Tag: television

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Do Product Managers Need To Become Less Perfect?

Product managers adopt a lo-fi approach to advertising their products
Product managers adopt a lo-fi approach to advertising their products
Image Credit: nefasth

When we think about how we want to present our products to our potential customers, I think that we can all agree that we’d like to make the product look as attractive as possible. No matter if we are using words, pictures, or even video, our goal is to make the product look like something that our customers would desire to get their hands on. However, is it possible that we’ve been getting this all wrong? Is there another way that could allow us to be even more successful?

What Is The Best Way To Reach Customers?

I’m pretty sure that we’ve all watched shows like the Superbowl and seen the glitzy commercials that have been created for major brands. These commercials often look so good with their fancy special effects that we might be mistaken that they are really a movie trailer for a film that will be coming out shortly. However, it turns out that there is another way that product managers are also trying to capture their audience’s attention: low-budget, short-form YouTube talk shows using lesser-known celebrities. While the beautiful, costly productions remain most big product manager’s favored tool of persuasion on TV, high-polish work is being chipped away online as our consumers enthusiastically spread amateur and semiprofessional aesthetics, meme by meme and like by like. Product managers are learning the art of looking a little less artful, to better to show that they understand certain audiences and platforms.

Looking for a way to describe what is going on, product managers have come up with the term “ugly advertising.” Not all product managers like this approach – they believe in craftsmanship. However, at the end of the day it’s about connecting with potential customers. If customers are connecting with this, product managers owe it to themselves to understand it. Deliberately “ugly” advertising is perhaps somewhat random but it is never sloppy, it conveys an idea simply, and it isn’t overly concerned with looking cool.

Growing ad avoidance by consumers is eroding the value of perfection in advertising. The problem is that customers are developing an aversion to ads that look like ads. When they see that production value, it can be a trigger that you’re trying to sell me something to them, and customers aren’t interested in that. What product managers are starting to understand is that “ugly can sell”. High-finish content can be a red flag on some channels, suggesting to users that the advertiser may be an interloper. When brands show up with advertising that’s really slick, it’s like they’re putting content on the platform, not in the platform.

Say Hello To The New Ugly

Product managers have to understand that they need some degree of control and influence, but by no means should they be held hostage by their own brand guidelines. One of the big questions that product managers are trying to answer is if unslick advertising will become common on TV. What need to realize is that these days tweens, children, watch YouTube. This has become their new TV. But product managers must avoid the appearance of insincerity – of trying to present themselves as something they’re not. This approach won’t work for every product manager. A good example would be if you worked for a bank. If you do, then you should not be doing this. Let’s face it, financial institutions should emphasize their professionalism and attention to detail over relatability.

Product managers should have an open mind about adopting a lo-fi aesthetic. We need to realize that not everything should be this way, but it’s one more tool that we have to work with. So how can we go about using this new approach to advertising? The first thing that we can do is to work with partners who know a given platform or its audience. They can help us to feel out the right time and place. We then have to look for our shot. Production budgets don’t matter in this new world. That’s a great opportunity for smaller brands, for challenger brands. We are going to want to keep it simple, but we must not forget to bring an idea. We have to be careful to not come across as being a poseur. Our potential customers can smell any brands trying to force authenticity.

The good news about advertising our products this way is that it can get talked about so much because no one has done anything like it before. Understand that half of the people are ready for something like this and the other half completely won’t understand it. Perhaps counterintuitively, the spread of the new ugly advertising is actually increasing the premium on craft. We need to keep in mind that it doesn’t always have to be expensive, but care and professionalism will always be important.

What All Of This Means For You

Every product manager wants to let the world know about their product. If they could, they would create high quality ads that would take their potential customer’s breath away. This type of ad can work; however, it turns out that there is another approach that might work also. This new approach can cost a great deal less and it can have the same impact as the movie quality types of ads that we are used to trying to create. How can we tap into this new style of advertising?

We all know that high quality, professional, ads make our product look great. However, it turns out that lower quality YouTube style presentations of our product can also have an impact. Creating this less polished type of advertising allows us to connect with our audience. This new style is called “ugly advertising”. Our potential customers are avoiding polished ads and the use of ugly ads can capture their attention. As YouTube becomes the new TV for the younger crowds, this type of advertising can catch on. We have to be careful – it’s probably not appropriate for every product. We have to choose the right partners and we have to keep it simple. This is a new way to get people talking about our product.

The ultimate goal for any product manager is to get their product noticed by potential customers. If we can get their attention, then we can potentially get them to buy our product. We are always looking for a better way to make this happen. It is starting to appear that we don’t always have to deliver a polished advertisement – we can go lo-fi and still spark the interest of our customer. We just have to understand the best way to go about doing this and then execute it with the professionalism that we always insist on.


– Dr. Jim Anderson Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Product Management Skills™


Question For You: How can you tell if a product would benefit from a lo-fi advertising approach?


Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Product Manager Blog is updated.
P.S.: Free subscriptions to The Accidental Product Manager Newsletter are now available. It’s your product – it’s your career. Subscribe now: Click Here!

