Issue 85  28th October 2016

The millennial angle to the AT&T-Time Warner deal

A giant telecoms conglomerate buys a giant media conglomerate, what does that mean to the generation who watch most of their content digitally and on mobile?

Well, a lot.

While Verizon is taking the approach of building its media empire one property at a time through acquisition (AOL, Yahoo!) and organic growth (go90), arch-rival AT&T could be in a position to take a huge leap forward by acquiring the entire Time Warner portfolio in one fell swoop, allowing it to bundle cable-favourites like HBO and CNN as well as Turner’s sports rights and the blockbuster catalog of Warner Bros. into its broadband and wireless packages.

The path to success for a merger of this size is of course fraught with potential pitfalls on a business level, but there’s no doubting that packaging up all of this premium entertainment, news and sports into a simple, easy product could be a strong draw for millennials.

All that’s required is the small job of nailing the user experience.

Meet the Bundle 2.0

YouTube. Hulu. AT&T. In the coming months we expect to see live OTT packages by all three, to join the likes of DirecTV Now, Sling TV, Playstation Vue and Stream. The 'great unbundling' of cable is morphing into the 'great bundling' of OTT.

As Variety's Oriana Schwindt points out in this thorough roundup of the current state of play, uptake is still anemic compared with traditional cable and satellite services and there's a long way to go before the live OTT landscape becomes established enough to really start competing.

At Rerun, our bets are on these OTT services as being most likely to deliver true leaps forward in innovation in both content and overall user experience, so we're fascinated to see how this plays out over the next few years.

Live at the Live Fronts 

The inaugural LiveFronts event, presented by BRaVe Ventures and Roker Media. took place in New York this week, and Team Rerun had a front row seat.

Live video streaming is the topic du jour and representatives from Twitch, Snapchat, Live Nation, Viacom and NBC discussed monetisation, measurement, emerging platforms, and audience growth strategies.

Of course, the entire event was streamed live on Facebook. But, if you missed it, Alan Wolk breaks down the highlights in this two part report.

The theme is how live video is changing the media, how it’s becoming its own medium, separate and distinct from pre-recorded TV.

Twitch live cooking show with ‘Food Network star’ Justin Warner

Twitch CRO Jonathan Simpson-Bint was one of the guest speakers at the LiveFronts event this week. He spoke about Twitch's plans to enter new verticals to broaden its audience, a prime example being this new cook-along show, in partnership with Roker Media.

For each “ChefShock” episode, viewers will be able to purchase ingredients in advance, by either looking at the “ChefShock” meal schedule or choosing one of the show’s home-delivery partners, and then cook along with Warner.

The inspiration for an interactive cooking show came from the popularity of a Julia Child show marathon on Twitch earlier this year, where even hardcore gamers took a break from gameplay to stream their own cooking efforts. Bon Appetit!