While it’s only been offering commercial-free, subscription video on demand service from AMC Networks Inc. since late June and won’t bow an entry from 21st Century Fox Inc.'s FX Networks until early September, Comcast Corp. is eyeing more opportunities with other programmers to reach customers willing to pay incrementally for better content access.
Matt Strauss, executive vice president and general manager, video and entertainment services for Comcast Cable, said in an interview that the company has been "pleasantly surprised" by how many people have subscribed to AMC Premiere, given that it is "early days" and there hasn’t been any marketing to speak of.
On June 29, Comcast and AMC Networks soft-launched AMC Premiere, which for $4.99 per month offers Xfinity TV customers real-time, commercial-free episodes of the programmer’s current-season, original series, including "Into the Badlands" and commercial TV’s top-ranked series, "The Walking Dead." Subscribers can also screen exclusive first-look content, as well as curated movies.
"People are finding it on the X1 guide with some promotion around series,” said Strauss.
Currently, the parties are fine-tuning the operation and "stress-testing the system to make sure all the pieces work before marketing "crescendos" in the fourth quarter and into early 2018.
Asked if marketing will begin in earnest around the eighth-season debut of "The Walking Dead" in late October, Strauss said "that would be a good assumption."
In the meantime, Strauss said Comcast is engaged in conversations with other network groups: "There is a lot of interest in the model as we move into this uncharted territory." He declined to identify the programmers and whether there might be a similar offering from NBCUniversal Media LLC's cable network portfolio, specifically USA (US), a channel that has a long tradition of delivering original, scripted series.
Strauss said the decision to move forward with these on-demand offerings was built around "consideration sets" that included networks featuring programming with passionate fan bases, high-viewership levels and high-quality productions, brand attributes associated with AMC and FX.
That being said, Strauss doesn’t believe such SVOD offerings are limited to proponents of original scripted fare. He thinks there can also be interest from customers who favor comedy and reality programming.
Beginning Sept, 5, Xfinity TV subscribers can subscribe to FX+ for $5.99 per month, which affords ad-free viewing of 17 original series in their current campaigns. In addition,subscribers to FX+ will be able to screen all episodes from 16 library FX originals, totaling more than 1,000 installments in all.
Strauss said AMC Premiere and FX+ are the latest manifestations of the Infinity vision articulated by Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts in 2008 to provide consumers with more and more on-demand programming choices.
More specifically, Strauss said the genesis of the two new SVOD platforms is rooted in his family using express pass to access rides quicker at Universal Studios a couple of years back. He explained how he thought about the ways that could apply to TV in terms of consumers being willing to pay incrementally for ad-free programming and quicker access to shows, perhaps even with on-demand preceding the linear window.
Conversations with AMC Networks and FX Networks ensued shortly thereafter, with these agreements two years in the making. He said there was close collaboration with Charlie Collier, president of AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios and John Landgraf, CEO of FX Networks and FX Productions, and their teams in developing the subscription on-demand offerings.
The moves come when TV networks and traditional distributors are competing with over-the-top streaming services from Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. With the migration away from the bundle continuing apace, Comcast continues to buttress its on-demand viewing options and has integrated streaming and downloading via its X1 platform, which also features recommendation engines and voice-operated functions to assist viewers in sorting through the myriad programming options.
"Fundamentally, we’re looking to add more value within the pay-TV ecosystem by unlocking more choices for consumers,” said Strauss. "Comcast is very open-minded when it comes to finding new ways to improve viewer experiences."
Strauss said Comcast had conducted a lot of analysis around the financial implications of offering the ad-free SVOD options from AMC and FX at a time when an increasing number of viewers are eschewing ads through premium networks like HBO / Cinemax (US) and Showtime / TMC / Flix (US) and the streaming services. The decrease in ratings and watching ads via linear programming is impacting much of the TV industry, including NBCU and Comcast Cable, which sells local avails, underpinned by advertising dollars.
"We’re always sensitive to the monetization around the ways consumers experience content," Strauss said. "We did a lot of economic modeling and think there are incentives for us to share in the success with our partners."