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

As product managers our job is to create products that our potential customers will want. We don’t often spend a lot of time thinking about how we are going to deliver our products to our customers. However, perhaps we should. If it turned out that how we get our products to our customers had an impact on how much of our product we were able to sell, then all of sudden we’d get very interested in just how this gets done. Some product managers have realized this, and they have all of sudden become very interested in drive-throughs.

The post Do Product Managers Need To Become Less Perfect? appeared first on The Accidental Product Manager.

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Product Managers Start To Get Direct With Their Advertising

Advertising only works if your customers see it
Advertising only works if your customers see it
Image Credit: Nick Amoscato

Every product manager wants to be responsible for a successful product. In order to make your product be a success, you are going to have to get people to buy it. In order for that to happen, first people are going to have to know about your product. That is where advertising comes in. Right now the world of advertising is undergoing a major transformation that may impact how you can use it to reach your potential customers. Are you going to be ready?

Say Hello To The New Way Of Advertising

Advertising product managers are turning their attention to what they hope will be the next new engine of growth for their industry: direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketers. Direct-to-consumer businesses, which offer everything from mattresses to toothbrushes to home workouts, start reducing their costs by cutting out middlemen such as physical retail distributors. And these firms relentlessly focus on measures such as the cost to acquire a new customer – while relying on advertising, usually on social media, as their main way to grow.

Now ad product managers hope that the booming DTC business can become a major new revenue source for their industry, complementing big, established categories like insurance, pharmaceuticals and technology. Unlike those existing standbys – whose spending is well-defined and already baked into their revenue expectations – DTC brands play in an apparently unlimited range of products and could be ready for rapid expansion ahead. The DTC companies look especially promising to product managers in traditional media, such as television. As DTC companies start to mature, often eventually opening stores or going on shelves at national retailers, they’re devoting more of their marketing dollars to traditional venues in order to expand their customer base and implement longer-term strategies such as a brand building.

Product managers realize that DTC has been a driver for digital spending for several years, and for the last two years, it’s been a driver for traditional media as well. Measures of DTC activity tend to vary, but they all indicate rapid growth. Spending has increased 35% last year to US$378 million and is likely to grow another 30% this year and 25% the following year. And these firms are spreading out from their usual advertising havens such as social media. National TV spending soared 42% four years ago to $137 million, for instance, and is expected to rise 34% this year and 25% next year.

Its All About Diversification

DTC product managers as a whole increased their ad spending on TV last year to $3.8 billion. That’s still just a slice of the roughly $70 billion TV ad business; however, it’s 60% higher than the year prior. For some DTC product managers, diversification is partly about protection. Some firms are moving a big chunk of their marketing budget away from Facebook and increasing it in more-traditional outlets. They fear their strategy could be hurt if the social network unexpectedly changed an algorithm or shifted a policy. Facebook is down from about 85% of some companies ad spend to about 30% or 35%.

Product managers realize that diversification is also a matter of taking growth to another level. DTC brands are reaching the scale where they want to find ways to talk to the mass market, to consumers everywhere in the country, not just the trendsetters. After a certain point for a DTC brand, increasing spending in the same place will begin to produce diminishing returns. The chase is on for DTC ad dollars, and product managers are courting clients in the sector.

Product managers are trying to become more flexible, to better mirror the digital platforms where DTC brands grow up. To give them openings to experiment without having to shell out for a pricey prime-time commercial, the product managers are deploying a machine-learning tool that analyzes scripts to find spots where ads could appear next to relevant scenes in more affordable programming. How far the DTC spending and diversification go, and for which brands, remains to be seen. Some DTC companies, for instance, will likely retain their focus on social media.

What All Of This Means For You

Advertising product managers are always on the lookout for ways to generate more revenue. They have advertising space that they want to sell and they are looking for firms that are willing to buy it. They have their old standbys – firms in the insurance, pharmaceuticals and technology industries. However, in order to keep growing they need more customers. They think that they may have found a new market: DTC.

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) businesses, reduce their costs by cutting out middlemen. And these firms relentlessly focus on measures such as the cost to acquire a new customer – while relying on advertising as their main way to grow. DTC brands play in an apparently unlimited range of products and could have rapid expansion ahead. The DTC companies look especially promising to product managers in traditional media, such as television. DTC has been a driver for traditional media sales. DTC firms are starting to move away from online advertising to more traditional advertising methods in order to diversity. The size of some of the DTC firms is also causing them to seek new ways to advertise. Product managers also have to become flexible in order to land this new type of customer.

The need to grow the market for the advertising that they have to sell drives advertising product mangers to always be looking for new types of customers. The DTC market is starting to look like a novel new market for them to go after. They need to take the time to understand this market and then adjust what products they offer in order to meet their unique needs. If done properly, the advertising product managers may have just discovered a major new market.


– Dr. Jim Anderson Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Product Management Skills™


Question For You: How can advertising product managers convince DTC firms to switch from social media to traditional media?


Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Product Manager Blog is updated.
P.S.: Free subscriptions to The Accidental Product Manager Newsletter are now available. It’s your product – it’s your career. Subscribe now: Click Here!

