10 BY TIM DAMS
One year on from the launch of its new streaming service, Discovery’s UK and Nordics boss James Gibbons shared with IBC Digital the unscripted giant’s learnings from launching into the highly competitive SVOD market. Gibbons was interviewed by Omdia senior research
director for TV, video and advertising Maria Rua Aguete, who noted that Discovery+ was operating in a market with more than 5300 video streaming services. Against this background, Gibbons cites two key lessons
from the past 12 months of Discovery+, which launched on 4 January and has since amassed more than 20 million paying subscribers worldwide. The fi rst lesson is the importance of great content to stand out. “You’ve got to go big; you’ve got to make a splash; you’ve got to amp up and turn up the volume of everything,” he says. “Your talent has to be higher profi le, and your stories have to have bigger impact.” Secondly, Gibbons says that streamers like Discovery+
are “hungry beasts”. “The appetite of the audience is just enormous. Whatever you put up there is just consumed. And then you have got to have more. The volume is another learning that we have responded to.” Thirdly, Gibbons, says that the acquisition and retention of subscribers must be a major focus for SVODs. “You know when you do a direct consumer business that you have to worry about gaining subscribers and retaining your subscribers. But the theory and the practice are two different things.
“The practice is that it’s expensive and tough to deliver those subs. You’re competing with every single piece of
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GIBBONS REVEALS DISCOVERY+ LAUNCH LESSONS
attention that is out there. And then the retention piece is equally expensive and challenging. Unless you do both well, you don’t have a business.”
He claims that Discovery+ was the fourth biggest of the major streamers in terms of new SVOD subs each quarter. “Around 15-20% of new SVOD subs will come on to Discovery+,” he says. “The growth has been very, very satisfying and really exceeded our expectations.” Gibbons also highlights that Discovery has managed to
grow its audiences on linear channels at the same time as attracting subs for its streaming service. “There’s not a cannibalisation,” he says. The reason for this, is that the audiences are different. “There’s a 20-year age difference, on average, between the two cohorts. What that means is that as a business, the two complete each other, they don’t compete directly. So, by having video and streaming, you can basically reach all the available audience.”
“The appetite of the audience is just enormous. Whatever you put up there is just consumed,” James Gibbons, Discovery+
Gibbons says that many of Discovery+’s subscribers watch on PCs, the web and mobiles, and that it is important to be able to reach them there. “But there is no question that the big screen is king,” he adds. “The TV is king. The main audiences for premium video are the people who have access to a big screen, whether it’s a smart TV or pay-TV provider.”
Gibbons also spoke of the importance of pricing. Discovery+ is available in the US for $4.99 a month with
Gibbons: “The growth has been very, very satisfying”
advertising, and $6.99 a month for an ad-free version. However, in the UK and other markets, Discovery+ does not have the cheaper ad-supported version, although he said Discovery is looking at expanding its ad-supported version. “We do believe that if you want to serve all of the audience, then you do need to have ad-supported,” he adds.
Gibbons explains that there is a genuine difference in what people are willing and able to pay for content. “There are segments of people who will pay nothing, who will pay a little bit and who will pay more. So, the only way to make sure that you’re reaching each of those [segments] is to make sure that you’ve got a service that’s priced accordingly. To have a lower price, high-quality SVOD service, you have to have ad-supported.”
STARZ’S KALLE ON CREATING A “BEAUTIFUL COMPLEMENT” TO BROAD APPEAL STREAMERS
BY TIM DAMS
Lionsgate-backed streamer Starzplay is now available in more than 60 countries following a rapid global roll-out over the past three years. Superna Kalle, president of international networks at Starz, tells IBC Digital that her role is to bring the global streamer into every home in the world outside the US. Starz operates under three brands: Starzplay Arabia for the Middle East and North Africa; Lionsgate Play for South Asia and Southeast Asia; and Starzplay for Europe, Latin America, Japan and Canada. Starzplay international subs have nearly doubled over the past year to 7.5 million. Explaining the rise, Kalle says that during Covid-19 lockdowns, audiences around the world who were stuck at home discovered Starzplay and its shows such as Normal People, The Great and Ghosts. “[They] really just rose to the top of the charts for us – we’re really quite happy with the reception we received in almost every single country.” Kalle adds: “Global audiences are fi nding stories from other cultures and other countries in languages that are outside of their own home country… It’s something that we have leaned very heavily in on lately.” Starzplay is available as a direct-to-consumer
proposition, but the streamer is also working with partners such as Amazon Channels in many countries and Viaplay in the Nordics.
Superna Kalle with Tim Westcott of Omdia While its direct-to-consumer app allows Starzplay to
“harness a tonne of data”, these partnerships were important for reaching customers, stresses Kalle. “Amazon Channels… own the customer, but we work super-closely with them to make sure that our brand is front and centre on their homepage,” she says. The partnership with Viaplay has allowed Starzplay to launch into the Nordics. Kalle adds: “We’ve got multiple models, and each country is a bit different in terms of how we approach it, and each partner is different. But, in terms of what we look for with a partner, we look for trusted brands that people recognise and that have a fantastic funnel of people coming in onto their platform who can then fi nd us.” Starzplay carries content from Lionsgate, studios and independent producers. “We aim for at least one new exclusive hit show every month. We don’t tend to put things on that are – for lack of a better way of saying it – fl anker content,” says Kalle, who pitched the streamer
as a “beautiful complement” to more broad-based streamer services. “We lean very heavily into crime and high drama – authentic storytelling, no matter the country of origin, the writer or the producer. We lean heavily into sex as well, I think more than a lot of other [streamers]. It’s important to us that our brand stands for something that you wouldn’t see on broadcast television, certainly. We’re very premium in production values, writing quality and in character.”
Kalle says that original programming has also “ramped up”, both with US productions coming from Starz and via Starzplay local-language commissions. For example, the streamer is rolling out a slate of six Spanish-language originals starting with Malayerba. There have been reports recently that Starz may be spun-
off as a separate company to its listed parent Lionsgate. Asked about this, Kalle replies: “I think that management has spent a lot of time and effort building up Starz and Starzplay and the international division, and I don’t think that we’re getting the value from the stock. So, I think that it’s early days, so we’ll have to see what happens.”
Watch both interviews on IBC Digital
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