Reelgood For Business Newsletter #1 (September 2021)
Welcome to the Reelgood for Business newsletter where we use Reelgood’s exclusive and unpublished data to give unique insights on the biggest news in streaming.
In today’s edition:
- The Marvel Cinematic Universe movies’ journey across streaming services
- Will ViacomCBS fold Showtime into Paramount+?
- What Funimation’s acquisition of Crunchyroll means for Anime
- Reelgood’s latest white paper
Happy reading and thanks for joining us.
David Sanderson
CEO and Founder
Beyond the Headlines
1. Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies’ Journey Across Streaming Services
With the premiere of Marvel’s Black Widow, Reelgood provided exclusive data to PCMag on the availability of titles from the Marvel Cinematic Universe across services.
“You might think that since Disney+ launched in November 2019, this chart would be a simple affair. After all, Disney+ is where most Marvel fans would go to see any and all MCU content (including new TV shows such as WandaVision and Loki), right? Wrong. Because the deals Disney—the owner of the MCU—has in place with various streaming services go back to a time well before Disney+ existed.” – Features Editor Eric Griffith
See the full article (and a massive chart featuring Reelgood data) here.
2. Why Doesn’t ViacomCBS Just Fold Showtime Into Paramount+?
Jana Winograde, Showtime’s Co-President of Entertainment, said Paramount+ is for mass appeal and Showtime is for more sophisticated viewers that want curation.
Reelgood’s Catalog Insights tool shows that Paramount+ has 8x as many movies and 15x as many episodes as Showtime. That said, Showtime has a greater percentage of content considered “premium.”
This may explain the difference in pricing as well. Diving deeper, our data indicates Showtime’s catalog features more serious fare, such as drama, thriller, crime, and documentary, while Paramount+ is well-rounded with comedy, animation, and family content to balance out more solemn titles, with very little overlap in titles between the two.
Will ViacomCBS go the way of Disney+ and bundle their services? Only time will tell. [The Wrap]
3. Sony’s Funimation Closes Crunchyroll Acquisition From AT&T, Plans to Create Single Anime Service
Funimation acquired Crunchyroll from AT&T for $1.2B. Sony Pictures Chairman/CEO Tony Vinciquerra said the goal is to “create a unified anime subscription experience as soon as possible.”
Looking at the data, it appears that’s exactly what they’ve done:
Reelgood data shows that the catalogs of Funimation and Crunchyroll combined currently account for ~80% of available anime episodes and over half of anime TV viewing on SVOD platforms in the U.S.
The main value of the acquisition for Funimation is that there will be a boost in viewership on both services once Crunchyroll subscribers can watch Funimation’s anime catalog, and vice versa.
When it comes to anime viewership, to date Crunchyroll has had the biggest share for SVODs in the U.S. By comparison, Funimation ranks below Netflix (#2) and Hulu (#3), despite its massive anime catalog that’s second only to Crunchyroll. It will be interesting to see how other SVODs proceed, particularly Netflix, whose share of anime viewing has steadily increased over the past year and surpassed Hulu’s, despite the latter having 1.5x as many anime episodes. [Variety]
Reelgood’s Q2 2021 SVOD Catalog and Viewing Insights Report
The latest trend? SVODs license and/or acquire content from production companies with established franchises (e.g. Prime Video and MGM, Netflix and Universal) to draw in new subscribers.
What production companies are winning? Looking at viewing among SVODs in the U.S. in Q2 2021, Reelgood determined that Warner Bros. is the most in-demand, due in large part to HBO Max’s day-and-date releases. Paramount remained in second place thanks to Prime Video logging the most views for the company, although Paramount+ houses most of its film titles.
Click here to see the full report.
Reelgood Named 2021 Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum
This year, we’re honored to be one of the World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers. Reelgood will contribute to Forum initiatives, working with global leaders to help address key industry and societal issues over the next two years.
Launched in 2000, the Technology Pioneer community is full of early to growth-stage companies involved in the design, development, and deployment of new tech and innovations. Read our full statement here.
Questions about how Reelgood’s products can help media and entertainment companies shape content strategy, accelerate growth, or inform partnership decisions? Contact us.