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

When we think about how we want to present our products to our potential customers, I think that we can all agree that we’d like to make the product look as attractive as possible. No matter if we are using words, pictures, or even video, our goal is to make the product look like something that our customers would desire to get their hands on. However, is it possible that we’ve been getting this all wrong? Is there another way that could allow us to be even more successful?

The post Product Managers Start To Get Direct With Their Advertising appeared first on The Accidental Product Manager.

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Product Managers Prepare To Battle For The Inside Of Your Car

A battle is brewing for your car's dashboard screen
A battle is brewing for your car’s dashboard screen
Image Credit: may bird

If you think about it, all of the screens in your life have already been claimed by someone. Your PC screen is owned by either Microsoft or Apple. Your phone screen is owned by either Google or Apple. The list goes on. Right now there is really only one screen that is still up for grabs. Which screen is this you ask? It’s the screen that is on the dashboard of your car. However, even as you read this, product managers are scrambling to try to win over this one last remaining unclaimed screen.

The Final Screen

Both the auto industry and Silicon Valley are currently locked in a battle for control of one of the last unconquered screens out there: your car dashboard display. At stake in this battle are billions of dollars in revenue from ads and services as well as the balance of power between two big industries. Oh yeah, there is also the future of the dash itself, a source of endless complaints from drivers frustrated by its glitchy concoction of buttons and technologies. The car makers who are trying to overcome this poor track record, are counting on these few square inches to help build closer relationships with customers. Some fear that they may end up handing control to Silicon Valley. Alphabet and Apple, meanwhile, are itching to put their familiar screens and apps inside vehicles just like they have done with so many other products.

Right now the current state of play is a confused free-for-all as the two industries circle each other with little trust. Some car makers are giving in and turning over their dashboard operating systems to Alphabet’s Google entirely. Others, including Ford Motor Co. and Daimler AG , think that they can muster the technological chops to compete. Volvo’s new Polestar electric-car brand will be the first to have a dash system that runs completely on Google’s new car operating system, giving it a feel very much like an Android phone. Alternatively, GM has developed an in-dash system that includes a commerce platform where users can pre-order from Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks. It also has the ability to locate a nearby ExxonMobil station.

The average American driver spends roughly 51 minutes a day in the car. This means that they are a literal captive audience. On future car dashboard screens, local restaurants, doctors’ offices and other services could target ads based on typical driving routes. For example, an insurance company could offer lower rates for cautious drivers, while car makers could use system data to offer service on an aging car part before it fails. Some product managers envision a world where users could start watching a TV show at home, then with a voice command continue watching the same program in the car. Others are working on allowing users to order and pay for gasoline and coffee on their screens.

The Future Of Car Dashboards

It is estimated that these data-driven products could create as much as US$750 billion in new revenue by 2030, including from location-based advertisements and predictive car maintenance. Product managers see this as the battle for the fourth screen, after the television, computer and the mobile phone. Car infotainment systems have frequently exasperated customers. Auto maker product managers are starting with a natural disadvantage. New car models were designed and engineered several years ago and customers tend to hold on to their cars longer than they do phones. Car companies have been reluctant to spend money on expensive electronics, and many older car displays were never designed to be updated.

Beyond Apple and Google, there are other tech companies who are working to get their offerings incorporated into car systems. An example of this is Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest smartphone maker by sales, who purchased auto-supplier Harman International Industries for $8 billion two years ago to get its hardware into cars. Harman has showed that it can integrate video screens and user experiences in the car at the annual CES tech show. Microsoft is also edging in, providing auto makers such as Volkswagen and BMW with unique cloud-based services that help them beam down new apps and software to a car. Amazon.com is in the midst of rolling out its Alexa voice assistant in BMW, Toyota and Volkswagen models, though it’s currently limited in what it can do.

Google’s push into the car is part of a larger strategy to provide more services and content across platforms. This all started with its 2005 purchase of the Android operating system. This ecosystem is what allows customers access to their digital lives on different screens and helped Google generate an estimated $82 billion in mobile advertising revenue last year. The Google product managers have realized that, just as they did with the mobile phone, to make that transition easy they need to have a common platform in the car. The launch of self-driving vehicles in the coming years has the possibility of bringing even more screens into the car, both on and off the dashboard, as passengers get more time to work, shop or watch movies on the road instead of driving.

What All Of This Means For You

Our lives are dominated by the screens that we spend most of our day staring at. No matter if it’s the television, the laptop screen or our mobile phone, they hold our attention for the better part of each day. Product managers have come to realize that there may be one more screen that is still up for grabs: the screen that is built into our car’s dashboard. Now the big question is who is going to win this valuable real estate?

Car manufactures and high-tech firms are locked in battle to see who can walk away a winner over the battle for car dashboards. Right now both Google and Apple are offering car dashboard solutions. Some car manufactures are selecting to use these solutions. However, other car manufactures are opting to go it alone and create their own dashboard solutions. Drivers spend a lot of time in their cars and whoever wins the battle to control the dashboard will have access to a driver while they are in the car. Car manufacturer product managers are starting this battle at a disadvantage because today’s cars were designed several years ago. The battle to control a car’s dashboard is not limited to just Apple or Google – there are other technology firms that would like to get into this market. Google’s product managers see the car’s dashboard as a natural extension of the phone screen.

