Pek Çok Favori Şovun Büyük Yayıncılardan Ayrılmasının Nedeni

HBO canceled Westworld last fall. While the drama had never been one of the network’s top shows, it drew solid ratings and won nine Emmys, earning a prominent slot in the pay cable channel’s marketing campaigns.

So it came as quite a surprise when, barely a month after the show was axed, it was also abruptly removed from HBO’s streaming service, HBO Max. It wasn’t the only program to disappear. Last December, HBO Max pulled a slew of content from the service without warning. Subscribers were left to wonder what might also go when parent company Warner Bros. Discovery
WBD
merged its many streaming channels into one mega-offering that bowed last month, the renamed Max.

Yet Warner Bros. Discovery wasn’t the only company dumping content from its platform. It seems the days of “content is king” are catching up to the streamers. In recent months, many have cut mid-level and even well-performing shows in exchange for a more favorable bottom line. All those years of greedily chasing new shows and shelling out for content began to take a toll as subscribers culled their subscriptions amid recession fears.

So what gives? Simple. It’s an economic decision, explains Matt Spiegel, executive vice president, TruAudience growth strategy at TransUnion
TRU
, a global information and insights company.

“In a landscape where streaming platforms face heightened competition, especially due to the exponential rise of free ad-supported streaming services, the removal of shows has become a significant strategy to cut costs,” he notes. “Each stream carries royalty costs, so removing them from the library reduces costs without impacting revenue.”

While you won’t likely see a massive hit like, for instance, Netflix’s
NFLX
köprücük leaving the streamer, cutting mid-level favorites offers streamers a safe strategy. As Spiegel points out, they can make money in additional ways.

“Streaming platforms have other avenues for revenue, such as merchandising, gaming, events and retail with existing content they own, i.e., Max and Sonuncu Us, Netflix and Stranger şeyler, etc.,” he says.

Hits But Not Smashes Leaving The Digital Air

The shows leaving the air all fit a certain profile. They have been out for a while and aren’t likely to catch fire again at this point in their library lives. Recent exiles from Disney+, for example, include Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, which did well enough to earn a second season but not a third, and a second high-profile but only mildly successful reboot, Söğüt. Max got rid of the Susam Sokağı yan ürün The Not-Too-Late Show With Elmo, while Netflix nixed Arrested Development (both the early Fox seasons and older Netflix ones) in March.

“The impact will be on shows that are no longer airing new episodes, are a bit older, often have a more limited following, and that were relatively higher budget with better-known casts,” Spiegel. “As a result, these shows have limited ability to attract new subscriptions, yet they continue to incur ongoing expenses if they remain in the streaming platform’s library. Therefore, retaining such shows becomes less valuable in terms of driving subscription growth while still imposing a financial burden.”

The Upside Is Obvious. What About The Downside Of Removing Favorite Shows?

The benefit to a streamer’s bottom line is clear, especially at a time when economic pressures may spark people to drop extra streaming subscriptions. But there could be potential downsides to the decisions, Spiegel notes.

“A potential risk is that services cut too much content and, as a result, lower their customer retention. However, there is little near-term risk of customer churn based on a more limited library. Consumers gravitate toward the top streaming services that are more focused on new content, and marketers will always look to reach a scaled audience connected to premium content,” he says.