OTT platforms should make an in-house monthly schedule or checklist of upcoming movie releases. Specifically for SVODs but applicable to A-/T-VODs, theatrical releases, or hybrids. Inexpensive way to market films while making viewers’ lives easier.
There are so many new films. So many new streaming platforms from SVODs to AVODS to TVODs to cable to hybrids to now tech companies like Apple and Amazon. In addition, some production and distribution companies don’t share the same name as their streaming platforms. Disney and Hulu. Lionsgate and Starz. Increasing complexity and confusion.
Take a look at this screenshot from The Numbers. This is their movie release schedule. Similarly, look up movie release schedule on Google. You will find IMDB and Collider’s schedules.
What you’ll find are a whole bunch of movies, laggy UX/UI design, a lot of distributors, and unspecific streaming platforms.
Thus, OTT platforms should to create a personalized movie release calendar on their platform. Why bother? Well let’s a quick look at 1) the psychology of viewers and people in general and 2) the passive marketing to connect studio to viewers.
1) Psychology of Humans
Customers want to get what they want with as little efforts as possible. When you go shopping for groceries, you will most likely use a shopping basket or cart, not one finger for one item. When you want take out food, you want the food, not the car ride over to the restaurant. This led to companies like Door Dash and Uber Eats. Similarly, Amazon is the king of this with delivery items. Give the customers what they want by making them do as little as they can. Bring the goods and experiences to them.
To find out what movies are upcoming and which platform to watch it, viewers have to look on Google, search for movie trailers on YouTube, scroll and filter through the messy and broad release schedule of IMDB, Collider, and The-numbers. (No shade at them. They have fantastic movie data analysis.) Or they wait for the inevitable movie trailer ad that starts popping up everywhere one to two month before release. The time viewers spend researching for future releases should be time spent on streaming platforms, whether browsing more content or watching trailers on the platforms.
In addition, by providing that schedule, despite the ongoing behind-the-scenes licensing and distribution scenes, viewers will have a degree of backdoor security. If they know what movie will come out next month, and the month after that, they can preplan, get excited, and set aside time dedicated to the films. This is another reason people have calendars in general. Know what will happen, preplan, and dedicate time. OTT platforms should make the movie experience worth the viewers’ time as time is delicate.
In short, viewers should be able to click the schedule page on Netflix, Disney+, Discovery+, Paramount+, Starz. Get a popup of all the movies coming per month and a link to trailers. No need for viewers to type in “upcoming movies”, “ where to watch”, “is it on Netflix”, etc. Unnecessary work.
2) Passive Marketing
Showing what movies the OTT platforms will have ahead of time is just marketing itself to the subscribers. Keep them informed and interested and a reason to keep their subscription plans. The in-platform schedule, of at least 1 new movie per month, will provide subscribers a reason to pay for the service. Similarly to Apple phone bills, car and gas payments.
Besides this, to be honest, I am not sure how else to explain why the movie release schedule in-platform is a simple, great marketing tool. You can also attach Ads or implement a pay-per-click system. The data you get can be also used to find out what viewers are interested in and how to tailor trailers even better. Throw in and engrain the production companies’ names into the viewers’ minds or help popularize the rising actors.
Enough Films For This
Furthermore, I counted the number of films in 2021 and 2021+ beyond on Wikipedia. Wikipedia does a great job in providing a movie release schedule but this requires viewers to do an extra step of typing “List of _______ films” on Google. OTT platforms might as well do an in-house one that can be used to build up a viewer community.
Anyways, I counted the ones that are upcoming, undated, in production, and in development for each year after 2021. There are almost enough for 1 film/month for most of the companies (only if they don’t outsource the distribution to another company or streaming platform like some are doing right now.) So there is no need to worry about not enough films to make a monthly release schedule.
There are some other problems, of course, in making the releases accurate as licensing deals and distribution deals and theatrical release deals get very complicated and messy and dirty in the legal space. This may lead to delays in OTT release but this is why OTT platforms need start doing this. To build a strong viewer community like Tesla’s or Disney’s community. Viewers and supporters will be okay with the delays. May not be optimal but will be definitely accepting.
AVODs should also make a schedule of their releases but they are a new and growing player and different challenges. Maybe another piece for another time. With that, I conclude this short opinion piece and hope that some OTT platforms give this marketing strategy a shot to improve and grow their platforms.
Best
Wilson Li