It is not often that product managers have the opportunity to compete in a new battlefield. However, the arrival of a fourth screen that is built into a car’s dashboard has opened a brand-new market. There are a number of very large and powerful companies that all want to dominate this new screen. However, the jury is still out on who will eventually show up in all of our cars. Product managers need to take the time to listen to what their customers are telling them in order to create a solution that will be adopted by everyone. If they can get this right, then they’ll be able to own what goes on inside of our cars.


– Dr. Jim Anderson Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Product Management Skills™


Question For You: How closely do you think that a car dashboard should be tied to phone screens?


Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Product Manager Blog is updated.
P.S.: Free subscriptions to The Accidental Product Manager Newsletter are now available. It’s your product – it’s your career. Subscribe now: Click Here!

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

If you were looking for an exciting product manager job, then being a product manager at the European aircraft company Airbus would probably be a safe bet. Airbus is always locked in battle with the U.S. firm Boeing and both companies sell hundreds of their large airplanes to airlines around the world. At the start of this century Airbus introduced their biggest bet on the future so far, the A380, and now it looks like their product managers were wrong about a number of things and that’s making everyone look bad.

The post Product Managers Prepare To Battle For The Inside Of Your Car appeared first on The Accidental Product Manager.

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Roku Product Managers Discover Ads

Roku product managers are creating an ad-supported streaming strategy
Roku product managers are creating an ad-supported streaming strategy
Image Credit: Mike Mozart

The product managers at the streaming hardware provider Roku had a bit of a problem on their hands. They were looking for ways to boost their revenue and they needed some new ideas. I’m not sure if you would call them lucky, but that pandemic thing came along and all of sudden they had a lot more customers for their product. Now just exactly how could they go about turning this windfall into a profit for their company?

Say Hello To Streaming Ads

The product managers at connected-TV giant Roku are betting big on ad-supported streaming. When millions of people suddenly became sequestered at home, it may have become just the right time for this new product. Streaming hours are up considerably. Viewers are now spending about 40% more time streaming both ad-supported and subscription TV, compared with previous time periods. Back in 2019 Roku said that its monetized video-ad impressions more than doubled. At the same time Roku added viewers, reported higher time spent viewing and increased its revenue per viewer.

Just like Apple TV, Roku offers a plug-in device that lets you watch any streaming service, including the Roku Channel that the product managers launched in 2017. This channel is also available through an app for computers and mobile devices. The Roku product managers have pioneered new ad formats designed specifically for streaming video. Last fall, the company started placing pop-up interactive banners over some commercials. The goal was to give users a way to interact with the ad. An example of how this works was a coupon that earned viewers a discounted movie-rental credit from Fandango.

The Roku product managers have seen changes in their customer’s viewing habits. The first big change is that there has been a big increase in viewing hours in the middle of the day. In the past, you’d have TV viewing that was very heavy in the morning and very heavy in primetime. What the product managers are seeing now is that between noon and six is showing the largest increases. Of course, primetime still remains the largest overall hours. After news, the product managers are seeing other categories that have been up. They realize that the whole area of fitness and well-being has gone up. Along with this, spirituality and uplifting programming is increasing, and programming that has to do with education and learning, projects that you can do with your kids.

How Roku Wants To Take Advantage Of A Changing Market

The Roku product managers have put together an umbrella initiative that they’re calling Home Together to help people find programming relevant to being at home with their family. A big portion of that has been for the product managers to work with their partners to make more video available for free. The product managers went to their top premium-subscription partners, like Showtime and Smithsonian, and they’ve gotten extended free viewing periods or extended free trials.

Going forward Roku’s media business is betting on ad-supported streaming video. The product managers think that streaming will support each of the business models in media. However, some parts of the industry have overlooked just how compelling free TV is to many consumers. The product managers believe that the opportunity to watch something without having to pay additionally is something that they see can building a very, very big audience. They think that essentially free TV will co-exist alongside some transactions like rentals and subscriptions. When the Roku product managers launched the Roku Channel, they made a very deliberate decision to have about half the ad load of traditional TV. Today about 70% of Roku customers are comfortable regularly stream free TV or ad-supported video on demand. Every family has the point up to which they want to spend on subscriptions, and they supplement with free TV.

Although the Roku product managers believe that they will be able to make a lot of money off ads, a number of other ad-supported businesses are warning that with the economic downturn they expect a lot of brands will pare back their marketing budgets. The Roku product managers realize that it’s not about the amount of money that’s being spent, it’s the options or solutions that many firms are thinking about. A lot of companies have invested heavily in sports advertising and that can be a problem when those sports are not happening. What the Roku product managers have seen is that some of the people who were sports viewers are streaming things like news, films and lifestyle content. So they’re still very, very much engaged. In some cases people are very much wanting to advertise, but their creative ad may feel less appropriate for the current times. One solution that the Roku product managers have done is to have these interactive pop-up overlays that could go over an ad. What this means is that hypothetically, if it were a restaurant ad that showed people enjoying it, a customer could do an interactive overlay that said, “Here’s a link to a home delivery service” or something that bridges a creative ad.

