Time Is But a Stream I Go a-Fishing In
My apologies to Henry David Thoreau, but this seems appropriate as more of us are fishing in streams of content, spending time trying to find a good show or movie to watch. And you thought skimming through 250 cable channels was a time-waster.
Recently ViacomCBS rebranded CBS All Access to the subscription service Paramount+. Quite frankly, I would have stayed CBS in the name. It has more brand power in sports, news and programming and is much easier to remember and enter into URL searches.
Take a look at this chart of the start of streaming services: Amazon, Apple, Disney, HBO, Hulu, Netflix, etc. More than you could ever want and certainly more than you would ever want to pay for.
One thing we all know is that hit TV shows or movies drive subscriptions. The fans will follow football. The money will follow the fans. However, this is turning into an interesting conundrum for those who want to save money by cutting the cord on cable. You can go broke covering all the streaming services, but who can have only one or two? If you have kids you have to have Disney. HGTV shows are moving to Discovery+ and NFL will be on Paramount, Fox, NFL.com and other outlets. And if you want the latest movie release, that will be a premium cost for the first run since the movie is not going to theaters as readily.
We have not even started on the local broadcasting that will eventually move to some kind of streaming service. And don’t count out the cable companies. They have the magic bullet — they own the access point to most homes in America to pipe in the internet that provides most of the bandwidth needed for crystal-clear movies and programming. 5G, 10G or 100G will provide more capabilities over the air, but then we are just going back to broadcasting days of over-the-air TV with all of its issues, regulations and weather technicalities.
The clear winners are addressable TV commercials and OTT commercials. More on the difference and availability in future blogs.
Mark Mathis III is chief creative & strategy officer, partner and cofounder of AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.
