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Historically, the prepay was a banner period for the television industry. Every spring, the major networks introduce their products to advertisers, hoping to sell airtime for the highest price. This year, however, prepayments are taking place in the context of a strike by the Writers Guild of Americaand most of the events that happened to the picket lines were focused outside. Netflix canceled their live event and hold presentations almost.
At the time Jon Steinlauf, head of the US advertising business at Warner Bros. Discovery, taking the stage two days ago for his company’s annual closing keynote, he was ready to tell the elephant in the room: “What you’re about to see isn’t exactly the show we expected. will do today. We have decided to only have executives on stage out of respect for our talent and the WGA.”
Like many of the previous installments this week, WBD’s presentation focuses on unscripted content: sporting events, news, documentaries. But unlike other networks, WBD – the result of a merger between Warner Media and Discovery – is just days away from one of their biggest moves yet, which they’re about to set aside more marketing money for than any other. anything else in the company’s history: a reboot HBO Max like only maximum.
It’s almost hard to remember now but HBO Max is out in height COVID-19 Lockdown, May 2020. Looks like this is the best and worst time to launch a streaming service. Everyone is stuck at home and hungry for new content to watch—but so are all TV show and movie makers. The service has a great back catalog but can’t promise too much new content beyond what’s already been done prior to launch.
On Tuesday, May 23, roughly three years later, it will offer a new service that combines what Max already has with Discovery+’s service, but is also facing a publisher strike drama caused many production processes to stall. “I hope that a fair solution is found soon with the screenwriters, of course, bringing the talent back to this stage,” HBO and Max CEO Casey Bloys said in the response. before. “Until then, you’re pretty much stuck with me and my clips.”
In the grand scheme, a streaming service its name change from a predictable milquetoast to an even less descriptive one is not remarkable. But now there’s another big bump in the Max’s deployment, a road full of potholes. And while it may seem like HBO is cursed to have a terrible time, there are things the company can do to avoid these roadblocks. For starters, it could push the Television and Film Producers Alliance to make a deal with the WGA, whose members have chosen outside of WBD’s pre-show at the Theater in New York. Madison Square Garden, holding signs that read “Don’t piss in my leg and tell me, ‘It’s streaming,'” and chanting “When I say ‘AI’ you say ‘goodbye.’”