What All Of This Means For You

Over at Roku, business has been very good. During the pandemic more and more people selected their streaming hardware in order to watch shows at home. However, time moves on. The Roku product managers had to come up with the next big thing that was going to drive their revenues. They think that they know exactly what they want to do: ad-supported streaming. The challenge will be just exactly how to go about offering ad-supported streaming to their customers.

The Roku product managers have come to realize that their customers are spending more and more time watching streaming services. The Roku product managers have discovered that when their customers watch television has changed: more television is being watched in the middle of the day. The Roku product managers have created packages that are designed to allow families to watch television together. The Roku product managers believe that customers going forward are going to be interested in being able to watch free ad supported television. The Roku product managers are aware that other advertising firms believe that firms may be preparing to cut back on their advertising. However, they believe that this is still a good time for them to move forward with their advertising plans.

The Roku product managers have a fantastic opportunity before them. Their hardware product has become very popular and they now have a large base of clients. If they can come up with a way to successfully deploy an ad-supported streaming service, then they may have found a new source of revenue to tap into. They are going to have to carefully watch their customers and make sure that they continue to offer services that their customers are going to want to watch.


– Dr. Jim Anderson Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Product Management Skills™


Question For You: Do you think that Roku should offer more or fewer ads then standard broadcast television does?


Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Product Manager Blog is updated.
P.S.: Free subscriptions to The Accidental Product Manager Newsletter are now available. It’s your product – it’s your career. Subscribe now: Click Here!

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

I think that we can all agree that the Covid-19 pandemic was a huge disruption for pretty much the entire world. However, over at the Home Depot their product managers were able to make the most of the opportunity presented by having everyone stay at home with nothing else to do. They gained a lot of customers during the year that nobody went into work. However, now as the pandemic starts to ease up, can those same product managers retain the new customers that they have been able to get?

The post Roku Product Managers Discover Ads appeared first on The Accidental Product Manager.

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Amazon expands Fire TV lineup with more QLED models, entry-level 2-Series TVs and new markets

As competition among smart TV makers heats up, Amazon today is introducing an expanded Fire TV lineup which now includes more sizes for its top-of-the-line Omni QLED series as well as a new, lower-cost Fire TV 2-Series that will start at $199.99. The company is also bringing its TVs to new markets globally, updating some features — like the Omni QLED’s “ambient” mode — and will roll out its cloud gaming service Luna to countries outside the U.S. for the first time.

Amazon first announced its Omni QLED TVs last fall as a way to bring better picture quality to customers with a 4K QLED display. The sets, which initially shipped in both 65-inch ($799.99) and 75-inch ($1,099.99) sizes, were the first Amazon Fire TVs to ship with Dolby Vision IQ. They also support HDR 10+ Adaptive and Adaptive Brightness, which adjusts the picture brightness and contrast based on the room’s brightness.

Amazon updates its Fire TV lineup with a new Fire TV Cube, QLED TVs and Alexa Voice Remote Pro

Now, the company is expanding its QLED lineup with three new models starting at $449.99, in 43-inch, 50-inch, and 55-inch sizes. Like their larger counterparts, these will still include QLED displays with up to 96 dimming zones and the sensor-driven “Ambient Experience” features.

The TVs ship with a custom sensor package on the front that includes a presence sensor that allows the TV to turn its “Ambient Experience” on or off based on whether someone has entered or left the room thanks to an ambient light sensor that helps the TV understand the context of the movement. That is, if you just walked past the TV to get a midnight snack it may remain off, but if you walk into the room in the morning, it may load the ambient experience to help you start your day.

The experience includes a free package of artwork and photography and various Alexa widgets that can be displayed either compacted or expanded, delivering things like news and headlines, your calendar, notes and reminders, streaming recommendations, and more.

Now, Amazon says the experience is being updated with new art, too. Specifically, it’s adding something it’s calling “dynamic art,” or art that adapts to the current environment. The art will change based on factors like the time of day, temperature, weather, and more. Initially, Amazon is working with contemporary artist Samuel Stubblefield to create the dynamic art package.

“We want to make smart TVs that are actually smart. That means things like bringing together content usefully…but we also want them to be beautiful and useful throughout more parts of the day and infused with ambient intelligence to make them more powerful for customers,” noted Daniel Rausch, VP of Entertainment Devices & Services at Amazon, in a conversation about the new Fire TV products.

Image Credits: Amazon (Fire TV Omni QLED Series)

These newly added QLED models will become available for pre-order today and ship on May 11. The 43″ will be $449.99; the 50″ is $529.99; and the 55″ is $599.99.

Amazon is also now introducing a new line of more affordable Fire TVs, dubbed the Fire TV 2-Series, which slots in below the existing QLED and 4-Series. These will ship in two models to start: 32-inch ($199.99) and 40-inch ($249.99( options in HD. The 2-Series lineup supports HDR 10, HLG, and Dolby Digital Audio and comes with an Alexa Voice remote.

Image Credits: Amazon (Fire TV 2-Series)

These models can be ordered now and start shipping today.

