The Entertainment Revolution

21st of August, 2020

Lockdown has not been easy for many. The isolation from family, friends and work colleagues has been hard. The need to share limited space with partners and kids for schooling and home offices has caused enormous tension.

Many have struggled with the extra time on their hands the social isolation has bestowed. Others have found refuge by turning to online streaming services like Netflix, Stan and Apple TV.

As whole nations enforced coronavirus lockdowns, Netflix saw a huge increase in subscriptions reportedly adding some 15.8 million subscribers world-wide in the first quarter of 2020. This brings its total viewers to a staggering 182.9 million. And why wouldn’t you be watching with such quality entertainment like the Tiger King documentary?

At the same time streaming rival Disney+ has almost doubled its subscriber base to over 50 million.

We are witnessing an entertainment revolution – where free to air TV appears to be looking down the barrel.

Streaming services have firmly cemented their place in the future of Australian entertainment alongside tech giants like Facebook and Google, who have squeezed advertising revenue from most traditional sources.

The glory era for advertisers where the powerbroker of the home firmly controlled the remote control and where families gathered to watch TV together is gone.

Blue Heelers, Sale of the Century, A Country Practice and a TV dinner have been tossed aside with our old Cathode Ray Tube TV’s.

Brutally, for our free to air TV, so too have their media profits.

“Free to airs were 10 years behind the newspapers in their loss of market share but it had to come,” Peter Cox, Veteran media analyst

Commercial TV stations revenue has been dropping by about 5-6 per cent annually in recent years as digital platforms have cut their lunch delivering a wider, more convenient variety of entertainment.

The last bastion of free to air TV dominance is their jewel in the crown – Live Sport. Sport is now the only guarantee of big audiences which is at the root of the AFL & NRL’s desperation to keep their codes playing with live broadcasts!

The first State of Origin rugby league match between New South Wales and Queensland, was the highest rating program last year with 3.2 million viewers.

3 million watched the AFL grand final, then followed by the other two State of Origin matches.

In fact, the only non-sporting events to rate in the top 10 last year were Married at First Sight (7th) and Lego Masters (9th)!

Sport may be the domain for free to air, but still they are bleeding money. Seven lost $67m last year and Nines profit was down $102M (41%).

And with the postponement of the Olympic Games things aren’t looking any better for them.

But streaming and other online services like YouTube are not the only technological advancements to cut the traditional mediums lunch.

In the early 1980’s “audioblogging” emerged as a new medium for communities to connect. But technological limitations ensured that it never really obtained any mainstream traction. That was until the emergence of the iPod and other digital devices, and around 2004 we witnessed the birth of a new medium– Podcasting.

The real growth in Podcasting accompanied the technological advancements of the mobile phone where downloads have nearly quadrupled since 2015!

Now Podcasting has hit the big time.

Recently Roy Morgan reported that over 1.6M Australians regularly listen to Podcasts, not that far behind the 2.2M who regularly stream music.

There are over 1,000,000 different Podcasts worldwide with more than 30 million Podcast episodes available.

The driving force behind Podcasts is their convenience.

Being able to choose which episode of your favourite Podcast you listen to, provides enormous choice. Couple this with the ability to do so at you own convenience delivers podcast consumers an enormous advantage over those watching their flat screen TV that’s anchored in the living room.

It is reputed that although 49% of podcasts are listened to somewhere at home, 22% of listeners do so while driving, 11% at work while the rest of listeners typically do so while riding public transport, at the gym or while walking.

Podcasts provide listeners with enormous choice and convenience in a personal area of interest. So diverse is the range of Podcasts you can find them on almost any topic. From dog grooming to rock climbing. From model trains to asthma. Comedy to sport.

And there is BIG money in it now as shown by the recent Joe Rogan deal.

Just an Every Day Joe

Joe Rogan comedian, MMA commentator and podcaster has just become the worlds highest paid broadcaster, in a deal where his Joe Rogan Experience podcast will become exclusive to Spotify post September 2020.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed but it’s reputed to be well north of $100M USD and remember this is just a licensing deal, they don’t own or control the content.

This isn’t Spotify’s first foray into this space as in February they bought US sports broadcaster The Ringer outright for nearly $200M.

It’s all about the data. See by acquiring the Rogan Experience, Spotify will be privy to enormous data about the who, when and where of his listeners. This in turn will be fed into advertising algorithms to allow highly targeted and more profitable advertising spends – which of course is all aimed at increasing Spotify’s revenue.

The importance of the Spotify acquisitions isn’t so much about the money but rather to validate that Podcasting is a relevant and new medium of entertainment and education.

Now it’s Our Turn

And so it is that Calnan Flack is launching our New Podcast centred around Australia’s favourite obsession – Property. We feel it would be remiss for us to not use this technology to better communicate with our clients, readers, listeners, and subscribers.

From Australia’s Colonial beginning, when land was commoditised, squatters, convicts and settlers have been seeking access and ownership to our golden soil.

Property is ingrained within the Australian psyche, it is a strong part of our culture and national identity.

Even our national anthem is built around the concept of rich and abundant lands that will provide wealth for all.

In each episode I will be joined by experts in their particular field related to property. These experts might not exactly always be from where you might expect. If you have anyone in mind please contact us and we will contact them.

As Australians we love buying and selling property. The reality is we can’t get away from it – everybody has a connection to property, as a tenant, a home owner or as a land lord; hence our continued obsession with it!

Every minute of every day our lives are touched by property as we visit shopping and medical centres, eat in restaurants and hotels, attend school, the office or any other place of work.

Our leisure time is spent in cinemas and theatres, parks and in sporting arenas.

So get on board with the new Podcast juggernaut and download or subscribe to “Property Australia’s Favourite Obsession”

Introduction 

Below is a short introduction to the podcast. Use the subscribe button to make sure you don’t miss out on our first episode and please share with friends and family who you think might be interested.