Fun
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Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
For years there have been signs that NBC simply doesn’t understand streaming culture.
First, there was their idiotic mishandling of the 2012 Winter Olympics. Numerous outlets wondered why they were being so tyrannical about controlling their live coverage. As The Atlantic reported, one tweeter sagely mused, “Why wouldn’t NBC sell an all-you-can-eat Olympics streaming package for $29.95? Is that too logical?” You may forget, but at the time, you could only livestream it for a short period at time at your (work) computer, and that’s if you had a log-in, and you had to deal with buffering issues and constant sponsor messages. Not to mention the fact that NBC was sitting on tons of footage they never aired on television. They could have taken full advantage of all that live footage with an Olympics streaming bundle — but they didn’t.
Then there was the announcement that they would be dumping all of Aquarius online after the first episode aired on the network. The idea was that it would hopefully drum up viewer interest and get people to tune in for the next episodes?? Which…makes no sense? I get maybe dumping the first six episodes of a season of The Blacklist — it’s the Peacock’s most popular show and such a move could pull in new viewers and leave them wanting more. If you liked the Aquarius premiere and wanted to see more, wouldn’t you just watch the whole series online? And never tune in again?? SOMEONE EXPLAIN HOW THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO WORK.
Finally, they’ve effectively ruined Hannibal‘s big chance to become a monster streaming hit. The marvelously macabre show’s most ardent support comes from the internet. Tumblr and twitter users gush about the show, thereby creating free advertising. The first two seasons are available to binge on Amazon Prime — which gives people an easy entry into the tricky show. And finally, many of the show’s fans (like me) only were able to keep up with the show when it was on the air because it was on Hulu Plus the next day. I had even been banking on watching the season premiere on Hulu, so I was dismayed last Friday to discover that it had been yanked from the streaming site. You can watch it on NBC.com, but that still means I could only legally watch the season premiere on my TV screen by purchasing it on VOD.
NBC’s strategy appears to boil down to this: We’ll force people to stream on our terms, and thereby control the ratings and the cash flow in our favor. The problem with NBC’s strategy is that their current slate isn’t enticing enough to win cordcutters back into the cable fold. Yeah, I like Hannibal a lot. I don’t like it well enough to call my cable company and get a cable box. At most, I’ll buy a season pass on iTunes or Amazon. At the least, I’ll wait until the third season is up on Amazon Prime. At worst, I’ll stop watching the show altogether in favor of something readily available to stream. And that’s precisely how you lose a streaming audience instead of building one.
A few months back, NBC announced that they are planning on rolling out a streaming service that will offer users the ability to stream their prestigious late night line up live. The monthly cost is cited to be between $2.50 and $3.50 a month. It seems like pittance, but then you’re getting pittance. Even this offering grossly misunderstands how a bulk of modern viewers watch late night. The rise of streaming has given viewers the option to catch highlights of late night shows the next morning in easily digestible, incredibly sharable clips on YouTube and Hulu.
There was a time when NBC was the considered the best channel on television. Thursdays were all about “Must See TV,” The Today Show was America’s favorite morning show, and the Emmys fawned over their comedy and drama slates. Now it seems that NBC not only needs to figure out how to make its programming relevant for today’s ultra-savvy audience, but it also has to figure out how people watch TV in 2015.
NBC has to accept that streaming culture isn’t going away. They need to learn to go with the current or risk being swept away.
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[Photos: NBC]