In addition, Amazon says it will now begin to ship its Omni QLED Series, 4-Series, and new 2-Series in the U.K., Germany, and Mexico for the first time.

Rausch says the company has now sold over 200 million Fire TV devices, including TVs and media players, worldwide and has shipped over 260 Fire TV models with its partners, like TCL, Hisense, Yamada, Xiaomi, and others. As TV sets themselves become more powerful, many consumers are now opting to buy a TV with Fire TV baked in, rather than as a streaming player add-on. This has resulted in TVs becoming the fastest-growing part of the Fire TV business, he notes.

Image Credits: Amazon (Luna)

Alongside the TV expansion, the company will also bring its Luna cloud gaming service to new markets outside the U.S. for the first time.

Designed to work with Fire TV, Luna offers Prime customers a rotating selection of monthly games that can be streamed and played using a Bluetooth controller like Amazon’s Luna Controller, or even with a smartphone through a companion app.

Luna customers can optionally choose to subscribe to premium packages, like Luna+, Ubisoft+ and Jackbox Games. Luna+ includes a broad selection of games like action, adventure, platformer, indie, shooter, racing, and classic games for $9.99 per month. The Ubisoft+ subscription, meanwhile, features top titles and fan favorites like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry for $17.99 per month. And Jackbox Games offers a party gaming set for $4.99 per month.

The service has been generally available in the U.S. for over a year and is now coming to the U.K., Germany and Canada, Amazon says, which will allow it to reach some of the new Fire TV markets.

Roku unveils its first-ever TVs designed and built by the company

Amazon isn’t alone in targeting consumers with TVs running its own OS — rival Roku in January revealed its first-ever TVs designed and built by the company. But neither effort is meant to preclude the companies from working with partners — it’s more of a way to demonstrate what’s possible from the company’s own software and specs while generating additional revenue from hardware sales.

Amazon expands Fire TV lineup with more QLED models, entry-level 2-Series TVs and new markets by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

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HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’ gets a warm welcome with 4.7M U.S. viewers

“The Last of Us” made its debut last night on HBO and HBO Max. The series premiere garnered 4.7 million U.S. viewers, making it HBO’s second-largest debut since “Boardwalk Empire” premiered over a decade ago with 4.81 million viewers, the company announced today. “House of the Dragon” remains the biggest premiere in HBO history with nearly 10 million viewers.

The video game adaptation was a recipe for success given the established fan base, a star-studded cast, and an accurate representation of the franchise that many gamers loved to see come to life. While it’s too early to predict if “The Last of Us” will become the most popular game-based TV series, the viewership data is a sure sign that HBO is doing something right. Notably, “The Last of Us” is the company’s first time adapting a video game into a show.

“We are thrilled to see fans of the series and game alike experience this iconic story in a new way, and we extend our gratitude to them for helping to make it a success,” said Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO & HBO Max Content, in a statement.

HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’ is a video game adaptation that’s actually good

We’ll also add that the premiere caused a 69% increase in first-time U.S. downloads of the HBO Max app across iOS and Android devices, per third-party app intelligence estimates from data.ai (previously App Annie). Plus, the HBO Max app reached #4 on the overall free iPhone app ranking on the U.S. App Store on the night of the premiere. The last time it was this high in the ranking was when it hit #3 on the list when “House of the Dragon” debuted in August 2022.

However, “The Last of Us” has big shoes to fill if it wants to compete with other game-based shows like Netflix’s “Arcane,” which is based on “League of Legends.” Based on Netflix’s own metrics, “Arcane” had 38.4 million viewing hours during the week of November 15, 2021. Paramount+’s “Halo” set a record for being the streamer’s most-watched series premiere worldwide. Amazon Prime Video also has video game adaptations in the works, including a “God of War” series.

The HBO original series will have nine episodes in total and will stream on Sundays.

HBO Max subscribers were only introduced to a few characters in the first episode, so it’s likely the following episodes will feature more, such as Frank (Murray Bartlett), Bill (Nick Offerman), Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey), Florence (Elaine Miles), Riley (Storm Reid), Perry (Jeffrey Pierce) and Henry (Lamar Johnson). Viewers will also finally get to see clickers in action.

HBO series ‘The Last of Us’ premieres this January

HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’ gets a warm welcome with 4.7M U.S. viewers by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch

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Peacock adds live TV from all local NBC stations to its Premium Plus tier

Peacock announced that on November 30, its Premium Plus subscribers will get 24/7 access to their local NBC station in all of NBC’s 210 markets, including live TV programming like local news, sports, weather and entertainment.

Subscribers will soon be able to livestream popular programs like “The TODAY Show,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Saturday Night Live” without paying for cable. As part of yesterday’s soft launch, some Premium Plus subscribers already gained access to their NBC local affiliate channel livestream.

“With Peacock’s local affiliate livestream, our subscribers are getting the unique combination of the ad-free on-demand content they love with the local news and NBC programming that is already part of their daily life,” Kelly Campbell, president, Peacock and Direct-to-Consumer, NBCUniversal, said in a statement.

