming service? Viacom thinks so. The company, on its earnings call on Thursday, said it’s planning to launch its own ad-supported streaming service by September 2018, the end of its fiscal year. The service will include “tens of thousands of hours of content” from across Viacom’s library.
Viacom had hinted about its plans in streaming before, but it shared a few more details on the call about what the service will include. The company, which owns cable TV channels like MTV and Comedy Central, already licenses some of its content to other streaming services like Sling TV and DirecTV Now, as well as newcomer Philo (which it’s invested in.)
But it’s also withheld a lot from third-parties, which it believes will be a strategic advantage.
“It’s going to be rolled out in the U.S., in terms of the amount of content that it’s going to have, it’s going to have tens of thousands of hours of content that cut across the library we have on a global basis. And it’s important to note one of the reasons that we are able to do this is that we’ve chosen to curtail the amount of content that we license into third-party B2C experiences,” said Viacom CFO Wade Davis, on the call.
That’s hurt Viacom in the short-term, he noted, because the company hasn’t been able to fully take advantage of the licensing revenue it could have otherwise pulled in from other subscription video on-demand services.
The company didn’t precisely detail what the new service would include, in terms of programming, but did hint that Viacom will tap into its larger portfolio to differentiate its offering with content that can’t necessarily be found elsewhere.
“You should assume that we are really putting all of Viacom’s assets against this,” Davis added, noting that Viacom’s brands span categories like kids and family, music, comedy, African-American, and general entertainment. He also referenced Viacom’s entertainment presence via its brands Paramount, Paramount TV and the new Paramount Network, but didn’t specifically say how Paramount content would come into play in the new offering.
Additionally, the company stressed that the service is not designed for cord cutters, necessarily. That means, it’s not positioned as a way to watch Viacom’s programming when you ditch your cable or satellite TV subscription in favor of streaming.
Instead, Viacom says it sees it as an “MVPD [multichannel video programming distributor, like a cable TV provider] complement product.”
###
Update (2/28) - From Variety:
Viacom Plots Launch of Streaming Service
Viacom, which has been in turnaround mode for a few years, is seeing new paths toward growth, according to its top executive.
Bob Bakish, who has been CEO of the New York entertainment conglomerate for the past 14 months, said the company is planning a new over-the-top streaming product that will seek to make use of thousands of hours of Viacom’s “library product” and advertising, he said during a briefing at an investor conference organized by Morgan Stanley. The service is expected to launch later this year.
Bakish acknowledged he was being “cryptic,” but suggested the product could add to the company’s performance. Viacom executives had previously mentioned the service on a call with investors early this month. It is expected to make use of content that has not be licensed to other streaming services.
Bakish noted he saw other improving dynamics at the company, which operates MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and the Paramount movie studio. He said he expected Paramount’s performance to stabilize and improve heading into 2019 and noted its TV-production had ramped up in recent months. Paramount produces the new TNT series “The Alienist,” for example. He also expects to gain revenue from mobile, citing a deal stuck earlier this month with Telefónica that makes a wide range of Viacom’s TV channels and content available for streaming by subscribers of the Movistar Play platform in Latin America.
More to come….
--Ends--
Also, from Media Play News:
Viacom CEO: ‘Our Brands Coming to Mobile’ in the U.S.
Look for Viacom and its key brands – Paramount Pictures, MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and BET – to go increasingly mobile in the United States.
Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom confab in San Francisco, CEO Bob Bakish said recently announced moves partnering with Spain’s Telefónica making Viacom’s brands available on the telecom’s Movistar Play platform, underscored a need to “export” that strategy in the United States.
“We’re also in a very interesting conversation here in the U.S. right now about bringing our brands to mobile, and I believe that will happen in 2018,” Bakish said.
The executive said the year revolves around growing margins in established businesses, new distribution channels as well as improving synergies among internal brands through consumer products, live-events and incremental studio opportunities.
“We see a clear path toward top-line growth,” Bakish said, adding he expects Paramount growth to materialize in 2019.
The executive said Paramount is transforming from an underleveraged “fiscal mess” in 2016 that “ate over” $1 billion in cash, to a unit with a content library growing more than $300 million in value annually.
Half the studio’s release slate will be franchise sequels, with the remaining branded around Nickelodeon.
Viacom in January rolled of the Paramount Network (formerly Spike TV), an ad-supported service distributing original (“Waco” miniseries, starring Taylor Kitsch as cult leader David Koresh) and catalog content.
Future original series include, “Yellowstone,” starring Kevin Costner; “American Woman,” a single-camera comedy set in the 1970s amid the sexual revolution and the rise of feminism, starring Alicia Silverstone and Mena Suvari; and “Heathers” an hour-long pitch-black comedy anthology set in the present day, based on the 1988 cult classic film of the same name.
“[Paramount] is an iconic brand, known all around the world. It’s on a clear path to return to profitability,” Bakish said.
--Ends--
More Nick: 2018 on Nickelodeon USA | New Shows, Specials, Events, Movies, Episodes, and More!
Originally published: Thursday, February 08, 2018.
Sources: Uproxx, Deadline.
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