Maintaining the Premium Edge

Transcription

1 A Case Study of HBO s Digital Content Distribution Digital Media Strategist

2 Disclaimer The following is solely the presenter s personal views of HBO s digital distribution strategy based on information openly available online. It does not represent HBOs official strategy nor does it reveal any confidential, proprietary information.

3 What is Premium?

4 What is Premium? Definition: Superior in quality; higher in price or value. Source: wiktionary.org

5 Premium TV in the US First-run theatricals, edgy original programming, sports Consumers must pay an additional subscription price, up to 25% of their basic cable bill. * Generally, no commercials. *Price estimate based on Comcast packages offered in New Haven, CT (

6 Some Premium TV Brands in the US

7 The Largest Premium Network is HBO Source: SNL Kagan

8 History of HBO in the US Started broadcasting as HBO in November Began satellite distribution in Offered multiplex channels in Started digital transmission in Pioneered OnDemand in Introduced HD for all linear channels in Launched HD On Demand in Distributed HBO GO with 600 hours in 2010; 1400 hours in 2011

9 What do HBO subscribers get?

10 Quality Original Programming

11 And... Theatrical Blockbusters HBO Films Documentaries Championship Boxing

12 HBO Content is on Multiple Portals Xfinity.com dishonline.com charter.net/tv verizon.com/ondemand uverseonline.att.net directv.com/entertainment/watch_online suddenlink.net/tv

13 How Does HBO Maintain a Premium Edge Online?

14 HBO s Premium Edge High Technical Quality Brand Identification Exclusivity

15 Ensuring Technical Quality Using best-of-breed encoding tools Testing intermediate and consumer video with distributor Quality check of every file that is delivered Monitoring video availability, image and text correctness on every platform

16 Monitoring is Essential Missing Artwork Wrong network

17 Protecting Brand Identification Using distinctive animated open before video Displaying HBO logo in the page Title branding

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19 Branding Examples Page and Title Branding Page Branding No Branding

20 Maintaining exclusivity Only available to subscribers To date, no deal with Netflix No third-party advertisements No disaggregation of content

21 Relevance to Newspapers

22 Video Entertainment vs. Text News Different Issues Entertainment has a longer shelf life Text is easier to distribute Regional and language boundaries Possibly multiple sources for a given news story Common challenge is Ensuring Quality, Preserving Brand Identification and Maintaining Exclusivity.

23 Online News Environment Plethora of news aggregators on multiple platforms Content from multiple sources is intermingled Lack of curation

24 Multiple News Aggregators Web based: Google Reader, Yahoo News Tablet: Pulse, Flipboard Desktop: RSSOwl, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, many more.

25 Content is Intermingled How are sources ordered? Is a competitor being promoted?

26 Lack of Curation Important stories can get lost

27 Lack of Curation May Lead to Loss of Quality

28 Challenges to Being Exclusive Disaggregated content Third party advertisements Lack of a subscription model

29 Summary If you are a premium content provider, you can charge for your content, but make sure consumers know what they are getting in return. In the HBO example, the elements of maintaining the premium edge are Ensuring Quality, Preserving Brand Identification and Maintaining Exclusivity.

30 Thank You!