(L-R): Panelists Mitch Mallon of Stadium Media, Kyle Kaczmarek of KDMG, Bryan Crocker of Multicom Entertainment Group and Yolanda Macias of Cineverse with moderator Thomas K. Arnold of Media Play News.
No Standard Window for Content, OTT.X Summit Panelists Say
September 25, 2024
There’s no standard content windowing scheme that fits every title, panelists said at the OTT.X 2024 Summit Sept. 25 in Los Angeles.
With such varied outlets as physical disc, digital transactional sale and rental, ad-supported VOD and FAST, the success of each title depends on content owners’ ability to find the distribution timing that best suits it.
“There is no formula,” said Yolanda Macias, chief content officer at Cineverse. “We’ve had to be really nimble and creative.”
“Everything is an ROI question,” said Bryan Crocker, chief operating officer, Multicom Entertainment Group, adding that rigidity of windows is a thing of the past.
“Lucrative exclusive deals you could get from Netflix are gone,” he said. “Now it’s almost always that exclusive deal is not worth it.”
In choosing the correct windowing plan for a title, “you’re just constantly having to do the math,” he said.
Kyle Kaczmarek, CEO and founder, KDMG, said content owners have to ask, “Where is your addressable market?”
Mitch Mallon, founder and CEO, Stadium Media, likes to put content in the transactional window first because it offers a clear measure of a title’s appeal. Others agreed on the clear data provided by transactional distribution.
“We’re still very aggressive in the transactional space,” added Kaczmarek.
“We look at transactional first,” Crocker chimed in. Shorter-term deals are also key, he said.
“What we learned from exclusivity with Netflix is you don’t want to do long term,” Macias said, noting that Cineverse has found windows are more nuanced these days.
“Ultimately, it’s going to end up that every piece of content is going to need to be curated to some extent,” she said.
For instance, with Cineverse’s Terrifier 2, the studio had to expand the theatrical window when the film became a hit and push back its exclusive availability on Cineverse’s own Screambox streaming service. It then went to transactional digital, then physical disc, then it was co-licensed to Amazon and finally it was offered to other outlets. Informed by the experience with Terrifier 2, Terrifier 3, which debuts Oct. 11, will have a 45-day theatrical window before hitting Screambox.
Still, those great streaming deals with the big platforms do come along for some titles, Crocker said.
Subscribe HERE to the FREE Media Play News Daily Newsletter!
“You have to have relationships with platforms that are willing to do that first run exclusive to see if there’s a there there,” he said. “Every once in a while, that’s the offer you take.”
Case in point: for the biographical drama Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story, his company inked a three-year exclusive deal with Hulu.