Content Insider #969 – In Between
By Andy Marken – andy@markencom.com
“Rough business, this movie business. I’m gonna have to go back to loansharking just to take a rest.” Chili Palmer, “Get Shorty,” MGM, 1995
It dawned on us the other day that the folks – viewership counters/analysts – are trying too hard to keep clear, concise divisions on the video industry – broadcast, streaming, shows, movies, long form, short form social clips, vlogs (video logs), live streaming/shows.
Sure, some are rising, some are falling, some are making money, some are on life support.
But where it really counts – the viewer – people are just watching their entertainment, their video stuff.
We realized this a few weeks ago when we came into the family room and our daughter had some deep, dark drama on the TV while staring at her iPhone (yes, with her ever-present buds in) laughing flipping through one video after another.
Asked what she was watching and she said, “Aahh TV, of course.”
Yeah, when she and her generation watched anything on whatever screen it’s…TV.
Anywhere – The smartphone has surpassed TV screens for watching video content.
According to key industry projections, there are over 2.2B connected TVs around the world and it is expected to grow to 4.9B by 2029.
That’s great news for streaming services because that should mean more folks will sit down in front of the screen to watch a show, movie, news, sports.
Maybe…hopefully.
But at the same time, there are about 7.5B plus smartphones in use; and in emerging markets like Africa and SEA, the phone is their everything device…computer, TV, phone/communications device.
We reserve our video entertainment for our TV, and our smartphone is for on-the-go, always-with-us communications.
It’s a clear differentiation of applications/use.
However, we decided to give our daughter’s any-all entertainment a try.
It turns out vertical content services like Reels, TikTok, SnapChat and YouTube can be addictive.
Before we knew it, we had spent an hour watching couples telling 30-90 sec jokes, news stories by a local news professional, storage tutorials, how-to production pieces by Adobe and DaVinci, and microdramas and reviews that ranged from 30 sec – 3plus minutes.
Surprisingly, we even discovered a video series by Anthony Marorina who we knew from our days of working with Pinnacle Studio Software.
It turns out he had switched from selling/demoing video production software to becoming an online culinary connoisseur covering restaurants, food specialties and chefs around the country.
Income for video creators like him can vary wildly from $100/mo. to $100K plus/mo. depending on audience size, ad revenue, brand deals, etc.
And while the creator economy is booming, only 11 percent reach six figure incomes, and the pressure to produce new, different, better, more viewer captivating attention is relentless.
Even Jimmy Donaldson, Mr. Beast, who has an estimated value of $2.6B, has very little ready personal cash (according to him) because all of the money goes into his various enterprises/activities.
But that minor issue didn’t stop Netflix and most recently Disney from adding video shorts to their services.
If you examine audience viewing figures, it’s rather easy to see why the heightened interest.
Socially Active – Today’s younger audience is setting the pace on how and what people watch on a consistent basis.
The younger viewing audience – the GenZ/Alpha – love video content that’s short, sweet, to the point and…BAM!! gone.
So how important can kids be?
Gen Alphas (2B WW) and Gen Zs (1.9B WW) – people who don’t know a world without the internet and smartphone – represent 44 percent of the folks on the planet.
Add the folks who started it all, Millennials, and you’ve got about 70 percent of the world population.
Much as we dislike admitting it, streamers are paying close attention to YouTube and its global attraction because the service is the first place folks tune in for their entertainment.
First Choice – Most recently YouTube has become the most widely viewed video service by people on their TV sets.
Like our daughter, it’s the first thing they turn to when they want their entertainment…regardless of the screen.
YouTube attracts more than 2.7B users with about 9.3 US subscribers, in all accounting for about 11 percent of all TV viewing.
YouTube TV and YouTube Premium don’t have the scale of the parent YouTube but those who find it…stick.
As a result, it’s the dominant player for ad-supported streaming, racking up about $10B per quarter.
And Neal Mohan, YouTube CEO, makes no bones about his goal for the service–adding the 1929 Oscars to their lineup that would enable the Academy Awards to not only reach a wider, global audience but also to inspire/connect with future creators.
In fact, the leader of the world’s largest video platform wants – in his words – to revitalize the Oscars’ audience and even advance the idea that “sometime” in the future there should be award categories for short videos.
Available Jobs – While show, film and ad production has slowed in a number of areas – especially Hollywood – new, short video production volume has increased.
Okay, we think this is “a little” over the top and there’s a big difference between the various segments of video content but if you see where the jobs/work is, especially in California, where professional content creators/production teams have been especially hard hit, you’ll see most of the work is going to folks who involved in new media short projects.
Preferred – Today’s younger crowd prefers a steady stream of short-form video as opposed to long-form, streaming content.
