Commentary

Old-School TV Behavior: More Coming to Streaming?

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, Yesterday

Bored with your streaming subscription service? Just change the channel -- so to speak.

Walmart’s deal to add NBCUniversal’s Peacock to its Walmart+ services comes with an unusual choice.

Walmart+ -- an Amazon Prime-type-of-service where members (at $49/year) can purchase individual premium streaming video platforms -- will let subscribers switch from Peacock Premium to competitor Paramount+ Essential (both limited ad-supported platforms) every 90 days. 

In other words, in old-school TV terms, it allows viewers to "change the channel." The benefit called "Video Subscription Choice" also allows subscribers to switch from a complimentary subscription to Peacock’s Premium.

Separately, Walmart extended its deal with Paramount+.

Walmart may add other streaming services to this switching benefit. For the big brick-and-mortar and e-commerce company -- as with Amazon Prime -- the aim is to keep customers buying into that membership. Standard yearly membership for Amazon Prime is $139 (or $14.99/month).

This effort is largely intended to curtail nagging "churn" -- subscribers' behavior in dropping and adding streamers, especially during the lag periods between new seasons of episodes or TV series or movies that debut.

Increasingly, sports can be added -- in particular big franchises like the NFL, where games for the regular season appear largely in the fourth-quarter period: September through December. 

Figure the 90 days/three-month period may factor into consumers' interest around other sports periods -- with higher interest around the end of the regular seasons of the NFL, NBA, or Major League Baseball and their respective playoffs.

Both Paramount+ and Peacock air the NFL. This fall Peacock will add the NBA, and possibly Major League Baseball next spring. Paramount+ has NCAA Men’s College Basketball, and “March Madness” three-week event. Peacock Premium is priced at $10.99/month, while Paramount+Essential comes in at $7.99.

Streamer bundlers look to continue to differentiate themselves from their competitors. 

At the same time, they also continue to find old-school ways of consumer TV interactions and convenience -- big TV network packages (a la cable, satellite) and perhaps easier navigation between different digital video channels.