Once Upon A Time’s Post

Greg Lombardo — the VP creating Netflix experiences IRL — seeks to deepen fan engagement through year-round attractions. Emphasizing live experiences over traditional rides, Netflix anticipates that guests will visit these interactive venues time and time again for a truly one-of-a-kind entertainment experience. Learn more about Greg here: https://lnkd.in/e42n9Kjh Check out Greg's feature in Fortune here: https://lnkd.in/eXpdiz4K #XPLand #Experiences #Netflix #NetflixExperiences #ImmersiveExperiences #Experiential #ExperientialMarketing

A new bundle combining Disney+, Hulu, and Max from Disney Entertainment and Warner Bros. Discovery is now available in the U.S. on each of the platform’s websites. The bundle is priced at $16.99/month with ads and $29.99/month without ads, offering a 38% savings compared to purchasing the services separately. To support the launch, a comprehensive national marketing campaign began on July 25, highlighting the extensive TV series, films, and characters available on each platform. This strategic bundling of Disney+, Hulu, and Max represents a significant move in the competitive streaming market. By offering a substantial discount, the companies are likely to attract a broader subscriber base, including those who may have been hesitant to subscribe to multiple services due to cost. The coordinated marketing campaign will help maximize visibility and awareness, potentially driving a surge in subscriptions. This bundle could set a new precedent in the industry, encouraging other streaming services to explore similar collaborations and pricing strategies to remain competitive.

Rival entertainment companies The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. Discovery teamed up to offer a new mega-bundle that includes Disney Streaming's Disney+, Hulu and HBO Max but how competitively priced is it for consumers? Parrot Analytics’ Pricing Framework reveals that the $30/mo. price tag for the mega-bundle is slightly more expensive than we would expect relative to what other platforms are offering in terms of demand for content per subscription dollar. The fact that this three-platform combo is not aggressively priced to sell suggests that this move may be done more to reduce churn than to juice subscriber acquisition numbers, as subscribers signed up for discounted bundles are less likely to churn. Netflix Standard is the most steeply discounted relative to its catalog of in-demand shows and movies. It is the single platform with the highest demand for its shows and movies and is priced more competitively than even bundled options like Disney+/Hulu. While the new Disney+/Hulu/Max bundle is the largest in terms of catalog size, it still trails the market leader in terms of demand delivered per subscription dollar. With new price increases announced by Disney this is a dynamic landscape. Understand competitive pricing dynamics like how much demand there is for platform catalogs relative to their price or the value of exclusivity with Parrot Analytics' Pricing Framework: https://hubs.ly/Q02Lbv-20

Bloomberg News Interview with WBD CEO Jean-Briac Perrette and President James Gibbons: Warner Bros. Discovery is launching its Max streaming service in Asia, relying on popular Hollywood movies and TV shows like Harry Potter and Friends to attract subscribers. Unlike rivals Netflix and Disney, Warner Bros. is partnering with local platforms to build loyalty and increase subscribers without heavy initial investments in local content. The company sees Asia as a key opportunity for subscriber growth, with average revenue per user expected to be lower than in the US or Europe, but ultimately boosting advertising revenue. By 2029, Max is expected to bring in more than $600 million in revenue a year from Japan, Australia, New Zealand and SEA markets, MPA executive director Vivek Couto said. + Good news: Max will launch its standalone app in UK in 2026!

Meanwhile, in corporate media/entertainment drama...

This summer, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery announced they will launch a new streaming bundle including Disney+, Hulu and Max. There are so many questions we don't know. What will it cost? Will 100% of the content in Max be available in the new bundle? If Disney is handling the billing and support, as reported, who's handling support if a customer has a problem with Max? Like wholesale deals, discounts don't help the bottom line regarding profitability and ARPU. It sounds like Max will offer Disney a wholesale price like the wholesale deals we see streaming companies do with wireless carriers. Will subscribers to the new bundle be able to include the Max B/R Sports Add-On, or will they have to sign up with Max directly? The bundle will be offered as both an ad-supported and ad-free plan. WBD earnings are Thursday, May 9th, so I expect we will hear some more details. Press release: https://lnkd.in/eXARxYZy

https://lnkd.in/eKn5ckFR Netflix, when they began streaming original series in 2013, wanted to be HBO, but HBO was able to stay ad-free because their parent company Time Warner was able to pour money into HBO coming from the W.B. merchandising, box office ticket sales, home video sales and the advertising from their other cable channels like Cartoon Network! 🙂💰👕🎟💿📺 Netflix, on the other hand, was (and probably still is) just a streaming platform, funded by Wall Street! 📈👔 When I think of Disney, I STILL think of animation, no matter how much they'll want to push Marvel, Star Wars, Fox and Nat Geo - in fact, I empathise with the marketing people, who would've found it SO difficult to explain to the public that some of Disney+ is NOT safe/appropriate for kids! 🚸 When I saw the build-up to the launches of Disney+, W.B. Max and Paramount+, I initially saw it all as the ultimate Battle of the Libraries, all aiming to touch our nostalgia hearts, but in the long run, these legacy media giants will just want to make it harder for you to discover classic material as they will constantly PUSH new content (like the old Sky Movies ads - "Enjoy the latest blockbusters!") - which is why I trust organisations like the British Film Institute (BFI)! 🎞 Aiming to make your future movies for the WIDEST possible audiences is like forcing EVERYONE on Earth to like The Beatles, just because more of their albums are on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums (2023) than from anyone else! 🙂🎧🌍 https://lnkd.in/ecKGwyGy #filmhistory #classicIP #filmeducation #animation #marketing #audiencetargeting #brandidentity #streaming

TOMORROW @ #Cannes: Join Roku's Rachel Helfman at the The Female Quotient's #EqualityLounge for a discussion on the convergence of entertainment and brand marketing. Learn more about Roku at #CannesLions2024: https://lnkd.in/eMP5gaPV #Streaming #Advertising

𝟭. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗯𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 continues 𝟮. 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗽 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗱-𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗱-𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗱-𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱. "In a rare moment of solidarity, two entertainment giants are teaming up to try to get consumers to stop canceling their streaming services so frequently. Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery announced on Wednesday that they would start offering a bundle of their Disney+, Hulu and Max streaming services this summer, a sign of how rivals have become more willing to join forces in order to confront an ever-changing media landscape. The companies said that the bundle would be available to buy on any of the three streaming platform’s websites (Disney owns Disney+ and Hulu; Warner Bros. Discovery owns Max), and that there would be a commercial-free version as well as one featuring ads. The companies did not announce prices or a date when the offering would become available. The monthly retail price for subscribing to commercial-free versions of all three services is currently $48; the plans with ads cost a combined $25. A bundled offering is likely to cost less...." More in the Week In Review on Friday

In the last five years, traditional media companies have pushed low-budget genre films out of theaters and onto their fledgling streaming platforms to pad their libraries and drive subscriber growth. And for a while, Wall Street rewarded these companies for adding more users each quarter. Investor sentiment has changed, however. Now, as linear TV ad revenue shrinks, they want more immediate earnings growth, not the promise of profit in a few years. While Netflix is profitable and largely not involved in theatrical releases, traditional media players like Disney, Universal, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery may need to rethink their streaming strategies. Already we have seen several direct-to-streaming films opt for a theatrical run ("Smile," "Mean Girls") and this could be a viable path forward for many media companies. The problem: these services have trained audiences that low-to-mid budget movies (like comedies, rom coms and dramas) are on streaming, not theaters. https://lnkd.in/gS3u49px