The Shift from Windowing to Omnichannel Distribution is Reshaping the Entertainment Industry

Over the next few weeks, I’m writing about a series on major shifts happening in the entertainment industry, impacting film, TV, and gaming strategy. I’ll link between them as I post them, so you can view the full collection when it’s done.

Part One: The Shift from Local to Global Distribution is Reshaping the Entertainment Industry

Restarting my series about shifts in entertainment. Earlier we talked about *where* things are distributed, now let’s talk about *how* they’re distributed. We’ll start with an example of what not to do.

While Squid Game was making its debut globally on Netflix, Disney-owned FX was debuting the latest season of American Crime Story in the US. Earlier seasons were big hits, but this one barely registered. No one was watching, and no one was talking about it. What happened? In the time since 2018, when the last season was released, viewing behavior changed. Consumers in the US, and particularly young consumers, moved from cable to streaming.

And while Disney added a lot of FX shows to the Hulu streaming service, American Crime Story was stuck in an outdated contract, meaning that it won’t stream until the middle of 2022, and when it does, it will stream exclusively on Netflix. Not a great outcome for Disney.

This was a unique misstep for them, who spent billions of dollars to buy back the global distribution rights to many of the Marvel movies in order to ensure they were all on Disney+ in its first year. And during the pandemic, owning their own platform allowed them to launch their own premium on-demand window, Premiere Access, which gave you day-and-date access at home to movies when they were (or would be) released in theaters, for a premium price. Disney experimented with a variety of release strategies over the course of the pandemic, and recently have been moving back towards traditional theatrical releases. They controlled 40% of the global box office in 2019, so it’s been difficult to resist that money.

But we’re only heading to a world with more channels to consume entertainment content, not fewer. That’s why Disney launched Disney+ in the first place, and has been building out slates of TV shows for their most popular franchises. Disney knows that in order to maintain that popularity, consumers need easy access to these characters and stories. Preferably every week, not once or twice a year in a big theatrical release.

So what can we learn from Disney on the future of entertainment?

First, you need to meet your audience where they’re watching, listening, and playing. Do you want to be Squid Game, or do you want to be American Crime Story? You can’t let the channel dictate availability of your content, or you’ll get lost in the cultural conversation.

We’ve seen time and time again that streaming shows can drive conversation online, creating a feedback loop where new viewers start watching just so they can be part of the conversation. It’s impossible to do that if they don’t have easy access to the content.

And the best way to make sure you can enable that is to own your distribution. You don’t want to be tied up in old outdated contracts that prevent you from moving quickly to embrace new platforms, and new ways of connecting with your audience.

Part Three: The Shift of Attention from Video to Gaming is Reshaping the Entertainment Industry

Part Four: The Shift from Consumption to Co-Creation is Reshaping the Entertainment Industry

Thanks for reading! The next in this series will be coming next week!

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