Row8 CEO Warns of 'Lockstep Pursuit' of Subscription Streaming
Studios have fallen into “lockstep pursuit down the subscription streaming dream,” said CEO John Calkins from transactional over-the-top video platform company Row8. The current direct-to-consumer trend, driven by theater closures during the pandemic, “is a profit deal” for media companies,…
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said Wedbush's Michael Pachter. Also speaking Wednesday at the virtual Digital Entertainment Group Expo, the analyst compared the rush to D2C services to the Steve Martin movie, The Jerk: “It’s all about giving away a bunch of crap and hoping people will pay for it.” Calkins said “everybody’s feeling like they’ve got a shot at that brass ring.” He questioned whether the model is valid or sustainable long term. When the “newness of subscription streaming wears off,” there could be a “day of reckoning,” he said. Pachter said most TV content doesn’t have to be viewed live, aside from sports and certain shows where immediacy is important. The analyst believes virtual MVPD services such as YouTube Red or fuboTV “will take over, and cable is doomed.” Pachter blamed the cable industry for allowing Netflix deals, saying it “cut its own throat.” Consumers “have been trained that you can just watch anything you want on demand,” he said. “People are pissed” when they have to wait a week to watch the next episode of a show like WandaVision from broadcast TV “because we’ve all been trained to expect to binge it.” NCTA didn’t comment Thursday. Calkins noted “some stall” in vMVPD subscriptions and that prices keep “creeping up,” making the streaming model not much different from traditional pay-TV. On what will drive success for vMVPDs, Pachter said content owners should “get religion and decide they can’t afford to give content away” and “just withhold it from all these people.” Also at the event, Pachter took aim at AT&T (see 2103250063).