Podcast Episode 23 is live! With more streaming services adding AVOD plans, this week we breakdown ARPU amongst streaming services, which now have to be properly compared between SVOD, AVOD and a combo of the two. We also highlight new information given out by Disney and Netflix around their ad-supported plans, Telestream’s acquisition of Encoding.com, the new NFL+ service and Paramount’s thoughts on the windowing of movies. We also detail some of the problems companies are facing, across all sectors, when it comes to setting proper growth expectations on Wall Street and why some companies are being forced to cut costs and lay people off, or slow hiring. Thanks to this week’s podcast sponsor, Agora. 

Companies, and services mentioned: Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu, NFL+, Netflix, Roku, HBO Max, Vizio, Paramount, Peacock TV, fuboTV, Spotify, Pluto TV, Telestream, Akamai, Encoding.com, FIFA, Snap, Edgecast, Limelight Networks, Melvin Capital.

With more streaming services adding AVOD plans, here’s a comparison of ARPU amongst streaming services, which now have to be properly compared between SVOD, AVOD and a combo of the two.

• Disney+ global ARPU was $4.30 in Q1, Domestic was $6.32 (subscription)
• ESPN+ ARPU was $4.73 in Q1 (subscription and advertising)
• Hulu SVOD ARPU was $12.77 in Q1 (subscription and advertising)
• Netflix global ARPU was $14.91 in Q1 (subscription)
• HBO Max domestic ARPU was $11.24 in A1 (subscription and advertising)
• Paramount domestic ARPU of “around $9” in Q1 (subscription and advertising)
• Peacock TV ARPU was “around $10”, in Q4 2021, no Q1 2022 number given (subscription and advertising)
• Roku ARPU was $42.91 in Q1 (trailing 12 months), which is $3.57 a month (advertising)
• fuboTV “Advertising ARPU” was $7.11 in Q1 (their long-term target for Ad ARPU is $15-$20)
• Vizio ARPU was $23.68 in Q1 (trailing 12-months), which is $1.97 a month (advertising)
• Starz domestic ARPU was “around $5.70 to $6”, in May 2021 and Lions Gate hasn’t updated it since then (subscription)
• Discovery’s overall D2C ARPU was “around $7”, with Discovery+ ARPU of “more than $10”. These numbers are from July 2021 and Discovery hasn’t broken out ARPU since them. (subscription and advertising)
• Pluto TV global ARPU was $1.64, Domestic ARPU was $2.54, at the end of 2021 (advertising)

Many streaming services like AMC+, CuriosityStream, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, DAZN, YouTube TV and many others have provided no details on ARPU to date, or in the past few years.

Podcast Episode 22 is live! This week we breakdown Q1 2022 calendar earnings from Disney, fuboTV and DISH including subscriber gains/losses, ARPU and revenue growth rate. We also detail some engagement numbers highlighting what engagement looks like across gaming (Roblox, Activision Blizzard), trading (Robinhood, Coinbase), social (Facebook) and other platforms showing how consumer’s behaviors have changed since the pandemic. Thanks to this week’s podcast sponsor, Agora. 

Companies, and services mentioned: Netflix, Disney, fuboTV, DISH, Sling TV, AMC, Hulu, EPSN+, Hotstar, YouTube TV, Vizio, Facebook, Roblox, Peloton, Carvana, Coinbase, Activision Blizzard, Robinhood, Charter, Call Of Duty.

All of the conferences sessions and presentations from the NAB Show Streaming Summit are now online for viewing at: https://nabstreamingsummit.com/videos/2022vegas/

Thanks to Mobeon Media for doing all the AV capture at the event and to Kaltura for hosting all the videos. #nabshow #streamingmedia #streamingsummit

The next NAB Show Streaming Summit will take place in NYC, October 19-20 at the Javits Convention Center. Full details and the call for speakers will be announced at the end of May.

Podcast Episode 21 is live! This week we breakdown the key numbers you need to know from Q1 earnings reports including updated subscriber and ARPU numbers from Paramount+, Roku, Peacock TV and cord cutting numbers from Charter, Comcast and Verizon. We also detail the revenue growth rate, GAAP net loss/gain from cloud vendors and streaming vendors including Akamai, Alphabet, Brightcove, Fastly, Limelight, Microsoft, Vimeo. Come up to speed on important Q1 earnings you should know about, all in 30-minutes.Thanks to this week’s podcast sponsor, Agora. 

Companies, and services mentioned: Comcast, Peacock TV, Paramount+, Roku, Amazon, Fastly, Limelight, Akamai, Brightcove, WicketLabs, Microsoft, Amazon Prime Video, NFL, Alphabet, YouTube TV, Vimeo, Charter, Verizon.

Podcast Episode 20 is live! This week we discuss some of the news from the NAB Show, detail some of the products and services we saw on the exhibit floor and talk about the hottest topics discussed at the Streaming Summit. We also detail attendee numbers, some of the NAB’s plans for the new show in NYC in October, how engineering teams are building out video applications and what the future of the media business looks like. Thanks to this week’s podcast sponsor, Agora. 

Companies, and services mentioned: Meta, Agora, FOX Sports, LaLiga, Hulu, Sling TV, Netflix, HBO Max, Eluvio, Livepeer, Brightcove, Mux.

Google has announced a new commercial CDN offering called “Media CDN”, as part of their Google Cloud platform. You can listen to this special podcast I did with David Reisfeld from Google for more details on the service. At launch, the new CDN offering will support on-demand video and large object downloads with Google planning to add support for live streaming later in the year. Google is targeting customers with at least 10PB a month of delivery or multiple Tbps of delivery. Google tells me they plan to be aggressive on price, but isn’t trying to be a low-cost leader in the market. Google’s goal with their CDN offering isn’t to compete on commodity CDN business but rather sell Media CDN as part of a much larger contract that includes many cloud-based services.

Google’s Media CDN platform will leverage some components of the YouTube CDN platform and Google built out a new control and data plane to let customers have control of the Media CDN platform, since YouTube has always been a private platform just for YouTube content. The new service is all API driven and you can listen to the podcast to learn more about Google’s product road map, what media services they plan to add through a partner ecosystem, how Media CDN ties into their compute platform and how Google plans to measure QoE of their new Media CDN offering.