Hey streamers 👋
I came back from Amsterdam with plenty of notes and a few ideas I wanted to spend more time on.
An older TV show finding new viewers on Netflix. Creators building media businesses. AI helping people find something to watch. And the work that goes into bringing live sports to our screens.
I shared some highlights on LinkedIn during IBC and Streaming Made Easy Live. For this newsletter, I wanted to go a little further.
I’ve brought together 11 sessions, the points that caught my attention and my own thoughts on what we can learn from them.
Read on to learn about
How older programmes can find a new audience.
What makes people use a streaming bundle and come back to a FAST channel.
What to look for when working with creators.
What changes when a TV show becomes a series for mobile.
Where AI and new production tools can make a difference.
Reaching more viewers
1. Netflix × TF1: an old programme can be a new discovery
One app, two worlds: Inside the Netflix–TF1 partnership | Streaming Made Easy Live, September 10
Speakers: Emma Lloyd - VP of EMEA Partnerships, Netflix; Laurence Pera - Head of Strategic Partnerships & Distribution, TF1.
Moderator: Marion Ranchet - Founder, Streaming Made Easy.
My week started with Netflix and TF1, and a simple question: how can the same programme find a new audience?
One example caught my attention. Older TF1 programmes were finding viewers through Netflix’s recommendations. These shows had been available for years, but many people were discovering them for the first time.
The speakers also talked about the difference between people who watch traditional TV channels and those who mostly use streaming. Putting a programme on another service can help it reach people who rarely watch the original channel.
It also gives the programme another chance to be noticed. A title can be in a catalogue for years without the right viewer ever seeing it.
💡 My take
This is a good reminder that a programme’s age tells us very little about whether someone will enjoy it. For the person discovering it, it is new.
It also changes how I would look at a show with low viewing figures. Is there little interest in the programme, or have people simply not found it?
For TF1, the next question is what the partnership brings back to its business. Reaching people who would never have watched its channels adds a new audience. If existing viewers move to Netflix, the value depends more on the deal itself and what happens to viewing on TF1’s own services.
That is why who is watching matters as much as how much they watch. The same viewing figure can tell very different stories.
2. FAST: give people a reason to come back
Six Years of FAST: What building it from the inside has taught us | Streaming Made Easy Live, September 10
Speakers: Sidharth Jayant - Chief Product Officer, Rakuten TV Enterprise; Chris Gregory - Head of Content Development, Samsung TV Plus EMEA.
Moderator: Alan Wolk - Co-Founder and Lead Analyst, TVREV.
