Paramount+ coming soon
ViacomCBS announced that the expanded and rebranded CBS All Access will premiere on March 4 as Paramount+. The service will offer live sports, news and other entertainment from various ViacomCBS networks including CBS, MTV, BET, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures. In addition to established network programming, the service will also be home to exclusive new content such as “The Godfather” series, a remake of VH1’s “Behind the Music” and the new “The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run”.
The NPD Take:
- The upgraded CBS All Access successor, Paramount+ is another compelling streaming service for consumers. However, the increase in high-quality OTT options will lead to a higher rate of burn and churn as consumers binge through their favorite shows.
- SVOD services will need to rely on exclusive content, windowing strategies and bundling to limit how many subscribers churn in and out.
Netflix keeps on growing
Last week Netflix announced better than expected Q4 subscriber numbers. Despite seeing significant growth earlier in the pandemic and higher prices taking effect in October, the streamer was still able to add more than 8.5 million global subscribers in the fourth quarter beating the forecast of 6 million and bringing the total to over 200 million worldwide. Much of the growth is driven by international markets as the domestic market growth has matured to a slower pace. Additionally, Netflix said they have over 500 titles currently in the works and are releasing a new feature called ‘Shuffle Play’ that will feature a random title based on a user’s history or playlist.
The NPD Take:
- Despite so many new entrants into the SVOD space, Netflix still has room for growth. New subscriber adds may be plateauing in the U.S. but Netflix is ahead of the competition internationally and this will be the driving force for future expansion.
- Netflix continues to find innovative ways to keep viewers engaged and abreast of the latest content releases. The new Shuffle Play feature will aid search and discovery while promoting new original content.
Apple TV+ extends free trial, again
Apple TV+ announced a 6-month extension of free trials for current customers until July 2021 for any user whose current trial was to end between January and June of this year. This comes on the heels of another free trial extension that was announced in October that ran through February 2021. For some consumers who first entered the free trial in 2019, this comes out to an extra 9 months of free content. Any current paying customers will receive a credit for the free trial extension period. Apple hopes that by extending the free trial period, more customers will stick around for several upcoming releases of new seasons of TV shows such as For All Mankind or the new Tom Holland movie, Cherry.
The NPD Take:
- By extending free trials until summer 2021, Apple TV+ buys itself some time to work on creating a content library that consumers are more likely to pay for. Having a limited catalog of shows and movies compared to other competitive services has been a big hurdle for Apple TV+.
- With the majority of current Apple TV+ owners using the service on free trial and a much smaller content slate than competitive services, keeping these viewers engaged and invested will be key to try and limit churn when the free trial ends, despite the relatively low monthly subscription fee.