We’ll have to wait and see whether publishers will be forward-thinking enough to take this to the next stage and screen a code or other means for viewers to instantly pay for and download the digital version of their book as they watch the ad for the book, or indeed watch a screen adaptation.
From Statista:
“A new report by Sandvine has revealed the web applications responsible for the world’s most downstream internet traffic. Underlining the popularity of streaming services, Netflix accounts for the most megabytes with 14.9 percent.
“YouTube isn’t too far behind with 11.4 percent. Further back but still with a significant share, Disney+ is responsible for 4.5 percent. Adding to video streaming’s contribution, Amazon Prime Video has a share of 2.8 percent.”
The scale of the Netflix lead is important for publishers to understand as we (finally) move into the era of video-streaming-acceptance.
For many years now we’ve had the industry leaders spouting the patently false narrative that video streaming is a menace that threatens the very fabric of our existence, with nonsense new buzz-words like “the attention economy” being created to lay the blame for drifting readers on anything but the fact that maybe publishers aren’t publishing what people actually want to read, in formats they want to read in.
That came from the same industry-nonsense stable as “screen fatigue”, the so-last-decade buzz-word to explain why ebook sales were down. Better to make up a complete fiction that admit the industry deliberately depresses ebook sales by pricing strategies intended to support print.
This past week Cornerstone announced it would be paying Netflix to advertise the latest James Patterson release on the streaming service (Netflix introduced its lower-fee option with ads in November 2022), an industry first, long overdue, and with ramifications for the industry that will further the gap between the mega-sellers and the rest.
But what’s all-important here is another step in the industry actually embracing streaming rather than milking it for all its worth with post-broadcast book-adaptation sales while simultaneously whining incessantly that nobody reads anymore because they are watching TV.
We’ll have to wait and see whether publishers will be forward-thinking enough to take this to the next stage and screen a code or other means for viewers to instantly pay for and download the digital version of their book as they watch the ad for the book, or indeed watch a screen adaptation.
From there a small step to dedicated programmes about books offering instant download of the books – ebook and audiobook – being discussed.
Opportunities abound if publishers can learn to accept digital’s myriad unexplored opportunities instead of treating digital books as afterthoughts.
#digitalsubscription #digitalstreaming
This post first appeared in the TNPS LInkedIn Pulse newsletter.
