By Ken Kelley
WITH LAST WEEK’S news that Disney intends to roll-out a cheaper, ad-supported tier of Disney+, Corus Entertainment CEO Doug Murphy (above) sees the move as a full circle moment.
“The market is waking up to the fact the bloom is coming off the streaming rose,” Murphy told Scotiabank analyst Jeff Fan during the bank’s annual TMT (telecom, media and technology) Conference.
While subsequently qualifying his statement to say he considers Disney to be the smartest operator of all digital platforms thanks to how the company segments its offerings on Disney+ while also preserving its channels business, he pointed to the challenges companies like Netflix have seen in terms of growing their subscriber base. And while Netflix has long insisted it would not introduce an ad-supported service, CFO Spencer Neumann said it could be something the company explores in the future.
“These companies need to generate earnings and investments in streaming are massively expensive,” Murphy said. “[Streaming companies] don’t benefit from the ability to license out later windows to other platforms and have to amortize all their big investments within their subscriber base.”
At the end of the day, Murphy insists people are not as averse to advertisements as some might believe.
“People don’t mind watching advertising. I feel it’s another example of [the industry] returning back to basics.”
Last month, Corus struck a landmark deal with Rogers to bring its’ StackTV offering to the cable provider’s Ignite TV and SmartStream customers. The deal made Rogers the first telecom provider in Canada to partner with Corus to offer StackTV, which was previously available only via Amazon Prime Video Channels.
Citing the consistent number of customers choosing to streamline their home offerings to broadband only, Murphy believes the move is a win-win for both companies.
“The fact that Rogers saw the value to take StackTV, with its more than 700,000 paying subscribers and want to make it available for their internet-only subscribers on SmartStream, or on Ignite TV, I think demonstrates that when they’re merchandising their offerings for subscribers, they want to capture them with a broadband subscription where they can offer StackTV alongside Netflix and Apple TV.”
Asked if he’d be willing to make StackTV available to Bell should the partnership with Rogers prove successful, Murphy said he would never rule anything out.
“We’re [all] working to make the Canadian viewer experience better and help protect against the unregulated onslaught of digital players in Canada. We’re collaborating in the industry in a way which I feel should be noted and I feel StackTV should live on every distributor in Canada, whether that’s on cable or IPTV Telco.”
Turning his attention toward the mention of unregulated digital players, Murphy said it is his hope that Bill C-11 will be passed and urged politicians to move expeditiously to make it happen.
“We cannot have our political parties wasting time in committees. It’s evident the playing field needs to be levelled. The value that broadcasters have brought to Canadians in an era of mis- and disinformation is evident to everybody. The necessity to provide financial relief to broadcasters is absolute and I just hope folks that lead can move with haste to get this done.”
Image borrowed from Corus’ website.
