Live Entertainment Has Come To Streaming, Launching A New Era

Around the time of the upfronts, Mediaocean hosted a roundtable discussion among top industry stakeholders, representing brands, media owners, agencies, data and technology companies. Streaming was the talk of the day, and of the upfronts in general. And the momentum carried through to this year’s Emmy Awards.

It’s not surprising, given the extraordinary emergence of AVOD over the past year. We’ve seen all the major broadcast archives move to streaming (in the form of Peacock, Disney+, HBOMax, Paramount+, and Discovery+). These were followed by major live events and sports: NFL, NHL, and MLB all reached new deals with streaming at their core. Already, Peacock/NBCU, Fox/Tubi, Amazon, and Disney/Hulu/ESPN cite live sports as one of their primary growth areas, bringing in demand as well as supporting a premium CPM. Even direct-to-streaming distribution of new Hollywood releases, the quintessential appointment viewing experience, made the fateful leap into standard practice. 

Live sporting events were the last exclusive part of the cable bundle; new box office releases were similarly exclusive. Their arrival to streaming signals that we have arrived at a tipping point. 

Streaming is now a core part of the omnichannel mix, and there’s a sense among everyone that the playbook for marketers is about to change. What’s more – a tight market for inventory, combined with an expanding demand base, will force that change to happen fast. 

Tighter Supply + Higher Stakes 

Traditional broadcasters have always put advertisers first because advertising was their primary business model. Not so with streaming. Today’s media owners monetize with a mix of ads and subscriptions (AVOD and SVOD, respectively). In the case of Amazon and others, streaming content forms part of an overall relationship that might be monetized through commerce, intelligence, or some other ancillary revenue streams.  

This means that there’s less pressure on suppliers to monetize with heavy ad loads, which in turn leads to a few potential ramifications: A) media owners will be looking to get creative with formats and B) they also might just sell fewer ads. 

Assuming both happen, we can expect both a tighter market for traditional ad spots, while also expecting marketers and networks to get creative about new ways to introduce brands into the overall experience. 

This new, higher-stakes environment will favor brands that are well-prepared with the technology and institutional experience of using data to optimize streaming investments. Streaming’s real value as a channel lies in the ability to extend reach, personalize creative, and target specific moments – all of which require sophistication in the application of data and identity. 

What Marketers Need: Intelligence + Tactical Mastery 

Big brands used to have economies of scale based on the size of their budget, but in today’s omnichannel reality, proficiency in leveraging data and technology is the new economy of scale. How well does a brand know its audience? How effectively can it orchestrate cross-channel campaigns to capitalize on streaming impressions? How well can it measure conversion on site? How well does the brand promote LTV through retargeting? What is the LTV model? Brands that have mastered this – not just those that spend a ton of money – will be at an advantage when it comes to executing against the opportunity of live streaming.  

The omnichannel imperative requires working and experimenting with cutting edge capabilities as they hit the market, particularly when it comes to measurement tools. Marketers should embrace these capabilities and think about premium live events as massive DR opportunities. They should lean in and test formats around this capability, develop a capability to transform massive reach into instant conversion.

Live events will still be major marketing moments, but it won’t just be the big-spending brands that get to take advantage of them. Broader demand and tighter supply will demand new levels of excellence from marketers, and the sooner they start, the better.