NBC’s local affiliate stations join brands and channels like NFL, Golf, Premiere League, NBC News, Sky News, TODAY, Hallmark, WWE and others.

Peacock is likely including more live TV options to compete with rival Paramount+, which has always included local programming on its platform. Paramount+, with its 46 million subscribers, brings live TV to 99% of the United States, the company claims on its website.

After experiencing a slowdown in subscriber growth, it’s also possible that Peacock is urging more of its subscribers to upgrade to Premium Plus. Peacock recently revealed that its total paid subscriber base jumped from 13 million paid subscribers to over 15 million in the third quarter.

While it’s unlikely that many Peacock subscribers of its free ad-supported plan will switch over to the $9.99/month Premium Plus tier, its possible subscribers paying $4.99/month for the Premium plan will want to switch over to get 24/7 access to their local NBC station.

Plus, $9.99/month is a better deal than paying the hefty price for cable or live TV streaming services like Sling TV.

“This is an exciting new offering that expands our best-in-class broadcast and local programming to new audiences,” added Philip Martzolf, president, NBC Affiliate Relations.

Peacock grows its paid subscriber base to 15 million after pulling back shows from Hulu

Peacock adds live TV from all local NBC stations to its Premium Plus tier by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch

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Football fans unable to watch DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket due to the website and app crashing

It is DirecTV’s final year as the exclusive home of NFL Sunday Ticket, the out-of-market sports package that broadcasts National Football League regular season games, and let’s just say opening weekend isn’t off to a great start. 

Reports of the Sunday Ticket website and app crashing were rampant yesterday as customers were either locked out of the service, unable to sign in, experienced laggy feeds, or received error messages that claimed they couldn’t stream because they were inside an NFL stadium when they weren’t. 

DirecTV wasn’t immediately available to comment to TechCrunch. The company told The Verge, “We’re aware some customers are unable to access NFL Sunday Ticket online or through the app. Our teams are working to resolve this, but in the meantime, we recommend satellite customers watch on TV.” 

DirecTV is still reaching out to Twitter users about finding a resolution to the problems. 

DirecTV wasn’t the only service that crashed either. Viewers trying to watch NFL RedZone on Sling TV and YouTube TV experienced streaming issues. Even the newly-launched NFL+ streaming service gave some subscribers trouble.

DirecTV has held the rights to Sunday Ticket since 1994, and it’s not the first time users have experienced streaming issues.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell confirmed in July that the next winner of the Sunday Ticket will be a streaming service and is going to be revealed in the fall.

Streaming service NFL+ confirmed, NFL will choose a streamer for its Sunday Ticket this fall

Football fans unable to watch DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket due to the website and app crashing by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch

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Roku’s latest update adds short-form video, a universal save list and ‘continue watching’ feature

Alongside its fall hardware update, which included new streaming and audio devices, Roku today unveiled the features it has in store for the next version of its media software, Roku OS 11.5. This time around, the platform maker is looking to advance its own offerings, like its Live TV experience, as well as better cater to viewers who are struggling to keep up with a range of film and TV content across a growing number of streaming services with new features like an expanded universal watch list, a platform-wide “continue watching” feature, and a new discovery center called “The Buzz,” featuring short-form content.

Many of the new additions see Roku returning to its roots as a company that focuses more on connecting customers to the many streaming services they enjoy, instead of heavily pushing its own free streaming hub, The Roku Channel, and subscription platform.

For instance, one new feature is transforming Roku’s “Save List,” previously available only on The Roku Channel and in the mobile app, into a platform-wide universal watch list that lets viewers save movies and shows from across their services to a single destination. This feature will now also be located within the “What to Watch” hub on Roku’s Home Screen Menu, in addition to the mobile app.

Image Credits: Roku: Save List

To use the feature, Roku customers will see a “Save” option on the newly revamped movie and TV show details pages, which now sport a more visual design. This “Save” option will let the user add a given title to their Save List for later viewing. This could be particularly useful for titles that are still only available for rent or purchase, but may hit a customer’s subscription streaming services at a later date, as well as those they just want to remind themselves to watch later.

Save Lists will additionally arrive in Canada, the U.K., and Ireland with this release.

Another feature, “Continue Watching,” will also be located in this “What to Watch” hub, giving customers a quick way to jump back into titles they were previously viewing. And it doesn’t only work with The Roku Channel, the company says — it will support top streamers like Netflix, HBO Max, and Paramount+, too. The company hinted more partners were on the way, but could not share names.

Image Credits: Roku: Continue Watching

Roku also can’t seem to escape consumer demand for short-form content.

Like Netflix, which entered this space with its comedy-focused “Fast Laughs” feature on mobile before expanding to the TV earlier this year, Roku is also now embracing short-form video with a new Home Screen addition called “The Buzz.”

But unlike Netflix, it’s not creating any of this short content itself. Instead, it’s leaving that up to partners, including AMC+, Apple TV+, BET+, Crackle, Hallmark Movies Now, IGN, Plex, Popcornflix, SHOWTIME, Starz, The CW, Tubi, Vevo, and Wondrium.