According to Statistics, the average person spends about 145 minutes a day on social video versus previously an average of 65 minutes a day.
The time difference didn’t go unnoticed by Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters who want to interact with their viewer base as often as possible to keep them as subscribers.
They began adding video creators last year, focusing on video podcasts and creator-led content.
They’ve also been negotiating deals with popular YouTubers to bring their shows over to their platform with bigger budgets to leverage their fanbase while attracting others to the service.
Short video budgets can vary widely from simple/AI assisted ($2K-$5K) up to $20K-$50K for complex 3D/animated segments.
YouTubers are being signed to develop exclusive content for the leading video streaming service.
Of course, getting Netflix to sign you on isn’t as easy as knocking on their door with a great idea.
To pitch them, you need an industry representative (agent, manager) or already have a relationship with Netflix.
But they and other streamers are aggressively…looking.
The first of the year, Disney aggressively announced that they want a bigger slice of the mobile video business.
The company with possibly the largest IP library in the industry said that they were going to aggressively feature short-form content – news, sports, shows/movies.
Erin Teague, EVP of Disney Product Management, emphasized that the company was committed to being the source for entertainment for the new generation of fans with live, engaging and interactive content.
It was only a few months earlier that the company signed a $1B deal with OpenAI which initially concerned a lot of professionals until they said the agreement was for fan-inspired social videos on their streaming service.
The two – and hopefully others – realize that they are competing in the total media ecosystem for a finite amount of consumer time and attention.
They have come to realize that growth is dependent on a number of factors including a steady stream of new, different, exciting shows and movies as well as a constantly changing, interesting video content that becomes part of the viewer’s daily media habit.
The interest/investment by streaming services doesn’t mean that they will increasingly raise their investment in the short video content industry across the board.
It will also stimulate people’s interest in watching quality content across the board – streaming, social video Reels, TikTok and Snapchat – which will provide opportunities for more people to develop/test their creativity and quickly see if their video stories resonate with people online.
Instead of sitting back and wondering if your video stories are actually as good as you think they are, short video services provide an open, real opportunity to test and hone your creative talents at a very reasonable cost along with the potential of even more reasonable returns.
Today, 10s of thousands of folks around the world use their iPhones and/or economic high-quality cameras like the BlackMagic Pocket Cinema camera (under $1K) to capture their horizontal or vertical video stories.
Blackmagic, Adobe, Apple and other firms also make it easy for first timers and seasoned pros to edit their raw content with easy-to-use video editing/production software like DaVinci Resolv, Adobe Premiere Pro or Creative Cloud and Final Cut Pro.
Beyond the online video jokes, testimonials and reviews, there is a broad range of genre stories people want to watch like crime, thriller, horror, animated, comedy, romance and more; especially if they’re short, attention capturing and resonate with viewers.
Streaming services will continue their aggressive investment in new shows/movies around the globe to reach $255B this year (a modest increase), according to Ampere.
Industry analysts note the overall growth in subscribers – including ad-supported – will be modest while the social video audience continues a steady and strong viewership growth.
As a result, streamers will continue their push for new/improved opportunities to help them grow their viewer base and become the place where people go for their entertainment on the TV or phone.
After all, there are over 2.25B OTT viewers and even the industry leader – Netflix – only has about 400M of them regularly checking in to see what they want to watch.
The video content ecosystem is increasingly crowded for finite consumer time and attention and streamers are all looking for the magic key to encourage folks to make them the media service of choice for what they watch, when they watch it, where they watch it and on the screen they watch it on…long or short.
Trust us, no one really has the answer to what works and why, not even AI.
That may be why Chili Palmer in Get Shorty told his captive audience, “I can’t believe the way you do business out here.”
Of course, when Chili asked Harry Zimm which storyline worked best, he responded, “I once asked this literary agent, what kind of writing paid the best… he said, “Ransom notes.”
While that might be the best solution in certain cases, the fact is that short-form video is no longer just a trend, it’s the new standard for a generation redefining the entertainment industry which is projected to reach $1.72T worldwide this year.
Like it or not, the up-and-coming generation often doesn’t differentiate between long and short video content, individual or studio productions but rather it’s something they want to watch for…awhile.
There’s still plenty of room for video creatives to stake their claim.
Andy Marken – andy@markencom.com – is an author of more than 900 articles on management, marketing, communications, industry trends in media & entertainment, consumer electronics, software, and applications. He is an internationally recognized marketing/communications consultant with a broad range of technical and industry expertise especially in storage, storage management and film/video production fields. He also has an extended range of relationships with business, industry trade press, online media, and industry analysts/consultants.