You might have seen that Disney+ is ditching its free trial period.
And you might have noticed Netflix dropped its free trial offer a little while ago, back when the coronavirus pandemic was all anyone was talking about.
When Disney revealed it was following suit, some were quick to suggest the decision was related to the premiere of Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical Hamilton, which is dropping next week.
Hamilton is designed to be watched in one sitting, after all, rather than dripfed to the audience over several weeks. So it would be easy to sign up, watch the show, then cancel before paying Disney a cent.
Of course, Disney has also suffered a drop in revenue since the start of the pandemic (more on that below).
Since we're talking about two giants in the entertainment streaming world, you have to wonder what impact this might have on the wider market.
We spoke to two expert TV watchers for their take on how this will change what you watch and how you watch it.
Streamers tell us free trials will remain
Stan is still offering a 30-day trial, the same offer it launched with back in January, 2015.
Amazon Prime Video has the same 30-day offer, with the subscription also giving users membership benefits at the Amazon online store.
Binge, a new streaming service owned and operated by Foxtel, gives customers two weeks to decide if they want to stay on with the service.
And new users will also score a free trial on Foxtel Now, but it only lasts for 10 days.
The ABC asked each service if there were any plans to ditch free trials.
Amazon, Foxtel Now and Binge told us their offers would continue.
Hannah Reich of ABC Arts says it's unlikely these streaming services will follow Netflix and Disney+ when it comes to trials.
"We now have way too many streaming services," she said.
"Disney+ and Netflix are big players so they can try something like this and see how it impacts their subscriber numbers."
Marc C-Scott, a senior lecturer in screen media at Victoria University, agrees.
He says the smaller streamers don't have the same name recognition as Disney+, so they need trials to lure new customers.
"It's a known thing, we expect to have a free trial before we actually sign up," Dr C-Scott said.
Of course, this leaves companies open to people signing up for a free trial, bingeing on the must-watch content and then cancelling their account before they have to pay.
So how are streaming services supposed to keep subscribers when the free trial's over?
Our bingeing days could be numbered
With no lock-in contracts, streaming services need to keep proving their worth to consumers.
"That means exclusive original content but it's also about having a catalogue you're continually updating," Dr C-Scott said.
We're used to being able to binge on an entire season of a show after it drops on a service all at once, but Dr C-Scott reckons there could be a shift away from that.
Think of it as forced portion control.
"I think we're going to see a week-by-week staggering of content," he said.
But he points out that the time it takes to produce shows and movies doesn't match up with the speed in which we consume it.
So streaming services will need to be strategic about when they launch, to compete with other services and to bridge the gap between drops.
"So with Netflix having eight to 10 episodes, they might start staggering it out as a weekly thing, then in turn release other content," Dr C-Scott said.
Streaming 'golden tickets'
We could also see a tiered approach to subscriptions where a basic membership covers staggered releases of shows — kind of like free to air.
Dr C-Scott said higher level memberships might offer content before it's released to basic subscribers or allow people to binge it all for a higher cost.
But he also suggested we might see "golden ticket" streaming services that bypass cinema releases and allow subscribers to stream movies straight away.
"The normal service might be $10 a month, whereas the premium might be $30 a month," Dr C-Scott said.
"It sounds like a lot to pay that $20 extra, but if I were to take my kids to the movies, it could cost $100, if not more."
You could argue this is already kind of a thing.
Netflix is making its own movies, ranging from Oscar-nominated titles like Roma and The Irishman to the so-bad-it's-fantastic festive movies like The Knight Before Christmas and the Christmas Prince trilogy.
But with the coronavirus pandemic shutting down picture theatres, we're seeing movies slated for the big screen released for streaming.
Enter: Hamilton
There was much fanfare in 2018 when it was revealed a recording of Lin-Manuel Miranda's critically acclaimed Broadway musical Hamilton was going to be to brought out in cinemas.
A recording of the musical was filmed in 2016 and, two years later, there were reports Hollywood studios were bidding up to $50 million for distribution rights.
Earlier this year, it was revealed Disney won the bidding war and had planned to release it in theatres in October 2021.
But then the coronavirus pandemic happened.
Disney's theme parks were forced to close and cinemas were shut, with the company's new chief executive Bob Chapek admitting Disney had been "hugely impacted" by the pandemic.
Executives pointed to increasing Disney+ subscriptions as one of the key ways to keep the money coming in.
In May, Disney announced it was bypassing the cinemas and premiering Hamilton on Disney+ on July 3.
Disney axes free trial
New users could try Disney+ free for seven days, an offer that was brought in when the streaming service launched with a lot of publicity in November.
But that offer was cancelled, going unannounced and unnoticed until French entertainment website Numerama picked up on it earlier this month.
It wasn't long before media commentators linked the free trial cancellation to the release of Hamilton, but Disney didn't put it that way.
"We continue to test and evaluate different marketing, offers, and promotions to grow Disney+," a spokesperson said.
"The service was set at an attractive price-to-value proposition that we believe delivers a compelling entertainment offering on its own."
Reich says the company is being strategic.
"Hamilton is going to be huge for the streaming service; the trailer racked up over a million views in a single day," she said.
"I think a lot of people will be signing up to the streaming service just to stream Hamilton."
Disney+ is available for $8.99 per month in Australia, with no contract locking customers in.
"In my opinion, unless you have kids, there's no point in maintaining a Disney+ account," Reich said.
Netflix did it months ago
People noticed Netflix quietly dropped its free 30-day trial in Australia back in March — just as the pandemic was ramping up.
Previously, new costumers had to enter their payment details when signing up, but weren't charged until after the 30-day period expired.
The free trial offer is still available in the US, but not for countries like New Zealand, the UK and Canada.
Netflix declined to comment to the ABC about the move, so we can only speculate on why the offer was axed.
"Potentially they were capitalising on our new shut-in culture, or they may have felt they have enough of a foothold in the Australian market to no longer need to entice people through a free trial," Reich says.
What are Australians watching?
Market research firm Roy Morgan's data showed Netflix was the most popular streaming service in Australia, estimating more than 12 million Australians were accessing the platform.
The research firm said Foxtel placed second, while Stan came in third.
But Roy Morgan's data suggests the Disney+ customer base is growing rapidly, attracting an estimated 2 million viewers since it launched in November.
This puts Amazon Prime Video in fourth place.
Netflix and Stan is the most common combo for Australians with more than one streaming service account, data suggested.
"Different members of the same household are able to have their own subscriptions to different services which they can then share with other householders," Roy Morgan chief executive Michele Levine said.
"The latest results show there are millions of Australian households with two, or three, or even more subscription television services."
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiaWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA2LTI2L2Rpc25leS1wbHVzLW5ldGZsaXgtc3RyZWFtaW5nLXNlcnZpY2UtZnJlZS10cmlhbC1oYW1pbHRvbi8xMjM4Njc5NtIBJ2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvYXJ0aWNsZS8xMjM4Njc5Ng?oc=5
2020-06-25 21:58:17Z
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