These brands will post short-form video clips, trailers, interviews, and even images to engage Roku viewers who are looking for something new to watch. Viewers can “like” these posts and save the content to watch later through the updated watch list feature. They can also follow profiles, as on social media, or immediately start streaming the promoted title. The company said the feature would expand over time with more content and partners.

Image Credits: Roku’s The Buzz

The updated software will also introduce a few features that cater to Roku’s own interests.

One of these is the new Roku Store, which lets consumers shop for both free and paid streaming channels. This is more of an update to the existing channel search experience, as the store will better organize the available offerings by category in more of a marketplace format.

Roku will also promote its foray into Live TV with a dedicated Live TV Channel “Guide” button on its mobile app remote, which will likely appeal more to recent cord-cutters who still want a cable TV-like experience.

At launch, this Live TV Guide will include content from The Roku Channel, over-the-air content from a connected TV tuner, free AVOD (ad-supported video on demand) channels, and premium subscription channels launched through The Roku Channel’s subscription platform.

Image Credits: Roku Home Screen

By pushing the new button, users will be able to browse and search channels or filter their discovery efforts by way of new channel categories — Recents, Favorites, and Subscribed. The latter will connect users to their Premium stations from The Roku Channel. Customers can also browse the Live TV offering by genre, like News, Sports, Movies, Entertainment, Kids, Crime, Music, and En Espanol.

Related to Live TV, Roku will later introduce a centralized discovery location for sports content that will help viewers find live sports on now, as well as replays and other sports-related content.

Among the smaller updates in this release is an enhancement to Roku’s voice feature that adds a display on-screen showing the channel options related to a voice search. This way, Roku Voice can ask a follow-up question, like asking which channel in the list the user wanted, and the user can respond more conversationally by saying something like “the second one.”

The company is also expanding its Bluetooth Private Listening feature, which lets users listen to TV through headphones so as not to disturb others. This now supports the company’s newest Roku Ultra and its audio devices the Streambar and Streambar Pro.

The company notes the Roku OS 11.5 update is arriving in the months ahead, but says some features may appear sooner instead of waiting to be packaged as a part of the larger OS release.

Roku also today introduced a new version of the Roku Express streaming player ($29.99) with dual-band Wi-Fi and additional storage, and a new product called Roku Wireless Bass ($129.99).

Roku’s latest update adds short-form video, a universal save list and ‘continue watching’ feature by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

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HBO grows its ‘Game of Thrones’ franchise, gives spin-off ‘House of the Dragon’ a second season

Days after HBO’s “House of the Dragon” became the most-watched premiere for a new HBO original series, the “Game of Thrones” prequel series is renewed for a second season. Now that the rumor is confirmed, fans can rest in knowing the Dance of the Dragons is just beginning to unfold.

The company also announced today that the audience has doubled with over 20 million viewers across linear, on-demand, and HBO Max in the U.S, per Nielsen data combined with HBO’s own data. When the first episode premiered on Sunday, August 21, the show had 10 million viewers. HBO and HBO Max have only aired one episode so far.

Based on the huge audience as well as the many positive reviews and an 86% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s no wonder a Season 2 is now guaranteed.

Eager to gain revenue and subscribers ahead of the merger between Warner Bros. Discovery-owned streaming services HBO Max and Discovery+, it appears the company is banking on “House of the Dragon” to succeed. The company reported 91.2 million subscribers across HBO, HBO Max, and Discovery+ in the second quarter, with a loss of 300,000 domestic subscribers. Warner Bros. Discovery had a net loss of $3.4 million.

‘House of the Dragon’ series premiere is the biggest in HBO’s history, with almost 10 million viewers

Despite the HBO Max app crashing on Sunday, data from data.ai shows that app downloads jumped from 47,300 on August 15 to 131,000 downloads on the day of the premiere. On August 21, HBO Max secured the No. 1 spot for streaming app downloads, beating rivals Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+.

We previously reported that HBO Max had 21% U.S. download market share in the first quarter of 2022, per Sensor Tower’s “Store Intelligence Data Digest” report.

HBO embraces the impressively large “Game of Thrones” fanbase. The company has done a lot to promote the show. In an email to staff, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav called it “the largest marketing campaign in HBO’s history,” reported The Hollywood Reporter. Zaslav noted that the campaign reached nearly 130 million people in the United States.

When promoting “House of Dragon,” HBO released a companion AR app DracARys that lets fans raise their own virtual dragon, an official podcast that provides commentary, and a partnership with Snapchat that gives users a fire-breathing dragon Lens. It also scored a high-profile ad slot on Roku devices — directly in Roku’s main navigation, just below the “Home” menu.

“House of the Dragon” has taken years to make, with each episode costing approximately less than $20 million, sources told Variety. In total, Season 1 is 10 episodes long.

It is rumored that HBO is making six more spin-offs — a move that Disney+ continues to do with its Star Wars franchise. Netflix is pulling a similar strategy, creating an IP universe for “The Gray Man,” and giving “Stranger Things” a spin-off series. The “Lord of the Rings” movie franchise is getting a prequel series on Amazon Prime Video premiering on September 2.

HBO’s new ‘House of the Dragon’ trailer offers a peek at the ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel