NBC’s opportunity to cut through the streaming noise with Olympics

With NBCUniversal set to launch its own streaming service in 2020 the risk of content fragmentation is becoming more apparent, but this only underlines the importance of a niche.

Although many of these streaming services might think they are doing something innovative or novel, in reality they are copycatting Netflix. The big issue is that Netflix is already moving onto the bigger and better. Original content is the new frontier, though NBCUniversal might have stumbled across another unique selling point.

“Peacock will be the go-to place for both the timely and timeless – from can’t-miss Olympic moments and the 2020 election, to classic fan favourites like The Office,” said Bonnie Hammer, Chairman of Direct-to-Consumer and Digital Enterprises business unit.

The Olympics, and live streaming sport on the whole, is an area which the streaming giants have largely ignored to date. Amazon has dabbled with tennis, NFL and has a few English Premier League games for the 2019/20 season, while Twitter (admittedly not a streaming service) has got a partnership in place with the PGA Tour. YouTube has toyed with some live events, but never nailed it. It’s a bit sporadic, rather than a coherent assault.

With the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, NBCUniversal has a great opportunity to carve a niche and create a unique position in streaming ecosystem.

Through the NBC Olympic channel, the company has produced every Summer Olympics since Seoul in 1988 and every Winter Olympics since Salt Lake City in 2002. It has all media rights on all platforms to all Olympic Games through to 2032, paying $7.75 billion (US rights) in 2014.

This is a major attraction for consumers around the world and could form the central cog of a new type of streaming service if the team plays its cards right. Olympics coverage averaged 27.5 million viewers across all platforms, with streaming growing particularly. Nearly more than 2.71 billion minutes of coverage was streaming from the Rio Olympics, more than double the previous two events combined.

This is what the new streaming challengers need to understand; they cannot replicate the success of Netflix.

Disruptors to a fast-evolving ecosystem often try to do this and it fails due to the rapidly changing landscape. Netflix found success in being a content aggregator, bringing together titles from a variety of different sources. This model is dead. It cannot be replicated.

The creation of Peacock is another sign of content fragmentation. From next year onwards, Netflix viewers will no-longer be able to view titles such as ‘The Office’, ‘Parks and Recreation’, ‘Brooklyn Nine-nine’ and ‘30 Rock’. This is a consequence of each of the newly emerging platforms. When HBO Max emerged, Netflix lost ‘Friends’, ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ and ‘Pretty Little Liars’. With Disney+, all Marvel content will be removed from the Netflix library.

This is a dangerous position for any challengers. The Netflix model is dead because everyone wants to home their content exclusively. The value to the consumer of the aggregator model which drove Netflix in the early years is dwindling away as the content landscape becomes increasingly fragmented.

This is the importance of original content for the streaming services; it allows the creation of a selling-point beyond price. Admittedly, the Netflix original content will not appeal to everyone, but it has big enough budgets to create the breadth and depth, so each show does not have to be a catch-all, mass market product. Anyone who thinks they can compete with Netflix on original content will have to spend a lot of money to do so.

With coverage of the 2020 Election and the Tokyo Olympics on the NBCUniversal streaming platform, there is a notable opportunity to create a proposition which can cut through the noise.

Another very interesting opportunity for NBCUniversal is a fast-emerging trend in the content world; interactivity. This was a notable theme at IBC 2019, and sports presents an opportunity like few other genres.

Viewers could personalise their experience through the selection of different cameras or commentators. Value add content can be generated for months prior to the live-streaming of the event. Technologies such as virtual and augmented reality have a natural home in the sports ecosystem. Partnerships can be developed for additional monetization. There are endless troves of data points to engage every niche of viewer. The opportunity to build a more complete story all the way through the year is very evident.

The question is how aggressive NBCUniversal will be. Will it expand into other sports and live events? Will it look to drive engagement outside of the US market? These are unknowns and will largely be dependent on the delivery of the Tokyo Olympics, though it has a very good opportunity.