Photo-illustration: Vulture and HBO Max
We will probably never know with any degree of certainty how many people watch Zack Snyder’s Justice League now that it landed on HBO Max. Likewise, although I was not shocked to see a press release next week talking about some aspect of its performance – “the biggest movie so far on the platform!” – I also doubt that we will have an official read on how many people signed up to Max simply because of the superhero epic, unless the WarnerMedia-owned streamer is suddenly hit by a wave of transparency never before seen in the digital TV universe. . So how do you determine if Justice League 2.0 ends up being a worthwhile investment for HBO Max? This is easy: it already is.
To be sure, traditional ways of measuring success or failure have not suddenly become irrelevant to this film. From a short-term perspective and financial results, the data and finance guys from AT&T, the parent company of WarnerMedia, are counting on the new Justice League moving the needle appreciably. If not and the numbers are meh, this will undoubtedly influence how Max executives will spend their money in the future. But, like so many programming games in the streaming era, the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut decision was never purely transactional. And in this case, the benefits of giving in to the online army of fans who clamored for the remixed version of Justice League they went far beyond just calming the obstinate.
➽ This generated at most months of (mostly) positive publicity. I don’t think it was a coincidence that, after months of rumors, the official announcement that Snyder’s work was going to be streamed took place on May 20, 2020, exactly one week before the release of HBO Max. been available for almost a year, the fledgling streamer generated a cover tsunami simply confirming that it was underway. Most people will not subscribe based on the promise of content months in the future, of course. But even if a small percentage decides to take advantage of the one-year discount subscriptions that Max was selling last spring, this is a victory. Likewise, the swirl of speculation surrounding every little detail in the film served as a discreet reminder to the public that this big pop culture event was coming and would only be available on HBO Max. Having a high profile buzz magnet at hand is always useful, but especially considering how COVID’s shutdowns slowed Max’s flow of originals during its first year. And while not all critics are raving about the film, many seem to really like it, making it even more likely that audiences – particularly those who already have Max – will check it out. I didn’t see 2017 Justice League, and even I was compelled to watch a screener of the film. (Well, the first hour, anyway.)
➽ The arrival of Justice League serves as a gigantic signal (Bat) to the public: HBO Max takes everything seriously in DC. In the same way that Disney + was introduced to consumers as the home of all things Marvel (among other things), Max wants to be known as the new center of the DC Universe. WarnerMedia even ended its niche streamer under the DC brand last year to ensure that Superman, et al., Superfans knew they would need to sign up for Max to get their fix. What’s more, although Snyder’s film is technically independent – as of now, no plans have been announced to use it to launch new projects – people who sign up to see him will find hundreds more hours of films and programs from DCU TV. The message that Max is now DC HQ has been around for a while: last December’s premiere Wonder Woman 1984 certainly highlighted the importance of the franchise for the platform. But WW84 was at Max for only a month and also played in theaters. WarnerMedia is keeping Justice League a streaming-only event here in the USA; you cannot buy a digital copy or see it in a cinema. Some short-term revenue spike is certainly being sacrificed, but if the end result is more sign-ups for Max, it will be worth it.
➽ It fits perfectly with WarnerMedia’s strategy of shattering the exclusive cinema window. The deal to bring Snyder’s cut to streaming was struck a year ago, long before Warner decided its films would be broadcast by Max the same day they hit theaters. And yet, even if not planned, this investment cut by Snyder matches the new theatrical strategy. Zack Snyder’s Justice League it is a cinema blockbuster in every way – except that it is not shown in theaters. Sandwiched between WW84 and Godzilla vs. Kong, is less atypical than it could have been. Audiences looking for Max Snyder’s epic may stay longer because they know that more new films with similar scope and scale are coming. Likewise, anyone who signed up to see WW84 in December or January may have chosen not to cancel soon after, partly because they knew Justice League was coming soon.
Whether consumers will continue to pay for HBO Max after watching Snyder’s film is obviously one of the big unknowns here. Reducing people’s cancellation rate – what industry types call “churn” – is a big problem for streamers as they mature. And while a big event like this is designed to combat churn, Justice League it will still attract some viewers who have no intention of remaining Max subscribers for more than a month – just as millions of people who tuned in to CBS earlier this month to watch the Oprah Meghan and Harry interview were nowhere to be seen. week later, when the Grammy aired at the same time. This is one of the reasons why Max and other streamers have been pushing the annual discount plans so hard: they hold the audience longer and decrease the turnover rate.
But, again, I think HBO Max still leads the way here, even though the data doesn’t show a huge increase in the number of new subscribers. If you assume the widely advertised price of $ 70 million for Justice turns on is correct – although, for the record, Max’s employees never confirmed it – the hourly cost of the film is not what outrageous by the TV broadcast standards of 2,021. Many of the major scripted streaming series currently cost more than $ 15 million per hour, so $ 17.5 million for each of the four hours of Justice League it is not ridiculously out of line. In return, Max managed a year of “free” advertising, was better able to promote the prominence of DC properties on his platform and reinforced his value proposition among existing subscribers, who are gaining access to one of the most sought-after projects on films in years. Oh, and there’s another advantage for Max’s executives: they no longer have to worry about responding to Snyder’s legion of passionate fans.
We knew since last month that the last season of TV Land’s Younger would be broadcast on Paramount + more than on cable TV. But it turns out that there is a twist: on the same day that the episodes are released on Paramount +, they will also be shown on competing streamer Hulu. TV Land and Paramount + did not mention this, either last month or Wednesday, when the program’s April 15 return date was announced. But a few hours after yesterday’s announcement, Hulu released its own release saying it would also be debuting new episodes of Younger every week
Hulu has been the exclusive SVOD home of Younger for years, but it generally doesn’t give access to new episodes until months after they air on TV Land. So, why the change this year? Well, with ViacomCBS executives deciding to put the final season of Younger on Paramount +, it made sense that all episodes of the series were also available for broadcast there. To do this, however, the company had to go to Hulu and ask it to reopen the existing business and create a new clause allowing Paramount + to share streaming rights from previous seasons. Younger. Disney-owned Hulu agreed, but on one condition, according to a source familiar with the situation: he wanted same-day access to season seven episodes. ViacomCBS agreed, and the result is that Hulu subscribers won’t have to wait months – or sign up for Paramount + – to see Youngerfinal act of. Homes that only operate with cable TV, however, are out of luck: the last season of the original TV Land series will not be seen on traditional TV until “later this year,” according to a press release from producer MTV Entertainment. .
Last week, The Information reported that Netflix may be looking to license some of its content for linear networks. If it happens – and it is hardly taken for granted – it will be a kind of diversion for the streamer, who until now preferred to keep all his originals exclusive to his platform. But it would also not be without precedent: BoJack Horseman reruns were sold to Comedy Central in 2018. (This deal came about because the show got the green light in the early days of Netflix, when the company didn’t demand almost perpetual exclusivity from outside studios.) Given how large the Netflix original library is become, I think it’s a no-brainer for the company to license some of its less important projects – particularly films – for linear platforms. Not a single human being will cancel his Netflix subscription because he stumbled a display of Ridiculous 6 on TBS. In addition, any money earned from these sales could simply go back to producing more originals. I have to love this virtuous cycle!