Major entertainment companies are largely grappling with the same see-saw balancing act: delivering exclusive programming to drive growth and cultivate subscriber loyalty versus licening and syndicating content industry-wide to generate much-needed revenue. To truly understand the value comparison between the two strategies, we explore how hit shows such as Yellowstone, The Umbrella Academy, Ted Lasso and Arcane contribute financial, acquisition and retention utility across multiple services.

Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Paramount+, Hulu, Peacock and Max all offer ad-supported tiers while Apple TV+ is reportedly considering developing one. But delivering a successful AVOD product isn’t as simple as offering consumers a less expensive option and selling ad inventory. It requires an understanding of optimal library construction across various languages, film vs TV, original vs licensed and the ability to program effectively for multiple audience demographic preferences. Here's what we can learn from Netflix's attempts thus far.

Streaming originals are not created equally. New titles and returning shows generate different overall contributions to a platform. Understanding how these shows create value in varied ways can better enable streaming companies to optimize content development divisions and build more balanced libraries.

With HBO’s House of the Dragon flying full steam ahead in its second season, the show is unintentionally reinforcing a reality of this fragmented ecosystem consumers find themselves in here in the real world. The great Houses of Westeros can build massively formidable strongholds impenetrable to invading forces just as the most successful companies of today can insulate themselves from threats. Yet both can reach a point in which they are no longer able to see atop the perches of their own walled gardens. When that happens, you lose the ability to understand the trends, patterns and movements that extend beyond your line of sight. That’s dangerous for a fictional TV King let alone a global conglomerate that may falsely believe that it’s too big to fail. 

For companies, that results in a failure to properly understand what else your customers are interested in and how they spend their money outside of your products. This prevents brands from constructing strategic bridges that are necessary for the expansion of the business as well as the ongoing maintenance of the core consumer. Knowing your consumer’s habits within your own ecosystem is crucial to success; understanding their preferences outside of that environment is instrumental for healthy longevity. 

To better understand how brands can best position themselves to accomplish this in today’s crowded and omnipresent media landscape, we’re going to look at the demographics driving Starbucks and Coca-Cola as well as their primary passions. 

Here’s a not-so-hypothetical scenario for you: you’re a high-level executive in a well-established industry that’s suddenly beset with disruption. The normal ways of doing business are being totally upended by new technology and competition. What was already an industry that fluctuated greatly year-to-year becomes infinitely more unpredictable. 

Do you boldly strike out with game-changing innovation and untested ideas that may or may not fail spectacularly? Or do you stick to the perceived security of familiarity that recent trends suggest is more reliable? 

If you opted for Option A, congratulations, you either have more gumption than most of Hollywood in the last 15 years or you’re flat out lying to yourself. Because in that time, the entertainment industry has embraced recycling its own libraries of pre-existing intellectual property. 

But that doesn’t mean Hollywood forgot how create a tentpole TV or film title out of fresh material. The tolerance for risk changed, not good taste. 

Scott Stuber led Netflix's film division from 2017 to March of this year. Now, producer Dan Lin has assumed the vaunted role. The former oversaw a Netflix that aggressively sought growth; the latter will help steer a company maturing from infancy to adolescence. Both required distinct and divergent strategies. 

“The aim is to make Netflix’s movies better, cheaper and less frequent,” the New York Times reported of the transition. No one in Hollywood history has ever attempted the bold strategy of only delivering cost-effective hits, I’m sure. But will Netflix truly get more bang for its buck this way?

From Q1 2022 to Q12024, TV demand share on the platform exceeded movie demand in every single quarter, implying the former is far more vauable than the latter.

Linear television still drives immense value for major streaming services. Yet with traditional TV on the decline, long running linear series that generate so much traction on streaming will become rarer and rarer. With fewer broadcast and cable hits to lean on, the streaming industry will be forced to rethink its strategies or fall behind.

For all of Netflix's market-leading success, the streaming wars won't end with just one single victor. Instead, several services will be left standing as they all solve for different consumer pain points.

While Hollywood would love for every new TV series to ride a wave of positive word-of-mouth buzz en route to breakout success, the reality of marketing and promotion is much more difficult. Media companies must be even more precise and effective in raising awareness with the right audiences than ever before - and this is how you do it.

Thanks to changing economics and developing audience preferences, the entertainment industry has been determined to unearth the next global sensation following the success of Netflix's Squid Game. But in order to do so without wasting vast resources, Hollywood needs to better understand the types of international content resonating most with American audiences and where it is coming from.

Given the complex obstacles facing Netflix, Disney and the rest of the entertainment industry, a one-size-fits-all approach to content distribution does more harm than good. To maximize the impact of your content, to solve for multiple financial goals simultaneously and to prioritize the consumer experience, a combination of binge and weekly releases is the way to go.

HBO Max and Discovery+ have merged into the newly branded service Max while Disney+ is set to integrate Hulu content. Library consolidation has come for the streaming industry. Now, every platform needs to rethink its recommendation and discoverability system in order to expand audience interest and maximize engagement.

As the Hollywood licensing market continues to re-open after years of library consolidation, producers and creators need to know how to most effectively sell their content and which measures of success can best position them to fully cash in.

Streaming companies want to keep customers within its walled gardens, but constructing a library of content that accomplishes this requires thinking beyond your own service. As the direct-to-consumer industry continues maturing, it's time for the major players to expand the way they evaluate success beyond just raw minutes and hours.

It wasn’t long ago when streaming was still widely seen as the industry’s splashy and limitless future. But fortunes change quickly in this game, requiring fluid strategies to stay afloat. Given the investor revolt against SVOD in 2022 and looming recession concerns, it’s time for streaming services to consider licensing out original content to ease the pressures bearing down on their bottom lines.

The great streaming model reset, ongoing theatrical recovery, mergers and acquisitions. What did the entertainment media industry learn from a tumultuous 2022 and how will that play out in a crucial 2023?

The great streaming model reset, ongoing theatrical recovery, mergers and acquisitions. What did the entertainment media industry learn from a tumultuous 2022 and how will that play out in a crucial 2023?

Netflix is maturing from noisy disruptor to seasoned incumbent and its recently launched ad-supported tier is a major catalyst behind this transition. But don't underestimate the potential ripple effects of this seismic shift.

While the U.S. linear television model may be in decline amid the ongoing streaming revolution, the Big Four broadcast networks -- CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox -- remain valuable multi-faceted tools for major platforms such as Netflix, Paramount+, Hulu and more.

Every major studio, network, and OTT platform is looking for the next big franchise. But how valuable are franchises to streaming platforms, what does a franchise look like, and how do you actually build a franchise for the future? The latest issue of Parrot Perspective dives into the how to's and what not's of TV franchise building.

Much like the Marvel Cinematic Universe's success led to a wave of comic book stories being adapted into films and TV series, gaming IP represents the next great open white space for adaptations as studios and networks try to find their next big franchise opportunity that can command attention, create ancillary revenue, and become the world's next obsession.

The second edition of Parrot Perspective, Parrot Analytics' monthly strategy and data deep dive newsletter, focuses on the next evolution of bundling packages as the industry continues to see a wave of consolidation that will lead to new bundle packages being created to generate the maximum value for subscribers and help to retain customers.

The inaugural issue of Parrot Perspective, Parrot Analytics' new regular strategy and industry-focused newsletter.